Painting of a Panic Attack by Frightened Rabbit

Coming in like a sad Scottish raincloud to shit on your parade, we have Frightened Rabbit here at #15 with their fifth full-length album in the last decade, Painting of a Panic Attack. If you’ve been reading the Bacon Review for any length of time, you’d know that I love these five guys out of Selkirk, Scotland. They’ve been on the Top 31 three times (2010,2012, 2013) and would have been on here at least two more times if I’d only been charting my Top 31 prior to 2009.

I live in Seattle, and Frightened Rabbit makes for the perfect soundtrack to the dark, long, and wet winters we have in the Pacific NW (and in Scotland, I’ve heard). The members of Frightened Rabbit are masters songs that wallow in sadness and depression but turn into a resounding chorus of redemption and overcoming of adversity. It can sound a touch formulaic or simple at times, but that’s something I love about them. This is not deep, introspective music. This is straightforward, hit you over the head, emo rock & roll. And it is glorious.

And nothing beats a good Scottish accent.

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16. Why Are You OK by Band Of Horses
17. Not To Disappear by Daughter
18. Sunlit Youth by Local Natives
19. I Had a Dream That You Were Mine by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
20. ★ by David Bowie
21. Farewell, Starlite! by Francis and the Lights
22. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
23. LNZNDRF by LNZNDRF
24. Puberty 2 by Mitski
25. Light Upon the Lake by Whitney
26. A Corpse Wired for Sound by Merchandise
27. Away by Okkervil River
28. case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs
29. Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations