Frightened Rabbit - Keep Yourself Warm

I am a very disenfranchised person. I can typically understand the motivations behind most actions, but it is often hard for me understand the level of ignorance, incompetence, or inconsideration, required for accomplishing some petty cruelties. While I can empathize with just about any person in any situation under any circumstance, I often find it difficult to sympathize. I’ve spent many moments in my life saying “well what did you think was going to happen?” I find a lot of it stems from two shortcomings, one a lack of empathy for other people, and two a lack of understand that there are consequences for our actions.

In my endless search for good music for both mine and your benefit, I have gotten into the habit of every year searching critics’ and fans’ review of music for the year. Top 100 lists and things like that. Well last year I went through one critics entire top 100 list, excluding only the songs I had already heard and hated. Other then MGMT and a track by The Cloud Cult I was not very impressed with the list. However as is the point of this review, there was one track that did stand out to me, an indie rock song out of Scotland called “Keep Yourself Warm,” by Frightened Rabbit.

"Keep Yourself Warm" comes to us from Frightened Rabbit's 2008 album "The Midnight Organ Fight" which is yet another fantastic candidate for best album name ever.

I do not know very much about Frightened Rabbit and as of this date I have only heard a couple other songs by them and all and all, they seem fair. On a scale from one to ten I’d give them a six, better than average. Nonetheless “Keep Yourself Warm,” really hit a cord with me.

The chorus is as follows: “It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.”

I like that, I like that a lot.

The lyrics are bold. The lyrics are offensive insofar if vulgarity offends you, or if you are such a witless child that mature subject matter frightens you. Naturally this song is not on the radio. Still the commentary being made here is certainly relevant in our modern society that has glorified sexuality in any dynamic, people seem to have forgotten what actually companionship is.

They are good lyrics, so here they are;

"My hole, I'll get my hole, I'll get my hole,
Get my hole, get my hole and I'll find out more.
It's a choo-choo train, a rocket launch
If we have a hormone race,
I'm bound to finish first.

Can you see in the dark?
Can you see the look on your face?
The flashing white light's been turned off,
You don't know who's in your bed.

It takes more than fucking someone you don't know to keep warm.
Do you really think that for a house-beat you'll find your love in a hole?

Oh, you won't find love in a,
Won't find love in a hole.
It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.

I'm drunk, I'm drunk,
And you're probably on pills.
If we've both got the same diseases,
It's irrelevant girl.
And the room fills with steam,
Oh, evaporates disappears,
My point of entry is the same way,
That I leave

Can you see in the dark?
Can you see the look on your face?
The flashing white light's been turned off
You don't know who's in your bed.

It takes more than fucking someone you don't know to keep warm.
Do you really think that for a house-beat you'll find your love in a hole?

But, you won't find love in a, won't find love in a hole.
It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.

You won't find love in a, won't find love in a hole.
It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself-
SEE in the dark!
Can you see the look in your face?
The flashing white light's been turned off
You don't know who's in your bed.

It takes more than fucking someone you don't know to keep warm
Do you really think that for a house-beat you'll find your love in a hole?"

Not only is "Keep Yourself Warm" a fantastic indie rock song with a charming Celtic sound, but it also makes a very relevant social commentary.  How many people, perhaps mostly men, think connecting their sexual organs together qualifies as a relationship?  Have we grown so fond of sexual satisfaction have we forgotten the cure to what ails us is something else?  What grieves most our souls is not a lack of untested lust, but a void in our emotions a lack of something rather obvious.  It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.

Until next month, keep yourself warm.

- Colin Kelly