Red Umbrella

Wishing for Boardwalk
7spin Music

The stigma Christian music has been violently trying to strip from itself since the early 1990s is that of being chronically five years behind the times; the Canadian band Red Umbrella shows just how far contemporary Christian music (CCM) has come.

Instant recognition of the band’s admitted influences The Killers and Coldplay — bands that have only really made names for themselves in the past two years — comes in the first seconds of the first song, but borrowed though its arrangements, tone and lyrical phrasing may be, that first song is a really good one. So are the second, third and pretty much all the rest.

Though Red Umbrella pulls heavily from the success stories of today’s intelligent rock acts, there is an originality pushing this entire album that stands beyond the “Recommended-If-You-Like” brackets of Christian music — “Wishing for Boardwalk” is universally accessible, and Red Umbrella will likely prove an invaluable vitamin to the future of CCM.