An Otherwise Disappointing Life: Frightened Rabbit's Haunting Fifth Album

Frightened Rabbit

They have been around for more than thirteen years.  They have released five albums.  But Scottish band, Frightened Rabbit, are fairly new to me.  Previous to downloading their fifth album, "Painting of a Panic Attack", I think I had maybe heard only one song by them before.  So their music is pretty new to me.

When I started researching this album, which was released earlier this year, I saw that it was produced by Aaron Dessner, who is the principal songwriter for The National.  Immediately, from the first listen, I could see similarities.  In content, both bands have dark, brooding lyrics, almost of a confessional nature.  Musically, both bands favor a mix of melodic compositions and layered atmospherics.

It took me several listens before this album did anything for me.  But once the album started to grow on me, I was reluctant to write a review.  I was falling in love with this record, and I wanted to linger on it for a while.

The music is rich and textured, although muted, like on the album opener, "Death Dream", which starts out with a piano and ambient noises and Scott Hutchison's subdued falsetto.  The song keeps building in crescendo - no percussion, but unfolding new instruments, including a horn section, but all blended indistinguishably together while Hutchison keens mysteriously, "You died in your sleep last night."

In "Get Out", the percussion appears, although coquettishly, over a song that lingers between Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen until the chorus launches and soars into a dream pop flourish that would make fellow Scotsmen, Cocteau Twins, proud.  "I Wish I Was Sober" pairs a piano with Hutchison's poignant lyrics, sung in his unmistakable lilting, Scottish burr.  They have a lot of pure pop moments on here like "Woke Up Hurting", the rousing "Break", and "Lump Street",  They also have plenty of sensitive displays like "Little Dream", "400 Bones", and "Die Like a Rich Boy".  Every time my wife hears "Still Wants To Be Here", she thinks it's Blue October.  My favorite song is definitely "An Otherwise Disappointing Life", which represents the best elements of this band - somber lyrics, dreamy textures, and blazing pop rock.  This song is haunting and will stay with me for a long time.

I'm glad to have found this band.  I have an entire catalog to look forward to, as well as future releases.  However, Hutchison has recently made some cryptic tweets that call the future of the band into question.  Given the tortured nature of the lyrics, it is not to see why.  One can hope, in spite of this, that Frightened Rabbit will not scare off easily.