Album Review

The Family Rain – Under The Volcano

• 3rd Feb 2014

Under the Volcano is the debut album from The Family Rain, three brothers from Bath who have a blues infused indie sound that borrows from many influences. The Walter brothers – Ollie on guitar, William on bass and Timothy on drums – have built a following after some high profile support slots with artists as diverse as The Rolling Stones, Jake Bugg and Biffy Clyro, and travelled to Berlin to record this album with producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian).

With the ten tracks on the album coming in at just over half an hour of music, The Family Rain don’t go in for the type of extended jams that their blues roots might suggest. Instead the songs are well focused and tight, although there are some nice guitar solos in there, as well as the hooks and typically big chant along choruses that you might expect.

But while the NME crowd will probably love what is a decent album, there is really little to distinguish this fairly standard indie fare from the output of many other indie bands. Tracks like Carnival and Trust Me… I’m A Genius have the big chords and Oasis style vocals that will sound very familiar. Pushing It and Together are big, swaggering tracks with plenty of guitar riffs, while Reason To Die pulsates strongly over a nice bass line.

Don’t Waste Your Time has a slower tempo and works well, although the reputation of the title towards the end does become a bit much. And the closing track All The Best is a good anthem to end the album.

Under The Volcano isn’t a bad album by any means. It simply seems a little safe, a bit too mainstream to stand out. The brothers Walter clearly have talent, and their reputation as a fine live act has been built up over a couple of years of hard touring. Perhaps they need to work on finding something a bit more distinctive and creating their own sound.

Venue: Under The Volcano
Support Band: Virgin EMI