[5] By the time Snow Patrol ended their Eyes Open Tour, Lightbody had approximately 220 songs written on GarageBand.
[8] In an interview after the Eyes Open Tour, it became known that the band wished to record their next studio album amidst "sun-drenched" surroundings.
[12] The album title was revealed by drummer Jonny Quinn in an interview to The Belfast Telegraph, and was initially reported as "One Hundred Million Suns".
There was also a deluxe version including a specially produced DVD directed by James Russell and full color book[16] The first single taken from the album, "Take Back the City" premiered on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1 on 1 September at 7:20 pm.
[19] In early October, almost a month before the release of the album, exclusive listening parties were organized and fans were invited on a first come, first served basis.
The free digital application enabled users to access extra content like lyrics, behind-the-scenes images and exclusive album related artwork.
Club's Chris Mincher called it sincere and effortless, and praised it for employing the use of various techniques, citing the use of glockenspiel, tap dancing and Mongolian folk.
He mentioned "The Golden Floor", which employs fingerpicking and "a scratchy persuasive thump"; he praised Lightbody vocals, calling them "restrained" and "seeping".
Though he felt the songs were not arena rock, the band's "sincerity and effortless songwriting" would make them work individually as well as in stadiums.
He felt credit was due to the band for avoiding the formula of "Run" and "Chasing Cars" on A Hundred Million Suns.
He called "The Planets Bend Between Us" the "Chasing Cars" moment of the album, and wrote that it perfectly captured separation by an ocean.
[33] Pitchfork Media's Joshua Love derided the band's music (on previous albums, Final Straw (2003) and Eyes Open) as "soaring sissy-rock" and said it came easy to them.
He felt if A Hundred Million Suns had any hits, they are within the first eight minutes; he praised the opener, "If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It", saying it captured the band at their best.
He further said the band's other efforts on the album like "The Golden Floor", "Engines", "Set Down Your Glass", and "Take Back the City" fail to "strut", something they appear wanting to do.
He finally wrote that the album sounded as if the band was "striving to be taken more seriously", which they did in "simply stringing together three ponderous, already-overlong songs and calling the impenetrable result a 16-minute stand-alone epic ("The Lightning Strike")".
He found that listening to Lightbody's voice was a reminder that it was the unavoidable time to hear the band's "new batch of soundtrackable mush".
However, compared to the previous albums Eyes Open and Final Straw, it was the least successful commercially, staying the fewest weeks on chart.
[42] The band appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, performing "Take Back the City", "If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It", and "What If This Storm Ends?".