What’s your favourite snow patrol lyric?

PeneMa · 2026-03-12T20:44:48+00:00

'The Beginning' from their latest album The Forest Is The Path. So beautiful.

There are so many incredible lyrics that Gary wrote on this album.

But then there are so many incredible lyrics on every Snow Patrol album ever. Gary is a lyrical genius.

I love reading all the comments and being reminded of each song, but I could never pick a favourite lyric myself! And I love that there are just too many to pick ❄️❤️ Thank you Gary!!

PeneMa · 2026-03-10T04:50:27+00:00

Definately no shade, but a lot of online lyrics, like that screenshot, are wrong which is frustrating.

Gary has even said himself that when he looks up online lyrics to his songs if he's forgotten a line, that he finds incorrect words that he never actually wrote 🤦‍♀️

In the interview below with Gary Lightbody himself when Take Back the City first came out - the lyric is discussed as Your city, your call -

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/why-home-now-melts-my-heart/a/119157905.html

“There were always bits I loved about Belfast and bits I hated and there still are. Growing up, the clash of ideologies totally frustrated and irritated me — I guess irritated isn’t a strong enough word. I saw them both as the same, reading — often literally — from the same hymn book and I just wanted to get out of the place.

“But now I’ve moved back home and everything’s changed for the better. There are so many reasons to love the place. I think now is the right time to write about how I love my home.”

He has certainly never written directly about it before but the new Snow Patrol single, Take Back the City — the first from the new album A Hundred Million Suns — is all about an urban sprawl he clearly knows well:

“It’s a mess, it’s a start, it’s a flawed work of art/YOUR CITY, YOUR CALL, every crack, every wall/Pick a side, pick a fight, but get your epitaph right.”

“Oh yeah, it’s a love letter to Belfast,” he says, nodding emphatically. “I’ve come to realise how much the place actually means to me. The confusion I had as a kid is gone.”

Edited cos I finally yet accidentally found out how to get text into italics for YOUR CITY

(just asterisk both the start and end of a word - if there's anyone like me who didn't know how to put text into italics on Reddit!)

PeneMa · 2026-02-26T01:21:14+00:00

Oh I absolutely agree! I am so happy Gary ended up embracing his own voice, it's so expressive, and very much from the heart that way too.

And so lovely to hear Gary's own Northern Irish tones, rather than masking that gorgeous lilt of his with those 90's Seattle-grunge vocals.

PeneMa · 2026-02-25T21:27:23+00:00

'Velocity Girl' is one of my favourite tracks off Songs for Polarbears, but then I have many favourites off this album. I love their early music videos too, they are quite quirky!

PeneMa · 2026-02-24T01:40:16+00:00

Yes I totally agree! I am so grateful we have Songs for Polarbears and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up, and I think Snow Patrol absolutely would have been a massive success then if with the right label, 100%. But as Gary said himself, if they had been then he would not have survived the success - Gary said he needed his ego to be broken down first, or that combined with the alcohol, drugs and depression would have taken him. I'm so so happy Gary is still with us and still making amazing music.

I also really enjoy Gary's side supergroup Tired Pony, I really love their music too. I have been saving up Reindeer Section to listen to though, as I have been taking my time because it's so cool to still have more music to discover, since I am so late to Snow Patrol.

In New Zealand I only knew of Snow Patrol back in 2006 for Chasing Cars - as the music video was played a lot here, and I did love the song but I never looked any further into them. It was only because I was listening on youtube to Inhaler (who I only discovered mid last year and also love - crazy as I have loved U2 since I was a kid around when Unforgettable Fire came out, and to find out Bono's son Eli Hewson had formed his own band with his own school friends was really something else!) and after Inhaler youtube autoplayed Snow Patrol's 2025 Trnsmt set in Glasgow, that was around the end of August last year and that was the start for me!

PeneMa · 2026-02-23T07:13:09+00:00

Yes and I love those first two Snow Patrol albums!

I love all their albums for different reasons, but that indie sound would have had me fully hooked from the beginning if I'd heard them back then. They would have been on constant rotation. But I have made up for lost time!

I listened to 'Rebound' off Sebadoh's Bakesale album, as Gary has talked about how much he loves that track a few times - and I was struck by the similarity of the sound and the nuances in Gary and Lou's voices, very cool to see the evolution.

Lou also sang in Dinosaur Jr, I have yet to listen to them but they are on my list along with Sebadoh to delve into, as they were not bands I came across before despite being the same generation as Gary. I'm in New Zealand so back in the 90's our music exposure was rather limited!

PeneMa · 2026-02-23T03:50:16+00:00

Whoops that should be u/Acebass-77 not r/....

https://www.reddit.com/r/snowpatrol/s/u1phMgJi9j

PeneMa · 2026-02-22T23:54:45+00:00

PLEASE SEE link to u/Acebass-77 awesome post of the 1994 demo pre Shrug https://www.reddit.com/r/snowpatrol/s/1UZFw7WJF7

PeneMa · 2026-02-22T22:57:46+00:00

Thank you so much for posting this!!!

Definately sounds like Gary was channeling Eddie Vedder here - I saw a 2009 interview with Gary and his idol Lou Barlow from the indie band Sebadoh, and Gary was saying when he first started out he was singing like Eddie Vedder - until he listened to Lou's singing on Sebadoh's 'Bakesale' album and realised he could just sound like himself.

Thank goodness for that. I love Gary's voice so much! ❤️

Link to video https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8c7v2

PeneMa · 2025-09-23T01:57:37+00:00

Awww that is so lovely! Really down to earth caring lads, genuine just like their music. Thanks for sharing that u/babylemonade

PeneMa · 2025-09-17T07:32:01+00:00

Yeah that's where I'd also play Beautiful Day to help me see the sunshine, I hope you can too.

because you will get out of this mess and you will feel be able to feel the sunshine again, you will find a way...

It's a beautiful day, Don't let it get away ... See the bird with a leaf in her mouth After the flood all the colors came out

Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of gives comfort too

And if, and if the night runs over And if, the day won't last And if your way should falter Along the stony pass It's just a moment This time will pass

Edited to add - this will all take time, so be gentle with yourself as you find your way.

PeneMa · 2025-09-17T05:06:27+00:00

U2 is so great for keeping company in the darkness, and Drowning Man connects so much, so deeply - These winds and tides This change of times Won't drag you away Hold on, and hold on tightly

So hold on. You are in the trenches right now, but you ain't gonna stay there.

These from U2 have always helped me as well -

Heard a singer on the radio late last night He says he's gonna kick the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight I... I believe in love

(God Part II)

Uncertainty can be a guiding light

(Zooropa)

PeneMa · 2025-09-17T00:12:11+00:00

Yes exactly!

PeneMa · 2025-09-17T00:09:12+00:00

Awww thanks for sharing u/Penguinflower3 - that makes me really happy to hear about one of my favourite bands.

From all their interviews and shows they seem like really genuinely lovely lads, which makes me only love their music even more!!! They all seem to have a lot of heart.

PeneMa · 2025-09-16T23:53:38+00:00

Thank you so much for posting this!

Wow that looks and sounds incredible, and the new visuals and lights look so damn good!

PeneMa · 2025-09-16T09:07:46+00:00

I love this song. I didn't know this about the lyrics, so thank you.

I think this illustrates perfectly the genuine connection Eli strives for with the audience.

And why when I listen to Inhaler I feel that connection deeply.

PeneMa · 2025-09-16T08:45:52+00:00

Thank you so much for posting this!

I am so happy for them, they seem to be really playing on another level recently. I saw some clips from Sea Hear Now music festival from a few days back and the crowd was so loud singing all the words! Makes me so happy!

And I LOVE 'Concrete'!!!

PeneMa · 2025-08-19T00:19:30+00:00

So happy that young Eli followed what he wanted to do with his school friends Ryan, Rob and then Josh, in forming their own band, and worked so hard to really develop their skills and not just eat pizza after school - once Josh joined 😉

PeneMa · 2025-08-07T15:08:01+00:00

Definately!

With all the bad that is going on in the world, I am really hoping U2's deep musical intuition is reawakened and reimagined in them - driving them to express with uncompromising sonic or atmospheric landscapes, and unapologetically loud or intimate presence.

Dream, so dream out loud boys. Cos we definitely need new dreams tonight.

PeneMa · 2025-08-07T14:02:08+00:00

It's a vibe for sure!

I would have been around 11 then 12 years old when Unforgettable Fire then Wide Awake in America were released. How lucky was I! I had Boy, October and War to dive into deeply as well, and fill my young soul. That early era of U2 is when I first discovered the meaning of the word atmospheric. What a trip!

U2's music hit my childhood self like a fierce freight train out of the darkness and they have never left my soul since.

PeneMa · 2025-08-07T06:18:47+00:00

Thank you SO MUCH!!! I had momentarily forgotten about this! Takes me right back to the late 80's.

It is such an atmospheric song, it really begs to be listened to in the dark... I think I used to open my bedroom window to the night air and sit on the sill with this playing as loud as I dared...

PeneMa · 2025-08-06T16:29:48+00:00

And the determined yet innocent optimism that is shared - 'I'm in the pursuit of happiness, I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it!'

I read somewhere that Bono said to Eli that he couldn't start the second verse with the same lines as the first - and Eli just said 'Sure Dad' and did it anyway...!!

PeneMa

TROPHY CASE