The Critical Asshole: Listening to...

When in Scotland, do everything you can to avoid getting your ass kicked.

Seriously.

These are tough people with a tough mindset and a history of bravery, independence, and a persevering attitude that has left them, in many cases, unwittingly ahead of the cultural curve.

In the past decade, Scotland has given us many reasons to frequent our local record store.  And, while this might be a blow to my natural, patriotic, “Born in the U.S.A” type of sensibility, I cannot deny and I must revel in the quality output.

I present to you Frightened Rabbit from Selkirk, Scotland.  Frightened Rabbit is primarily two brothers, Scott and Grant Hutchison, who deliver energetic and meaningful indie rock on the 2008 release of The Midnight Organ Fight.

From its well-executed and urgent opener, “The Modern Leper,” Frightened Rabbit dance their way through big, fast, and dramatic tunes as if it were a Scottish Céilidh gone awry (look it up on Wikipedia).  “I Feel Better” is almost defiant as Scott Hutchison proclaims that “I feel better and better and worse and then better/Than ever than ever than ever then ever” then goes on to say “This is the last song I’ll write about you.”  This stick-it-in-your-eye spirit is extended to the joyful “Good Arms vs. Bad Arms” and the exuberant and musically tongue-in-cheek “Old Old Fashion” which kind of reminds this humble critic of a Scottish version of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll”—that is if Bob Seger were young…and Scottish…and awesome.

Frightened Rabbit seems to be able to do a nuanced approach to this same feeling with the sexy and sensual “The Twist” which adequately depicts a lot of nights that occur in the land that brought us drunken indiscretion and leaves this critical asshole wondering why it has taken this long for someone to say (sing) what most of us guys have always been thinking: “Lets pretend I’m attractive and then/You won’t mind, you can twist for a while/It’s the night, I can be who you like/And I’ll quietly leave before it gets light.”

I suppose the problem with an album such as this that contains such high high’s is that the low’s seem that much more egregious.  “Fast Blood” seems indulgent and emo, “Head Rolls Off” slips into a tired diatribe on the cycle of life and death and the uselessness of organized religion (Yeah, yeah, yeah—just get back to the rocking and drinking, please.  Thanks.), and unfortunately, there are songs here that are too short—and not in the good way as in “leave them wanting more,” but rather “underserved.” (See the instrumental “Bright Pink Bookmark,” “Extrasupervery,” and “Who You Kill Now.”)

Like I said though, the high’s are high.  “Keep Yourself Warm” is solid and consistent and reminds us that “It takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep warm.”  Well put.  “My Backwards Walk” saves itself with the anachronistic breakdown of “You’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it,” and “Floating in the Forth” saves itself by, well…saving himself (“I think I’ll save suicide for another year”).

So—long live Scotland, long live Frightened Rabbit, and may we never have peace from The Midnight Organ Fight.