It's Frightening

It's Frightening kicks into high gear from the get-go, and never looks back.

This makes for an important sophomore release that is even more sweepingly seductive than "Fort Nightly." [Spring 2009, p.92]

When Patterson says, "While you're out taking aim, and taking orders." It sounds like an indictment, and is one of the many small touches that litter this near-perfect second album. [Spring 2009, p.68]

Daniel justly brings the band’s best attributes to the foreground and It’s Frightening ends up being a tight and concise album.

White Rabbits recruited Spoon frontman Britt Daniel to produce It's Frightening, an appealingly audacious move that reveals just how tightly these guys define their sound. That self-awareness is apparent in the band's music as well--nothing seems out of place in these tidily arranged soul-punk tunes, most of which revolve around piano and bass rather than guitar.

White Rabbits favor physical instruments over electronic abstractions, and the drums kick the music toward an American sound that fortifies its brains with muscle.

It’s Frightening builds upon White Rabbits’ established aesthetic and at the same time sharpens the band’s shambling attack.

The script might contain plenty of familiar elements, but they're ably, and occasionally superbly, shuffled and recast.

While playing catchy, well-crafted songs isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is sometimes less than exciting.

Ignore (or embrace) the similarities [to Spoon] and there’s plenty to love about songs as lightly brooding and likably grabby as these.

Always on the verge, but never quite becoming too polished, It’s Frightening is an exciting step forward from a group that would appear to have a masterpiece to deliver somewhere down the line.

Like "More Specials," the Specials' second-record departure, It's Frightening isn't nearly buoyant as its predecessor. Insofar as its purpose is to rattle the bones, it's a fidgety, impenetrable success.

The only instruments that aren't slaves to the beat are Gregory Roberts and Stephen Patterson's vocals, which mingle into perfectly messy harmonies.

Twin drummers Matthew Clark and Jamie Levinson are oustanding, but it’s Patterson who’s the real star – an all-American frontman whose honey-coated voice is practically begging for adoration.

It’s Frightening is far from a bloodless copy of a more vivid being; it is, rather, a living, breathing creation, one that is only dubiously theirs.

It’s Frightening isn’t a bad album in its own right. There are certainly worse things than making a record that’s frequently catchy but not terribly exciting.

It’s Frightening is by no means a record which is without merit. I suspect that the production work of Spoon’s Britt Daniel has infused it with more presence than it might otherwise have had. However, that notwithstanding, the album’s lack of anything substantial to get your teeth into proves fatal.

And while White Rabbits' wild Americana and freaked folk makes for a varied and vivid sprawl of sounds, their knack for addictive melody and honed songcraft delivers a beguiling, coherent and memorable whole. [Feb 2010, p. 97]

Building a forthright sound on upfront drums, piano and Stephen Patterson's angsty vocals, tracks including Burundi-drumming lead single Percussion gun and the suspenseful groover Right Where They Left are a winning balance of art-indie mope and pop energy. [Feb 2010, p. 113]

Their rhythm section (ooh, two drummers!) is serviceable but generally underwhelming, and song by song the record just falls flat.