Be Less Rude – Frightened Rabbit
Frightened Rabbit are two brothers from Glasgow, who make some great music. Their debut album is called Sing the Greys (eMusic) and it’s full of exuberant guitar-driven pop, with some truly inspired percussion, and the added bonus of a Scottish accent. It’s brilliant, dark, slightly off-kilter (see “Yawns”), and expertly walks the thin line between detached irony and depressive self-reflection (see “Music Now”).
Perhaps the best thing I can say is that this sounds like music made by people with nothing to prove. It is beautiful at times, but it also raw and untaught, perfectly free to dwell on the imperfection. And it doesn’t hurt that they’ve got some killer melodies. “Be Less Rude” is the most obvious example – I’ve had a lot of trouble over the last month or two getting it out of my head – but their less frenetic songs are nearly as good. “Be Less Rude” also demonstrates the impressive mileage they get out of the simplest things, where the all-too-obvious refrain “you should be less rude, you don’t know what it might do for you” feels as textured and complete as a novel. And check out that harmonica!
You don’t have to take my word for it. Check out Amy from Shake Your Fist (who you really should be reading regularly already – she’s best music blogger around, I think) for some more thoughts.