Album Review: Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse

Great records are meant to be made in Los Angeles, in Nashville, in London. They're meant to be made by egomaniacs, arrogant snobs or prodigies. They're not meant to be cobbled together somewhere in Wales by a bunch of unassuming, hairy Scotsmen. But Frightened Rabbit have done just that. Shacking up with producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, David Byrne), the five-piece from Selkirk, Scotland offer their fourth album, Pedestrian Verse – and it's an absolute belter.

Frightened Rabbit have been around for ten years now, and although their popularity has reached sizeable proportions in the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent in the US, in Australia they're somewhat of an unknown entity. Coming to town in May, however, their fans are sure to warmly embrace the band.

Yes, the sound is a bit commercial (hell, they're released through Warner), but that shouldn't detract from the group's ambition. Anyone who saw Snow Patrol or Coldplay last year would attest that even the most commercial-friendly band can still impress over and over again.

Lyrically, songwriter Scott Hutchison leaves both those bands for dead. With lines like “In so-called living rooms/Scottish pastimes come to roost/Love's labours stain a linen sheet” (December's Tradition), he wears his heart on his sleeve. The band had been playing these songs a lot on tour before recording the record, and the warm and worn feeling that Abrahams draws from the quintet feels like another instrument altogether.

It's only February, but there are going to have to be a lot of amazing albums released between here and December to deny Pedestrian Verse its place as one of 2013's great albums.