The Explorers Club Freedom Wind

The name might exude adventure, but this sextet from Charleston, South Carolina isn't about to discover new musical territory any time soon. Freedom Wind is the sound of a band in love with harmony-laden sixties pop, more specifically the music of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. After 30 seconds of Forever you’ll have probably drawn up a mental list of the Explorers Club's chief influences, but this doesn't have to be a problem; the harmonies are polished and the melody is sufficiently summery to make denying the song's obvious charms virtually impossible.

Honey, I Don't Know Why sounds less like a straight up 60s homage, bearing more resemblance to the music of, well, a dozen or so Elephant Six acts from the late nineties. It's a decent enough stab at edginess, but somehow Explorers Club sound more comfortable when they're not trying to come off as vaguely contemporary. Fortunately, the majority of Freedom Wind sounds like it could have been unearthed in a studio time capsule from 1966 and the album is all the better for it.

Freedom Wind's best moments are the slower, melancholy numbers that tell of unrequited or lost love. There's a certain naive quality to the Explorers Club's sound that helps the relatively simplistic lyrics achieve a greater emotional resonance, and accordingly songs like If You Go and Don't Forget the Sun really hit home. My personal favourite, however, is the gorgeous instrumental centrepiece Summer Air which doesn't even need lyrics to summon up potent images of happier summer days gone by. 

It's all been done before, of course, but that doesn't mean it can't be done again. If you like your pop music with harmonies and heart then the Explorers Club could well have recorded the soundtrack to your summer.