Released 01/03/2010

Fat Cat Records



This was always going to be a difficult album for Frightened Rabbit.  Previous album The Midnight Organ Fight cemented their place in the big indie-folk pantheon, was praised from on high and featured prominently in all the ‘Best Of’ lists that year, and many an ‘Albums Of The Decade’ feature too.  Their very real sense of emotion and vulnerability struck a chord with music fans everywhere, not least those who’s core was being turned a darker shade of grey by the success of Snow Patrol, Coldplay et al.  The boys from Selkirk seemed an unhinged version of the shit being gobbled up by the masses- not inaccessible, but never contrived.

So, it would seem that with The Winter Of Mixed Drinks they are facing the problems heaped on any band that make the jump to unashamed critical acclaim.  And it is here that I sense they might run into trouble as, for the hardcore fans, ones wonders whether they might recoil at some of this.   TWOMD is brazen in its size; it’s fucking huge, and chock-full of instantly memorable melodies.  It- and this is not intended as a slight- smacks of a band that are making a bid for the big time;  you’ve surely heard it already, but first single ‘Swim Until You Can’t Land’ is the biggest indicator of this.  The effortlessly quotable chorus and deep ‘oh’s’ harmonised behind it is radio-friendly fodder, with its taut, edgy strings lending a genuine sense of scope.

‘The Loneliness a The Scream’, that follows , sounds like it was recorded in a barn on the Highlands, with its muffled handclaps and muscular harmonies reverberating round the speakers like a particularly biting Scottish wind (if you’ll pardon the lazy analogy). 

It’s all infused with a sense of hopeful melancholy, of moving towards a different phase of life.  Perhaps mirroring their own experiences as a band ‘Skip The Youth’, possibly the strongest song on here, is a lament to the losing of youth and innocence, with lead James Hutchison uttering one of the most poignant lines you are likely to hear all year : ‘all the hammer and scrape has been chipping away at the lustre of life’ .  The song doesn’t mope though, far from it.  Although this awkward loss is sad, a threat to a comfortable life,  the Rabbit boys find the glory in it with some gorgeous trumpets and an epic last 90 seconds where all the disparate elements of the song come together behind the chanted chorus.

Chorus’s are everywhere, not least on ‘Nothing Like You’ which, though a catchy enough tune, verges close to the made-for-College-Radio.    Again, Hutchison is mourning the loss of what has passed, this time a lost love. Propelled throughout by twanging acoustic guitar it’s nothing if not instantly recognisable; it’s just a touch bland and devoid of the ticker-tugging passions that are prevalent through much of the record.  ‘The Wrestle’ and opener ‘Things’ labour under similar problems.

The very antithesis of this is ‘Living With Colour';  a glorious noise with the most thumping drums one can imagine forming the base for a life affirming blast which makes liberal use of a string arrangement that will surely be stunning live.  There’s even an 80’s guitar riff in there and, of course, a smattering of ‘oh-oh’s’ to demand it be sung-back-with-feeling. 

Frightened Rabbit are at the forefront of a rich Scottish music scene, leading such luminaries as (labelmates) The Twilight Sad, We Were Promised Jetpacks and the stunning, as yet unsigned, There Will Be Fireworks.  The Winter Of Mixed Drinks is certainly a fine record, and should only cement this place.  One wonders whether it will be looked on as favourably as The Midnight Organ Fight by the hardcore fans and critics but, in the face of a record that manages to be immediate yet shorn through with such emotion,  that seems like quibbling. 




7.5/10

Posted In Album Reviews, Mar 03 2010. Words - David