Frightened Rabbit may have gotten called up to the big leagues, but their first start, Pedestrian Verse, shows them sticking to their signature stuff: heart-on-sleeve, Scottish sad-boy anthems. The album’s eighth track, “Dead Now,” sees them practically putting on a “boozing and heartbreak” clinic. In other words, it’s a pretty good a place to get a sample of what this band does best.
“Dead Now” thumps along on an almost-happy beat, finding comfort a couple of notches below their last effort, the ultra-epic Winter of Mixed Drinks. It’s actually pretty simple instrumentally, propelled by a stomping rhythm section and little else. The lyrics remain plenty self-degrading, yet they only scratch the surface when compared to Midnight Organ Fight‘s personal pleas. But honestly, it doesn’t matter how hard you hit it: a punch to the pecker still hurts.
The track begins with lead singer Scott Hutchison confessing, “I’m not myself”. But being a man who thrives when he’s at his worst, he should feel right at home soaked in stiff drinks and porch-pissings. Throughout “Dead Now,” Scott absorbs bodily blow after blow, eventually forcing him to repeatedly declare that “there’s something wrong with me” until an unholy ghost choir and wailing guitar solo pick him up and carry him home. While this may serve as a sobering slap to the listener, it’s simply another confession about needing to change delivered by a man who rarely acts on his words. And us Frabbit fans wouldn’t have it any other way.