Seminal Scottish indie rockers Frightened Rabbit celebrated the tenth anniversary of their sophomore record last year, and now the band organized a creative way to celebrate the occasion. Frightened Rabbit is re-releasing The Midnight Organ Fight with each song covered and recorded by a different musician. Julien Baker participated in the project, and she gave a hauntingly beautiful rendition of the album’s opening track, “The Modern Leper.”
Frightened Rabbit’s re-release, titled Tiny Changes: A Celebration of The Midnight Organ Fight, features covers by fellow indie musicians such as Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, Chvrches‘ Lauren Mayberry, and The National‘s Aaron Dessner. The band made the album’s announcement on their Instagram, where they also spoke about about how former frontman Scott Hutchison, who passed away last year, was involved in the project:
“To celebrate the 10 year anniversary/birthday of The Midnight Organ Fight we wanted to avoid the usual approach of just repressing the vinyl, or re-releasing the same record with different artwork or putting out demos that were never meant to be heard by anyone other than the band and maybe our parents. We came up with the idea of asking some pals to record their own interpretations of the songs on the album.
Scott was a vital part of bringing this album together and it’s something he was very excited about and worked hard to bring to life. He listened to and approved every track on there with us and he had already started preparing the artwork which you’ll see on there (if you buy it). This is a celebration of a record that connected thousands of people to Scott and connected thousands of people to each other and ten years on it is still managing to do it. Scott would probably have put in some joke here about when the album hits puberty and starts rebelling by smoking weed and getting things pierced. We’re not that funny so instead let’s just raise a glass, blow out the candles and make a wish.”
Listen to Julien Baker’s cover of “The Modern Leper” above.
Tiny Changes: A Celebration Of The Midnight Organ Fight is out 07/12 via Canvasback Music/Atlantic Records.
