10 Years On: Frightened Rabbit // Sings the Greys

In 2004 two brothers started a band. Scott and Grant Hutchison had no idea at the time the success this band would achieve. The name of the band originated from a pet name given to Scott by his mother due to his shyness and they first performed under Frightened Rabbit for a show at Scott’s former art college. The band now have a large fan base and are going on to release their 5th LP ‘Painting of a Panic Attack’.

This journey had to start somewhere and that somewhere is 'Sings The Greys': first released on May 1st 2006 on independent label 'Hit The Fan Records' the LP was initially limited to 1000 copies. The album itself feels musically stripped down, raw and unpolished but with mature and thoughtful lyrics.

The first song on the LP 'The Greys', which was one of the singles, tackles depression and reflects on how it affects a person and is very much different from just feeling sad - "What's the blues when you've got the greys". You find throughout the LP Scott, who is the primary song writer of the band, covers a range of topics – most of which personal. ‘Snake’ talks about missing or longing for a partner, whereas ‘Yawns’ and ‘Square 9’ talk about the breakdown of a relationship. There are also some songs with wider views, for example ‘Music Now’ covers Scott’s opinion on popular music. The overall feeling you get from 'Sings the Greys' is a dark one; grumpy and miserable. The thudding drums and slowly building layered tracks are atmospheric and occasionally feel like a live recording which adds to raw sound of the LP.

However this is an album that has to be looked at as a whole rather than a sum of individual parts; with three little 1-minute instrumentals breaking up the album into four bite-size chunks; linking from one part to the next using similar melodies to those in the songs. These linking-style songs become a common place in the bands future albums and help build this feeling of the LP being a whole.

‘Sings the Greys’ is important in the back catalogue of the band as it is often seen as the foundations for their later work. In the following album ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ the band develop this stripped down sound by adding depth and a more polished feel. After this they began to develop a bigger sound in their subsequent 2 albums with the acoustic guitar becoming less prominent. Despite this evolution of musical style, the lyrical style and themes displayed in ‘Sings the Greys’ are carried through each album and can be seen as the escence of Frightened Rabbit.

Their 5th studio album 'Painting of a Panic Attack' is to be released on 8th April 2016 and was produced by The National's Aaron Dessner. The release will be followed by a short series of in-store and venue shows in the UK before and extensive tour of the US.