About “Death Dream”

“Death Dream” was the first single released from Frightened Rabbit’s Painting of a Panic Attack.

The song seems to be describing a dream the song-writer had about discovering a loved one’s suicide scene. Songwriter and lead singer, Scott Hutchison, told in a press release:

This is the start of letting go… The song is called “Death Dream”. It seemed like an appropriate place to begin, as it was from this song that the album title was taken. The title, as with the song, is intended as a beautiful depiction of something horrific. The kind of thing you can’t stop looking at, or perhaps listening to, even though it’s rather painful at times.

Scott Hutchinson later took his own life by jumping from the Forth Road bridge, and in this song, seems to be exploring the emotional effect of discovering that a loved one has taken their own life.