This is a truly 21st-century release, a record for our Coronavirus times. It is, rather wonderfully, a five-track collection of songs written by Snow Patrol in collaboration with their fans – referred to here as The Saturday Songwriters – with the creative process taking place through Instagram Live songwriting sessions hosted by the band’s frontman Gary Lightbody during the lockdown period.

During these sessions, Lightbody would ask fans to contribute chords and lyrics and put various different options that were then composed to a public vote. The EP was recorded largely at Lightbody’s home, and even the release’s artwork was chosen through an online contest. Just getting this record over the line in a time of unprecedented restrictions is a triumph in itself.

However, it’s not that long ago that Snow Patrol were the biggest band in the UK, surfing the wave of their melodic indie power ballads Run, Chasing Cars, and You’re All I Have. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a band that’s sold significantly more than ten million records worldwide is capable of such feats.

Opening track Reaching Out To You is a glorious opener, a bouncy feel-good arrangement that gets things off to a great start. On The Edge Of All This is a starker, more emotionally heavy track set mostly to an acoustic guitar, with a glorious soaring chorus.

The Curve Of The Earth is a gentle number, with low-key finger-picked guitars backing a mournful Lightbody vocal, while Dance With Me incorporates banjo elements and bares comparison to Bear’s Den in structure and sound. Closing proceedings is Light Years, a beautiful finish to the EP, and while it doesn’t outright reference the current Coronavirus pandemic, the lyrics feel strangely appropriate as Lightbody sings: “Bright lights in time of darkness / Incandescent, uncompared / You could be two meters away from me / But it seems light years sometimes, dear”.

Ultimately this a lovely, folksy collection with a genuinely fantastic concept at its centre from one of the UK’s defining indie bands of the last two decades. And if that wasn’t enough, all proceeds from this EP are also being donated to The Trussell Trust, and will fund food banks all over the UK.

Buy or stream The Fireside Sessions through Snow Patrol’s official website.

Listen to the official audio for Reaching Out To You here.

The Fireside Sessions tracklist:

1. Reaching Out To You

2. On The Edge Of All This

3. The Curve Of Earth

4. Dance With Me

5. Light Years

 folk     indie 

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.