Album Review: 'Double Rainbow' by The Babe Rainbow

(Review published in ET)

Double Rainbow by Aussie psych-rock group The Babe Rainbow is the type of simplified, hippie, easy-listening music that you’d hear in an elevator at a Byron Bay mindfulness retreat. It feels like a jam, only it’s missing the bread.

The Babe Rainbow, a group of mates from the northern rivers of Bryon Bay have recently released their highly anticipated second album Double Rainbow. The album incorporates elements of folk, funk and psychedelic rock to form a well-rounded album for the band. But to me, their work falls short on many counts.

Their first album, self-titled and fairly brilliant, was mixed by Stu Mackenzie of Melbourne band King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and released by Flightless Records in 2017. This album on the other hand was produced by Wayne Connolly, who’s worked with the likes of Boy & Bear, Silverchair and The Veronicas – all of which are tough acts to follow.

The Babe Rainbow are heavily influenced by the sights and sounds of the 1960s; their musical influences from that era are The Incredible String Band and Swinging Mademoiselles. This is evident through their instrumentation, their vocal tones, even through the clothing they wear. It’s a relief to know that flared jeans and pointy-collared shirts will probably never go out of style. Looking at and listening to the band is like jumping into a time machine and revisiting the laidback culture of the 60s. Their vibe is simultaneously electrifying and mellow; they make me want to take my shoes off, sit on a bean bag, and play the sitar.

The single released in anticipation of the album, ‘Supermoon’, gave us a tiny glimpse of what was to come from the babes. The underwhelming feeling the song gave me left me anxious for what was to come. I was expecting big things and this felt like the smallest glimpse of their overall potential. As it turns out, I could trust my instincts. The song itself contains a dissimilar sounding drumming to the rest of the drumming on the album, and the latter gets boring very easily. The same melody repeats itself tirelessly, throughout the album, and the listener is left waiting for a peak that never comes.

Two purely instrumental and equally blissful songs feature in this album; ‘Alan Chadwick’s Garden’ and ‘2nd of April’. ‘Alan Chadwick’s Garden’ is a droning trip into a dreamy slumber. The song consists purely of repetitive, out of tune sitar that switches between two or three different sequences. Given the suggestive title, this song reminds me of a beautiful garden at golden hour, filled with blooming wildflowers and children with bare feet and white frocks. If you didn’t know, Alan Chadwick was an innovative and well-known gardener from the 1970s. You can check out imagery from one of his charming gardens in The Babe Rainbow’s music video for the songs ‘Eureka’ and ‘Alan Chadwick’s Garden’.  ‘2nd of April’ is a finger-picking acoustic track that belongs in the soundtrack of a medieval film. Much like a number of tracks on this album, this song feels more like a filler than a completed one, especially considering the use of one instrument and no vocals.

I am partial to a hearty dose of flute, which makes ‘Bella Luna’ my favourite track in Double Rainbow. It feels like a dream, a meditation. “Just a little bit/of your love”, the singer practically sighs over sensual guitar and ethereal flute. The lyrics repeat the whole way through the song, but rather than seeming lazy, it feels transcendent.

Fitting with this month’s theme for ET, there is a lot of space for improvement with this album. It seems as though the band have taken a step back since their last release and it all feels very confusing and disappointing – where’s the gold at the end of this Babe Rainbow???

If I were to give this album a rating, I’d give it a 5 out of 10.