Songs for Polarbears
| Songs for Polarbears | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Snow Patrol | ||||
| Released | 31 August 1998 | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Studio | Chamber Studios, Edinburgh | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 49:49 | |||
| Label |
Jeepster (UK) Never Records (US) |
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| Producer | Jamie Watson | |||
| Snow Patrol chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Songs for Polarbears | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| PopMatters |   |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.1/10) |
| Rolling Stone | |
Songs for Polarbears is the debut album by the indie rock group Snow Patrol, released on 31 August 1998 in the UK and 12 October in the US.
The album charted at #143 in the UK and did not sell well upon its initial release. However, its re-release eventually went Gold in the UK.
The band was listening to a diverse range of music at the time, with majority of it being American rock like Pixies, Soundgarden and Dinosaur Jr.. Other acts included My Bloody Valentine and Super Furry Animals' first album Fuzzy Logic. All these influences resulted in a musically diverse album that incorporated styles like hip hop, drone and Pavement-style indie rock. The album title is a reference to the band's previous name Polarbear.
Gary Lightbody said once in an interview with RTÉ's No Disco: "A Newcastle fanzine wrote the album as, buy Songs For Polarbears and get Sebadoh's III, My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything and The Breeders' Safari for free. And I was like, 'Ouch, that hurts. They're making us out like we were copying some American bands.'"
Gary went on to say later in a interview with BBC sound in Belfast, "That we were still young and felt like a unsigned band around 96 & 7. When the first recordings we made are first record and playing to small crowds.We were in a mist of the Post Nirvana like world that later becoming more a Brit Pop like time with Blur and Oasis storming the charts. We got a small following on the indie scene when Star Fighter Pilot came out and the video. But we were not getting much play from the major radio station or MTV. And it still felt like demo on a low budget label. We were trying hard too sound like the Foo Fighters and The Pixies and Hüsker Dü along with The Dandy Warhols and others then basically. We were trying to find a Style like and The album is a collectors item if someone first bought it in 1998".
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Wikipedia