Snow Patrol Comes of Age with "In the End"

Snow Patrol's "Fallen Empires"

Snow Patrol was in Rock MYX this afternoon. Their music video was that of one of their latest singles from their latest album Fallen Empires. "In the End" was released in February 2012 but it took me this long to hear it on TV or anywhere else. Where have I been all this time? Time to catch up with my music I guess.

The video was in a nifty 'rock me Amadeus' scenario, with Gary Lightbody dressed in a shiny penguin suit, just like the old Europeans do wear, and his hair gelled and pomaded up to the back like a Mafioso.

The song and the scene were so unusual for the band; so long after they had it big with "Chasing Cars'”, the one with the sad and haunting melody.

Now what got me so interested with “In the End” was how Snow Patrol had grown up and matured with their melodies and wordings. They actually remind me now of Human Nature and Tears for Fears; maybe it’s a new path they’re threading – and it should be welcome proposition for me. Unless – unless most of their fans yearns for the swinging melodies of their old tunes.

But a band always got to grow old and mature. That’s always almost a given if a band needs to crawl and stay in the limelight. They’ve got to innovate and experiment; they’ve got to swim around of new things that are always going around with pop music culture.

Even U2 had gotta changed somehow. And they’ve changed a lot. That should be the secret of their longevity.

“In the end, in the end. There's nothing more to life than love, is there? In the end, in the end. It's time for us to lose our weary minds…” Gary Lightbody wails with a renewed vigor to his voice. And he sang it with so much affectation that for me, Snow Patrol has finally come of age.