Frightened Rabbit are a fairly unnoticed Scottish band that have released three stellar albums in just over 6 years and are expected to release their fourth in 2012. Their second release, The Midnight Organ Fight was my first brush with the band, when I heard the track Keep Yourself Warm. This track is a brilliant introduction to Frabbit, but not necessarily the most accurate. I went on to buy the whole album and instantly fell in love.

The folk-ish acoustic stylings of Frightened Rabbit have hints of traditional Scottish music, but the energy of modern indie bands. Either way, Frabbit don’t fall into either camp. The opening track, “The Modern Leper” is one of the most representative tracks that the album has, beginning with a solitary acoustic guitar and vocalist Scott Hutchison’s light voice passing over the top. The track reaches crescendo as the lyrics swell with optimism. Truth be told this isn’t an optimistic album: it’s heartbreaking. It details the story of a brutal breakup. But in no way is it angsty, it doesn’t complain, it simply notes the feelings and situations that one finds oneself in during a breakup. It’s so beautifully observant that it’s hard not to empathise with Hutchison, who drew from personal experience to pen the lyrics for this album. Between the lines, though, the music doesn’t ever feel immediately depressive, aside from tracks like “My Backwards Walk” and “Keep Yourself Warm”, but the vocals change the major chords to minors. There are so many layers to each track, with multiple guitars twisting and tweeting, the occasional keyboard or piano, almost inappropriate upbeatness to the drums over the slower numbers. There are the permeating backing vocals supporting most melodies in the record, meaning that fans can even sing along with the instrumental sections in a live show. It’s been penned with such artistry that there’s no point on a single track that doesn’t feel out of place for a single second. The tracks are compacted into 3-4 minutes of absolute songwriting. Switching from acoustic guitars to electric for tracks like “Fast Blood”, from which the album takes its title, allowing a more echoey sound for the instrumental. The production on the album too holds its own, making the album sound like it’s been recorded at one time but still each track has its own individual sound.

There are dancier tracks too, with songs like “Old Old Fashioned”, an oddly cheerful song pining for the return to happiness in a doomed relationship – “Let’s get old fashioned, back to how things used to be/If I get old, old fashioned, would you get old old fashioned with me?” which seems like the dancey counterpart to “Poke”, which is probably the quietest song on the album and because it’s so understated, it feels like the low point of the album.

In all, The Midnight Organ Fight has the highs and lows that all the best albums do, heartbreaking and oddly uplifting at the same time. The music is one hundred percent on point and the sound is so atmospheric. If you like the current indie-folk revival, chances are you’ll love Frightened Rabbit, and if you like Scottish music, you’ll love Frightened Rabbit, and if you like albums for when you’re upset, you’ll love Frightened Rabbit, and if you’re a fan of albums for when you’re in a great mood, you’ll love Frightened Rabbit.

Get this album.

Best Tracks: “Floating In The Forth”, “Keep Yourself Warm”, “The Modern Leper”, “My Backwards Walk”

Cult Scottish rockers Frightened Rabbit confirm the release of their second EP in September of this year and their fourth studio LP sometime in 2013.

Frightened Rabbit are Scotland’s last great hope in the current guitar music scene, with Biffy Clyro off farting out double albums and whatever else they want to do. With three stellar albums already under their belt, Frightened Rabbit have a consistency that Biffy lost after Puzzle. While distinctly different to their contemporary, Frightened Rabbit have a very specific and pinned down sound. On 2009’s The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Scott Hutchinson & co mixed more electronics and outside instruments into their highly successful rock band-playing-folk-music formula. 

Pedestrian Verse, predated by the singles “State Hospital” and “The Woodpile”, showed a lot of promise in the early days, with cold, depressing guitar and Hutchinson’s wailing in the former and a more upbeat but definitively Frabbit single in the latter. It’s hard for me to admit, but Frightened Rabbit have really failed to live up to expectations. The album opener “Acts Of Man” doesn’t have any of the heartache of previous releases and just sort of plods along to a synth-led outro that would’ve been remarkable if it hadn’t followed a largely unremarkable 3 minutes. “Backyard Skulls” is one of the more attractive tracks on the record as it drills along with old school church organs and a spiky drum beat. The synths wobble across the three and a bit minutes and the chorus is definitely live setting-friendly. 

On the whole, though, Pedestrian Verse tries to explore new emotional territory that just isn’t suited to the tried and tested Frightened Rabbit formula. This doesn’t feel like an album by the band that wrote “My Backwards Walk” and “Floating In The Forth” all those years ago, it feels like a debut from a band who don’t know what they want to play or sing about. While some of the songs explore interesting new territory, the vocals and the production let a lot of it down, and Scott Hutchinson’s cryptic lyrics are more distracting than thought provoking. Highs of the album are the singles “The Woodpile” and “State Hospital”, as well as the old school likes of “Dead Now” and “Backyard Skulls” but the record fails to reach a crescendo like the band did on The Midnight Organ Fight and the tone isn’t set like on The Winter of Mixed Drinks. The off-kilter “The Oil Slick” marks the low point on the album, making little to no resonance as a memorable song, let alone one that meets Frabbit’s standards. Here’s hoping we get another three albums from Frabbit and we can forget about this whole debacle. 

★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆