The English Rain – She’s A Rainbow (2020)
While a person would assume a band like The English Rain would be British dealing with “rainy day” songs, but this is not one of those cases. Ironically, The English Rain is a Brisbane-based duo playing an eclectic mix of pop, rock and folk without a depressing chord among them. Meeting in 1983, Steve Boom and Neil Steward kindled a friendship to last over 30 years.
The idea of The English Rain was formulated during the mid-1980s; however, Boom and Steward ultimately wished to compose music for themselves over various genres, so it was put on the back-burner. Despite solo aspirations and significant distance issues, the gents continued to write pop songs using the joy of email. Finally, the time came to release the fruit of their work with singles ‘My Town’, ‘Before The Dark’ and ‘She’s A Rainbow’.
Inspired by the buoyancy of The Beatles, The Monkees and Massive Attack, The English Rain adopt an upbeat, light-hearted sound. As such, ‘She’s A Rainbow’ is an outstanding example of melodic indie-pop with a strong leaning toward old-school Beatles – oddly enough, the UK accent inflexions are present despite the vocals being provided by Alister Bell of Australian alt-rock band Speedstar.
Lyrically, the track is as cheery as the melody. With an allegorical perspective, ‘She’s A Rainbow’ examines positivity in desperate situations. The idea that the sun will come out, in the end, is a rather necessary one in current society. Place that optimistic notion atop a jangly-pop beat and you have a lively, lovely and highly entertaining three-minute song (or just under three minutes).
The English Rain plans to release their debut album Echoes of You at the end of August. In the meantime, check out their video for ‘She’s A Rainbow’!!
For more from the duo, check their Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and official website.
