Album review: Frightened Rabbit

Published on Sunday 28 February 2010 10:34

RELEASE OF THE WEEK FRIGHTENED RABBIT The Winter Of Mixed Drinks * * * * Fat Cat FATCD84, £10.99

The third album from the Scots folk rockateers opens with such a blistering one two, it takes time for the senses to return to fully absorb what follows. Things and Swim Until You Can't See Land are powerful and catchy, the latter possessing a more lethal hook.

If top bunny Scott Hutchison wrote one of the great break-up records in this album's predecessor The Midnight Organ Fight, then he fairly bounces back off the ropes with the follow-up. The Wrestle does exactly that, grappling with a swirl of percussive and ethereal noise to regain control, while Skip The Youth is a headlong break for freedom through scary musical undergrowth.

With whooping great choruses and structures of sound, these songs scream to be sung. But their rhythmic shifts and primal chanting would make each karaoke suicide. Living In Colour, though, is a tune to have folk hanging from the rafters in arenas around the world.

Frightened Rabbit, it seems, are picking up where the band James left off 20 odd years ago.

Download this: Skip The Youth

This article was originally published in Scotland on Sunday on 28 February 2010