The UnLive | Album Review: The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit
Posted on March 02, 2010 by Greg
There is something going on in Scotland.
Seems like everything The UnCool hears from Scotland these days is a winner. Primal Scream recently came back with a vengeance in 2006 with Riot City Blues, one of the best albums of that year. The Twilight Sad’s Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was my favorite album of 2007. 2008 brought the heartbreaking brilliance of Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight and the excellent self-titled effort from Glasvegas. Franz Ferdinand took an unexpectedly dance-oriented left turn in 2009 with Tonight, one of my top 5 albums that year. Hell, even a band with the name Dananananaykroyd put out a great spazzy punk-pop album called Hey Everyone in ’09.
So the question is: does Frightened Rabbit continue the Scottish winning streak they helped further?
Yes.
The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit
The problem with following up an album like Midnight Organ Fight is that not only is it a great album, but it sprang from such a tortured emotional place that a follow-up is essentially impossible. It’s now almost three years since those songs were written, and frontman Scott Hutchison is in a different (presumably better) emotional place. That the band was able to come up with new material this good without the cathartic fuel of a breakup is a testament to their overall strength as songwriters and musicians.
They explore a more expansive, uptempo, rock-edged catalogue this time around, without losing the emotionality and rough poetry they have come to be known for. There are more rousing, sing-alongers and less of the folkier offerings of Midnight... Standouts come right from the start with the steady–building crescendos of “Things” and the pleasing bluntness of “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” (Hutchinson asks, “Are you a man or’re’you a bag of sand?”) and the hits just keep coming. While there is no song here with the emotional wallop of “The Modern Leper,” I think this is actually a stronger record than their last. It’s still an emotional roller-coaster, but this time the ride often rockets up through the fog and breaks into the sun. Scottish sun is allegedly a rare thing, but The Winter of Mixed Drinks is glorious proof that it does exist.
9 of 10
-Greg at The UnCool
Final note:
If you get a chance to see these guys live, do it! They just about kill themselves every time they play and with new material and a fifth band member, they should be re-energized and ready to go. Chicagoans, they’re playing Metro Saturday, May 8.
There is something going on in Scotland.
Seems like everything I hear from them these days is a winner. Primal Scream recently came back with a vengeance in 2006 with Riot City Blues, one of the best albums of that year. The Twilight Sad’s Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was my favorite album of 2007. 2008 brought the heartbreaking brilliance of Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight and the excellent self-titled effort from Glasvegas. Franz Ferdinand took an unexpectedly dance-oriented left turn in 2009 with Tonight, one of my top 5 albums that year. Hell, even a band with the name Dananananaykroyd put out a great spazzy punk-pop album called Hey Everyone in ’09.
So the question is: does Frightened Rabbit continue the Scottish winning streak they helped further?
Yes.
The problem with following up an album like Midnight Organ Fight is that not only is it a great album, but it sprang from such a tortured emotional place that a follow-up is essentially impossible. It’s now almost three years since those songs were written, and frontman Scott Hutchison is in a different (presumably better) emotional place. That the band was able to come up with new material this good without the cathartic fuel of a breakup is a testament to their overall strength as songwriters and musicians. They explore a more expansive, uptempo, rock-edged catalogue this time around, without losing the emotionality and rough poetry they have come to be known for. There are more rousing, sing-alongers and less of the folkier offerings of Midnight... Standouts come right from the start with the steady–building crescendos of “Things” and the pleasing bluntness of “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” (Hutchinson asks, “Are you a man or’re’you a bag of sand?”) and the hits just keep coming. While there is no song here with the emotional wallop of “The Modern Leper,” I think this is actually a stronger record than their last. It’s still an emotional roller-coaster, but this time the ride often rockets up through the fog and breaks into the sun. Scottish sun is allegedly a rare thing, but The Winter of Mixed Drinks is glorious proof that it does exist.
9 of 10
-Greg
Final note: If you get a chance to see these guys live, do it! They just about kill themselves every time they play and with new material and a fifth band member, they should be re-energized and ready to go. Chicagoans, they’re playing Metro Saturday, May 8.
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