For most bands you will find that it’s the “difficult 2nd album” that proves the most troublesome part of their career, however in Frightened Rabbit’s case it seems to be the third.

2006′s debut “Sings the Greys” secured the band a valuable place in the Indie Rock food chain gaining critical press from most sources, but it was 2008′s “The Midnight Organ Fight” that really cemented the bands place and caused the music scene to sit up and take notice. Compared to the opinions on “Sings the Greys”, “The Midnight Organ Fight” blew its predecessor out of the water with high praise from Pitchfork, the NME and making many people’s top lists of the decade, let alone top 10′s of 2008.

And so we find them in the somewhat awkward situation of having to follow up such a well received album.
One of the biggest changes to take place in the writing of “The Winter of Mixed Drinks” is a shift in angle for Hutchinson’s lyrics, moving away from writing about past relationships (Speaking to The Skinny in late 2008 Hutchinson was quoted as saying “I can’t do another break-up album, cos I haven’t had one this year!”), instead turning the knife on himself and therefore finding him at his most vulnerable.
And it’s for this reason that “The Winter of Mixed Drinks” has a much more grown up feel to it, the writing process saw Hutchinson take a trip to the Scottish coastline rendering himself in isolation and allowing him to analyse past efforts and become more critical of his own actions as opposed to others.
Regret and reflection is a heavy theme that occurs throughout the whole duration of “The Winter of Mixed Drinks”, in particular the first single “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”, which sees him re-assessing previous decisions with a view to start anew (“Let’s call me a baptist, call this the drowning of the past”). Whether it was a conscious decision or not, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” was the ideal choice for being the first track from the album people would hear. It’s a song that seems to challenge Hutchinson’s own morality as a song writer with the lyric “Are you a man or a bag of sand?” (Albeit that it works much more effectively in the stripped down reprise “Man/Bag of Sand” that occurs later in the album), a line open to the interpretation of a possible apology to those he may have hurt in the past.

Another theme that frequently drops in and out of the album is that of death, in particular drowning, which while sets a darker tone, allows for much more subtle metaphors than those of the brash and frank ones contained within “The Midnight Organ Fight”. It’s not just the actual act of death either; the subject of digging one’s own grave often rears it’s head.

Fellow FatCat artist Hauschka comes on board to flesh out the arrangements on tracks such as “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”, building on the rather sparse instrumentation of “The Midnight Organ Fight”, taking a step into the unknown orchestrating “pop” songs, a challenge he was more than willing to take up.

“Skip the Youth” shows a much more intricate side of the band’, a song that starts out with a good couple minutes of drone that then launches into an upbeat song that just isn’t. A constant rhythmic piano and occasional snare hits imply a faster tempo that just isn’t there until the final minutes of the song when it allows itself to break free.

A personal highlight of the album is “Foot Shooter”, a tender acoustic song covered with swirling guitars whose delay seems to only add to the weight of the sporadic yet menacing drums. It’s tracks like this that make it clear that beneath the newfound sound lies the Frightened Rabbit that we have all come to know and love, just a new incarnation.

“The Winter of Mixed Drinks” also sees the addition of a much more developed vocal style, tracks like “Skip the Youth” and “Living in Colour” feature layered almost choral like vocals, with the latter being reminiscent of Hot Club De Paris’ acapella styling’s creating a heightened positive angle to the song.

Most people will view “The Winter of Mixed Drinks” as a step back compared to previous material, building their sound has involved writing more accessible songs that may open them up to a wider audience, however to me it’s more a step back and then two steps forward.