Abubilla Music

New Albums from New Pornographers and Frightened Rabbit

Written by Eric-Boston

I thought I’d submit a brief review of a couple of recent albums that some of you  in the Abubilla community may not have heard:  “Together” by the New Pornographers and “Winter of Mixed Drinks” by Frightened Rabbit.

Today’s Kings and Queens of Pop, the New Pornographers have been around for a while.  I first heard them a few years ago on Sounds Opinions, an absolutely fantastic music criticism program on Chicago Public Radio http://www.soundopinions.org/—available as free podcasts on iTunes.  When their album “Challengers” came out in 2007, I warmed to it slowly, but it quickly became the only CD I listened to in my car for an entire year. Their songs just got deeper and cleverer as they took over my brain.   I often find that great music trains you to like it by rewiring your synapses around it.   In some way, our brains must actually be altered by the music we listen to.

Here’s one of the great songs from Challengers,”Adventures in Solitude”:

The new Album “Together” has only been out for two weeks and has only just started to train my brain.  It’s way too early to judge its success, but there are songs that are classic NP material—very deep and intricate pop stuff with lovely, cerebral lyrics.   An immediately obvious advantage of “Together “is that Neko Case plays a more prominent vocal role on the album and that’s all for the good.   If you like bands like Supertramp and the Shins, you’ll love the New Pornographers.  (By the way, they got their name from a famous remark made by an American Christian Fundamentalist minister, Jimmy Swaggart, who in 1986 said “Rock and Roll is the new pornography”.  Swaggart then went on, of course, to be involved in several prostitution scandals).

Here’s a song from the new album (I love the whistling!):

A newer band, Frightened Rabbit, has delighted me for the past year.  They’re an indie band from Selkirk, Scotland and they are masters both of music and language.  Their vocals are bold, articulate (and audible) and the lyrics are superb.   Their albums are full of intense and intensely personal songs.  Here’s a sample of lyrics from “Twist”, from their second album, “Midnight Organ Fright”, which I’ve mentioned on Voices before:

“Do the twist in the twisting outfit

The loose tie with, the loose limp wrists

Lift your dress enough to show me those shins

Let your hair stick to your forehead…”

And the song itself:

After the critical success of “Midnight Organ Fright”, fans were of course worried that Frightened Rabbit would fail when they next popped out of their den.  But fortunately they have scored well again with their wonderfully-named and richly produced album “Winter of Mixed Drinks”.  Here’s the hook song from the new album:

Well, spring has sprung here in Boston and it’s time to get outside with my sweet dog, Aggie.

I hope you’ve found this post useful!

Cheers,

Eric