RABBITS!…

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[5.33]

Alfred Soto: Nothing like you I haven’t heard from dozens of mumbly voiced white guys addicted to power strumming, that is.
[3]

Matt Cibula: OK Went.
[3]

Chuck Eddy: The ’80s modern rock jangle (New Order, Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, who?) is pretty much the only saving grace I can hear here. But they never turn it into a hook, much less a song. I blame the singer, but the band’s no great shakes either.
[4]

Martin Skidmore: I feared extreme tweeness from a Scottish band with that name, but it’s much more indie-rock than that. There’s a bit of life in the strumming, but the song never seems to get going, possibly because the singer is unfamiliar with many notes, and the sound is rather muddy. Very dull.
[3]

Kat Stevens: Much better than the band name would suggest! The singer’s Scottish accent solves a lot of the problems I would otherwise have with his vocal, but I can’t really see myself wanting to bother listening to this again.
[6]

Pete Baran: My only previous exposure to Frightened Rabbit was the track “The Modern Leper”, so forgive me if I am wrong in thinking the band are obsessed with disease. But for a band with such a twee name the cancer callouts here oddly make the lyrics stand out more; turning what could have been a relatively anonymous thrashalong into something a bit more noticeable. Of course it is all a gimmick, but it is sometimes all you need to make something stand out.
[6]

Ian Mathers: Basically Frightened Rabbit exist as the perfect midpoint between what makes Future of the Left great and what makes The Wedding Present great; they’ve always gotten by on velocity and wit, by sounding simultaneously completely unhinged and hilariously bitchy (except when they’re terrified, or enraged, or self-loathing, or…). Weirdly, somewhere in “Nothing Like You” is a pretty happy song, but they’re too busy getting digs at an ex for that to really shine through. Thank goodness.
[8]

Anthony Easton: I like the break up song as understatement, and it has a solid shout-along chorus, which is nice. I like this, but for reasons that sort of seem ineffable.
[8]

Edward Okulicz: Perky indie power-pop whose biting lyrics seem almost entirely at odds with how upbeat and happy the tune is. Quite a pleasant mixture, though I put this down to more the former than the latter, along with the fact that songs about being over a rubbish ex just aren’t as common as they should be. A breezy kind of catharsis, then.
[7]