Frightened Rabbit

If it wasn't for bad break-ups where would rock music be today?? Some of the best albums always seem to come off of those tragic splits don't they? Well now we can add Frightened Rabbit's newest album The Midnight Organ Fight to the mix. The Scottish band's sophomore effort is filled with singer Scott Hutchinson's raw emotional lyrics of sex, relationships and all that surrounds it. On tracks such as the acoustic charming "Good Arms vs. Bad Arms" you can feel the trouble and despair when Hutchinson sings "I might not want you back but i want to kill him". It's not all doom and gloom, on the country shuffler "Old Old Fashioned" Hutchinson yearns to go back to simpler times ..."Put the wall clock in the top drawer, turn off the lights so we can see" ... "We can both get old fashioned, do it like they did in '43".

Overall on The Midnight Organ Fight the band brings an urgency yet upbeat tempo to most of the songs, which is then blended with Hutchinson's moody and intimate lyrics. There are top notch tracks all over the album, "Fast Blood" which is one of the heavier and faster tracks, but is brilliant power-pop. Two tracks in particular stood out, "Keep Yourself Warm" which again explores the themes of sex and love .."It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm" .. and later sings "I'm drunk I'm drunk and your probably on pills ... If we both got the same the diseases it's irrelevant girl". The other standout is the regretful filled "My Backwards Walk" ... "I'm workin on erasing you, i just don't have the proper tools" ... "I'm workin hard on walkin out, my shoes keep sticking to the ground". The closing track "Poke" is rich with beautiful melodies and rounds out the mood of the album perfectly ...."Why won't our love keel over as it chokes on a bone ... We can mourn it's passing then bury it in snow".

The three piece band is solid and tight musically on the album, as more then a few songs have tempo swings and complex arrangements. But when dealing with the struggles of men and women and keeping relationships together complexity is all part of the equation.
The group kicks off a US tour on May 24th in Philadelphia and will be touring the country thru June.


Frightened Rabbit on Myspace.

photo credit: Dave Gorley