Artist: White Rabbits
Label: Mute Records
Release: 2009
Length: 34:42
Rating: 3/5
White Rabbits are yet another Brooklyn-based American indie rock band, originally from Columbia, Missouri. Another one, then, trying to carve out a spot under the sun with a musical character of their own. With their bizarre minimalism, on which they build their sermon of warning, the band put themselves on the rock universe’s radar in 2007 with their debut “Forty Night”.
The six-piece can boast two lead vocalists and two drummers. And still, what we’re talking about is a pop rock indie burlesque of pure minimalism. For the new album, the band invited producer Britt Daniels, best known as a member of Spoon, to join in. And? Daniels proved himself an influence in the studio, and “It’s Frightening” definitely doesn’t hide a few parallels with Spoons’ way of expressing themselves. You could say White Rabbits are a slightly softened Spoon, with vocals that, interestingly, owe the most, especially in tone and production, to the legacy of nineties Britpop, and those of you who get fired up by post-Britpop bands like Kaiser Chiefs or Franz Ferdinand might perk up your ears too.
Even in how the songs themselves are put together, it’s a lot of circling around clichés of basic melodies and motifs. The difference is that White Rabbits have largely stripped out the rock racket of guitars. So the first thing that hits your ears is the solid rhythm section, often reinforced by a dialogue between two drum kits. That’s how the album opens, too, with Percussion Gun, which, with the element placed up front like that, is one of the most interesting creations on the record. The same trick deepens the band’s sound beautifully in They Done Wrong/We Done Wrong, which, thanks to its seductive dance rhythm, pushes you to move all on its own. Otherwise, the keyboards and guitar serve merely as a supplement. Already in this song the band often uses a repeating keyboard (piano) note that just reinforces the rhythmic drive of the songs, as later in The Lady Vanishes and so on. They can hardly avoid it across the album.
The guitars have a natural, organic character. Besides strumming simple chords, they often pick out trivially “readable,” clean-sounding single-note lines made up of just a few notes, which the band uses as occasional ornamentation, especially in the transitional sections, the passages between verse and chorus. That livens up the dynamics. A lot of the sound is also filled out by vocal duets (Rudi Fails). Repeating motifs came up earlier. Especially the simple use of keyboards. It works hypnotically, but at the same time it’s awfully easy to digest. Potentially very appealing to radio and MTV these days. A thousand times worn-in old but proven trick, which in more bizarre dimensions has brought success to the likes of The Killers or Snow Patrol.
White Rabbits are Americans who sound English. They create a gloomy atmosphere, but in the vocal “Gallagher-ness” you also sense a bit of the Dylanesque” (Company I Keep). Furthermore, given the minimalism used in these repetitions, comparisons are even possible with bands like Radiohead, The Walkmen and Underworld.
With “it’s Frightening,” White Rabbits define the look of the indie rock sound even more clearly. They sound sweet, simple, instantly catchy. They don’t complicate anything. The motifs are concise, the songs clear and compact. On top of that, the band shows a deep feel for melody, which they express in their definition of a musical approach consistently and effectively. The atmosphere they build can be mildly creepy at moments, as in Lionesse, for instance, where the band builds a contrasting, three-dimensional mood out of the coexistence of dissonantly tuned keyboard escapes, noisily reinforced rhythm and high-reaching melodic vocals. But that’s not a must. They can reach occasional creepiness in a dreamy song like Midnight And I in other ways too, where they smear a guitar chord in contrast over the accompaniment of a gloomy keyboard touch.
“It’s Frightening” doesn’t bring a musical revolution, but builds on recycling. It takes its cues from trends and tries to win itself a place. It tries to handle indie rock trends in its own way. The band’s biggest asset is building simple but solidly grounded rhythms on which the melodically well-rounded statement of the lead motifs rests. The atmosphere is mostly gloomy, and the album really does live up to its title, “frightened.” Time will tell whether the market is oversaturated or whether there’s enough room for a new commercial success story. In that regard, it’s worth bearing in mind that talent (about which, hand on heart, we don’t actually learn much on “It’s Frightening”) doesn’t play as big a role as the willingness of labels and radio frequencies to cash in some serious “coin” from White Rabbits too. “It’s Frightening” isn’t an intelligent album in the sense of freshness and creative inspiration that could shake up and thrill the listener, but above all a cautious album that wants to please many, especially less demanding, listeners.
Line-up
Gregory Roberts – vocals, guitar
Stephen Patterson – vocals, piano
Alexander Even – guitar, backing vocals
Brian Betancourt – bass guitar
Matthew Clark – drums, percussion
Jamie Levinson – drums
Production
Britt Daniels
Track list
1. Percussion Gun (3:08)
2. Rudie Fails (3:24)
3. They Done Wrong / We Done Wrong (4:30)
4. Lionesse (3:10)
5. Company I Keep (4:10)
6. The Salesman (Tramp Life) (2:50)
7. Midnight and I (3:34)
8. Right Where They Left (3:29)
9. The Lady Vanishes (3:29)
10. Leave It at the Door (3:00)
