Pulse Music Magazine One of the most popular U.K. alternative groups of the 2000s, known for sweeping pop songs and sentimental, cinematic ballads, Snow Patrol have returned with a follow-up to 2018’s Wildness.
The Forest Is The Path was written by Nathan Connolly, Gary Lightbody, and Johnny McDaid and features twelve tracks. Fraser T Smith, Will Reynolds, Roy Kerr, and Troy Van Leeuwen (QOTSA) also contributed to the writing of some of the songs on the album. The album and single artwork feature paintings by Gary Lightbody.
An album of contrasts, it is at times epically joyous, life-affirming, and giant. Lightbody calls it “the biggest sounding record we have ever made.” The first four tracks contain some of the mightiest choruses they have released in their now thirty-year career, while also holding space for moments that are pin-drop quiet and earth-shatteringly devastating.
The single “Everything’s Here And Nothing’s Lost,” is the second song the band wrote for the album on a brief but pivotal writing trip to Somerset. “It was written on the second day there,” Lightbody says “The first day we wrote ‘The Beginning,‘ and the second day we wrote ‘Everything’s Here and Nothing Lost‘ which are the first and third singles off of the album, so you could say it was a productive trip.”
Lyrically, it’s by far the most laid-bare and most unsparing of the band’s albums. Phrases leap out and ambush you, constantly. “I’m only lost if you don’t look for me.” / “I’m not going to lie to you anymore, after these lies. Then no more.” “I want to be in love without being loved in return.” / “I’ve told myself a million times who you weren’t, so I can finally forget who you were.” / “Love is just pain in reverse.” It’s not a record for the faint-hearted, to be sure – but it may just be a salve for the heart that hurts.
The recording sessions with Fraser T Smith were intense and cathartic. All three members describe them as utterly transformative, not least Gary, for whom they were like looking in the mirror and refusing to turn away. Listening to The Forest Is the Path, you feel that his whole journey as a songwriter was fated to arrive at this point. No filter, total honesty and humility, a deep and untiring excavation of the past. Hearing his lyrics and vocals – the best and most beautiful of his career – you feel as if you’re staring into his soul.
Snow Patrol kicked off their return in the summer with a stunning performance at Rock Werchter in Belgium before playing to 30,000 fans at a sold-out Thomond Park Stadium in Limerick.
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