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.