Album of the decade- Snow Patrol Eyes Open

The beautiful lilting tones in Gary Lightbody’s voice and the hauntingly ominous lyrics on some of the tracks on Eyes Open made it an album I just couldn’t stop listening to. Crammed with some of the bands most commercially popular songs, it may not be as popular with some of their oldest fans but the genius behind the music on this album cannot be denied.

Chasing Cars, a beautiful ballad which took over the airwaves in 2006, spent a near record breaking 90 weeks in the UK top 75 clearly demonstrating how the song touched so many people. It’s powerful lyrics and gentle melody made it a smash hit being used on programmes such as Grey’s Anatomy and some of Hollywood’s biggest block-busters. It propelled the band towards fame in the USA, not an easy task, especially for a group of indie boys from Northern Ireland. Although it is far from my favourite track on the album it proved to a wider audience that Snow Patrol deserved a status of their own, they were not just mere impersonators of Coldplay.

The guest vocals of Martha Wainwright on Set the fire to the third bar still send shivers down my spine when I listen to it. Her voice and Lightbody’s mesh perfectly together resulting in a simply beautiful and emotive song.

My favourite song on the album has to be You could be happy. A song reflecting the pain Lightbody himself was feeling at the time can be felt by anyone listening to the track. The lyrics paint such a sad picture of what could have been but it pulls on your heart-strings and has to be the best song on the album.

I think I can actually pin point the moment I fell in love with the album. 1st September 2007, Snow Patrol played a gig in an unknown park in a town in Northern Ireland to a crowd of around 30,000 people. The Home-coming gig.

Lightbody and Quinn returned to their home-town of Bangor, also my home-town, with the rest of the band. The atmosphere of the day could never be recreated again. They were so happy to be home and playing in Ward Park. The location was random, it was where I played hockey, where my school sport’s day was held and where I fed the ducks as a kid.

Now people from across Northern Ireland were united to watch their boys play a spectacular show into which they put their heart and soul. I had seen them once before and once since that day and I can safely say nothing compares to how they performed, it was special.

The album became the best-selling album of 2006 beating stiff competition from Artic Monkeys Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not album. The lads from Bangor had done good. They were riding high on the charts after working hard for years in the unknown realms of indie bands trying to make it.

Snow Patrol make beautiful music to which anyone can relate. They are who they are and Eyes Open is the best example of some of their finest work. They craft their music and lyrics in such a manner that can really bring emotions out from even the coldest of hearts.

It also produced You’re all I have, one of their biggest hits yet.

It’s an album which I could listen to over and over again and with such a range of successful songs I think it’s the one to beat in album of the decade.

Now go and vote Snow Patrol Eyes Open