Frightened Rabbit was the
very first band recommendation I wrote down, before I was even tracking bands
in a spreadsheet. They were recommended by Daniel Pearson, whom I reviewed back
in March 2013.
Obviously it's been a long
time. One reason for the delay is that I saw they had a lot of material, and it
was going to take a lot of time to listen to them all, even though the
preliminary listening seemed promising. In scheduling reviews, I have not been
great about remembering to include recommended bands along with the bands who
follow me, but I would work in others and still not get to them.
I give this unnecessary
prelude because while I believe Frightened Rabbit is a good band, I did not
enjoy them. The extra hours spent listening made that worse. If I had only
listened to two albums' worth I would feel better, but that probably shouldn't
be held against them.
There were two factors
that combined with the length. One is that it felt like a lot of unnecessary
profanity. That doesn't bother everyone. It doesn't always bother me as much as
it did this time. Actually, it felt appropriate for a Scottish band, except
that I associate Scottish profanity with rowdy good times. Frightened Rabbit is
so gloomy.
Again, that doesn't always
bother me, but here it was hour after hour of gloom, sometimes livened up by
unnecessary profanity.
It didn't have to be this
way. Among their songs, "The Woodpile" especially shows their ability
to build in emotion and drama. They can do that. They have a pub band sound -
which can be used for good times - and they were doing it for years before
Mumford and Sons.
Therefore, regardless of
my frustration, it is completely reasonable to check out Frightened Rabbit. I
do recommend doing it in short bursts, especially if you're experiencing down
times in your own life.
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