Frightened Rabbit’s 2008 album Midnight Organ Fight is one of those revelatory releases, one where a band seems to rise up from nowhere with a work of rare insight and inspiration. It was written by Scott Hutchison, who excavated all the harsh emotional detritus of a bad breakup into messy, soul-baring self-examinations, such as the incredible album-opener “The Modern Leper.”
Sixteen years now after their release, songs from the album like “The Modern Leper” have lost none of their appeal or potency. Here is the story of that wonderful album and this particularly thrilling track.
Rabbit Run
Scott Hutchison was nicknamed “Frightened Rabbit” as a child because of how he tended to shy away from certain social encounters. He used the name as a kind of pseudonym when he began to record music, eventually making it his band’s name when he was joined by his brother Grant on drums and Billy Kennedy on guitar.
The band released an album called Sing the Greys in 2006 that was essentially a set of Scott Hutchison’s glorified demos. For their next release, the Scottish trio hired producer Peter Katis. Katis brought them to his home studio in Connecticut, where they hammered Scott Hutchison’s songs into shape over a month or so.
Many people who heard Midnight Organ Fight at first believed the songs full of torment and heartbreak came about because the songwriter’s significant other had left him. Scott Hutchison set the record straight in a retrospective look at the album he did for The Skinny:
“This album was clearly borne out of a prolonged period of heartache after the demise of a long-term relationship, I can’t deny that, but there is a broad misconception about this album and I’ve not really had any call [to] address it until recently. Until now, in fact. This is not an album written by a person who was dumped. It’s an album about a person who left a relationship and regretted the s–t out of that decision. That’s a fairly broad brushstroke of course and nothing in life is so simple and one-sided, but I thought it was time to correct the popular notion, because even though I was very, very sad … it was my f–king fault.”
Scott Hutchison battled depression and alcoholism throughout his life. On Midnight Organ Fight, a harrowing track called “Floating in the Forth” deals with a narrator contemplating suicide before eventually fighting off the urge. Sadly, Hutchison lost the battle with his personal demons when he took his own life in May 2018 at just 36 years old.
But what a wonderful recorded legacy he left behind. Songs like “The Modern Leper” stand out as examples of a rare songwriter who could fearlessly transcribe the contents of his heart and soul without filter, all while making the torrents of words pouring forth in a whoosh relatable to others with problems of their own.
What is the Meaning of “The Modern Leper”?
“The Modern Leper” displays Scott Hutchison’s gift for metaphor. The narrator uses leprosy as a way of describing how crippled he feels without the stability of his relationship to keep him standing. To make matters worse, his depression exacerbates his problems: And vital parts fall from his system / And dissolve in the Scottish rain / Vitally he doesn’t miss them / He’s too f–ked up to care.
Dimly through the fog in his heart and mind, he discerns the love of his life trying to help him, a turn of events that befuddles him: Is that you in front of me / Coming back for more of the same? / You must be a masochist / To love a modern leper on his last leg. But the narrator eventually finds a sliver of a bright side: You’re not ill and I’m not dead / Doesn’t that make us the perfect pair?
“The Modern Leper” ends with this broken man propping himself enough to ask his ex how her day went. Scott Hutchison found bits of hope even while battered about of The Midnight Organ Fight. Fans of Frightened Rabbit who might be on the figurative ropes in their own lives can do the same while listening to that magnificent record.
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