After listening to the new Frightened Rabbit album The Winter Of Mixed Drinks over the last few days, I’m convinced these Scots will have a great year and deservedly so. Their third album is the sound of a band who are sick of strumming an acoustic in reflection and are ready to project outward with the result being some swelling, epic tunes.
I already featured ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ on our last podcast but since I received the album I’ve got a renewed sense of love for it, listening to the song over 25 times in a few days. It rarely happens to me. The album as just better than previous albums especially with the expanded now five-piece lineup: big sounding band arrangements rooted in folk compositions with singer Scott utilising his lilting Scottish accent to great effect while reigning in elements of his voice that were once a tad whiney for me.
Here’s a Youtube playlist of the two videos from the album so far:
Here’s the B-side to ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’:
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – Fun Stuff
The album is released on the 1st March. Buy it here.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Agreed, cracking album!
You’ve converted me Niall. Never really too pushed about these guys before but that song is fantastic. I’ll be checking out the the album upon it’s release!