NOT many bands last long enough to make eight albums, so Snow Patrol leader Gary Lightbody has ample justification for recent declarations of being “in love” with The Forest is The Path - especially as the new record comes on the heels of major line-up re-shuffle which could easily have resulted in 2018′s Wildness becoming Snow Patrol’s swansong.
However, following the departure of drummer Jonny Quinn and bassist Paul Wilson in 2023 and now six long years on from Wildness - which contained encouraging, palette-broadening hints of a band attempting to push beyond the safety of its established ‘stadium indie’ sound - the Patrol have regrouped as a core trio of singer/guitarist Lightbody, guitarist/backing vocalist Nathan Connolly and guitarist/pianist/backing vocalist Johnny McDaid.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the trying circumstances of its creation, The Forest is The Path largely has the feel of a band playing it safe and sticking to established strengths, particularly during a first half which sails past in a pointedly inoffensive blur of big chorus-equipped, soul-searching mid-tempo indie pop balladry - although, in an apparent act of wilful self-sabotage, Lightbody does repeatedly use the F-word throughout lead single The Beginning, one of the record’s most anthemic, radio-friendly moments (naturally, a swear-free edit is also available for playlisters) on which he confesses “I just don’t know how to love”.
Indeed, Lightbody has largely used this album to reflect on the highs and lows of previous relationships/entanglements from a standpoint of ‘live to love again’ safety - or “love from a distance”, as he puts it.
“I haven’t been in a relationship for a very long time, 10 years or more,” explains the Bangor-born Snow Patrol man.
“The way a relationship sits in your memory from a distance of, say, 10 years, is not something I’d previously thought about as a way to write about love.
“So it’s like, when you’re in love, you’re standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building. When you’ve broken up with that person, you’re out in the street. You can still see the building, but you’re not in there anymore. And, when it’s 10 years later, now you’re standing in Brooklyn looking at the Manhattan skyline.”
Such perspective is brought to bear on The Beginning, described by the band as “the cornerstone of the album”.
“That’s kind of a summing up of this album. It’s a way of looking at various mistakes, any pain I may have caused, from a place where nothing is hurting anymore, except the memory when you pull it back into your mind. The memory itself is full of hurt, but everything around it isn’t.
“You’re holding in your hand this ball of fire, but now you’ve got gloves on.”
Tellingly, the opening line of opening track All is “this is not a love song” - one of the earliest tunes written for the album and one which set the tone for what was to follow, as Lightbody recalls.
“All was written by Fraser T Smith and myself in late November of 2022,” he explains.
“This was almost exactly a year before we would ask Fraser to produce the album. The first time we recorded the album it didn’t work out, and we would then ask Fraser to step into the producer’s chair in December of 2023.
“He was a dream to work with. My memory is that it all came together very quickly. I wrote a melody and some words while Fraser built the track, and in a couple of hours we had a really great rough version of the song.
“Then Johnny and Nathan put some extraordinary guitars, keys and piano on it, not to mention incredible backing vocals and so many things which lifted the song massively. Another example of the three of us being locked-in together on this record, it felt like something truly special was happening in the studio.”
Smith ensures the record never sounds less than powerfully and professionally glossy, with stand-out moments on ‘side one’ including the moodier, twinklier verses of Everything’s Here and Nothing’s Lost (surely a future single) which anchor its inevitable soar-away choruses, and the strong, simple melodies of the Americana-tinged pop rocker Your Heart Home, an easy-on-the-ear number which ebbs and flows pleasingly prior to the arrival of emotive, synth-powered slow-builder This is The Sound of Your Voice, a nostalgia-fed affair which namechecks Belfast as it tugs on the heartstrings in a swaying, iPhones-aloft manner.
However, some of The Forest Is The Path’s strongest songs are saved for its back end: those suffering ballad-fatigue by that stage will enjoy the punchier, syncopation-driven indie rock tendencies of Hold Me In The Fire, which is followed in quick succession by two other late-album highlights in the form of the slinky/grungy up-tempo workout Years That Fall (marred only by Lightbody’s use of ‘goddamn’, always wince-inducing coming from a non-American crooner) and the epic, slow-building melodrama of Never Really Tire.
A viciously self-reflective number, the latter is by far the strongest track on the entire album, being one of the only songs which really feels like a natural evolution of the bolder, more considered sound Snow Patrol were just beginning to explore on Wildness.
“Kill all your heroes, now there’s nowhere left to hide / Is your money where your mouth is, or has something in you died?” muses Lightbody, clearly a man at a life/career crossroads.
However, plaintive piano and vocal ballad These Lies offers stiff competition for best in show, with the frontman baring his soul to a lost love while switching between baritone and falsetto for added emotional impact.
“I’m not going to lie to you anymore, after these lies, no more / I never really loved you at all, so just walk away and don’t ever call / your kiss it never brought me to my knees, I didn’t ache for you ‘til my heart would seize.”
There won’t be a dry eye in the house at tonight’s Ulster Hall show if he manages to make it through that one without choking.
The falsetto returns for the electropop-tinged title track and finale, a gospel-informed number which never quite takes off the way it probably should.
However, kudos again for trying something different - hopefully, now that Snow Patrol are safely out of the woods, they will start straying from the path a bit more often in the future.
