Seven sunshine pop albums that deserve more love

Curt Boettcher - There's An Innocent Face

By the time he recorded this album, Boettcher was already a renowned producer and by many considered as one of the forefathers of sunshine pop. He was the man behind sunshine pop faves like Millennium and Sagittarius, and those that actually did make it big like The Association and Tommy Roe. Yet, when this solo album was released (1972) it, for all its qualities, fell flat on its face commercially, maybe because Boettcher tried to showcase all the diversity his sunshine pop vision had.

The High Llamas - Gideon Gaye

It might be a bit of a misnomer to call Sean O’Hagan and his The High Llamas project ‘pure sunshine poppers’ yet O’Hagan and his band had a huge hand in what can be called the nineties sunshine pop revival.

While he started out with another album before this one Gideon Gaye (1994) showed his love of all concepts put forward by Brian Wilson in his prime, as well as all other key purveyors of sunshine pop and their use of lush vocal and instrumental arrangements.

The Explorers Club - Freedom Wind

If there ever was a band in this century that tried to fully explore the aspects of sunshine pop and bring it to modern times then it is The Explorers Club. Tackling everything that had a connection, from soft pop akin to Herb Albert to its connection to psych pop, the band’s prime inspiration line certainly stems from the prime era Beach Boys, and this is their album (2008) fully explores it, to the best effect.

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