While indie rock suffers no shortage of dramatic, orchestral pop, tempering all that drama with an acidic wash of wit and more hard, flat angles than sweeping pastoral prettiness is clever indeed. Frightened Rabbit, a quirky Scottish outfit with two brothers (on vocals/guitar and drums), has a startling penchant for songwriting that feels like getting kicked in the gut and being hugged at the same time. Their debut, Sing the Greys, arrived in 2006, and was met with rousing approval, and their sophomore effort, The Midnight Organ Fight, pushes their sound further into an intoxicating blend of belligerence and confession, post-punk and neo-folk. “The Modern Leper” paves the way for 45 minutes of superbly nuanced, poetically framed torrents of outrage, longing and loathing, the song’s jittery guitar strumming giving way to surging kick-drum and keyboards, Scott Hutchison’s vocals bursting with indignation. The brawny drumming and percussion of brother Grant Hutchison is a key component in Frightened Rabbit’s sound, slyly grinding the twinkle of an acoustic guitar into a glittering, menacing edge. Wily rabbits, these.
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