''Songs for Polarbears'' is the debut studio album by Northern Irish–Scottish

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland, consisting of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), and Johnny McDaid (piano, guitar, keyboards, backi ...

, released on 31 August 1998 in the United Kingdom and 12 October in the United States. 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.

Background

The band was listening to a diverse range of music at the time, with majority of it being American rock like

Pixies Pixies may refer to: * Plural of Pixie * Pixies (band) The Pixies are an American alternative rock band from Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986 by Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim ...

Soundgarden Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Cornell switched to rhythm guitar in 1985, replaced on drums initially ...

and Dinosaur Jr. Other acts included My Bloody Valentine and

Super Furry Animals Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian C ...

' first album ''

Fuzzy Logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...

''. All these influences resulted in a musically diverse album that incorporated styles like

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

, drone and Pavement-style indie rock. The album title is a reference to the band's previous name Polarbear.

Track listing

*"Marketplace" (3:48) is included as a hidden track after "One Hundred Things You Should Have Done in Bed" on both versions. *All bonus tracks originally appeared as

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

to the singles released from ''Songs for Polarbears''.

Personnel

Snow Patrol * Gary Lightbody – vocals, guitar, keyboards, drums on "Riot, Please" *

Mark McClelland Mark Peter McClelland (born 30 March 1976) is a Northern Irish musician known best as the former bass guitarist of the band Snow Patrol. McClelland is a recipient of the Ivor Novello Award for his work on the album ''Final Straw''. He is now th ...

– bass guitar, keyboards * Jonny Quinn – drums Other personnel * Richard Colburn – drums, keyboards on track 2 * Isobel Campbell – vocals on track 7 *Fraser Simpson – guitar on track 11

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1998 debut albums Snow Patrol albums Jeepster Records albums