The verdicts - Snow Patrol's 'Eyes Open'

A new regular feature looking at the range of opinions on a new album, starting with Snow Patrol's fourth. Because Metacritic doesn't read blogs. Or teletext, although I'm a bit too late to remember anything more than that they gave it 8/10, sadly.
It might be updated in a couple of weeks when there are more opinions out there too.




The Times goes for 4/5 but seems a little unsure - it says Eyes Open 'takes Final Straw and projects it on to a larger canvas' and as a result 'feels like a nerveless triumph.'
The NME give it a grudging 6/10, similarly bemoaning its '[tackling of] the familiar musical ground of 'Final Straw' with verve but little variety'.
And Observer Music Monthly (3/5) are even less generous: 'Big, bold, cleverly-executed, thoroughly hollow stuff'.

Meanwhile on the blogs, where generally speaking those bothering to comment on the full album are by definition those who enjoyed 'Final Straw,' the reaction is a little more positive but still not ecstatic.
Musicisnotdead reckon 'the more polished sound fits them well' and that they are now 'sounding like the soundtrack to a coming of age movie'.
The Razor Wire, meanwhile, suggests that while it 'surpasses Final Straw in terms of listenability [...] the band may have slightly dumbed down their sound in order to attract a legion of new listeners'.
And Good Weather For Airstrikes also cautiously celebrate its 'decidedly major-label feel, absolutely dripping in production flourishes', ending on the suggestion that 'Eyes Open sees Snow Patrol finally finding their niche as the UK's next great arena-rock band, somewhere in between Coldplay and Muse'.