Good Weather For Airstrikes

During my six-week stay in London this summer, I saw A LOT of great live bands, but none better than Brooklyn’s own White Rabbits. Ironic, given my love for/obsession with British music, that the highlight of my trip (Daft Punk aside) would be a performance by a band from my own stomping grounds, but the unparalleled intensity and controlled wrecklessness of the Rabbits’ live show was not to be fucked with. Their debut LP, Fort Nightly, is undoubtedly excellent from start to finish, failing only in that it can’t replicate the intense passion of their live show. One track, however, stands apart from the rest in its ability to capture the emotion of White Rabbits’ live set, and it’s the album’s stand-out track as a result. Released earlier this year on Say Hey Records and now seeing release as a single in the UK on XL Recordings’ esteemed Young Turks imprint, “The Plot” is one of the best tracks of the year and definitely worth writing home about.

It takes off at 100 miles per hour from square one, double-tracked drums both setting the rampant pace for the track and driving home vocalist Greg Roberts’ impassioned lyrics of domestic abuse in a relationship gone wrong. It’s a crash course in momentum and manic pacing, a four-minute test of endurance with impressive lyrical depth that’s just icing on the cake. The driving guitars and percussion that make up the track’s grandiose rhythm section let up only for a moment in the bridge, allowing the keys to take center stage while Roberts’ delivers the songs most visceral lyric: “You’re hiding in the sheets/I work hard so we can have nice things/You’re not even dressed/The house is such a mess”. Then it’s “He’s! Not! Impressed!” and the song roars back with that climactic, soaring and endlessly-addictive “woe-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” chorus, perhaps the most unforgettable of the year (save for maybe “Paper Planes”), and the rest is history. There are really no flaws with this track, and if White Rabbits can do a better job of translating the energetic passion of “The Plot” and their live show to future records they’ll be a force to reckon with in the years to come.

The B-side is Fort Nightly lead-off gem “Kid On My Shoulders”, a track that wouldn’t feel out of place in the Cold War Kids’ repertoire, all jangly piano riffs, maracas and cymbal crashes. Though it pales in comparison to the A-side, it’s one of the album’s other standouts and could do just fine as a single in its own right, making this a record definitely worth adding to your collection. I’d feel badly about giving both sides of the record up for download, but Say Hey’s already giving them away on their own site, so why the fuck not. Get your download on below and be sure to check out the band’s self-made video (basically their summer tour diary in hyperspeed) while you’re at it.

MP3s:
“The Plot” - White Rabbits ((highly recommended))
“Kid On My Shoulders” - White Rabbits

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Single Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.