White Rabbits – It’s Frightening

It’s Frightening, the sophomore effort from Brooklyn/Missouri six piece White Rabbits, is the sound of a band working through a gift and a curse: while neither crystallizing the sound of the first album nor charting a truly new direction, the album lives strangely in the shadow of its star producer, Spoon’s Britt Daniel. The band’s originality shone through on its debut, Fort Nightly, but needed a little polish. Enter Daniel whose distinctive, dubby aesthetic provides the blueprint for the album to the point that at a few moments it gives you the giddy feeling of having discovered an unknown Spoon album. In the end, Daniel’s production recalls his own band so vividly that it invites unflattering comparisons and makes the songwriting gap between the two bands obvious. It’s Frightening plays its strongest card up front in 'Percussion Gun', which swings enough to make you want to dance, but is just moody enough to keep you from doing it. The band’s two drummers jump right into a staccato, propulsive rhythm, part drum solo, part drumline, on which lead man Stephen Patterson layers his cool howl. By the time the guitar drops in, Daniel’s fingerprints are unmistakable. 'Percussion Gun' ends up being the most fertile ground for Daniel’s aesthetic not only because the dual, pounding drums are an ear-catching sound, but because its melody is clearly the album’s strongest. From here, the energy level steadily drops, reaching its nadir on the sleepy 'Company I Keep' before rebounding on 'Midnight And I', which stands out for its vampy piano figure, darkly creeping chorus and twanging peals of guitar a la 'The Guns of Brixton'.Apart from these handful of standouts, the album suffers from a growing sense of sameness despite its short (under 35 minutes) running time. The rhythm section is tight throughout and, taken individually, the brooding, Radiohead via slightly rootsy American rock, minor key melodies that Patterson sings are fine, but played back-to-back they begin to blur together. Daniel’s production strips a band’s sound to its essence and, in the process, puts the spotlight even more squarely on the songwriting. That works on Spoon albums because they’re so full of memorable melodies and surprising touches, but here it gives It’s Frightening a slightly claustrophobic feel. It’s unfair to say It’s Frightening is a disappointment because it doesn’t really have any bad songs; there just aren’t many that you’ll find yourself returning to either. 65%White Rabbits on Myspace