Music Blogs

Many years ago, around Better Living Through MP3 blog number 30 (I know you're counting), I pressed the virtual flesh re Glaswegian threesome, Frightened Rabbit and their album, Sing The Greys.

Writing at the time, and the description holds true today, we noted that Frightened Rabbit "bang drums, pianos and guitars and variously count Billy Joel and Nick Cave as big influences. Good thing for us the trio is too rattled by heavy Scotch Egg consumption to make any real sense of those aging geezer hipsters."

Furthermore, "Sing The Greys, is the kind of whimsical, too much porridge up the nose whack-ness you might expect from Robert Wyatt or an aggressive homeless person. Frightened Rabbit make a big nutty noise, and even their song titles hint at what to expect from today's digital download. ‘Behave!,' ‘Yawns,' and ‘Go Go Girls' make me wanna holler, as does the accompanying MP3, ‘Be Less Rude.' Now here is something we can all get on board with, regardless of coastal destination. Folks in LA: open a door for grandmas; people of Manhattan: don't charge past me through the subway doors...I'm walking here!"

Frightened Rabbit have returned (only a few months later I might add) with The Midnight Organ Fight. The refurbished Rabbits; Grant (drums) and Billy and Scott, (guitars) have toned down their spiel, but only slightly. The vocals remain tremulous and effecting, the instrumentation as unpredictable as a brick load of canned foods crashing out of an unlocked kitchen cabinet. But within their rustic tunefulness, as in "Head Rolls Off" or "Fast Blood," Frightened Rabbit reflects an innate soulfulness not unlike a composition from Thom Yorke or the trio's hero, Nick Cave. "I Feel Better" drives hard like a Scottish country rollercoaster lassoed by surging bass and drums, soon overcome by a full orchestra of ramshackle instrumentation that increases the song's temperature. "Floating in the Forth" (froth?) features a wheezing pedal organ and glumly picked guitars; "Who'd You Kill Now" discusses someone falling down the stairs to their death over pleasant ukuleles and what sounds like broken banjo. All in all, The Midnight Organ Fight could be the alternate soundtrack to Thomas Scott Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Equal parts alternative rock derangement and Civil War era folk song delivery, The Midnight Organ Fight time warps styles and alters your consciousness.

Frightened Rabbit
"The Modern Leper" (mp3)
from "The Midnight Organ Fight"
(Fat Cat Records)

More On This Album

The Whitsundays: "It could just as easily be 1967," boasts the band's self congratulatory press release.  "But no matter the year, Edmonton, Alberta's the Whitsundays certainly have a knack for writing yellowed, reverb-wrapped pop music, borrowing from the grand tradition of English psychedelia, garage, and vintage organ rock. With reverent nods to the flower-picking whimsy of the Zombies, the red-faced bluster of the Animals, and the delightful inanity of Syd Barrett, the Whitsundays' self-titled debut is a vintage gem, and a charming hodgepodge of '60s musical ephemera."

Yeah? You be the judge.

"It Must be Me"

"Sorry James"