QUICK SPIN: Frightened Rabbit

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 18, 2010 3:40PM

In which we take a quick look at a recent musical release.

Frightened Rabbit
The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Frightened Rabbit's last album, The Midnight Organ Fight, was critically lauded and rightfully so. It was a stark portrait of the pain of love and loss told against delicately raw arrangements. While that album was driven by lead Rabbit Scott Hutchison's inner turmoil its resulting popularity brought the Scottish group to both a much larger audience and much bigger stages.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks seems to be the result of the band's sound needing to grow larger to fill those larger venues. Interestingly Frightened Rabbit has successfully added multiple layers and more sonic power while maintaining that undercurrent of tenderness that keeps the listener close to the musical narrator’s. Standout track "Swim Until You Can't See Land" exemplifies this approach with strings, horns and guitars that create an ocean that surrounds a single lone soul pushing itself to the edge and bringing you along.

The Winter Of Mixed Drinks is still driven by internal review, but Frightened Rabbit is now questioning and no longer injured allowing them to create music that expands beyond the singular emotion to draw jubilance out of experience.

Frightened Rabbit plays Metro on May 8