Rating:
Genre:
Gospel
Release Date: 08/29/2006
With '90s
power pop influences in tow, Canadian rockers
Red Umbrella have concocted a winning formula of crunchy
new wave splendor. Fans of
the Posies,
Semisonic, and
Fountains of Wayne now have a reason to live again, thanks to the delightful melodic
pop on
Wishing for Boardwalk. The boys have been compared to
Coldplay, but all the
Brit-pop sound-alikes in the universe could not muster the peppy confidence that lead vocalist/guitarist
Jeremy Michaelis evokes with each note. For instance, the hook-filled
"Home" sounds like it could have been lifted straight from
Oasis' hit collection
Stop the Clocks, complete with a piano hook bigger than
Noel Gallagher's ego. But rather than sport a revivalist sound,
Red Umbrella come off with a triumphantly new sonic mix that puts them in the same ballpark as
the Killers. Crunchy guitars lead the first single,
"Straitjacket" an open-ended query as to the meaning of life. Other winning tracks include
"Run," "What About Me?," and
"Slide." The grungy
power pop of late-career
Posies makes
Boardwalk a charming effort through and through. Particularly heard during the
iTunes era when a generation of listeners can pick and choose single songs without ever really digesting a full album's worth of music from the same artist,
Boardwalk is an achievement of consistent -- and sometimes even brilliant --
rock & roll.
~Jared Johnson, All Music Guide
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