Snow Patrol - Up To Now
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Up To Now is a two-disc compilation from the Northern Irish Indie Rock band, Snow Patrol. Frontman Gary Lightbody insists that it is not a “greatest hits” album – partly because he hates those types of records and partly because he claims that they haven’t had enough hits to warrant one. It’s not a “best of” compilation either because that, according to Lightbody, “sounded like it’s final, like it’s the end of the band” and “there’s much more to come.” Snow Patrol has sold in excess of ten million albums worldwide – which doesn’t seem too bad for a band with no hit songs. The highest they’ve managed to chart in the United States is number nine, with A Hundred Million Suns, but they’ve been much more successful in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
This compilation has tracks from each of their five studio albums, one song from a movie soundtrack, a couple live versions, a couple slightly obscure tracks from singles, a couple updated 2009 versions and a few previously unreleased songs. The three longest-running members of Snow Patrol were members of the Scottish supergroup The Reindeer Section and this collection also contains two of those tracks. Almost three-fourths of the songs that they previously released as singles are included in this release and all of the Grey’s Anatomy fans will be happy to know that “Chasing Cars” is one of the included songs.
"Set the Fire to the Third Bar" and “Run” are the absolute best that Snow Patrol have to offer here, but two of their most amazing tracks – “Make This Go On Forever” and “Disaster Button” – are conspicuously missing. On the flip side, they could easily have omitted “Cartwheels” by The Reindeer Section, “Post Punk Progression” and all four of the so-so tracks from their worst album, When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up.
- Score
- 80%
Up To Now would provide a decent entry point to someone unfamiliar with the band, but it would be very difficult to recommend this over Eyes Open, A Hundred Million Suns or Final Straw (in that order). There is also some stuff for current fans, but most of this collection will be a waste if you already have any of their albums. The cover of Beyonce’s "Crazy in Love" is interesting (but not that great), the live tracks are pretty good, the 2009 versions are both better than the originals and of the three new songs, two are worth hearing: "Just Say Yes" and "Dark Roman Wine."
