Snow Patrol have today (May 30) shared new single ‘The Beginning’ and announced their eighth album ‘The Forest Path’ with a supporting 2025 UK and Ireland arena tour.
‘The Forest Path’ is the band’s first full-length record in six years, following on from 2018’s ‘Wilderness’, and will arrive on September 13 via Polydor. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
Produced by Fraser T Smith, the album was written by Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid, and features 12 tracks as well as writing credits from Smith, Will Reynolds, Roy Kerr and Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens Of The Stone Age.
Speaking about the new single, which was written on a trip to Somerset, Lightbody explained: “The first day we wrote ‘The Beginning’, start to finish.”
McDaid added: “And he did the vocal in one take. “Straight after writing the lyrics. So it has this mind-collapsing quality to it where you feel like you’re seeing into someone’s soul.”
Check out the new song here:
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1. ‘All’
2. ‘The Beginning’
3. ‘Everything’s Here And Nothing’s Lost’
4. ‘Your Heart Home’
5. ‘This Is The Sound Of Your Voice’
6. ‘Hold Me In The Fire’
7. ‘Years That Fall’
8. ‘Never Really Tire’
9. ‘These Lies’
10. ‘What If Nothing Breaks?’
11. ‘Talking About Hope’
12. ‘The Forest Is The Path’
A statement about the upcoming LP described it as “an album rooted in reflection, introspection and interrogation” and about “the idea of love from the distance of time”.
Lightbody explained: “I haven’t been in a relationship for a very long time, 10 years or more, so love from a distance to me meant the way a relationship sits in your memory from a distance of, say, 10 years. That’s not something I’d previously thought about as a way to write about love.
“So it’s like, when you’re in love, you’re standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building. When you’ve broken up with that person, you’re out in the street. You can still see the building, but you’re not in there anymore. And when it’s 10 years later, now you’re standing in Brooklyn looking at the Manhattan skyline.”
He went on to say that this is also a theme addressed on ‘The Beginning’. “That’s kind of a summing up of this album… It’s a way of looking at various mistakes, any pain I may have caused, from a place where nothing is hurting anymore, except the memory when you pull it back into your mind,” he continued.
“The memory itself is full of hurt but everything around it isn’t. You’re holding in your hand this ball of fire, but now you’ve got gloves on.”
The band have also announced details of a UK and Ireland tour in February 2025. Fans who pre-order the new album from the band’s store will get access to tour pre-sale.
Tickets go on pre-sale on Wednesday June 5 at 10am BST and general sale on June 7 at 10am BST. You’ll be able to buy yours here.
FEBRUARY
15 – London O2
16 – Birmingham Resorts World Arena
18 – Cardiff Utilita Arena
19 – Hull Connexin Live
21 – Glasgow OVO Hydro
22 – Manchester Co-op Live Arena
25 – Dublin 3Arena
27 – Belfast SSE Arena
Last year, the band announced that bassist Paul Wilson and drummer Jonny Quinn had “decided to leave Snow Patrol”.
Guitarist Nathan Connolly also launched a solo career last year and released his first record ‘The Strange Order Of Things’.