Final Straw
| Final Straw | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Snow Patrol | ||||
| Released | 4 August 2003 | |||
| Recorded | February 2003 | |||
| Studio | Britannia Row Studios | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, indie rock, power pop, post-Britpop | |||
| Length | 44:00 | |||
| Label |
Fiction (UK) A&M (US) |
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| Producer | Jacknife Lee | |||
| Snow Patrol chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Final Straw | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 73/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Blender | |
| Entertainment.ie | |
| Entertainment Weekly | (favourable) |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.7/10) |
| PopMatters | (unfavorable) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Sunday Tribune | (favorable) |
| Uncut | |
Final Straw is the third studio album by British alternative rock band Snow Patrol, released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2003 and in the United States in 2004. The album is notable for bringing the band their first mainstream success outside of their native countries of Northern Ireland and Scotland. It is the first album to feature lead guitarist Nathan Connolly and the last to feature bassist Mark McClelland.
The album was re-released in the UK in 2004 with two extra tracks, before being exported to the U.S. (without the bonus tracks). The album was also released on SACD and DualDisc with 5.1 Surround mixes.
The band's A&R representative Jim Chancellor explained the reasons for choosing rock producer Jacknife Lee to oversee the record by saying, "I wanted a record for them that was bigger and bolder and a lot different than their previous records. I wanted them to make a more of a rock album than an indie record." Chancellor, Lee and the band chose fifteen songs to start working on out of an original pool of 24. Critical to the new direction was Lightbody's development into a more rounded songwriter. "They played us some songs which were not indie. There were a couple of pop songs and then 'Run', which is an enormous emotional rollercoaster of a track," said Chancellor.
During the first couple of weeks in the studio the band found it quite difficult to adapt from an 'indie'-orientated sound to a more commercially viable pop rock sound. Producer Lee offered constructive suggestions about how to both simplify their songs and augment them with other sounds such as strings, and Snow Patrol proved very receptive his advice. According to Chancellor, "Some bands tend to be more defensive about what goes on in the studio. Snow Patrol weren't. They were very much like, 'Yeah, we really want to be successful this time.'"
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Wikipedia