Breaking Up

J. Edward Keyes on Shuffle

by J. Edward Keyes

You have to hand it to the Scots: They certainly know how to get dumped. The Midnight Organ Fight, the spectacular and incredibly involving second record from the Glasgow group Frightened Rabbit is devoted to endlessly raking over the details of a nasty one. Frontman Scott Hutchison is an artless lyricist, but it's precisely that artlessness that makes the record so enthralling. He could probably find a more interesting way to say, "I need human heat," but why should he? Normal people don't talk that way, and normal people who are in the throes of a breakup most certainly don't talk that way, so why pretend that we're all living in An Affair to Remember? You may never have felt the way Hutchison feels when he sings "I might not want you back, but I want to kill him," but someday you will. And when that day comes, you will be glad a record as heartrending as Midnight exists.

Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight (Fatcat)

Mariah Carey E=MC2 (Island/Def Jam)

Mariah Carey is no stranger to bad breakups. She sang an ode to a wrenching one on "We Belong Together," sometimes referred to by its alternate title, The Best Single of 2005. In the '90s, the sole purpose of Carey's songs was to put as much emphasis as possible on The Voice; accordingly, great swaths of sound were cleared so she could skip up her kajillion-octave range to produce something roughly similar to a dolphin mating with a bicycle. The Voice has dried up and gone now, so Carey's only recourse is to put emphasis on The Persona instead. The result, unsurprisingly, are records that are far more interesting and engaging and not nearly as dependent on cheap melismatic tricks. Carey has had to discover a whole new way to sing, and consequently her songs have taken new and interesting shapes. E=MC2 (a title so mind-bogglingly goofy it's impossible to hate) dabbles in classic soul, disco and gospel with equal success. If the vocals rely a little too heavily on double-time note-bouncing, be glad, at least, that all of those notes are kept within normal human range. E=MC2 is not nearly as good as The Emancipation of Mimi, but it still has its moments — like the one where Carey vows to "hunt down" a paramour who betrays her. Memo to Carey: I hear Scotland is nice this time of year.

(j_keyes@citypaper.net)