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Snow Patrol, Various: The Trip
What a happy place Snow Patrolville is at the moment. Big enough and pop enough enough to be asked to do Band Aid, yet cool enough and indie enough to create a tastemaking mix tape. Fran Healy's doing '...Christmas Time' but he's certainly not been asked to guide the alternative youth's notions of cool. Thankfully.
In fairness, the Patrol boys are known for their sporadic record playing and eclectic record nature, so this is no forced indie facism. Not totally. The main problem is that this, like any other wet kid's show off mix tape, favours the sort of soft-house-electro simplicity favoured by indieists everywhere. A desire to show your broad palate of taste is not of course, automatic proof that a member of Snow Patrol does more than slip his toe into the waters of experimentation.
Delving in, TV on The Radio are of course, great. We still think it sounds like an evil mad rock Outkast, which is a wonderful thing to be. Mylo's 'Drop the Pressure' is seemingly here only for that 'cool' factor that really can't come with a top 20 record - similar in the way that Now compilations always have a Killers or Oasis record on them. Still, The Knife's 'Heartbeats (Rex The Dog Mix)' is excellent, which is surprising, saying that The Knife are a very dubious band indeed. Secret Machines largely convince as well, sounding like Roger Taylor-era Floyd yet updated enough so as not to be embarassing. Obligatory in the indie/dance/oddball category at the moment are the likes of Four-Tet, but his 'Everything Is Alright' with its plaintive guitar and warped beats more than deserves such inclusion. Associates Hot Chip justify themselves too, with their unsteady but endearing 'Take Care'. There is no need for Bill >Withers or - in this context - Duke Spirit or Republic of Loose. Too many free promos, boys. Feist's 'Mushaboom' is very good though, and Brooklyn duo Cocorosie's sparse, beat based plaintives blues are quite lovely.
As you'd expect from a compilation thrown together by the downbeat indielike, it lacks conherency, flow and form. Somehow this makes 'The Trip' (and what a terrible name that is) even more endearing. How on earth you shoehorn Fourtet, Thomas Bangaltier and The Beastie Boys into consecutive tracks on any mix album is tough question, and one certainly not answered here. But rather like those mix (cassette) tapes where you can hear the crackle of the needle hitting the vinyl, it's almost the misguided thought that counts.
Overall, it's a little too anodyne and pleasant. The harsh would saw aural jazz for a Face (RIP) generation, but there's too much of merit to dismiss it so unfairly. An interesting jumping off point into the world of Rough Trade record shop seven inches, but a sneaking suspicion too, that Snow Patrol don't listen to this stuff everyday...
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Snow Patrol - The Trip
"a sneaking suspicion too, that Snow Patrol don't listen to this stuff everyday..."
That's a bit harsh. Just because they've made a few dodgy Coldplay knockoffs doesn't mean that they sit around only listening to Jeff Buckley all day.
The Knife aren't dubious at all, they're amazing. That remix isn't quite as good as the original though (which is no great failing seeing as it's one of the best singles of the past few years). -
Snow Patrol - The Trip
Considering that this site went near orgasmic on first listen of Final Straw, I'm surprised at the rampant Snow Patrol disdain lately on here.
Or maybe I shouldn't be. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
Coldplay knockoffs??? They were releasing stuff way before coldplay, i think someone needs to get their facts right! -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
Sorry, should have been clearer. I'm fully aware that they've been going ages: Starfighter Pilot, Songs For Polar Bears and all that. But parts of Final Straw do sound a bit like chartgrabbing Coldplayisms in a way that older material didn't. Not that there's anything neccessarily wrong with that: pays the bills, makes a few festival audiences happy, etc... -
Snow Patrol - The Trip
Hmm. Im not sure that criticism of a Snow patrol mix cd is really a criticism of them. Also fairly sure that the review says that half the tunes are good. and makes point of the fact that all wet indie boys try too hard to impress with their mix tapes. it's fking true. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
I confess, I over indie my mix tapes. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
Yeah, and me. I always put a Rilo Kiley track on too. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
i wrote three pages of a4 notes with a couple of my mixtapes. -
Snow Patrol - The Trip
GUILTY - ive done that too -
Snow Patrol - The Trip
If they're so fucking influenced by all that shit, then why aren't they not boring, fucking trite indie that we've heard a squazillion times before via Peel/Lamacq?
argh. If I hear another fucking indie kid wank on about Kid 606 or Bogdan Raczynski or someone when all they *actually* listen to is Radiohead and The Pixies, i'm gonna stab them in the fucking face. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
INtelligent post alert!
Give the boy a Billy Clyro t-shirt. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
final straw lp is shit, unlike previous snow patrol ones. coldplay are shit too. -
Snow Patrol - The Trip
am i weird for adoring the reindeer section but hating snow patrol?? -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
It comes down to one reviewer's opinion, the writers as a whole don't sit down and decide whether something's good or not. And a heavy amount or radio play is always going to create a feeling that a band aren't all that. The bigger the band the bigger the target. -
Re: Snow Patrol - The Trip
am I weird for not caring?
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