The Midnight Organ Fight is a well-produced album, and certainly sounds lavish enough. Opener ‘The Modern Leper’ delivers a powerful, surging introduction, with Scott’s vocals almost overwhelmed by the sheer amount of noise going on once the track kicks in. The thumping ‘I Feel Better’ and ‘Fast Blood’ are similarly effective – just out-of-control enough to pick you up and sweep you along with them, and just in-control enough for some nice melodies. It helps that drummer (and Scott’s brother) Grant Hutchison overwhelms just about everything he thumps his sticks up against, providing a powerful backbone for the album’s more manic moments.

 

 

But The Midnight Organ Fight begins to show cracks with the third track ‘Good Arms vs Bad Arms’ – a ballad that never seems to take off, and manages to overstay its welcome by a good minute. In fact, it’s when Frightened Rabbit slow down from the steady ear-hole assault of the first few tracks that they are at their weakest, and when the album begins to become frustrating. ‘The Twist’ and ‘Poke’ are especially grating, with Hutchison’s insistent vocals juxtaposed awkwardly against gentler melodies.

 

Despite this, it’s all nice enough – but listening to Frightened Rabbit, the inescapable feeling is one of repetition, of going over ground that has already been gone over and gone over. It’s not just lyrically (just think of every angst-ridden, slightly-boozy conversation you’ve had when you were on the outs with your mister/missus), that The Midnight Organ Fight is trite, but also musically (just think of the kind of CDs you’d slide in during said conversation). Originality is not necessarily a requirement for good music, but without a sense of fun, unoriginality becomes bland – and, basically, The Midnight Organ Fight is a bland album.

 

If you do struggle with The Midnight Organ Fight, you can always try this fun trick: Try imagining the voice signing to you as some sort of a hideous Frankenstein stitched half out of Bright Eyes’ Connor Oberst and half out of Adam “Counting Crows” Duritz. It’s uncanny. Really. Go on.