Frightened Rabbit: 'Sing The Greys'

‘Beware musical jokes’ should be pretty high up in the list of commandments issued to rock musicians. A musical joke dominates here, the title a pun on the notion of singing the blues. The first track extends this, being as it is a rather desperately articulated plea on behalf of just about everyone suffering the colourlessness of modern life. Existential angst is hardly new in pop music, but the fact that it is being so hammed up and horribly distorted in other quarters is certainly no reason to abandon it as a theme.

Actually 'Greys' is a fantastic opening song, and the group boldly explore the extended implications for the metaphor with deftness. Lead singer Scott sounds very genuinely like a man at the end of his tether and seems to be imploring, to just about anyone who will listen, to save him from the extra intensity implicated in this musical shade beyond conventional misery. Although the music sounds relatively conventional at first, the delicately off-kilter quality characteristic of the entire album soon emerges.

'Music Now' is a delicate manifesto with the juxtaposition of a tub thumbing chant (‘music now’ in the from of an injunction, perhaps to the band) with a quiet folk track about music now in the sense of modern music (‘music now is so amazing’). The song is gently tuneful and develops from a schizophrenic gag into a rich and satisfying song. 'First Incident' and its sibling 'Second Incident' are playful and childish tracks that take us through the softer territory of labelmates Sigur Ros and Mum, while 'Yawns' is a sleepy hybrid of this style with the traditional indie direction that fails to cause much life.

'Be Less Rude' is a high water mark, with confident guitar arpeggios and a compelling tune, as well as a charming injunction to someone. 'Go Go Girls' is something of a damp squib and, along with 'Yawns', represents a blind spot for the group’s songwriting. However, 'Behave' and 'Snake' are triumphant and lovely and a live recording of 'The Greys' testifies to the fact that this group have some real vitality tucked away.

Released 19th November 2007 by Fat Cat.

Written by Huw Green.