Frightened Rabbit: Quietly Now!

I have to say I bought this record out of guilt. When I first caught on to the FR buzz late last year I did so off the back of a rather sneaky download. I’ve since attempted to atone for this unforgivable sin by purchasing Midnight Organ Fight (I could hardly write such a glowing review of the thing and not have actually bought it for myself) and it appears that sense of guilt has lingered on, resulting in the purchase of Quietly Now! (also referred to in some circles as Liver! Lung! FR!) despite hearing quite a bit of negative press about it (crucially a rather indifferent review over at TheSteinbergPrinciple, who’s already proved himself to be quite the FR devotee).

In short, this is Midnight Organ Fight live, with all the songs played in the same order as the original record. It’s billed as “acoustic” but all that means is there isn’t a full drum kit; there’s still plenty of electric guitar, synth and some brushed drums, so it’s not acoustic in the strictest sense. Despite the really nice cardboard packaging, it was with not inconsiderable trepidation that I approached this record; partly owing to the poor reviews, and partly because I’m not a huge fan of live albums. Well, some are great, but most aren’t – even more so than with regular records.

Thankfully, however, it’s a darned super record. The original album has started to sound a little cheesy to my ears, so it was a relief to hear the songs with some more of the rough edges left in… The long the short and the tall of it is that I simply love the songs. They’ve got a set that I can listen to over and over and over again, which is surprisingly rare with albums these days. I’m not sure they’re even close to being my favourite band, and neither of these albums, studio or live, are anywhere near being “all time favourites” but if you look at my Last FM stats for the past few months the sheer number of plays these two albums have racked up far outstrips everything else.

If you don’t like Frightened Rabbit then a live album certainly isn’t going to convince you otherwise, but if your a fan then I’d strongly recommend checking out Quietly Now!. It seems to have polarized opinion amongst fans, but I for one think it’s great.