There’s a strain of soaring modern rock, particularly of the British Isles, going back to the likes of U2 through Coldplay and onward. Like its more religious American cousin, it can feel inspirational to some ears, and watered down to others. That has long been true of Scotland’s Snow Patrol, and it continues with The Forest Is the Path.
Their first record since 2018’s Wildness (QRO review), and first since the departure of bassist Paul Wilson and drummer Jonny Quinn, you wouldn’t have known that the band or the world had changed since then. Opener “All” sees singer/guitarist Gary Lightbody exclaim both “This is not a love song” and “So, I guess this is a love song after all.” Heart is on every sleeve, wrought to the point of overwrought. There are some highs, such as the pressure on “Years That Fall” that shows what Snow Patrol could be, but then there’s the wanna-be U2 of “This Is the Sound of Your Voice” or the weak Editors of “Never Really Tire”.
Still, if you like Snow Patrol, if you feel something when they so clearly want to make you feel something, The Forest Is the Path will likely move you. Just no one else.
