Umbrellas

Item: Umbrellas
Author: Peter Veness

(2005)

Reviewed by Peter Veness

Discogs Bandcamp Apple Music

Label The Militia GroupDecapolisApril 2005

indie rock piano rock

I've never watched Mary Poppins, I think nannies are evil and umbrellas are weird. I always like to get wet in the rain and the idea of using an umbrellas to stave off the sun always seemed patented solely to blue rinse nanna's and evil children with not enough to do.

However, when my girlfriend recently moved out of home I went shopping with her parents and an earnest discussion erupted over whether an umbrella was necessary for her new life at university. An executive decision was made and the umbrella was bought, I don't think she's used it since given her own penchant for walking in the cooling summer rain of north-western Sydney.

In so many ways the Umbrellas write a soundtrack for the moments when we use the stabbing implement cum weather protector. On their debut album the band favour production over songwriting, working a vein already successfully mined by Death Cab For Cutie and perhaps the more tempered moments of Coldplay. It's unfortunate the band can be so easily pigeon holed because they do regularly rise above their box, just not often enough to warrant a stay of label.

As with the above bands the Umbrellas work a narrow niche which occasionally results in homogeny but they know enough about music to avoid the obvious pitfalls and lyrically they stand above the majority of the pack. The City Lights is the opener and is a perfect picture of what the album has to offer, sonically and lyrically.

Brushed cymbals wash over a gentle piano line and the heavily textured vocals of Scott Windsor. Where Umbrellas succeed is in their emotional intelligence -- the five piece gnaw away at your heart with simple, elegant piano runs and even simpler beats but it has a cumulative effect that softly batters your heart in to submission. The album leaves you in a place of healing despite the lyrical themes of weakness, addiction and misplaced love.

Set The Scene closes the album and is the strongest song on the album with a wonderful narrative lyric and a dry acoustic riff thrown across an atmosphere of percussion and synthesizers.

"We rely on stale dialogue. I ruined what could have been long ago. What I need tonight doesn't matter now."

The picture perfectly captures the warm yet frustrated tone of Umbrellas, an album of occasionally ill-tempered tunes that is only a step away from something truly inspiring.

3/4