Album Review | Fairweather Friend by the Umbrellas
What happens when a band leaps from “promising” to “awesome”
The Umbrellas Fairweather Friend
(Slumberland Records 2024)
It’s always exciting to hear a young band make the leap from “promising” to “awesome.” For Bay Area quartet the Umbrellas, that moment happens towards the end of “Three Cheers!,” the opening track on their second album. Suddenly, a noisy guitar solo kicks up out of nowhere as a counterpoint to the last chorus, lifting an already hyper-energetic pop song to new heights. Subtle touches like that always elevate a song, and Fairweather Friend is absolutely full of them.
The Umbrellas’ three-minute songs aren’t rooted in any particular indie-pop era: there’s hints of Postcard Records’ “The Sound of Young Scotland” pioneers, the sweet-and-sour buzz of the C86 bands, and the jangle-and-chime of decades’ worth of college radio favorites, from the Three O’Clock to the Beths. Morgan Alice’s girl-next-door vocals are perfectly complemented by the deadpan diffidence of fellow guitarist Matthew Ferrera. (Imagine Velocity Girl’s Sarah Shannon sharing the mic with the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Jim Reid.)
But the album’s secret weapon is drummer Keith Frerichs, whose tendency toward unapologetic…
