Frightened Rabbit

‘The Midnight Organ Fight’

(Fat Cat)

Frightened Rabbit are yet another Scottish band who, along with Malcolm Middleton, The Twilight Sad and Ballboy, put a lacklustre, bandwagon-jumping English indie scene to shame. ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ is their second album and it sees the group, which is centred around two brothers from Selkirk, on fine neurotic form. It’s a tremulous, trembling effort of stripped down guitars, shot nerves, existential crisis and a sad, twisted heart. The gentle, brittle ‘My Backwards Walk’ is surely one of the most devastating songs 2008 will hear, while ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ is a perfect paean to getting both fucked and fucked up, containing the immortal line: “You won’t find love in a hole.” Twisted, tortured and terrific.

Mischa Pearlman