“Pedestrian Verse”? Talk about a gift to critics: had Frightened Rabbits’ fourth studio offering been a dud, the headlines could have practically written themselves. Well, unlucky cynics: Selkirk’s finest appear to have effortlessly dodged the bullet by delivering an album that’s currently sending critics scrabbling for superlatives. Kicking off with a dusty piano lick and a killer couplet, opener ‘Acts Of Man’ builds into an epic, lighters-aloft, slow-burner, driven by cacophonous percussion, distorted guitars and swooning vocal harmonies, and sets the bar high for the rest of the record. Elsewhere there’s a bit of Biffy about the rousing chug of ‘The Woodpile’, and a smidgeon of Final Straw-era Snow Patrol in the spidery synth arpeggios of ‘Backyard Skulls’. All told, it’s a major label debut with “crossover success” written all over it.