Snow Patrol reveals their “Late Night Tales” on November 3rd
Music News | Oct 18th, 2009
For the 22nd edition of what Uncut Magazine calls “the excellent series of bespoke artist compilations”, Snow Patrol presents the world with an impeccably selected and mixed Late Night Tales, which will see release in the United States on November 3rd.
If you think you know Snow Patrol, think again. Of course, there’s the band who are capable of outselling the Arctic Monkeys, getting numerous nominations for Brits, and monopolising the upper reaches the charts with alarming regularity with their superior song theory and balladeering.
This Snow Patrol has enjoyed platinum sales of their ‘Eyes Open’ album (in both UK and USA) and musical appearances on everything from Spiderman 3 to Grey’s Anatomy. This Snow Patrol has toured with U2, performed at Live Earth and appeared on Saturday Night Live. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.
There’s also another Snow Patrol about which you may know little. The Snow Patrol that concerns us here are the musical aesthetes with fathom-deep record collections, the broad knowledge of the record obsessive and the deft selection skills of seasoned DJs. They are, of course, all of these things and a few more besides.
The Snow Patrol pair assigned with the task here, Tom Simpson and Gary Lightbody, know their way round their collections and are old hands at that grubby DJing caper. And it shows. The mix is bookended by a pair of beauties, beginning with the unusually ethereal ‘Observatory Crest’ by Captain Beefheart with its chiming guitars and Rhodes-drenched backing track. The end is signaled by John Martyn’s ‘Sweet Little Mystery’ from the big man’s 1980 LP ‘Grace & Danger’. A fitting tribute for a fallen comrade.
But this is not a mix about DJ trickery. There are naturally some grooves in there (A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Food and Holy Ghost! all make appearances along the way), but really this is about song appreciation. The songs are groovy, natch, but it’s the feeling that’s important here whether we’re falling in love with Jim Noir’s daffy lyrics or wondering from which planet Arthur Russell may have landed.
And, as this is Late Night Tales, they always but always have something special for you in the comely form of a newly recorded cover version, this time their own homage to Antipodean heroes INXS with ‘New Sensation’. As Gary himself queries of their remake: “Why bother if you’re just palely imitating the true form?”
Following his spoken word appearance on Groove Armada’s last Late Night Tales outing, Will Self returns with the second part of his story ‘The Happy Detective’. Adding to the literary bonuses, Gary Lightbody recalls the first time he and Tom Simpson met – via Marlena Shaw – in a short story within the CD booklet.
SNOW PATROL’S LATE NIGHT TALES, track listing:
1. “Observatory Crest” Captain Beefheart
2. “Midnight” A Tribe Called Quest
3. “Dark Lady” DJ Food
4. “I Walk the Earth” King Biscuit Time
5. “Canal Song” Iain Archer
6. “Ordinary Joe” Terry Callier
7. “It’s All Gone Quiet” The Week That Was and Field Music
8. “Last Train” Allen Toussaint
9. “Fancy” Bobby Gentry
10. “That’s Us/Wild Combination” Arthur Russell
11. “Eanie Meany” Jim Noir
12. “Half Asleep” School of Seven Bells
13. “Family Tree” TV on the Radio
14. “Hold On” Holy Ghost!
15. “Download” Super Furry Animals
16. “New Sensation” (INXS cover) Snow Patrol
17. “Next Train” Miracle Fortress
18. “Sweet Little Mystery” John Martyn
19. “The Happy Detective (Part 2)” Will Self
Check out http://www.latenighttales.co.uk/ and http://www.snowpatrol.com/