Lovely stuff.
If you only fall in love with one Scottish band this year…then you are a fool because there are plenty to love but if you have to limit yourself to one band from above Hadrians Wall, please don’t automatically plump for Glasvegas. There is an abundance to give a little bit of your heart to and one of the main contenders are Frightened Rabbit.
Due to the infectiously catchy nature of ‘I Feel Better’, there is a split second that you fear Frightened Rabbit are a Scottish version of Scouting For Girls but that quickly passes as you recall that this band actually have a heart, soul, other songs to like and don’t primarily play to 11 year old girls. Heck, 11 year old girls should love Frightened Rabbit; they are that good and definitely cross that chasm between indie and pop but they do provide melodies by the bowlful.
It’s a relentless crusading little number that really shouldn’t be an anthem but manages to convey that spirit that puts a spring into people’s step that obviously came from a moment’s heartbreak. No matter what you are feeling, take great comfort that someone else has been feeling a bit crap but managed to make it sound all so wonderful.
‘The Twist’ manages to deliver a track that has an ever bigger stabbing rhythm that the lead song but you just cant get enough of nagging piano riffs and rhythms and there wont be many better B-sides to come for the rest of 2008. The lyrics may declare that Scott Hutchison needs “human heat” but the British record buying public need this band just as much.