It’s 1998. My final year in high school. The grunge era has begun and indie rock bands are emerging onto the Australian scene. Triple J is the radio station of choice and the song ‘Black Umbrella’ caught my attention. I guess the main reason is its Beatles inspired, guitar forward and melodic vocal which still floats my boat to this day. The production on this song feels so timeless, listening to it after 28 years, it doesn’t feel old and I love it jsut as much. And yes, it is incredibly scary to be writing 28 when considering how long ago my high school years were.
One of the things I love about writing this blog is that it brings me back to music, and I realise now that Even were still releasing albums until 2021. In fact the band is still together after forming in March 1994. Their career to date includes 8 studio albums and a tonne of touring both here in Australia and internationally.
‘Black Umbrella’ is from 1998’s Come Again album. I had this album and Free Kicks on CD back in the day. The song begins with guitar, followed closely by drums and bass and we have several bars to enjoy the riff before the vocal comes in.
I got my black umbrella
To shelter me from falling rain
But I forgot to tell her
She can join me and do the same
The song feels laid back which is much of its appeal. It’s not asking too much from you, so you’re happy to just go along with it. The guitar is panned to the left, until the B section, comes in where more guitar joins in on the right. I can’t really call it a chorus, because this song only has two sections which repeat, showing that you really do not need to obsess about your lyricism to create a good song. After years of writing about songs on this blog, I am still floored by how much simplicity works – even though, it’s one of my philosophies (just ask Todd). We also get some simple backing vocals and a well-placed cymbal hit brings us out of the B section back into A.
The intensity hasn’t really built up much and the song just trundles along until the second B section, where the guitars build up a bit and last line “I got more than love to cover you” flows into a drop down, the drums and bass leaving us for a short moment, while the echo of “To cover you” in Ashley Naylor’s smoky falsetto are followed by the drums building up to what turns out to be a big outro. The guitar intensifies, the bass walks around playfully and the vocal ad libs, with some gorgeous layered ‘Aaahs’ to take us to the final drop down of the song as it fades out.
Sometimes nostalgia can be a trap and universe knows that corporations use it to squeeze us for cash, but in this case, looking back at songs we love, is like unearthing a hidden treasure you thought you lost. Its still there, we just need to open our ears.