SNOW PATROL PATROL

Snow Patrol. Such a peculiar band.

The last time I mentioned this group was in reference to last year's single "Run", which I didn't like but couldn't stop listening to. The chorus is just so ooey-gooey over the top pop mopiness that I couldn't resist.

Now comes another oddity from Snow Patrol. New album released this year, mopey single out in the UK, but the US single is Snow Patrol in 'rawk' mode, "Hands Open" [from the album Eyes Open... all the titles involved vary by about one or two words... icch...].

I saw the video for "Hands Open" on tivoed [er.. windows-media-center'd] Subterranean last night. Man, this video suuuucccks. The director's pitch to the band was probably something like, "Okay, you guys are going to go THROUGH THE TV SCREEN. It'll be CRAAAZY." The whole video focuses on this incredibly weak gimmick, while following the lanky frontman around.

So yes, the video is terrible. Worse, the song includes the lyric "put Sufjan Stevens on / and we'll play your favorite song / Chicago bursts to life." WHY!? What compels a person to write that into a world-wide single?

But the most bizarre part is by far the actual song. The way the guitars are structured and produced, the way the vocals fit into the arrangement, the drum beat, and the lyrics, all simultaneously sound like both a 90's alterna-hit and 80's hair metal. How does this happen? Am I crazy? I'm talking Goo Goo Dolls, Deep Blue Something, Dishwalla, Matchbox 20 meets Poison, Bon Jovi, Van Halen. Someone please tell me I'm not losing my mind.

Snow Patrol - "Hands Open"

Forget about if I actually like it or not. It's currently impossible to tell. If I somehow manage to get over how weird this is and form an opinion, I'll let you know.