Snow Patrol: Final Straw

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Just as we're getting the hang of the Franz Ferdinand quickstep, here's another Glaswegian quartet who just might crack it further afield.

They can come on like a younger, louder, more tech-savvy take on the sensitive and melancholy Britrock of Coldplay or Travis, while frontman Gary Lightbody could be a distant vocal cousin to our own Don McGlashan, especially on the closing ballad Same.

The dozen tracks speak of shy hellos, long goodbyes and heavy hearts, and it's hard not to use the word "dour"on the more glum numbers.

But the sparky, fuzzy dynamics - which use fractured electronics to offset their twin-guitar frontline - help to make it fly, especially on the boxy rhythms and bass-throb of Wow and Gleaming Auction, which suggest they're another band working to that creased old New Order blueprint.

Those Travis and Coldplay comparisons kick in hardest on the upbeat Chocolate and the vocally lush Somewhere a Clock is Ticking, while their big anthem Run is likely to cause just that on the international ciggy lighter fuel market any day now.

Not a band to change your life but one that can lift your mood with a set of hearty toe-tappers. Worth a fling.

Label: Fiction/Polydor