Frightened Rabbit Swim Until You Cant See Land (Fat Cat)
4/5
By: Rachel Bolland
Returning with their first new material since 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight Frightened Rabbit appear to have cheered up a bit. Although it was met with critical acclaim, the Selkirk quintet’s last album wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs, with topics ranging from suicide to anonymous, self-loathing sex. However, new single ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ seems to mark a departure from such dour outlook.
Employing the age-old symbol of the sea as representing opportunities, the new single describes one man’s choice to swim off into the open sea or to stay on the shore. With lyrics like “She’s there on the shoreline/Throwing stones at my back/So swim until you can’t see land” it shows a clear step away from the break up that inspired so much of ‘Organ Fight’, with singer Scott Hutchison once again allowing the listener into his own inner turmoil. The gentle opening reflects this new optimism. A soft guitar riff is almost the only thing backing Hutchison at the beginning but is soon joined by the token prolific backing singing and intense drums that are such staples of Frightened Rabbit’s music.
Indeed the band has employed many of the features that made their last album so good. The track builds up, adding more and more to it until it reaches a climax of sorts. However, it feels like there could be a lot more to this and it seems to strive to become a bigger, more intense track. As a result you’re left feeling on a bit of a cliff-hanger with this song, with it never really realising its full potential. While it hasn’t fulfilled everything diehard fans would have been hoping for from their return, it promises that the new album has the potential to be just as good as its predecessor – just without the wrist-slitting subject matter.
Artists in this article: Frightened Rabbit
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