Snow Patrol release brand new single ‘But I’ll Keep Trying’ and announced details of a deluxe version of #1 album The Forest Is The Path.
The extended edition features six brand new songs which the band – Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid – recorded with producer Fraser T Smith late last year and is released via Polydor Records on March 14. The announcement comes as the band prepare to embark on their European tour tomorrow before returning to the UK to play eight sold out arena shows, including London’s O2 Arena on February 15.
Building on the panoramic indie-pop dynamism of the Northern Irish trio’s critically acclaimed eighth album, which was released in September last year, ‘But I’ll Keep Trying’ is a stirring anthem cementing the idea that the band, three decades into their career, are on the crest of an artistic wave. Expansive, epic and packing a poignant melodic punch, it sums up everything that’s made them one of the UK’s most successful and enduring bands.
Listen to ‘But I’ll Keep Trying’ on Red Devils Records.
The announcement follows the news of lead singer Gary Lightbody’s debut book, The Forest is the Path, which is published on March 13 through HarperNonFiction. The book explores some of the main themes from the album: time, home, love, death, life. At its heart, it tells the story of Gary’s father, Jack, who sadly passed away in 2019, and the numb journey this sent Gary on – the end of which seemed to unlock a part of him that had been dormant until he started to write songs again. A testament to the healing powers of music, and dotted with lyrics throughout, The Forest is the Path is a strikingly raw and heartfelt insight into the emotional journey behind the band’s latest chart-topping album.
The Forest is the Path will be available in hardback, eBook and audiobook. There will also be a special signed official Snow Patrol store exclusive edition of the book published at the same time and available via Snow Patrol’s store.
Gary Lightbody says, “Every time we finish an album I usually feel like there are hardly any words left in me. Not until we go about making the next album. But when we finished recording The Forest Is The Path in February 2024 I realised that there was more I wanted to say. I didn’t know it was going to be a book but I just started writing. The book does, in its own way, tell some of the story of how the album was made but it also talks in more detail about the themes of the record (time, home, love…). However, most of the book is about a period in my life before we even started writing the album.
“It focuses on four days after my father’s passing: The day he died, the day after, the funeral, and a year later. For it was a year later that I was able to write again for the first time since he died and the story of the album actually begins. I hope people find the same comfort and relief in the book, that it gave me writing it.”
