The feisty side of indie rock: The Umbrellas drop sophomore effort ‘Fairweather Friend’
The band follow-up their debut with a noteworthy album.
Photo: Jorge Aguilar
Fairweather Friend comes three years after The Umbrellas’ eponymous 2021 debut, which earned the San Francisco four-piece critical acclaim and an international tour. Now, the band stand poised, ready to let loose their follow-up, building on their jangle-pop sound with unbridled vigor.
The group’s sophomore effort opens with Three Cheers!, a jab of upbeat chamber-pop cast in the simplicity and vocal matter-of-factness synonymous with bands of the Britpop era. Goodbye is similar to some late ‘90s jangle-pop, in the style of Deep Blue Something or the Lightning Seeds. It’s one of the best tracks on the album, effortlessly binge-able from dawn to dusk.
The album really does cover a lot of ground, sonically. We’re thrown against the beer-soaked walls of the Dandy Warhols’ studio in Toe the Line, while Echoes is somewhere between lo-fi and shoegaze, echoing the Gallagher brothers at their sickly sweetest and most psychedelic. There’s unshakable indie rock in Games, the R.E.M.-esque rollicking rocker, Gone and bubble gum paranoia of When You Find Out.
All the while, co-vocalist Morgan Stanley offers up some truly beautiful melodies, remarkably similar to those of Shirley Simms from chamber-pop legends The Magnetic Fields. Blue, the penultimate tune on the album, pays homage to Fleetwood Mac’s rich and dour experimental venture Tusk, proving that there’s more to this San Fran band than simple licks and poppy hooks. PM catapults the listener back to what the Umbrellas do best: lodging a stomping earworm deep in your brain to the point of insanity. Thankfully, they stay on the right side of the line, leading to second listens, thirds, and many more beyond that. Fairweather Friend is an interesting selection of tracks and a more-than-worthy follow-up to The Umbrellas’ debut.
Fairweather Friend is out now via Tough Love.