"Run" is a song by Northern Irish alternative rock band Snow Patrol, released in the United Kingdom on 26 February 2004 as the second single of their third album, Final Straw (2003). The song was conceived in 2000 by frontman Gary Lightbody after an accident he had during a bender. "Run" has been described as a Britpop power ballad. It received critical acclaim, and was compared to Coldplay's "Yellow".
A music video, directed by Paul Gore, was released to promote the song; in it, band members use distress flares and motorcycles at night. An unreleased video, directed by Mark Pellington, was also filmed. The single reached the top five on the UK Singles Chart in 2004, and since it has appeared multiple times in the chart. Additionally, "Run" reached the Top 40 of Ireland, the Netherlands and the American Modern Rock Tracks.
"Run" has been covered by multiple artists, including Leona Lewis, who released it as a single in November 2008. Her performance received critical and commercial success, topping the charts of Austria, Ireland, Portugal and the United Kingdom, and becoming the UK's fastest-ever-selling download.
Background Snow Patrol's frontman, Gary Lightbody, conceived the idea of writing "Run" in 2000. In an interview with Michael Odell, from Q magazine, Lightbody explained the song was not written about "being a child", as he tended to say. He described: "I was on a massive bender and one night I was drinking in the bar of the Glasgow School of Art. I fell down a full flight of stairs. Jonny Quinn found me in the stairwell with blood coming out of my head ... I split my head open and my eye was closed and I lost a few teeth ... I wrote Run soon after on this little guitar I'd tried to smash up in my shitty little room near Hillhead. The words 'Light up, light up' gave me this sense of a beacon." Besides Lightbody, it was written by Quinn, Nathan Connolly, Mark McClelland and Iain Archer.
Composition
"Run" is a Britpop power ballad composed using common time in the key of C major, with a tempo of 72 beats per minute. It is written in the common verse–chorus form, and its chord progression goes Am–Fmaj7/A–Gsus4, it repeats once, and later it changes to Am–F6/C–Gsus4, which also repeats one time, and then the sequence restarts. Lightbody's vocal range performs from A3 to F5, and the song features bass guitar, cello, drums, guitars, viola and violins as its musical instruments. Adrienne Day wrote for Spin that "Run" includes "guitar riffs", whilst Joe Bosso described the song as "dark and moody".
A reviewer for Contactmusic.com commented about "Run". In its introduction includes a "trembling guitar", Lightbody's vocals as "velvet soft", and its refrain as "stirring stuff". Irish writer Peter Murphy called it a "strange hybrid", explaining it is "a lighter-waving anthem drenched in private grieving". Kevin Forest Moreau considered "Run" to have "plaintive lyrics, rigorous strumming, sweeping strings and a hook that yanks without reservation for the heartstrings of adolescent girls everywhere". Claire Simpson described it as an "angst-ridden guitar ballad".
Critical reception
"Run" received widespread acclaim from music critics. Claire Simpson highlighted the track, Adrienne Day called the song "brilliant", and Jacky McCarthy, from Billboard, described it as "memorable", due to the band displays "a lush melody, soaring chorus and [Lightbody's] brooding vocals. Irish musician, Shane O'Neill, said he wept when he first heard it play." Andrew Beaujon added it to Spin playlist of "songs you need to know", and wrote it is "the year's most fantastically overblown Britpop power ballad". Mikael Wood from the same magazine compared "Run" to British band Coldplay song "Yellow", as he said it is a "pro-smoking epic [song that] challenges the cell-phone-waving majesty of 'Yellow, a feeling Douglas Wolk of Rolling Stone had as well. Josh Modell of The A.V. Club commented it grabs the baton from "Yellow" and "takes it for a weepy, grandiose jog". John Murphy considered its "slow burning delights" replaced the piano chords of Coldplay's "Clocks", which, according to him, started to sound "annoying".
Marc Vera of Entertainment Weekly magazine described "Runs lyrics as "haunting of romantic distress", and its guitars as "walls [that] should put Coldplay on notice". Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media also compared "Run" to Coldplay and he wrote it "exists solely for its uplifting, if oddly fatalistic, chorus ... which will surely have concertgoers raising their lighters during the inevitable second-encore singalong". He continued saying it is an "unapologetically anthemic" in which throws in some schmaltzy strings at the climax that practically cry out to score the big smooch in some teen-friendly romantic comedy." Kevin Forest Moreau considered its lyrics as "unrestrained earnestness". Whilst an Uncut magazine reviewer marked it as a highlight, Devon Powers wrote for PopMatters it is "easy and lush", and Paul Nolan considered it "the perfect modern hymn to broken relationships".
Lisa Oliver of Stylus Magazine commented "Run" has "raw tenderness", and listeners should not "listen to it in public—unless openly weeping in front of colleagues or commuters is not a concern". Christian Carey of Junkmedia.org called it, along with another song of Final Straw ("Grazed Knees"), a "symphonic pop gem", and the "most memorable" track of the album. Steven Gozdecki of Neumu.net called it "centerpiece" of the album and a "brilliantly entrancing" tune, and also noted it is "the song that Coldplay dream of making". Gozdecki complemented with "[it is] a moving ballad that benefits from the absence of that other band's dreadful, Dave Matthews-esque voice and omnipresent electric piano." Natasha Perry considered it to be a song "that sends shivers down the spine with a haunting verse and uplifting chorus". A reviewer for Sputnikmusic compared it to Snow Patrol song "Chasing Cars" (2006), which was described as "beautiful".
Steve Hands for OHM commented "Run" is "the kind of rueful facing-up-to-life type anthem" and added it is a "decent stab" for radio stations like XFM and Virgin Radio, a reviewer of Contactmusic.com called it "shimmering", and Dom Gourlay of Drowned in Sound gave the song a rating of 8/10. Virgin Music listed "Run" 8 in their list of "Top pub sing-along anthems". It appeared at number 874 of "The Rock 1000" list of "best rock songs of all time", published by New Zealander radio station The Rock FM. Emma Taylor and Lorelei Sharkey, Em & Lo, listed "Run" at number 69 of their "Top 100 Breakup Songs of All Time", in their book The Ultimate Guide to Dumping and Getting Dumped. Along with the song "Same", "Run" is one of the favourite Snow Patrol songs of American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe member Tommy Lee.
Chart performance After its release as single, "Run" entered the Irish Singles Chart when it debuted and peaked at number 25 on 29 January 2004. The song stayed within the top 50 for 5 weeks, and it left it on number 41.*Peak chart positions for "Run" on the Irish Singles Chart: In the United Kingdom, the song debuted and peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, on 7 February 2004. The next week, the song fell to number 8, and managed to continue in the top 40 for another 4 weeks.*Peak chart positions for "Run" on the UK Singles Chart: In the United States, the song entered the top 30 of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts, now titled Alternative Songs, at number 30 on 28 August 2004. On 30 October, it reached number 15, its peak position. The song left the chart on 25 December, after 19 weeks. In the Netherlands, "Run" debuted on 7 August 2004 at number 88 on the Single Top 100 chart. Two weeks later, the song rose to its peak position, at number 71, and stayed there for a week. The song dropped out the chart on 11 September of the same year. In 2005, it reentered the chart twice, on 19 February at number 95, and on 5 March at number 97. It also peaked at number 19 on the Dutch Top 40.
In 2007, "Run" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 147. In 2008, British singer Leona Lewis covered the song in multiple radio and television programmes. After Lewis performed it on The X Factor, (Alternative location at AccessMyLibrary) Snow Patrol's version re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 28. The next year, in October, the song debuted the German Singles Chart at number 92, whilst in November the song reentered the UK Singles Chart at number 63. In 2010, after Snow Patrol re-released "Run", it re-appeared on the Dutch Top 40 at number 22 for three weeks, on the Dutch Single Top 100 at number 75, and the UK Singles Chart at 133. In Belgium, it charted the Ultratip at number 8 in the region of Flanders, whilst in the Walloon Region at number 6 of the same chart.
Music video
The music video for "Run" was filmed in September 2003, in a remote area of the county of Kent. It was directed by Paul Gore, produced by Suzie Morton through the company Flynn Productions, photographed by Ben Smithard, and edited by Tony Kearns, and it premiered in October 2003. During filming, people from the area called the police, because they noticed several red distress flares were used at night, which were those Snow Patrol members used.
The video starts with Lightbody, who wears a dark coat, a grey polo neck sweater, and trousers. He sings as he pushes an old motorcycle across a farmer's field at dusk. As darkness falls, he abandons the bike and enters a wood. He walks through it, until he descends a short hill and stays in a stream. As the chorus begins, Lightbody lights a distress firelight, he moves it in circles as he sings. In a bridge behind him, two members from Snow Patrol light two flares and move them as well. When the chorus ends, Lighbody throws his flare to the water, in which it continues shining. Lightbody returns to the forest and he sings while he walks. Later, he ascends to a plain, where another two members ignite two distress firelights as the second verse ends. With the flares, they run and move them in circles, and then, they throw them to each other. Nathan Connolly, who wears a grey hoodie, appears riding the motorcycle Lightbody dumped. He drives it in zigzag with the other men. As the video ends, he goes to the stream, where the motorbike starts to throw smoke; Connolly gets off it, and it fires. The burning bike rolls downhill and it falls into the stream, where it sinks, with the fire being extinguished.
An unreleased music video directed by Mark Pellington was uploaded to his Vimeo.
Usage in other media "Run" appeared in various television programs and films including One Tree Hill, Life as We Know It, Cold Case, Rescue Me, Doctor Who Confidential, Jericho, Mad Dogs and Bates Motel.
Katharine McPhee performed the song in the Smash episode "Publicity".
The song was included in the soundtrack to the film The Chumscrubber and the Top Gear compilation album The Ultimate Driving Experience.
The song was also used in a trailer for the 2006 action-adventure drama film The Guardian.
In 2024, the Leona Lewis cover of "Run" was featured in the spy action thriller Argylle.
Track listing
7" A. "Run" (Revised) – 5:56 B. "Post Punk Progression" – 3:23
10" A. "Run" (Jacknife Lee Remix) – 7:27 B. "Run" (Freelance Hellraiser Remix) – 4:03
CD single and digital download "Run" (Revised) – 5:57 "Post Punk Progression" – 3:21
Canada CD single "Run" – 5:55 "Post Punk Progression" – 3:23 "Spitting Games" (2001 Country Version) – 4:16 "Run" (video) – 4:27
"Run" "Run" (Live from Edinburgh) –
Run – EP "Run" – 5:55 "Post Punk Progression" – 3:23 "Spitting Games" (2001 Country Version) – 4:16
Personnel "Run" was recorded at Britannia Row, located in London, England, and The Diving Bell Lounge Studios, in Glasgow, Scotland. Credits adapted from "Run" liner notes.
Lead and backing vocals, guitars, keys, glockenspiel: Gary Lightbody