Frightened Rabbit The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Fat Cat)
3/5
By: Rachel Bolland
As a Scot I was fairly shocked by the statistic that the average Scottish adult drinks around 46 bottles of vodka a year – the equivalent of 537 pints. While I know several English Rockfeedbackers who could drink the average Scot under the table, the statistic only furthers the stereotype portrayed by Rab C. Nesbitt. That is, that Scots are a load of drunken, miserable bastards. And it’s true, we really are – we are, after all, the nation that brought you Buckfast.
This is a spirit that has clearly been embodied by Frightened Rabbit. Since 2006’s Sing the Greys they’ve relentlessly been producing unbelievably miserable music. 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight was wrist-slittingly depressing – front man Scott Hutchison having just gone through a messy break-up. As morose as these albums were they were also incredibly beautiful at times as full as they are with raw emotion.
The first few tracks of The Winter of Mixed Drinks seems to suggest that Frightened Rabbit have picked up where they left off, continuing to write the same kind of songs that brought them such critical acclaim. Yet there’s something missing. While ‘Things’ and lead single ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ are certainly great songs, they lack some of the instant power that so much of the band’s early material possessed.
As the album progresses it becomes clear that it’s never going to hit the dizzying heights of The Midnight Organ Fight. None of the tracks have anything that makes them stand out. ‘Skip the Youth’ employs the band’s trick of building songs up, layering vocal over guitar over keyboard over bass until it becomes one big mass of noise. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work on this track and, after a fairly slow start, the end is just a mess. Short track ‘Man/Bag of Sand’ is a reprise of ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ but stripped back and slowed down. It is also extremely misjudged, completely abolishing any pace the record had and displaying the fact that Hutchison can’t sing softly and as a result is practically unlistenable.
Having said that, there are some tracks where Hutchison’s song-writing talents are evident. ‘Not Miserable’ exhibits his ability to write powerful songs brimming with emotion. Building to include strong drum beats and backing vocals from the rest of the group, it encompasses everything that’s great about this band. The only issue is the main lyric “I’m not miserable now”. We Scots are miserable bunch, we’ve come to terms with the fact we’ll always be grumpy buggers. Frightened Rabbit know that too, which is possibly why they produce their best music when they’re miserable themselves. And as they seem pretty cheerful throughout The Winter of Mixed Drinks, it isn’t their best work.
Artists in this article: Frightened Rabbit
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