“Imagine if you will, another time…
…a time when quality and polish weren’t sneered at in music.”
It all went a bit “doodley-doo, doodley-doo”, as Orphan Colours took The Borderline back to better days, with a set evoking the California-sun-drenched cusp of the 70s/80s.
The five piece (Steven Llewellyn - lead vox, guitar; Dave Burn - guitar, vox/harmonies; Fred Abbott - lead guitar, keys; Graham Knight - bass, harmonies; Steve Brookes - drums) first coalesced around a shared love of Tom Petty, so it’s no surprise there was plenty of his influence in the opening freeway-cruising rocker Free (lent a splash of The Boss by Nik Carter’s sax). Steve’s taut rasp, twin sax-and-guitar lines and lush vocal harmonies gave an Eaglesy Santa-Cruz-Boardwalk-stroll flavour to Start Of Something and that Eagles vibe continued, in the mid-paced, scarves-in-the-air sway of Renegade with airy anthemic chords and more fine vox, and in the high harmonies of Time Is Your Lover, where pulsing bass and an exquisite two-guitar hook brought a touch of late-era Mac, heightened by the crisp rim-shot-and-volume-swell-guitar obligatory ‘quiet bit’ before reprising the FM-friendly chorus complete with sweet three-part “Ooohs”.
Another bass-and-drum heartbeat underpinned mellow lead vocal, chiming twelve-string and electric piano for the short-but-sweet heartfelt Lonely Lately, which introduced a gentler midway trio: old ahab number Lucy overlaid a folkier feel on the west coast vibe, with 1-2 drums and organ giving an upbeat jug-band drinking-song feel; the twelve-string-led Doing Alright brought a taste of melodic McGuinness-Flintyness; and piano and tight Adamsesque vox opened the anthemic ballad Ramblin’ Rose, before a wall of harmonies and sparkling twelve-string broke in.
Dave’s clear vocal on his own Wasted took us back to Petty territory, with a singlaong earworm chorus and stirring a cappella passage, with Fred back on guitar adding to the twin phrases and throwing in a stinging lead break, before Steve’s soulful drawl took us to church on the Soulshine/I Shall Be Released gospel-tinged Sun Is Rising, with more gooseflesh-raising harmonies in the a cappella close.
Another triplet of songs drew us towards the close: the poppy 80s canter of Waiting preceded a Pretendersesque pairing of High Hopes’ punchy strut, and a jangly take on ahab’s Uptight, where the 80s stylings were completed with drum flurries and the return of the sax. The set closer Goodnight California returned to a Frey/Henley easygoing stroll, with lush harmonies, expansive chords, relaxed drum and bass and furry fuzzy sax, as well as another era-appropriate ‘quiet bit’ before some closing Southern fried guitar / sax interplay. The classic-Petty damped-string chug of encore Won’t Let You Down provided a final chance to show off those stunning harmonies as well as more searing guitar.
Plunger are never keen on the phrase ‘good time music’ as that usually refers to “efferybutty up on ze benchez” exhortations to enforced jollity, but Orphan Colours’ sunny Californiana is guaranteed to put a smile on your face of all but the tone deaf and the dead.
OK, it’s probably the kind of thing the folks at the NME thought they were burying way back when… but the NME vanished into the Twilight Zone long since...
Orphan Colours’ new album All On Red is available to buy/download here: http://smarturl.it/AllOnRed
