# Wildness (album)

Wildness is the seventh studio album by Northern Irish–Scottish alternative rock band Snow Patrol. The album was released on 25 May 2018, hitting number 2 on the UK charts. The album reveals personal and existential themes.

## Background and development

In an interview with NME in 2012, Gary Lightbody said that he had to overcome a bout of writer's block and that the songs written for the new album were scrapped before being replaced by new "mind-boggling" material. The follow-up to 2011's Fallen Empires was initially due for release in 2016, and subsequently summer 2017. In late January 2018, the title and release date were officially announced.

## Promotion

"Don't Give In" was released as the first single for Wildness on 21 March 2018. "Life on Earth" was released as the second single from the album on 12 April 2018. "What If This Is All the Love You Ever Get?" was released as the third single on 2 May 2018. "Empress" was released as the fourth single on 8 May 2018.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Drowned in Sound | 7/10 |
| The Independent | |
| Paste | 7.9/10 |
| Pitchfork | 4.8/10 |
| Q | |
| Under the Radar | 3.5/10 |
Wildness received generally positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the album has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Pitchfork gave the album a score of 4.8 out of 10, calling it "their most personal album" and saying it "deals in matters of literal life and death".

## Commercial performance

After an extremely close chart race, the album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart on sales of 39,118, less than 1,000 sales behind The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

## Track listing

All lyrics are written by Gary Lightbody; all music is composed by Snow Patrol and Jacknife Lee, except "Life and Death" by Snow Patrol, Lee, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit

## Personnel

Snow Patrol
* Gary Lightbody – lead vocals, guitar (except tracks 6 and 15), additional programming (track 7), backing vocals (tracks 11, 12 and 14)
* Nathan Connolly – guitar (except tracks 6 and 15), backing vocals (except tracks 1, 6, 8 and 15)
* Paul Wilson – bass (except tracks 6, 11–15)
* Jonny Quinn – drums (except tracks 6, 11–15)
* Johnny McDaid – piano (tracks 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14), backing vocals (except tracks 1, 6, 8, 10 and 15), keyboards (tracks 1, 11–15), guitar (tracks 3, 11–14), programming (tracks 11–15), orchestral arrangement (tracks 11–15)
Additional personnel
* Jacknife Lee – guitar (except tracks 6, 11–15), keyboards (except tracks 6, 11–15), programming (except tracks 6, 11–15), backing vocals (tracks 3, 4, 9 and 10), strings arrangement (track 5 and 8), bass (track 9)
* Davide Rossi – strings arrangement and strings quartet (tracks 1, 5 and 8)
* Saran Davies – cello (tracks 11–15)
* Ben Hulme – French horn (tracks 11, 14 and 15)
* Alexandra Ridout – trumpet (track 12), flugelhorn (tracks 13–15)

## Certifications

Certifications for Wildness :
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Gold | 100,000$^‡$ |
| $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||