Frightened Rabbit - The Woodpile

How very fitting. The first single I've bought since moving to Scotland, and of course it's Frightened Rabbit. A week before the release of their 4th album Pedestrian Verse (which, of course, there will be a post about on here at some point next week), this single is the second taste of new material after the rather excellent State Hospital EP. I picked it up at Avalanche Records, which is fast becoming one of my favourite things about living in Edinburgh.

There's only a certain number of times I can talk about how lovely Frabbit's artwork is. There's clearly a lot of thought put into it every time and it's just nice. In this case I like the little monogrammed metronomes (at least I presume they're metronomes) and the slightly worn label and the reappearance of the triple-barred cross. Consistently-themed artwork is something I love, and as such I love this.

Those metronomes reappear on the record label, and there's more worn labels everywhere. Mmmm. Still no coloured vinyl, but I'm sure we can let it slide. Apparently this is a "limited" single, but I can't find any numbers anywhere so that's a piece of information we'll have to overlook for now.

I'm going to begin, in slightly unusual fashion, by talking about this single's B-side. Today's Cross is unlike any Frabbit song I've ever heard before. It's almost a ROCK SONG, which is quite weird to hear. Definitely need a few more listens to get used to that one. The Woodpile, on the other hand, is unmistakeably the work of Frightened Rabbit. It's been up on youtube since December but it's taken me until tonight to listen to it (the entire month of December was pretty much a write-off due to overwhelming sadness about Tubelord's split meaning I listened to basically nothing but them). So I heard The Woodpile for the first time a little over an hour ago, and have just finished listening to it for the 10th time. My word, it is incredible. It starts in quite a sedate manner, and then the chorus drops and everything is amazing. There's even what might loosely be described as a guitar solo. In a Frabbit song! Madness. Between this and State Hospital, things are looking really good for Pedestrian Verse. Roll on next Monday.