Snow Patrol will release its next studio album, "Eyes Open," May 1 internationally via Fiction/Polydor and May 9 in North America via Interscope. The driving, up-tempo first single "You're All I Have" will see commercial release April 24 in the United Kingdom.

The 11-track set features a duet between frontman Gary Lightbody and singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright on "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" as well as guest appearances from Posies/Big Star principal Ken Stringfellow on keyboards plus backing vocals from Scottish indie rock notables Eugene Kelly, Charlie Clarke, Jenny Reeve and Iain Archer.

"Eyes Open" is the follow-up to Snow Patrol's 2003 breakthrough "Final Straw," which has sold 479,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Highlights of the new effort include the synth-washed, U2-ish "Shut Your Eyes," the grungy, Sufjan Stevens-namechecking "Hands Open" and the anthemic "Open Your Eyes."

The album will be available internationally in a special edition featuring a bonus DVD with behind-the-scenes footage from the studio and Snow Patrol's extensive "Final Straw" tour. U.K. fans who pre-order "Eyes Open" via Amazon.com will be entered to win tickets to the band's sold out April 12 show in London.

Snow Patrol is in the midst of a short European tour, to be followed later this month by seven North American shows. Among them is a March 17 gig at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where the band launched "Final Straw" two years ago.

Here is the track list for "Eyes Open":

"You're All I Have"
"Hands Open"
"Chasing Cars"
"Shut Your Eyes"
"Beginning To Get To Me"
"You Could Be Happy"
"Make This Go on Forever"
"Set the Fire to the Third Bar"
"Headlights"
"Open Your Eyes"
"Finish Line"

jim's serious about his snow patrol, folks.

dude, no beef with snow patrol. i'll pick this up. they're really catchy, good pop.

I enjoy Snow Patrol too, anybody ever see them live?

the first single leaked

They suck!!!

i like the song


"Is it me or do they now sound american?"

yes.

you're all i have

http://rapidshare.de/files/15829755/Sno ... e.mp3.html

They played it on XFM this morning. Wasn't too impressed. I really liked Spiiting Games, but all the other singles were overplayed (in the UK)

What the fuck is that. I think its the Silver Surfer have "Demolition Man" sex or something.

Believe it or not, Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody can only sort of remember how his band's new album, Eyes Open, came to be.

It's not like he wasn't there the whole time — he was, and he has the studio blog to prove it — it's just that, when pressed, he can't seem to remember how he and the rest of the Patrol came up with the booming crescendos of "Make This Go on Forever" or the gnarly, stomping guitar intro to the first single, "Hands Open." From the way he tells things, it sounds like the whole record just came together under some sort of divine intervention.

"Honestly, a lot of this record just came about through a series of happy accidents," Lightbody laughed. "We recorded under this sort of free-flowing chaos, it was sort of wonderful. It was just a lot of laughter. It was one of the happiest memories of our career. Because we'd been through a few sort of gigantic moments, just negative and positive, and we made it out alive."

Lightbody only sort of touched on the manic 24 months Snow Patrol have been through — from becoming bona-fide stars (thanks to the success of 2004's Final Straw) and touring with U2 to parting ways with longtime bassist Mark McClelland — it's been a roller-coaster ride to say the least. So it makes sense that Eyes Open, which Snow Patrol began working on in July with producer Garrett Lee (see "Snow Patrol 'Set Fire' While Trying To Stay Warm In Irish Studio"), reflects those up-and-down times.

"The thing with us is that we toured for like two and a half years for Final Straw, and we kept touring and touring and we never stopped. And when we went in to make this record, we were just riding that momentum," Lightbody said. "So it's kind of a hectic record. I mean, things like touring with U2 had a dramatic effect on us because it showed us how gigantic music can be personal. They can play to 60,000 people and touch every one of them, and that was something we didn't think was possible."

And from the sound of things, Snow Patrol were taking careful notes while on the road with U2. Eyes Open is full of the globe-uniting rock that Bono & Co. have been brewing for 25 years now: big, stadium-ready guitars and epic choruses coupled with somber pianos and fragile, chirping electronic beats. It's the kind of complicated, loud/soft record that will find equal footing with the bloggers and the brosephs.

For proof of that, look no further than "Hands Open," for which Snow Patrol recently shot a video with director Patrick Daughters (who helmed videos for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Gold Lion" and Death Cab for Cutie's "Title and Registration"). Sure, it's a straight-ahead radio rocker, with bombastic guitars and love-gone-wrong lyrics, but it's a tune Snow Patrol struggled with mightily. After all, they don't have much experience with the mainstream.

"It started off as a real candy-assed kind of almost limp song. [Drummer] Johnny [Quinn] said it was like a Tom Petty rip-off. But we worked really hard on it and Johnny hit the drums hard on it, and it all started to make sense when we turned the guitars up on it and made it this real beast," Lightbody said. "We'd never written a riff before ... and I was having a really hard time trying to sing over it. And it just sort of came together in one magical minute. Which happened a lot on this record. It's got moments of timelessness, and it's like this journey. Not to sound like a knob or anything like that."

I've seen these guys 5 times, Jim. They suck live, really badly.

yet you've seen them 5 times??

Yep. In their early days. Unfortunately, for me, my wife is a big fan. We live in Northern Ireland ( where SP are from) and they used to play Balfast every other week. I stayed the whole way through for the first couple of shows then, they got so bad I'd walk the better half in until she found her mates and go to the pub next door. Gary Lightbody's voice live is awful. And he's a pretentious prick. I remember some fans looking for autographs after a show, this was before they were big, he walked past them. Cunt. The rest of the guys seemed like good, honest, normal people.

Is this that band where he's running through the darkness holding the torch?

Yeah. I think it's the video for "run". The only song of their's that's half decent.

i saw them at the Norva last year and it was really good.... i liked them live, his voice was fine, sounded like the cd so no complaint about the vocals here.. the highlight of the show was when some one yelled out "GWAR" and Gary said "do u mean those guys who dress up like dinosours? or did you say War? we arnt at war with you because theres way more of u all here then us , but we will dress like dinsours next time if u guys do too"

Nah, he's just a pretentious cunt.

so... will you kill me if i tell you i'm a huge HUGE Frames fan and have seen them like 6-7 times here in the US since '01?