"There are swaggering bands, bands who are in your face. And then there are bands who get hold of you somewhere else. I think it's a heart thing, an intimacy thing. Like you know them and they know you. I think we are one of those bands."

So says Snow Patrol singer and chief songwriter Gary Lightbody. And all the proof you'll need is Snow Patrol's new album Eyes Open, a collection of songs which more than makes good on the promise of its predecessor, 2004's two million selling Final Straw. Recorded during a tumultuous and tempestuous 2005, Eyes Open is the work of a band who have scaled the heights supporting U2 through Europe, appearing at Live 8 in both Hyde Park and Scotland but somehow stuck to their core values: beautiful power songs underscored by some of the most poignant and telling lyrics in rock.