"You're All I Have" by Snow Patrol, Monday, December 6, 2021

Formed in 1994 first as Shrug and then as Polarbear but finally changing their name to Snow Patrol due to other bands by their former names, the Northern Irish band became very popular in the early '00s. Their first single "Run" was a hit in the UK. But in America, the band would become famous because of their song "Chasing Cars" when it was included in the season 2 finale of Grey's Anatomy. "Chasing Cars" is the song most people know by Snow Patrol, and most wouldn't be able to associate the name with their hit song. The band continues to produce music, most recently releasing 2018's Wildness.  

TRAIN THIS CHAOS, TURN IT INTO LIGHT. If you've had time to get into Taylor's Version of Red, you may have noticed a feature by Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody. Once the Indie Rock band became recognized, the band members started working on pop music, and Lightbody writing for Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. The Snow Patrol singer and songwriter began writing poetry after being inspired by when his English teacher introduced him to the work of Seamus Heaney. After being published as a poet, Lightbody turned to music as his artistic release. As a teen growing up in the '80s, his writing was concerned with the "Troubles"--the conflict on the Irish Island, a topic that poets such as William Butler Yeats addressed and Irish rock bands like U2 and The Cranberries sang about. In a podcast speaking about the band's latest album, Wildness, Lightbody talks about how Northern Ireland was closed off when he was growing up, so he had little thought about the world as a whole. He said that "there was no world news. Northern Ireland had enough news." As he grew up, though, and as the situation improved between the nation of Ireland and the UK territory of Northern Ireland, Lightbody began to look beyond his home, and Snow Patrol set their sights on universal themes, of love and breaking up.

A FRIGHTENING MAGIC I CLING TO.  My first impression of Snow Patrol, from their 2006 hit "Chasing Cars" was a cool British rock band that "has to be better than this?" I thought "Chasing Cars" was quite a dull song, aiming very hard to be profound. This was long before I binged 17 seasons of Grey's Anatomy in 2020, so the emotional weight that a song like "Chasing Cars" can have in the right context can give new value to the song. And while the song was also featured in season 6 of Smallville, it came at a time in the show when all of the emotion of the show had dried up. But in college, I happened to get my hands on a copy of Eyes Open. I tried the album a few times, and I only liked "You're All I Have." I couldn't stand Lightbody's voice. Today, when I listened to a podcast talking about this album, I was brought back to my first impressions of it. The first-time listeners to Eyes Open had a similar review, criticizing the boring music and monotonous lyrics. They called the band "a less good Coldplay" and a dark and dreary band like Death Cab for Cutie, only less poetic. However, after college, this album grew on me. More of a focus on the instruments would have been better, but the dismal sounds of the record--like the exhaust on the snow, like a grey day that you hope will turn--encompasses an emotion. It may be a boring emotion, but it's human. And if you come from a place where the snow piles up this time of year, and are suffering from crippling seasonal depression, listen to the album with caution. "You're All I Have" is the gleam of hope before you start that journey into the album.

Read “You're All I Have” by Snow Patrol on Genius.