Frightened Rabbit Sing the Greys WB rating out of 100

In his recent editorial, WB writer Al Cottrill painted a bleak picture of the UK Indie world: their music press seems intent on feeding its own, the bands appear beholden to fads, and any long-term viability is severely hindered for these very reasons. Fashion, hipness and the next-big-thing have taken precedence over the music itself. This is why the authenticity of Glasgow band Frightened Rabbit’s debut album, Sing the Greys, is so refreshing. There is nothing contrived about it; no attempt to ride on the coat tails of some buzz band. Instead the music of Frightened Rabbit sounds as if it is the music they had no choice but to make. Earnestness pervades the record, which is dominated by dirty, amphetamine noise-folk guitar, and unashamed emotive lyrics.

Sing the Greys is unapologetically lo-fi. The guitar sound is an inch short of polished, and forgoing studio trickery, Frightened Rabbit rely completely on their song structures, in which they tend toward the epic. Sometimes the album can be a little embarrassing in its heartfeltness, as on ‘Yawns’, where vocalist Scott Hutchinson holds his plaintive warble for many seconds without relief, but it is never cynical. Sing the Greys is raw and real, leaving no doubt as to its intentions, and for that reason it moves when it might offend with over-emotiveness. Emotional music can be horrible when forced, as with the dreadful ‘emo’ sub-genre, but when it’s from the heart it has the power to tear down walls of human skepticism. ‘Yawns’ turns out to be a highlight, displaying Frightened Rabbit’s skill with song craft, the slow march of the first verse and chorus building into a beautiful wall of sound of complimenting guitar parts.

Generally vocal melodies take a backseat to driving guitar lines on Sing tbe Greys, both because the chord progressions and structures are so stirring and also due to the fact that Scott’s singing can be a little lackluster in its search for a tune. When he fails, the band’s sound as a whole suffers, and for this reason Frightened Rabbit don’t quite achieve greatness on this record, although they certainly get close. Much like Band Of Horses, Frightened Rabbit are able to develop extremely powerful guitar parts which seem to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, perfectly weighted. This is why they don’t need excessive amounts of distortion, delay or any other effects. Yet this does highlight the fact that the vocals are nowhere near as well developed, as on ‘Behave!’ where all of Hutchinson’s efforts can’t produce a melody worthy of the music. ‘Square 9’ also falls victim to the same problem. Indeed, sometimes Hutchinson ends up sounding like a drunken Robert Smith.

Whatever vocal issues Frightened Rabbit may have, there is still a lot of appeal to a band that is continuing along the path it has set for itself, whether or not it be one in line with the fickle demands of the UK’s music press. Frightened Rabbits obviously reject the cannibalistic boom-bust nature of the UK Indie scene, as can be deducted from the lyrics of ‘Music Now’: “Musicians unite against the/Enemy writing is age of making Someone look dumb is not/ So if this song falls on deaf ears/ I'll lip sync it so you can hear”. It’s possible that Frightened Rabbit may not be hip enough for the UK press, but lets face it, in the long term they are probably better off without them.