It's Frightening

White Rabbits, White Rabbits | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 19, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tbd Records
• ASIN: B00261E0U2
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,840 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

At first, it's easy to mistake the White Rabbits for just another set of New York City dance-rock hipsters in the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tradition, but a second look reveals a quirkier and more rewarding aesthetic. A sextet featuring two drummers and a piano player, the White Rabbits refer to their music as "honky tonk calypso," and their cheerful blend of calypso, reggae and ska rhythms, plus secondhand music hall influences and big pop hooks, strongly recalls vintage Madness circa "Our House" and the moodier, more experimental side of the Specials and Fun Boy Three, via Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. The White Rabbits began in Columbia, MO, in 2004, when college students Greg Roberts and Stephen Patterson bonded while working at a local record store. Moving to New York in 2005, Roberts (vocals and guitar) and Patterson (vocals, piano and percussion) fleshed out the White Rabbits with guitarist Alex Even, bassist Adam Russell and dual drummers Matt Clark and Jamie Levinson. Signing with Say Hey Records in the U.S. and Young Turks Records in Great Britain, the White Rabbits connected with hot New York indie producer Chris Zane (Asobi Seksu, Les Savy Fav) to record their debut album Fort Nightly. Preceded by the dramatic first single "The Plot," Fort Nightly was released in the summer of 2007. For their second album, the band teamed up with Spoon's Britt Daniel as producer; after recording in early 2009, It's Frightening was released that spring. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, in a Surprising Way, May 27, 2009

By 

C. Mack - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It's Frightening (Audio CD)

I heard White Rabbits' first LP, "Fort Nightly", a few months after it came out, it was a mostly enjoyable album for me. A good indie rock album with a few tracks that begged to be placed on mixtapes due to some excellent, memorable vocals. It had some forgettable moments, but was never bad. I was expecting new producer Britt Daniel (better known as the Spoon front man) to flesh out these memorable vocal moments even more for "It's Frightening", but he actually had the opposite effect.

"It's Frightening" starts out with a bang on "Percussion Gun." The dual-drum attack drives the song from the start and never lets up and includes the classic line: "Where do you get off, and how can I get there too?" "Rudie Fails" sounds like a less-aggressive Ted Leo rocker, including his penchant for repetition as "I don't care at all" is sung a dozen or so times to end the song, these songs make up a very nice one-two punch to open the album.

From there, the album flows along at a steady pace, always letting the music steer, never allowing the vocals to explode into an instantly memorable chorus like they did multiple times on "Fort Nightly." "The Salesman" is my personal favorite in the middle stretch of the album, followed closely by "Right Where They Left". "The Lady Vanishes" and "Leave it at the Door" provide a mellow double-outro to the album, both are enjoyable tracks but the two together do feel like an extended outro, perhaps a slightly different track ordering would have increased their individual impact.

There are two major things that have come to my attention after repeated listens to "It's Frightening." The first is that they really seem intent on not allowing the vocals, which were the true highlights of their last album, to overshadow the music. The second is that the manage to pull off this instrument-driven sound much better than I thought they would have. If you liked "Fort Nightly", there is no guarantee that you will like "It's Frightening." A better measuring stick for this one is any of The Walkmen's albums or "Girls Can Tell"-era Spoon. The band is completely focused on letting the music guide the way, whether or not that is a good decision is up for interpretation, the thing that I believe can't be denied is that they pull off this new sound remarkably well.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wow! ****1/2, June 3, 2009

By 

B. Niedt (Cherry Hill, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It's Frightening (MP3 Download)

Damn that "Percussion Gun"! It's easily the catchiest song I've heard so far this year, and after the band's killer performance on Letterman the day before the album's release, this song has cemented itself into my brain. What a great way to open an album - with a pounding duet of tribal drumming. The whole set is propelled by standout percussion and piano, tempered with fine emotive vocals and harmony, and smart songwriting. Britt Daniel produced this, and his fingerprints are all over it, which is fine with this Spoon fan. There are definitely some similarities between the two bands; you might also be reminded a bit of Modest Mouse. Their excellent debut, "Fort Nightly", got some critical acclaim but otherwise little attention - maybe this new album will earn a better and more deserving fate. (I wonder if the title is a swipe at the similarly-named Scottish band Frightened Rabbit.) Besides the aforementioned lead track, listen to "Rudie Falls", "They Done Wrong/We Done Wrong", and "The Lady Vanishes". This is an early candidate for one of the best albums of the year.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific album, March 26, 2010

By 

Horsegal JPJ (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: It's Frightening (Audio CD)

I heard Percussion Gun on pandora and thought, well this song definitely says Buy Me. All it took was the Amazon samples and Britt Daniel's name and I had to buy the whole album. Excellent decision, I love every song. White Rabbits make such spirited, interesting music that I'm wondering: Why is the perfectly decent but rather blah Vampire Weekend so damn hot while the much superior White Rabbits are not?? Their other album, Fort Nightly, is just as good as this one.