Album Review: Frightened Rabbit – Pedestrian Verse

Album Review: Frightened Rabbit – Pedestrian Verse There’s something truly astonishing about Frightened Rabbit. It’s not their incredible song writing, or their superb live performances. It’s the question of, why are they not massive?

Unbeknownst to many people, in the shadow of the mainstream, this Scottish band has been releasing some of the finest Folk-inspired music in recent years. Whilst Mumford & Sons have been happy to hog the limelight and ride the wave of success, it’s encouraging to hear bands like Frightened Rabbit are making music that isn’t influenced by record sales and stadium performances.

Their approach has been subtle, but people are starting to take note, and ‘Pedestrian Verse’ is a shining example of how this band functions. There’s an air of maturity ringing throughout the record, storytelling of love and loss, but not in that cheesy, self-righteous way that we’ve become accustomed to hearing.

It’s a tantalising mixture of majestic sounds, that when compiled together form a striking greatness that can only be matched by bands like The National and Arcade Fire. The rousing sound of, ‘Woodpile’ is one of the bands finest tracks. Its layers of crunching drums and bright riffs are magnificent, and the mid-song, murky solo lines up perfectly towards an epic ending you’ll long to see live.

In stark contrast, the quick paced, ‘Housing (In)’ starts off sounding more like a Cloud Nothings song about getting high, but instead it morphs into a synth-lead, Indie-pop delight you’d be happy to just leave on repeat.

Frightened Rabbit have absolutely nothing to prove when it comes to their songwriting capability. They’ve got their sound nailed, and boy does it sound good. Their up and coming, worldwide tour (Australia in May) is something not to be missed.

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