Snow Patrol’s latest disc has a lot of pretty lyrics.

“A Hundred Million Suns” has hints of old Snow Patrol albums, utilizing the formulaic driving beat of the emotionally damaged song. That’s it, though. The driving passion from “Eyes Open” is gone. The music, while still sounding like Snow Patrol, offers nothing new. The album suffers from lack of development, over-production, and utilization of old, tried, however tired, formulas.

“Crack the Shutters” comes from Snow Patrol’s poppy, poetic repertoire. The chords are pretty,

but nothing really pops out as original.

“Take Back the City,” however, features some new-sounding electric guitar riffs for the group. It sounds like they’re trying to make something new but can’t quite solidify what they want to do with it. This ode to the city, however, has been heard before: “I love this city tonight / I love this

city always / It bears it’s teeth like a light / And spits me out after days.”

The album lulls too soon with “Lifeboats.” For a band like Snow Patrol, that thrives on heavy, emotional beats, a pensive song like this needs to come much later in the record. At this point, the listener is still deciding whether or not to get to track 11. Devoted fans of Snow Patrol will keep listening. For everyone else, however, this might be the tune out point.

For this album, it seems more time was spent creating poetic, pretty lyrics than was spent recording new and interesting sounds. “The Golden Floor,” which starts with “Tell me that you want to dance / I want to feel your pulse on mine,” has a beat that’s anything but intense. It’s not

a typical “let’s go dance” type of song, but it still doesn’t have its own identity.

“Engines” is one of the more creative songs, but comes too late to make much of a difference. It

combines the thoughtful guitar picking of The Wallflowers with a fuller, Coldplay-esque sound for its background.

“Disaster Button” exhibits the passion absent in the rest of the songs. The ravaged vocals, combined with the foot-tapping fastness, helps the album redeem itself, however belated.

Perhaps some extra time in the studio would have helped “A Hundred Million Suns” acquire an overarching identity. The album, while offering tidbits of interest later rather than sooner, seems ill organized. Some reordering might have aided with cohesion.

Nice try, guys, but I wanted more.