Snow Patrol’s newest album, A Hundred Million Suns is by far their best album yet. Following 2006’s very popular Eyes Open, it’s hard to believe that this Irish band could top the alternative, indie-pop friendly songs that they became well known for both in the U.K. and in the U.S. 

Gary Lightbody, the lead singer and songwriter of Snow Patrol, really outdoes himself with the lyrics on this album. Not only does his voice sound stronger, clearer and more mature than it did on Eyes Open, but the lyrics are polished and read like poetry. His distinct sound feels genuine and true, and you can hear the pain and longing behind songs like “If There’s a Rocket tie Me to It,” and “Please just take these Photos from my Hands.”  

Snow Patrol is often labeled as “alternative,” yet many of the songs on this album could find a very happy home on popular radio. The song “Take back the City” is catchy and upbeat with a great toe-tapping rhythm and chorus. It will probably be a big hit when they’re on tour, because of crowd-pleasing lines like “I love this city tonight/I love this city always.” In “The Golden Floor” the sound is earthy and other-worldly, and sounds reminiscent of Paul Simon, re-mixed, circa the Simon & Garfunkel days.

A Hundred Million Suns tells a story. Every song on the album is placed carefully to carry on that plot. They build on each other, learn from each other and borrow from each other. It comes as no surprise then that the inspiration behind the music is a love story, and a very beautiful one as well.

The first half of the album could be summed up in two words: love lost.  And the second part of the album could also be summed up in two words: love found. In “Set Down Your Glass,” the song begins with guitar finger-picking and soft lyrics that sound like a longing lullaby. The next song on the album, “The Planets bend between Us,” where the guy finally gets the girl, is basically an epilogue to “Set Down Your Glass.” The title of the album also comes from a line in this song: “The shells crack under our shoes/like punctuation points/the planets bend between us/and a hundred million suns and stars.”

Many great writers and poets have said that the best love songs are those that are written when alone, but that’s not so in Snow Patrol’s case. The last four songs on the album are the strongest, and they all seem to be written by a guy who is madly in love. And they’re not all ballads, either. “Engines” is fast-paced and playful, and “Disaster Button” crescendos into a really strong rock & roll anthem.  

Basically, this album is so good that it should be listened to in its entirety, and it should be listened to chronologically. The songs are classic alternative rock songs that have staying power. Their music is big and bright, and one can imagine these songs being played and filling the air in sold-out arenas. Fans of bands like The National and later Flaming Lips will probably be drawn to the big and bold musical style of this album.

Snow Patrol’s A Hundred Million Suns does not do instrumental back-flips or try too hard to keep the listener entertained with genre-bending tricks, but rather they write good songs, and they execute them well. Through their strong lyrics and storytelling and a big and bold sound, Snow Patrol proves they are in the forecast for some time to come.