iTUNES REVIEW

With '90's 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 of this group.

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 Wishing for 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. 

- iTunes Album Review
Wishing for Boardwalk