By Doug Kaplan
✭✭✭✭
I’ve never been in a midnight organ fight. I’m not even positive on what exactly that type of incident would necessarily entail. I envision two people, one dressed in red and the other in blue, sitting on competing stages that look something along the lines of a presidential debate mixed with that old-school American Gladiator arena. Then, in one swift motion, someone waves a checkered flag and suddenly both pianists begin playing Bb’s and C#m’s at each other until finally one can no longer take the piercing notes, and collapses off his bench, dazed and defeated.
Going to school in upstate New York, I do know a lot about winter and mixed drinks, both of which are crucial topics on Scottish indie-rock Frightened Rabbit’s commercial sophomore effort, A Winter of Mixed Drinks. The band generated a lot of hype with its first commercial success, The Midnight Organ Fight, back in 2008. Before that, the band released an album in 2006 that I never gave too much attention to, called Sing the Greys. For the most part the band has generated hype on the indie circuit for lead singer Scott Hutchinson’s heavy Scottish accent and chiming rhythmic guitar accents typical of the Silversun Pickups or the All Get Out. The band’s newest album stylistically is very similar to the old.
Track one, “Things”, is a pop-oriented jingle, reuniting old fans with a familiar sound all the while introducing new ones to Hutchinson’s Scottish roots. It is an anti-capitalism anthem. The second track, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”, is the album’s leading single. It is unusual for me to favor a song that is selected for the single as one of the best on the album, but in this case I find the song irresistibly catchy. It is easy to sing the refrain, Swim, until you can’t see land, are you a man or are you a bag of sand?, because it is repeated roughly about 36 times (complete and utter estimate).
Track 3, “The Loneliness”, never fails to remind me of something Chris Martin would put out on a newer Coldplay album. It is simple, but captivating. Track 6, “Nothing Like You”, is a great tune for the broken-hearted. Scott tells a story of finding a new girl, yet her still not “being the cure for cancer.” The next track, “Man/Bag of Sand” sounds as if it started out as the single discussed earlier, but was never built into anything. It is acoustic and repeats the refrain for a full two minutes before finally fading into the second half of the album. It does have a certain déjà-vu quality, however.
Two tracks later the second best song on the album appears. “Not Miserable” is lyrically brilliant and continues the album’s universal theme of water, sea, land, body, and sky. The proceeding track, “Living in Colour”, sounds so much like a money-making, Chris Martin-penned, Coldplay song that I actually had to check and make sure he was not credited with writing the song as to not appear like a fool in this article. The final song, “Yes, I Would”, provides systematic closure to a midlife crisis that lead singer Scott Hutchinson clearly experienced when composing his newest effort - My cry for a fistful of sand/breeds silence/hold me I am folding/the world just blinks/lead me I’m stupid from a lesson learned/you’ve learned nothing.
If you like Scottish accents, indie rock, and spiritual metaphors then this album will have a long life in your car’s heavy rotation glove compartment. The band has continued doing what they do best, and I imagine large commercial attention to ensue. Unlike the Kings of Leon, however, I hope Scott will live up to the nickname his mother provided him, which inspired the band’s name, (Frightened Rabbit) and have enough sense to stay off VH1.
1. Things
2. Swim Until You Can't See Land
3. The Loneliness and the Scream
4. The Wrestle
5. Skip The Youth
6. Nothing Like You
7. Man/Bag of Sand
8. Foot Shooter
9. Not Miserable
10. Living in Colour
11. Yes, I Would
✭✭✭✭
I’ve never been in a midnight organ fight. I’m not even positive on what exactly that type of incident would necessarily entail. I envision two people, one dressed in red and the other in blue, sitting on competing stages that look something along the lines of a presidential debate mixed with that old-school American Gladiator arena. Then, in one swift motion, someone waves a checkered flag and suddenly both pianists begin playing Bb’s and C#m’s at each other until finally one can no longer take the piercing notes, and collapses off his bench, dazed and defeated.
Going to school in upstate New York, I do know a lot about winter and mixed drinks, both of which are crucial topics on Scottish indie-rock Frightened Rabbit’s commercial sophomore effort, A Winter of Mixed Drinks. The band generated a lot of hype with its first commercial success, The Midnight Organ Fight, back in 2008. Before that, the band released an album in 2006 that I never gave too much attention to, called Sing the Greys. For the most part the band has generated hype on the indie circuit for lead singer Scott Hutchinson’s heavy Scottish accent and chiming rhythmic guitar accents typical of the Silversun Pickups or the All Get Out. The band’s newest album stylistically is very similar to the old.
Track one, “Things”, is a pop-oriented jingle, reuniting old fans with a familiar sound all the while introducing new ones to Hutchinson’s Scottish roots. It is an anti-capitalism anthem. The second track, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”, is the album’s leading single. It is unusual for me to favor a song that is selected for the single as one of the best on the album, but in this case I find the song irresistibly catchy. It is easy to sing the refrain, Swim, until you can’t see land, are you a man or are you a bag of sand?, because it is repeated roughly about 36 times (complete and utter estimate).
Track 3, “The Loneliness”, never fails to remind me of something Chris Martin would put out on a newer Coldplay album. It is simple, but captivating. Track 6, “Nothing Like You”, is a great tune for the broken-hearted. Scott tells a story of finding a new girl, yet her still not “being the cure for cancer.” The next track, “Man/Bag of Sand” sounds as if it started out as the single discussed earlier, but was never built into anything. It is acoustic and repeats the refrain for a full two minutes before finally fading into the second half of the album. It does have a certain déjà-vu quality, however.
Two tracks later the second best song on the album appears. “Not Miserable” is lyrically brilliant and continues the album’s universal theme of water, sea, land, body, and sky. The proceeding track, “Living in Colour”, sounds so much like a money-making, Chris Martin-penned, Coldplay song that I actually had to check and make sure he was not credited with writing the song as to not appear like a fool in this article. The final song, “Yes, I Would”, provides systematic closure to a midlife crisis that lead singer Scott Hutchinson clearly experienced when composing his newest effort - My cry for a fistful of sand/breeds silence/hold me I am folding/the world just blinks/lead me I’m stupid from a lesson learned/you’ve learned nothing.
If you like Scottish accents, indie rock, and spiritual metaphors then this album will have a long life in your car’s heavy rotation glove compartment. The band has continued doing what they do best, and I imagine large commercial attention to ensue. Unlike the Kings of Leon, however, I hope Scott will live up to the nickname his mother provided him, which inspired the band’s name, (Frightened Rabbit) and have enough sense to stay off VH1.
1. Things
2. Swim Until You Can't See Land
3. The Loneliness and the Scream
4. The Wrestle
5. Skip The Youth
6. Nothing Like You
7. Man/Bag of Sand
8. Foot Shooter
9. Not Miserable
10. Living in Colour
11. Yes, I Would
