| How to Be Dead | |
| Cover: | How to be dead.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Snow Patrol |
| Album: | Final Straw |
| Released: | [1] |
| Studio: | Britannia Row, The Diving Bell |
| Genre: | Indie rock, alternative rock |
| Length: | 3:23 |
| Label: | Fiction, Polydor |
| Producer: | Jacknife Lee |
| Prev Title: | Spitting Games (re-release) |
| Prev Year: | 2004 |
| Next Title: | You're All I Have |
| Next Year: | 2006 |
"How to Be Dead" is the fourth (fifth if the re-issue of "Spitting Games" is counted) and final single by Snow Patrol from their album Final Straw. It was released in 2004, slightly remixed by Chris Lord-Alge from the album version, and reached number 39 in the United Kingdom and number 42 in Ireland.
The song is a downtempo rock ballad, with lyrics detailing a conversation between a couple.
Yahoo! Music's Jairne Gill reviewed the single positively, giving it 7 stars out of 10. Though he felt Snow Patrol usually made "ugly empty anthems", the single was a "rather lovely little song" and "modest" and "chimingly melodic". Gill praised the lyrics of the song, calling it "a pretty little knife which Gary Lightbody seems to be twisting into his own chest, a list of druggy regrets and lost loves" and also said that, though the song's "gentle, skipping rhythm threatens to go BIG", it doesn't and "a pretty and intimate song is preserved".[2]
CD
Germany 3" CD
7"
Promo CD
"How to Be Dead" was featured on the soundtracks to and Wicker Park.[3] [4]