Frightened Rabbit
The Midnight Organ Fight

THE REVIEW

Originally from the cold and inhospitable Scottish lands, their melodies aim instead to warm our hearts. These Frightened Rabbits are British by passport but American musically.

Their offering is almost a summary of the indie pop of the last decade. Very superficially, they could be framed as a more Brit version (more Coldplay of "Parachutes", in particular) of Death Cab for Cutie or as the less baroque version of Arcade Fire, but the range of influences of these four Scots is actually much broader; this "The Midnight Organ Fight" can indeed be defined as a well-crafted cocktail of Frog Eyes, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Okkervil River: In fact, one might encounter, while listening, not only adolescent dirges ("The Modern Leper") and lively refrains ("I Feel Better"), but also sweet folk-pop pieces ("Poke") and tear-jerking ballads ("Goods Arms Vs Bad Arms"). The continuum that binds this wide variety of sounds is undoubtedly the taste for melodies, skillfully emphasized by the lightness of the production, which with strings and choirs makes these light notes soar even further. Scott Hutchinson's timid and almost trembling singing, the true compositional leader of the quartet, perfectly complements this musical backdrop full of fluttering guitars and dreamy harmonies, is never inclined to communicate an overwhelming joy, rather always melodramatically suspended between a discreet and polite happiness and a total resignation; the lyrics themselves, all written by the frontman, autobiographical and centered on the end of a long relationship, for their sincerity and refusal of naive youthful optimism, are placed far from the label, according to some infamous, of "adolescent".

The compositional naivety is still evident (instrumental interludes like "Extrasupervery" or "My Bright Pink Bookmark" are merely fillers while other tracks are flat and banal and only extend the perhaps excessive runtime of this full-length) but these soothing melodies will be a balm for all those kids who, lying on their bed with distracted eyes pondering the memories of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, will need to shed the proverbial tear before the smile returns to light up their face.