State Hospital: Frightened Rabbit

The biggest bit of news to drop in casa EbM in last few months was that old favourites Frightened Rabbit would be releasing a new LP in 2013. That was good news because as creators of one of the best albums of the last half-decade, FR LPs are always worth paying attention to, but also because there would inevitably be a host of EPs and singles released to build up anticipation. And as a FR fanboy-completist, I’m willing to gobble all of these up with gusto.

We last had a FR EP back in November ’11, and whether any of the tracks from there will be on the new LP we can only speculate. What is known, however, is that the title track from State Hospital will make it on to the final album. Being the first song to emerge from the album’s writing session, frontman Scott has said it “set the tone” for the rest of the record. If that’s the case then fans of FR’s old stuff (which definitely includes me) are in for a treat. But it’s not a continuation of the upward trend in production values that we’ve seen through their last three albums; as I said when the last EP came out, the band’s longtime producer Peter Katis (a man with one of the most impressive resumes of recent times) is no longer on the scene and the band are handling production duties themselves. Whatever the reason for this (it may be a ‘creative’ decision or a side-effect of the band’s switch from indie FatCat to major Atlantic) I think ultimately it’s a step in the right direction. The songs on this EP carry a rawness and edge that is recognizable from their early work but which had been all but ironed out following 2008’s Midnight Organ Fight.

Of the other songs on this release, Boxing Night is the standout, reminiscent of Cheap Gold and It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop, and is by all accounts an old song given a final polish before being laid to rest. The collaboration with Aiden Moffat (late of Arab Strap), Wedding Gloves, is a leftfield ‘weird’ one, but what binds all five tracks together is an uncommon quality and a spirit that so many bands with promising beginnings lose as their career progresses. Frightened Rabbit are evidently still going strong, and still ones to watch.

 

An Alt. Christmas 06: Frightened Rabbit

[Not everyone loves Christmas songs but I, for one, can’t get enough of them.  Every year it seems we get the same old perennial hits, and I guess that’s part of the charm – Christmas is a time for comforting familiarity after all – but most of these aren’t as fulfilling as one might hope, musically speaking.  Never fear, however, as this Yuletide help is at hand, in the form of Eaten by Monsters’ selection of the best alternative Christmas songs out there.]

My christmas picks have been a decidedly cheery of late, so who better to bring the mood down than EbM favourites Frightened Rabbit? There’s a couple of versions of this little ditty kicking about the place – including one sung by a choir (minus lyrics, sadly; it’s just humming) – but this one is my favourite.  It’s slightly tougher and less, well, smooth, and that’s generally how I like my FR to sound.  When reviewing their recent EP, I bemoaned the lack of producer Peter Katis’ glossy presence, but in this instance the homemade rough-and-ready aspect works wonderfully.

Frightened Rabbit – It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop

 

A Frightened Rabbit EP: Frightened Rabbit

Scott Hutchinson, frontman of Frightened Rabbit, seems to have developed a taste for duets.  The 7″ single for The Loneliness and the Scream featured a duet with Craig Finn from The Hold Steady (a quirky cover of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart), and there are two new ones on the band’s latest release, a 3-track EP called, imaginatively, A Frightened Rabbit EP.  Here Scott duets with Tracyanne Campbell – of Camera Obscura fame – and Scottish folk-mainstay Archie Fisher.

Being the over-eager FR fanboy that I am, I pre-ordered the limited edition of the 10″ vinyl release which means I get to enjoy the always-impressive artwork as well as having the special joy that comes from actually being able to hold a record in your hands.  But for those of you less impressed by the constraining world of atoms, you can get this EP for free (in exchange for nothing more than an email address) over at the FR website.

If you follow the link to the EP’s page you’ll also find a track-by-track explanation of the record written by Hutchinson himself, and it’s always interesting to hear someone talking about their creative process.  The downside of this approach (and I say this as an avid, nay obsessive, consumer of ‘extra features’, DVD commentaries and the like) is that it can demystify the act of creation, and – more importantly – forever affects the way you think about a song.  In much the same way that I can’t watch Luke Skywalker struggling across the icy wastes of Hoth without thinking about Irvin Kershner and the rest of the crew filming it from within the shelter of a hotel doorway, I now can’t hear Scottish Winds, the EP’s opener, without thinking about [spoiler alert!] the fact that it was written on a bus. Now whether or not this has any impact at all on ones enjoyment of a piece is something we could debate for hours, but thankfully the songs on this EP are of a high enough quality that it doesn’t really matter.  That’s not to say, however, that they are up to FR’s usual high standards.

Of the three songs, Fuck This Place is the only one that I imagine I’ll listen to with any regularity.  The duet with Campbell is a much more polished effort that the other two; Scottish Winds is nicely acerbic and vulgar but just sounds a little half-cocked to be a real FR classic, and Fisher’s vocals on The Work are just a little too arch for these ears.  As a treat for fans to keep interest up between albums, this EP serves its purpose admirably, but if you’re new to the band I’d strongly recommend that you seek out their earlier work first.  Production duties on this record were handled by the band themselves, which is always nice to see provided the band are actually any good at production.  FR can get the job done, for sure, but I can’t help but feel the lack of Peter Katis’ reassuringly steady hand at the tiller.  Katis brings out the best in the band and gives their records their distinctive sheen, so I certainly hope his influence will make a return for the band’s next full-length; a record which can’t come soon enough in my book.

Frightened Rabbit – Fuck This Place 

 

Top 10 Albums of 2010

With Christmas now behind us for another year we can all pick our selves up, shake of the excess wrapping paper and chocolate and resume our normal routines.  Being just days away from the new year it’ll soon be time to look towards the future, but for now it’s time for a nostalgic look back at the year past; it’s list time, folks! While this might be the correct moment to write a retrospective look at the whole decade*, I think I’ll limit myself to the more manageable task of listing my favourite 10 albums that 2010 had to offer.

It’s been an interesting year for music, but strangely it’s been one that has thrown up fewer “new” musical passions than previous years.  Looking back at my Top 10 from 2008, 7 of those albums were debut LPs by new artists, and while I didn’t publish my “best of 2009” the ratio of new acts to established ones was much the same.  This year, however, only 4 of the albums are debuts.  It seems to have been a year for great albums by well loved bands, but this in itself took me a little by surprise as there has been a whole slew of albums by bands I already loved that didn’t live up to expectations at all.  There was a certain element of schadenfreude in seeing the mediocre efforts by darlings of the HypeMachine  (Vampire Weekend and MGMT) sink without trace, but Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Jim Moray, Band of Horses, Johnny Flynn and We Are Scientists should all have been capable of much better.  This rather dismal showing from such highly anticipated records has had the effect of clearing the way for less obvious successes, and has made for a much more varied list than previous years have thrown up.

So without further ado, here is the moment you’ve all been waiting for since January; the official Eaten by Monsters blog Top Ten of 2010:

10. Lights by Ellie Goulding. By including this record I’m aware that I’m in danger of undermining any credibility I may have, particularly at this early stage in proceedings.  Hopefully you’ll have the fortitude and strength of character to continue reading the next 9 entries, where you’ll learn that I’m not actually the manipulated pop hound that this entry would suggest.  This one is most definitely a “guilty pleasure”, to co-opt an expression from the tabloids.  Goulding topped the BBC’s sound of 2010 list back in January, and as a result I gave the record a listen.  Although I despise everything it stands for, abhor all the production tricks and pour scorn on the poor quality of the songwriting I just can’t stop listening to it! Like a pernicious virus it has managed to infect most of the past twelve months of my listening, so in the interests of full disclosure I can’t help but include it here, albeit with plenty of caveats.

9. Total Life Forever by Foals. I quite liked Foals’ last record, but didn’t really think it was anything all that special.  It was a little bit too “trendy”, and it goes without saying that any band that can be described as “darlings of the NME” probably aren’t going to be my cup of tea at all.  And with their latest effort, Total Life Forever, they’re still just as achingly hip, but this time it’s tempered with an earnestness that just about overrides the hipster aspect.  No band that cares this much can ever be truly cool, so now I feel I can enjoy their music with impunity.

8. All Creatures Will Make Merry by Meursault. Meursault’s 2009 EP, Nothing Broke, seemed to be the moment when vast swathes of the public realised that the band were actually rather good, but strangely enough it didn’t have that effect on me.  While the new-found acoustic sensibilities were well meaning and competently executed, I found myself missing the electronic elements that made their debut LP so bewitching.  Thankfully All Creatures Will Make Merry has fused the best bits of both of their “sounds” to great effect, and heralds a stunning return to form.

7. Odd Blood by Yeasayer. This LP is alone on this list for being the only record that I don’t feel works properly as an album.  All the other entries here are records that have mastered the exquisite pushing and pulling of tension and the sense of an overarching vision that are essential when crafting a bona-fide album.  So why has it made this list? Quite frankly, solely on the strength of the individual songs themselves.  Much like Ellie Goulding’s Lights, Odd Blood has wheedled its way into my affections by simply having great songs.  And as a festive bonus the band are giving away a rather impressive live album (in exchange for nothing more than an e-mail address) over at their website.

6. Broadcast 2000 by Broadcast 2000.  This LP is an example of that rare and mythical beast, an album that is clearly great from the first few seconds of the first listen.  Much as I expected at the time, repeat listens have revealed it to be slightly less than the instant classic that first impressions suggested, but it is nonetheless still a very good record indeed.  Home-recorded albums often have an intangible, but instantly recognisable sheen to them that identifies them as the work of just one person, and while that is certainly in evidence here, the record still manages to rise above the morass of other self-produced efforts.

5. Becoming a Jackal by Villagers. I came rather late to the Villagers’ party, and being as I like to pride myself on being ahead of the curve, my ego wouldn’t let me like this record for a good long while; if all these people started to pay attention before I did, then it’s clearly not going to be any good, I told myself.  Thankfully I’ve now come to my senses and accepted the fact that this record is so popular purely because it is, indeed, excellent. You can read my full review of this album here.

4. High Violet by The National.  As it was the full-length followup to 2007’s Boxer, the expectations were high for The National’s fifth studio album.  In many ways it’s conformed to this years trend in that it didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but being as my expectations were so high it’s no great failure on their part.  Despite not being the life changing opus I was hoping for, High Violet is an exceptionally consistent album.  There are no real stand-out tracks, but that’s only because the whole record is of a uniformly high standard.  You can read my full review of this album here.

3. Perch Patchwork by Maps & Atlases. This is the record that Vampire Weekend should have made.  Instead, the baton of rhythmic exuberance has been passed to this four-piece from Chicago, who are more than up to the challenge.  I had my misgivings on the first few listens owing to the overly cheerful atmosphere, but it turns out that this album does have the punching power to hold its own amongst the more heavyweight releases of the year.  “In vogue” and yet never derivative, Perch Patchwork makes for a worthy number 3.  You can read my full review of this album here.

2. The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit. If anything, my expectations for this release were even higher than for High Violet.  Very rarely does an album capture my attention as thoroughly as Frighten Rabbit’s last studio album, The Midnight Organ Fight, did.  With a string of fantastic singles serving only to heighten my sense of anticipation, The Winter of Mixed Drinks may not have actually exceeded the standard set by their last record, but it has at least lived up to it, while at the same time moving the band’s sound forwards.  One of the highlights of this Christmas was getting the vinyl box set of all their recent singles.  You can read my full review of this album here.

1. Bang Goes the Knighthood by The Divine Comedy. I’ve always been a firm fan of The Divine Comedy, but it’s always been off the back of individual songs; a large percentage of my all-time-favourite-songs lie within Neil Hannon’s back catalogue, but I’ve never been enamoured of an entire album of his stuff.  So it was quite a shock when I discovered, almost by accident, that he’d released a new album, and that furthermore it was exceedingly excellent from start to finish.   You can read my full review of this album here.

*remember, there wasn’t a year zero, so the new decade starts on the 1st of January 2011…

 

The Winter of Mixed Drinks: Frightened Rabbit

Well this review has been a long time coming and no mistake.  In the run up to the release of Frightened Rabbit‘s third LP, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, I got very hot around the collar and posted all sorts of FR related news; any single or free download was lapped up and devoured with all the fervour of the newly-converted.  So it may come as quite a surprise that I didn’t review it as soon as the promo copy arrived on my doormat.  It seems all the excitement meant that by the time the actual record arrived I had exhausted all my FR enthusiasm; I was well and truly spent.

Now we’re several months on, and I’ve had plenty of time to absorb this record – as I mentioned in my Band of Horses review the other day, my sabbatical from the blogosphere has allowed me to give certain albums a little longer to be assimilated.  So what’s the verdict? Is the most hotly anticipated LP of 2010 worth the wait? Does it deliver? Yes it bloody does.

It was never going to exceed the greatness of The Midnight Organ Fight, but I knew that before diving into this new record; there was always the hope that it might be even better, and to be honest it didn’t seem to surpass it’s predecessor on first listen, but there’s still hope for it yet.  The thing about TMOF was that it amazed from the very first listen; it was one of those rare examples of a record that is instantly accessible but yet still has enough depth to hold ones fascination long after the first flushes of attraction have faded.  Even now, nearly two years after I first heard it, it remains one of my all-time favourite records.  This new effort from Scott Hutchinson and his ever-increasing band of accomplices doesn’t have the same “instant attraction” that TMOF had, but now I’ve been listening to it pretty steadily for several months I can say with some certainty and conviction that they’ve hit the bulls-eye again.

It’s a much more euphoric experience than other FR records have been; much like Kings of Leon did between Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times, they’ve obviously adapted their songwriting to better suit the larger venues their recent success has left them playing.  My one complaint with Frightened Rabbits previous work was that at time they drifted towards the “anthemic” territory so beloved of UK rock acts that have been big hits in the states (will Coldplay and Snow Patrol please stand up?), and that is a criticism that could be levelled at The Winter of Mixed Drinks more than any other of their albums.  In the past the songs were kept on the ground by the dirt and grit of the lyrics, but even that tone has changed for this record.  The out-and-out grime has been replaced by a subtler sensibility; one where the lyrical currents run a little deeper, where the emotions aren’t quite so heart-on-sleeve as before.  All this means that this record represents a step forward for the band; they’re not simply resting on their laurels, they’re pushing forward and exploring new ground.

So maybe The Winter of Mixed Drinks is not quite as immersive or emotionally charged as their last record, but it’s easily the best album of 2010 (so far) by a country mile.

Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land

Frightened Rabbit – Living in Colour

 

Yet more Frightened Rabbit shenanigans…

Ah, as the release date for A Winter of Mixed Drinks fast approaches (March 1st) we’re being treated to yet more Frightened Rabbit goodness.  The band have released the album track Fun Stuff for fans to download, and there’s now also a competition (gosh, how exciting!).

Fun Stuff first emerged last year when a demo titled Last Tango in Brooklyn started doing the rounds.  Other than the change of name, there’s not much that’s changed in the song – the production on this new version is just a bit slicker, as one would expect from an album cut.  As a song, it’s what we’ve come to expect from Hutchison & co. Bitter and acerbic, after the lairy roustabouts that were the previous two singles, Swim Until You Can’t See Land and Nothing Like You, it’s nice to hear hints of the softer touch that made Midnight Organ Fight such a lasting success.

As for the competition, head over to the band’s Muzu channel for the full lowdown (as well as a few FR videos too).  Submit a cocktail recipe (see what they did there?) by the 15th Feb. to be in with a chance of winning free FR gig tickets and an after-show drink with the band.

Frightened Rabbit – Fun Stuff

Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude (live)*

*From a Daytrotter session they did back in ’08, just to bulk the post up a bit.

 

Nothing Like You: Frightened Rabbit

This time last year the musical calendar was looking pretty darned exciting.  With albums on the horizon by EbM favourites Broken Records, Emmy the Great, frYars, Esser and The Decemberists I was expecting great things of 2009.  Sure enough, 2009 produced some great records and was an all-round “good year for music”, but strangely none of the albums I was so excited about delivered on expectations.  All the aforementioned albums were good, but none of them were great, and certainly nowhere near as good as we’d all hoped they would be; hype is truly a terrible thing.

So it is with great trepidation and wariness that I nail my colours to the mast and say that I am really, really looking forward to the upcoming Frightened Rabbit album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks.  Of course this will come as no surprise to regular readers who probably have some inkling as to how much I love FR.  It seems like this album may be very well timed, as FR did very well in quite a few end-of-decade lists (such as the NME’s and The Skinny’s) and fans have been kept interested throughout 2009 first by the excellent Quietly Now! (a live version of Midnight Organ Fight) and the pre-Christmas single Swim Until You Can’t See Land.  This single was our first taste of what to expect from the upcoming album, and very nice it was too.  Now we’re being further tempted by another single, Nothing Like You.

This one won’t be released until the 22nd Feb and normally I’d hold off on a review until closer to the release date, but being as the album proper comes out only a few days later (1st March) I can justify getting this one out a little early (and it also shows how cool I must be to be able to get my paws on the single this far ahead of it’s release…*cough*cough*).  The B-side, Learned Your Name, is a gentle, sombre affair, trundling along nicely without sparking too much excitement; but then that’s all you ought to expect from a B-side.  The A-side, however, is a different story.

With all the great (possibly dangerous?) hype the band have been getting lately, and given the success of Swim…, all this single really needs to do is make sure it doesn’t disappoint.  Regardless, Nothing Like You springs from the blocks like it’s got something to prove.  It rattles along at a furious pace and does it’s job admirably – it’s more than equal to the quality of the work on Midnight Organ Fight, while at the same time pointing at yet more to come.  To hell with my trepidation, 2010 should be fantastic!

Frightened Rabbit – Nothing Like You*

*obviously there won’t be a download being as this is just a single.

 

Quietly Now!: Frightened Rabbit

I have to say I bought this record out of guilt.  When I first caught on to the FR buzz late last year I did so off the back of a rather sneaky download.  I’ve since attempted to atone for this unforgivable sin by purchasing Midnight Organ Fight (I could hardly write such a glowing review of the thing and not have actually bought it for myself) and it appears that sense of guilt has lingered on, resulting in the purchase of Quietly Now! (also referred to in some circles as Liver! Lung! FR!) despite hearing quite a bit of negative press about it (crucially a rather indifferent review over at TheSteinbergPrinciple, who’s already proved himself to be quite the FR devotee).

In short, this is Midnight Organ Fight live, with all the songs played in the same order as the original record.  It’s billed as “acoustic” but all that means is there isn’t a full drum kit; there’s still plenty of electric guitar, synth and some brushed drums, so it’s not acoustic in the strictest sense.  Despite the really nice cardboard packaging, it was with not inconsiderable trepidation that I approached this record; partly owing to the poor reviews, and partly because I’m not a huge fan of live albums.  Well, some are great, but most aren’t – even more so than with regular records.

Thankfully, however, it’s a darned super record.  The original album has started to sound a little cheesy to my ears, so it was a relief to hear the songs with some more of the rough edges left in… The long the short and the tall of it is that I simply love the songs.  They’ve got a set that I can listen to over and over and over again, which is surprisingly rare with albums these days.  I’m not sure they’re even close to being my favourite band, and neither of these albums, studio or live, are anywhere near being “all time favourites” but if you look at my Last FM stats for the past few months the sheer number of plays these two albums have racked up far outstrips everything else.

If you don’t like Frightened Rabbit then a live album certainly isn’t going to convince you otherwise, but if your a fan then I’d strongly recommend checking Quietly Now! out.  It seems to have polarized opinion amongst fans, but I for one think it’s great.

Frightened Rabbit – Backwards Walk (live)

Frightened Rabbit – Poke (live)

 

Frightened Rabbit on Rapal

I’m still deeply enamoured of Frightened Rabbit’s LP Midnight Organ Fight, but the production is starting to sound just a little cheesy.  Thankfully the songs (and their dirty, dirty lyrics) are good enough to cut through the polish and still pack a pretty hefty punch.

If you fancy seeing FR “live” then I’d recommend having a goosey at the four songs they played on Gaelic music show Rapal.  The show’s almost exclusively in Gaelic with English subtitles, but it’s worth persevering to witness the songs sans high production values.  It’s not a jaw-droppingly amazing performance, but if you’re a fan of the band and (like me) haven’t seen them live yet, then it certainly makes for interesting viewing.  You can view the show on the iPlayer here, and I guess it’ll be available for the next six days or so.

Frightened Rabbit – Modern Leper

 

Top 10 Songs of 2008

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2008’s been a pretty super year for music.  And most of it has come from new, emerging talent, too. Seven of the records on my Top 10 Albums of 2008 were debuts.  And many of the best songs were by acts that haven’t gotten around to making a full LP yet, and therefore couldn’t qualify for last week’s album list.

There were also a few fantastic songs that appeared on otherwise mediocre records (there’s quite a few of these), or records that I haven’t heard in full or just haven’t been made aware of yet, and I think they deserve to be recognised as the works of greatness that they are.  I’ve also taken the executive decision to exclude songs that appear on any of my top 10 albums, on the basis that they’ve already had their just deserts.

10. After Hours by We Are Scientists.  My love of WAS’s first album, With Love and Squalor, seems to be a source of constant and somewhat inexplicable derision amongst my peers.  It might be because their latest effort, Brain Thrust Mastery, is such a shallow and vapid beast.  Nearly all the songs follow the same theme as this, the lead single, and it’s not enough of a theme to qualify as a concept album either… I really like this song though, and it’s earned it’s place on this list mainly as a result of its high playcount in my iTunes.

9. 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale. Not the best album I’ve heard lately by a long while, Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down is nice on its first listen, but is ultimately proves to be too flimsy to stand up to repeat listening.  I guess the immediacy of the songs accounts for their meteoric rise to fame at the start of the summer.  Despite the fact that it’s now become ubiquitous and omnipresent thanks to the all the aggressive radio playlisting it received, 5 Years Time has still clung onto at least some of its original charm.

8. I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie.  I’m an absolutely massive Death Cab fan and I was so, so, so excited about the release of the Narrow Stairs album back in May.  Hearing this song in advance of the records release whipped my excitement to even greater heights.  Sadly the rest of the album was a little disappointing.  Good, but not as good as it should have been.  I’m hoping it will grow on me over time, as Plans did, but this track still sounds lovely.

7. Trip To Bucharest / The Flight Of The Folk Mutants Parts 1&2 by Bellowhead.  Bellowhead’s latest album, Matachin, was quite a disappointment; I’d previously only heard them in-the-flesh, and something’s definitely lost in the retelling.  This song is the closest they came to capturing their raucous, energetic live performance.

6. Hiphopopotamus vs the Rhymenocerous by Flight of the Conchords.  I was loathe to include what is ostensibly a comedy album in last weeks list, so I’ve put FotC in here because they really are superb.  Not quite as musically sophisticated as Angles (the Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip album that did make the album top 10 despite being almost a comedy record) and the TV show itself wasn’t all that great, but their irreverent parodies were about the funniest things I heard all year.

5. We Almost Had a Baby by Emmy the Great.  I’ve been waiting to be properly impressed by Emmy for a while now.  She’s shown an awful lot of promise and potential in the past, and with this song (in my eyes at least) she’s finally come up trumps.  The Billy-Bragg-esque guitar line gets things off to a good start, and the cheery, innocent swing juxtaposes sharply with the cutting lyrics.

4. I Love You by Esser.  This cheeky lad’s a right character, and no mistake.  All his songs are full of sly, subtle wit and this is his best so far.  Add a succession of quirky videos into the mix, and we’ve got something that’s sure to be going places.

3. Ides (live on WtOTVS) by frYars [sic].  I’ve heard the recorded version of this song and I must say I didn’t like it much at all.  However, this version – despite the shoddy quality of the recording and the mistake he makes towards the end – is infinitely better.  Full of charm, wit and just enough violence to keep it exciting.

2. Poke by Frightened Rabbit.  By rights the album from which this song comes (The Midnight Organ Fight) should be on my Top Albums post, but alas, I only discovered it this week.  To atone for my sins I’m including Poke on this list.  It is certainly the stand-out track from the record, and has the best lyrics I’ve heard in absolutely ages.  As dirty and aggressive as The National at their best, but with far better scansion.

1. If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It (Toad Sessions) by Broken Records.  Everything I’ve heard from Broken Records this year has thoroughly impressed me, but none of it has quite reached the heights of this, my first exposure to them.  I’m a big fan of their full-band sound, but this stripped-down three-piece acoustic performance is as close to perfect as it gets.  Not only are all the individual parts extremely well crafted, but the whole ensemble gels together perfectly.