Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(78/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A
BBC Music	(favorable)
Drowned in Sound	8/10
The Fly
The Guardian
NME	8/10
Rock Sound	8/10
This Is Fake DIY	9/10
ShockHound
The Skinny
Pitchfork Media	6.6/10

The Winter of Mixed Drinks is the third studio album by Scottish indie rock band Frightened Rabbit, released on 1 March 2010 through independent label FatCat Records. As with its predecessor, the critically acclaimed The Midnight Organ Fight (2008), the album was recorded and produced by Peter Katis. Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Scott Hutchison states that The Winter of Mixed Drinks is "more of a storytelling record" than the band's previous two albums, and notes that the album is "about an escape and maybe even a slight breakdown. I have to say, it's semi-fictional. There's a protagonist who is possibly male but it doesn't really describe my life because if I did that it wouldn't make for an interesting album this time around as I’ve been quite solid and content, thankfully."

The album was preceded by the singles "Swim Until You Can't See Land" and "Nothing Like You", released during November 2009 and February 2010, respectively. The album's third single "Living in Colour" was released on 14 June. The album's title comes from a line in the song "Living in Colour", with Hutchison stating, "I think we've all had odd, lonely, fallow periods in life, where you find yourself detached from everything, drifting and lost. That's what [the title] means to me, but most importantly, it's the moments of joy afterwards, during recovery, that defines the dark period." The album's fourth and final single "The Loneliness and the Scream" was released in November 2010.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks was written over seven weeks, in the coastal town of Crail, Fife, following heavy touring in support of the band's second album, The Midnight Organ Fight. Drummer Grant Hutchison states that "the location had a big impact on the songs. There's definitely a nautical theme to a lot of the tracks and a feeling of testing yourself to the limit which the sea plays a big part in. Scott [Hutchison] had a daily routine of walking along the beach until an idea came into his head and he would then turn round and develop it on the way home." Demo versions of the songs were subsequently recorded by Scott during his stay in Crail.

...
Wikipedia