Frightened Rabbit - A Frightened Rabbit EP

Right. On the 31st of October, Frightened Rabbit's new EP was released on 10" vinyl. If you're a regular reader of this blog, then it should come as no surprise to you that I'd pre-ordered it and 4 days after that it showed up on my doormat. Unfortunately, it's been a bit of a busy month so I've only now gotten round to writing this post up about it. I can assure you, though, it's worth the wait. The EP is still available from Avalanche with a free badge of the artwork (which is where I ordered from - the badge is awesome) so, y'know, you should totally get it.

The artwork's lovely, yet again, isn't it? It's plain and understated, and I love the "banner" style for the band name. Top marks around.

I feel like I'm becoming a bit of a stuck record (to use a delightfully appropriate turn of phrase) when it comes to Frabbit releases, but I don't care - I absolutely love how the band's releases always seem to have consistent artwork. It's just a really nice touch, and the use of the same banner style on the back cover and the record labels fills my heart with happiness. No, really.

Before I talk about the songs, it seems only appropriate that I tell you that you, dear reader, can download this EP for free in exchange for your email address. Follow this link and then you can listen along to your heart's content. The three songs that comprise this EP have been kicking around for a little while, as it was originally released on CD while the band were touring the US and was hosted for streaming purposes... somewhere, I forget exactly where it was. Anyway, I listened to them a few times back then and quite a few more times after the free download became available a couple of weeks before the vinyl release. They're great songs, as I've come to expect from this band. Fuck This Place and The Work both, interestingly, feature guest singers and both of them fit into the Frabbit "sound" really well, although it does take some getting used to hearing another voice alongside Scott's majestic tones. The highlight, though, is definitely Scottish Winds. It's catchy, borderline celebratory and pretty indicative of what Frabbit are "about", as it were. Oh, and as with seemingly everything else the band have released, Scott has written up a track-by-track that is certainly worth a read, so find it here. This release, in case you're the kind of person who's interested, is limited to 500 and I'm glad I own one of them.