"Take Back the City" is a song by Northern Irish–Scottish alternative rock band Snow Patrol, released in different regions on different dates in October 2008 as the lead single of their fifth album, A Hundred Million Suns (2008).

The single received mixed reviews, and was generally not considered Snow Patrol's return to form.

[2] In another interview for The Sunday Times, Lightbody stated that the "song's spiky solo and chunky chord work were inspired by old Tom Petty and Cars records".

He added that though the band preferred to write about current events, they seldom liked to "luxuriate in the past".

[9] A day after the single was released in the UK, the band appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, to perform a few tracks for the then upcoming album (including "Take Back the City").

The show saw the band appear alongside Tom Jones, Eliza Carthy, Norma Waterson and Friendly Fires.

[12] The song has also been featured on the Gossip Girl episode "Chuck in Real Life",[13] which aired on 20 October 2008.

[25][26] The video was described by RockTog magazine as a "fast paced, headache inducing visual spectacle", but it criticized it for featuring lead singer Gary Lightbody over the other band members.

Daily Music Guide's James Brindle reviewed the single negatively and gave it 2 stars out of 5.

He wrote "it attempts to unite the group's new-found love for all things epic and U2-ish with their scruffier indie roots."

He felt the guitar was predictable, but praised the lyrics for their depth, citing "It bares its teeth like a light and spits me out after days" as an example.

He felt the track was "a continuation of, as opposed to a departure from, the band's commercially viable (yet, at times, predictable) material on über-hit Eyes Open."

But he also felt that "it conjures images of fans a-plenty bouncing along with the tune's pulsating rhythm, which should be gracing arena scoreboards shortly."

He said that the "guitar-driven anthem begins humbly, with Bowie-ish vocals dancing over a new wave-infused folk-rock beat."

He praised the build up to the refrain, and felt that it was "delivered with the kind of understatement that makes melody-focused U.K. acts so exciting.

It called the song "pleasing" for being "more of a glammy power-rock ballad in the vein of '80s unit-shifters Starship or Roxette", rather than being "their typical dewy-eyed simperer."

[32] The Sunday Mail's Avril Cadden reviewed the single positively as well, awarding it 3 stars out of 5, but called it "nothing new or unexpected".

[36] Till date, the single has spent a total of sixty-seven weeks on record charts around the world.

Live track featuring Miriam Kaufmann recorded at Mencap's Little Noise Sessions at the Union Chapel, London on 25 November 2007.

Stephen Magorrian, managing director of Botanic Inns noted, "There were a lot of people in the city saying to me that they came in because of the campaign".

[66][67] Lightbody told The Belfast Telegraph afterwards, in response to his involvement, "I do get defensive because a lot of people have a very warped idea of what Northern Ireland is because they only see the negative stuff.