New Music: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I got myself some new albums recently and I held high hopes for them all: Snow Patrol's Eyes Open, Bell X1's Flock and the Dave Matthews Band's Stand Up.

So, what did I think? Well:

Snow Patrol: Trying to follow the success of Final Straw couldn't have been easy. There was a lot riding on this album for them. I think I was also predisposed to not like this because the lead-singer-guy fired the bassist-guy (also the last remaining original member of the band) when Final Straw hit the big time because of "creative differences". Anyway. Whatever. Eyes Open kicks ass. It's brilliant and I love it. There's enough similarities to Final Straw to show that they know what's good about the band and what people like about them and their music, but enough differences so that you get the feeling they've moved on and grown up a bit and you're definitely not listening to the same album.
Favourite Song: Set The Fire To The Third Bar
Notable Others: Make This Go On Forever
One minor point of grumble (and this holds for Final Straw too) is that it sounds like desperate hard work to be lead-singer/songwriter-guy's girlfriend. I mean really, could you be bothered dealing with all that angst on a daily basis???

Bell X1: I'm definitely predisposed to liking these guys because they come from the same town/area that I grew up in. I really enjoyed their earlier album Music In Mouth, which Conor had given me for Christmas. I listened to it to within an inch of its little CD-life. So I bought their follow-up and widely critically acclaimed album Flock. Now, it's not that I don't like it: I do, just not as much as Music In Mouth.
Favourite Song: Bad Skin Day
I'm giving it plenty of opportunity to grow on me and it's not like I skip through any of the songs and I think that a bit of saturation therapy will soon have Flock taking its place in my heart beside its older brother.

Dave Matthews Band: What can I say? I have stacks of their albums and I love all of them for different reasons. In general, I prefer their more recent material to their older stuff - that's all a bit jazzy or something - but it's all good. I was especially taken with their Some Devil album, which has had pride of place on my mp3 player since I got it. I was really looking forward to Stand Up. So much so that I was trying to talk Conor into going to Canada next month to see DMB play in concert. What a disappointment. I will keep trying. I will give it a chance to grow on me. Currently, I do not hold out much hope.
Favourite Song: n/a
Notable Others: n/a