Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks

The follow up to Frightened Rabbits The Midnight Organ Fight was going to be difficult with it its near cult status in some quarters, going down especially well in the US. Equally since MOF there have been numerous other Caledonian bands achieving success, Twilight Sad, There Will be Fireworks, We Were Promised Jetpacks to name but three, and maybe the thrill of the Scots approach might have palled.

Maybe it was because it came along with a clutch of other new cd’s but Mixed Drinks didn’t make the instant connection that MOF did for me, a couple of plays and I felt vaguely disappointed. But with a show on the horizon I felt compelled to give it more time, and thank goodness I did. This is a fine piece of work, retaining the Frabbit feel and character, but with perhaps more finely judged songs. True the bitterness of a failed relationship has been softened and with it some of the raw edge to some tracks. But overall this set works well together – Things is a great opener and what I think was the ‘single’ Swim Until You Can’t See Land drives along in a similar vein.

The sound-scape has broadened, more instruments but without cluttering the sounds. You can hear this as a live set, and there are enough crowd-pleasing chant opportunities to go around. Having only seen them once in support of Death Cab, a full headline show should be a thing of joy. So Mixed Drinks is a resounding success despite my initial misgivings, well done them