Customer Reviews

The Midnight Organ Fight

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What a difference two years can make.

Frightened Rabbit's debut, Sing the Greys, was an unassuming burst of jangly, emotional indie rock. It was a pleasant, if unfocused, album, but with The Midnight Organ Fight, the band has taken a huge leap forward, refining their sound and showing remarkable growth in their songwriting. The band has smoothed over some of the rough edges, but by tightening things up, their songs have become much more effective.

The album opens with its best song, "The Modern Leper," in which the acoustic strumming builds in intensity, supporting singer Scott Hutchison's pained, defeated lyrics as he questions how someone could ever "love a modern leper on his last leg." This self-loathing characterizes the lyrics throughout the album, as Hutchison deals with feelings of loneliness, inadequacy, and desperation. Lyrically, it's a sad and sometimes dark album, but it's also about a person who, upon reaching his lowest point, is slowly trying to pick up the pieces and find a way to move forward, even if he doubts his ability to do so. It's hard not to be drawn in by Hutchison's warm, quivering vocals. Even on the album's loudest, most energetic tracks, his voice underscores every emotion, as it sounds perpetually on the verge of cracking.

But what the band shows above all else is that they know how to write a pop song. Their melodies and subtley catchy choruses make this a highly accessible album, filled with small-scale anthems that could find a mainstream audience if given the proper chance.

This is one of the finest indie-pop albums of the year.

I just finished listening to this for the second time in a row, and I am going to play it again. Passionate, heartbreaking lyrics, driving walls of percussion and guitar. Really damn good. And his Scottish accent makes the songs sound even more bloody, like the wounds are still raw.

So far Frightened Rabbit's THE MIDNIGHT ORGAN FLIGHT has been my favorite new album of 2008. I fell in love with this from the very first track of this melodic, but hard driving album. What amazes me on repeated listenings is the sheer number of really great songs. But even the lesser songs have grown on me with repeated listenings.

Their name definitely belies their music, which is bold, assured, and confident. If you just listen to the music, it is difficult to figure out how many people are in the band, but thanks to multi-tracking they are manage to make this many sounds despite being a trio. If you go to Youtube and check out their videos they play the same songs on the album with much simpler arrangements, usually just guitar, bass, and drums. On the CD, the songs are dominated by the outstanding vocal work of guitarist Scott Hutchison, whose brother Grant is the drummer for the band. Live, they seem often to go to a Sleater-Kinney like two guitar/no bass arrangement.

The first time I listened to the album my favorite song was "Modern Leper," which leads off the album. On repeated listenings it was surpassed by cuts like "Feel Better" and the rousing "Fast Blood." I also loved the tough moral lessons sung in "Keep Yourself Warm." But really, after a dozen or so listenings I can listen randomly to any cut on the disc and experience nothing but delight.

I can't recommend this album strongly enough. Though they are a Glasgow band, they aren't very much like Belle and Sebastian or Camera Obscura, though they possess a lot of the same musicality that drives both of those bands. I can't imagine anyone who loves Indie Rock not being completely blown away by this album. This should make a lot of end of the year Top Albums lists.

This album is very good. "I need Human Heat" is a line from the song "The Twist," by the way.

Here's the formula--take Death Cab for Cutie's percussion and penchant for plumbing the depths of heartbreak, mix in liberal amounts of John Darnielle's hard-driving acoustic guitar and candid lyrics as lead singer of The Mountain Goats, and add a pinch of The Promise Ring, particularly Davey von Bohlen's voice, and you are approaching Frightened Rabbit's sound.

This is a great album. These Scottish brothers face up to the difficulties and injustices of life and love, but they do so in their own way: Defiantly, instead of defeatedly a'la Bright Eyes and Elliot Smith, for examples. Don't get me wrong--I like Bright Eyes and Elliot Smith, but sometimes you want to go where they choose to explode instead of implode.

By the way, listen to Backwards Walk and tell me it is not destined for an episode of Grey's Anatomy.

I had been telling people that this album sounded like "Scottish folk-pop". I have no idea what that means, really, but it sounded good. After a few more listens, it turns out that there is so much more to this album that some dumb made-up music genre.

One example:
"Fast Blood" seems simple enough: Four chords, Coldplay-like vocals leading into a really catchy chorus. "I get it", you might say at first, but the subtleties are caught in subsequent listens. The intro: the rest of the band is actually brought in on the second chord of the progression, giving an off-centered feel right away, as if they are catching up to the guitar. The second verse changes the feel of the song when the drummer switches to the high hat, a change emphasized by more straight-forward guitar strumming as well. These subtle transpositions turn these his good pop melodies into great songs. These song-shifting elements could have been left out in an attempt to dumb-down the songs for a wider audience. Man, I am glad they did not do that.

The most inconsistent part of the album is the lyrics. Although I personally find some moments of lyrical brilliance. "I Feel Better" finds him trying desperately to convince us (and himself) that this the it last song he will write about a past lover. However, the listener gets it and is unconvinced.

Overall: Well done. Highly recommended.

I happened across this band after hearing "Old, Old Fashioned" on the radio as I was flipping stations. That song caught my ear and had me tapping away to it. Its one of those tunes that sticks in your head long after hearing it, so I looked it up. I hadn't heard of these guys before, but I took a chance, bought the cd and I'm glad I did. It's great. Real stuff, not studio crap. It's a cd I'll play anytime, hanging with friends, chillin by myself, driving around, whatever. Old fashioned is a good way to describe the style of music - good songwriting, songs us regular joes can relate to, fun to listen to, some curse words, but just honest stuff. Talented rabbits they are.

just listen to a song or two... The Modern Leper... or Keep Yourself Warm... something about the yearning, painful, yet maybe hopeful delivery of Scott Hutchison's vocals just give me goosebumps... i've realized that his voice reminds me of Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows, except that I can't stand the Counting Crows... and I can't get enough of this.

Frightened Rabbit blasted through the Bowery Ballroom last freezing Saturday night in NYC, three electric guitars, drums, a little acoustic here and there. This is a band still peaking (you wonder what comes next after The Midnight Organ Fight), but already confident enough of its power that it can bury perhaps its best-known song, Heads Roll Off, deep in the middle of the set. In Frightened Rabbit's world, romance doesn't go very well but -- as The Twist suggests -- maybe that doesn't matter so much as long as the dance is fast enough and close enough to spark some human heat, to lift dresses to show a little thigh, to get hot enough to have hair stick to foreheads, and who cares about right names? This is a CD filled with soaring music and rueful, sometimes longing, sometimes bitter lyrics -- The Twist; Backwards Walk; Heads Roll Off; The Modern Leper; Old, Old Fashioned; Poke; Keep Yourself Warm. They need to move away from filler songs of less than two minutes (3 here, 3 on their first CD), but apart from that, Frightened Rabbit deserves every bit of the success they are now reaping.

I feel the same way after listening to The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit , as I did with Teenage Fanclub's "God Knows Its True" " back in 1990"s and some of their B sides. The feeling of being torn between the light and darkness of being Human.
Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop 2008 (320/Mp3) can be downloaded through Fatcat Records uk for 0.99 UK poumd.

This band is like a folkier version of snow patrol, but with a scottish accent and superior lyrics. Check out "Heads roll off""Backwards walk" and "Twist", truly briliant songwriting that most music lovers will appreciate. This album gets better with every listen and I look forward to catching them live.