Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

I'm a romantic. I have no shame in saying this and there are few people who know me that would dispute it.

Love songs are the poetry of the romantic and a new one or two that just speaks to where we are in or out of our relationships seems to come out each year. Last year, that song for me was "Chasing Cars."

I'd only been remotely familiar with Snow Patrol before. I'd already heard "Chocolate" and "Run" from their first breakthrough album, Final Straw, and really liked the latter, but not enough to buy it or be concerned about the new one.

My last ex-girlfriend (note that I say last because a true romantic always believes his next love will be his/her last and only) was a big fan of the band. She was very excited about the new disc and put several of their songs on mixes for me. When Eyes Open arrived, she bought it and asked me to listen with her. I did, but still wasn't impressed, even by this song which she said was the greatest tune she'd heard in years.

The thing is, I wasn't feeling all that romantic about her (a rarity, but it was a strange time in my life), so it wasn't until after our breakup and a long summer to follow that I really took stock of this band and the tune that would be all over the airwaves. By year's end, when I compiled my annual "Best of" mix CD, "Chasing Cars" was number one. It's become something of a theme song for me and my current love interest has adopted it as one of "our" songs, too. It's a fairly simplistic, lovely song with an utterly perfect chorus:

If I lay here...if I just lay here,
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

9/365