Drops: Snow Patrol is all over the place

You've got to hand it to Snow Patrol. They've got, um, guts.

"Falling Empires" (Island) is a widely uneven album of oddly unmatched styles. It has the kind of brash risk-taking normally reserved for such massive rock bands as U2, Radiohead and R.E.M. looking to reinvent themselves, not bands best known for having radio hits launched from "Grey's Anatomy." (Maybe "New York," which was part of last week's "Grey's," will bring similar success.)

Unfortunately, it also falls a bit short, because Snow Patrol is not U2. They try, though. "The Weight of Love" starts off acoustic and builds into something that sounds like U2's "Even Better Than the Real Thing" covered by Hothouse Flowers. "In the End" sounds like The Killers on the verses and Coldplay on the chorus. On the title track, they twist an unusual song structure into something that approximates Arcade Fire at a rave, which also seems to be what "Berlin" is going for.

Snow Patrol fares far better on its home territory. Singer Gary Lightbody is way more believable as a super-earnest Chris Martin on fragile guitar-driven ballads like "Life-ning," where he rolls out a list of "This is all I ever wanted from life" that includes "Ireland in the World Cup" and "Words of reassurance, but only if they're true."

Never satisfied, that Snow Patrol. Good on them for stretching, but "Fallen Empires" is a little beyond their grasp.

SNOW PATROL

"Fallen Empires"

THE GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE An ambitious, hit-and-miss rock hodgepodge.