Snow Patrol

First coming on as a Brit-rock also-ran but showing more and more signs of staying power, Snow Patrol falls somewhere between Belle And Sebastian and Coldplay. On last year’s A Hundred Million Suns, the searing, soaring melancholy of previous albums has been traded in for an intentionally optimistic and upbeat view of love and the world. The band’s sixth album, Fallen Empires, was released early this year to pensive fans because of a rumored change in direction. That “change” ended up being a nearly imperceptible synth shift, but with a return to a darker mood and a bit of gospel thrown in for odd measure.

Updated 04/19/2012