Although the cover of the 19 May 1979 issue of the music weekly Sounds was dominated by a photo of American rocker Ted Nugent, attention was also grabbed by a trail for a feature on “Heavy Metal…The New British Bands”. The two-page article it related to was headlined If You Want Blood, You’ve Got It. Under that were the words “The New Wave of British Heavy Metal: First in an Occasional Series”.

Forgive the sports metaphor, but David Byrne knocked this one out of the park.

Concluding a trilogy of releases that began with the EPs Not the Actual Events (2016) and Add Violence (2017) – Bad Witch is being called an LP despite its six tracks clocking in at only 30 minutes, a discrepancy that reportedly led an exasperated Trent Reznor to sound out a pernickety fan in an online forum. 

Eel Pie, the tiny eyot in the Thames, is not too a long walk from Twickenham stadium – within hollering distance, almost, if you had that kind of voice. And if anywhere could lay claim to being the nursery that provided the perfect growing conditions for The Rolling Stones, then Eel Pie and The Crawdaddy in Richmond would be it.

Since Glastonbury lies fallow this year, Download is the biggest British green field festival of the summer. 100,000 souls gathered to celebrate the canon of metal on the land around Donington Park racing circuit.

“There’s a rhythm in the air around Memphis, there always has been,” Carl Perkins once said.

It can be hard to put distance between an artist and their behaviour. Woody Allen films present a problem for some, while I, for one, will never see Tommy Robinson’s impressionist landscapes in the same light again. 

This Echo and the Bunnymen gig in Birmingham is one that almost didn’t happen, on a tour to promote the soon-to-be-released The Stars, the Oceans and the Moon, their first album since 2014’s Meteorites.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s four albums all centre around off-kilter pop and flirtations with distortion; their latest LP, Sex & Food, carries this tradition forwards in a more laid-back manner. Their current European tour in support of the album seems to have lined up nicely with the schedules of American acts Deerhunter, Black Lips and Sam Evian (as well as much-hyped British act Boy Azooga), with all five artists descending on the Albert Hall in Manchester for the six-hour Strange Waves III.

Few bands divide opinion quite like Snow Patrol. Their fans see their slow, intense anthems as cathartic friends. Others - myself included - tend to regard their music as an insidious, dreary presence. As Nicky Wire (of the Manics) once put it, "the same drab little thing, over and over". Wildness, their first album in seven years, is being billed as being something completely different - more passionate, and with a lighter touch.

Apparently, the shift in musical direction is down to various changes in the band members' lives. Singer Gary Lightbody has given up drinking. He's also been writing for Taylor Swift. Guitarist Johnny McDaid has been composing for the likes of Ed Sheeran and P!nk. But while evidence of these personal and musical developments can, indeed, be seen on Wildness, it's only on a few tracks

The best is the album's opener, "Life on Earth", a spritely tune full of Turin Brakes-style guitars and subtle harmonies. The arrangement is bright and catchy. Then there's "Heal Me", continues the acoustic-pop-rock vibe with hints of Alanis Morissette. Finally, "Wild Horses" is an honest-to-God stripped back, indie track.

Unfortunately, the rest of the LP is simply business as usual. "Empress" is full of Lightbody's trademark over-dramatic, breathy vocals. "Don't Give In" features lyrics that sound like they should be meaningful but aren't. The album's limpest moments are "What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?" and "Life and Death". The former sounds like Coldplay on Valium. The latter whimpers like a wounded animal.

Of course, some will say that I'm missing the point; that some of the album's themes - like drugs, alcohol and depression - require a certain weight. I'm not buying any of that. In fact, quite the opposite. If Wildness demonstrates anything, it's that Snow Patrol are actually capable of creating perfectly enjoyable AOR rock once they stop writing songs that feel like swimming through porridge.

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Overleaf: Watch Snow Patrols video for "What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?"