W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

10. The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend

It took three years for The Umbrellas to release the follow up to their excellent eponymous debut and Fairweather Friend proves that it was well worth the wait.  Right from the get go with the upbeat and bouncy opening track of “Three Cheers!” with the baritone vocals of guitarist Matt Ferrara combined with the angelic harmonies from Morgan Stanleyimmediately brings to mind the back and forth vocals on Allo Darlin’s “Dreaming”.   And that’s just the opener, the rest of the album is filled with fantastically constructed poppy jangly ear worms, especially the penultimate song on the album, “Blue” which I could have mistaked for a new Big Star song if I didn;t know better.