Frightened Rabbit came to my attention back in December with a blistering set opening for Modest Mouse at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. I should, perhaps, have had my eye on them much earlier. Nevertheless, they have eased into the public eye after the release of their second album ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ and an impressive performance on BBC2’s The Culture Show last year. March saw the jock’n’rollers release their third album, a milestone which more celebrated acts from The Strokes to Razorlight have struggled with in recent years.
Thankfully ‘The Winter of Mixed Drinks’ serves up pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered; familiar melancholic undertones and plenty of fresh ideas. We’re talking handclaps, vocal intros, shakers, choral arrangements and much, much more. The album moves thematically, from ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’s self-deprecating Romeo, to the apprehensive adventurer. The first single ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ is an ode to [metaphorically] throwing everything at one’s ambition and crucially overcoming the crippling fear of failure. Rousing stuff indeed.
Frightened Rabbit’s releases are always packed with build-ups. However, more often than not the ex-Glasgow School of Art students resist the temptation to break into the anticipated anthem, preferring instead to opt for the unexpected. It is, to a certain extent, what makes them such an exciting act and is a strategy they persist with on this latest offering. The most notable examples are opener ‘Things’, ‘The Loneliness and The Scream’ and ‘Not Miserable’.
What sets ‘The Winter of Mixed Drinks’ apart from previous Frightened Rabbit albums is a sense of heightened focus. There is a more ruthless approach to track selection with only ten full-length songs making the final release. Themes are introduced and reintroduced, lending a feeling of completeness perhaps lacking in earlier efforts.
Almost as much a folk group as they are a rock group, Frightened Rabbit are one of the most exciting Scottish exports since Irn-Bru.
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Post by Kenny the malefic.
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