It's an achievement of sorts that, after pulling in an "Americana" supergroup featuring the likes of REM's Peter Buck and Belle & Sebastian's Richard Colburn, Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody has managed to end up with a band that sound, well, pretty much like Snow Patrol. The slightly more country-rock instrumentation aside, this is still Lightbody in default mode: turning dark or maudlin subjects into epic, yearning anthems that raise hands or mobile phones into the air. Still, his best songs have a disarming, even humbling quality, and the beautifully widescreen likes of Northwestern Skies and Get on the Road find yet more mileage in Lightbody's favourite but ironic theme of escape. There are some surprises: Editors' Tom Smith steps from his own comfort zone to deliver the affecting, Tindersticksish The Good Book, and Iain Archer breaks the mood to sing the lovely, uplifting I Am a Landslide. A few more curveballs wouldn't have gone amiss.