Kites are Fun: The Best of the Free Design:The Free Design

Artist: The Free Design

Date Released: July 28, 1998

Label: Varese Sarabande

Produced By:

Tracklisting:
 * 1) Kites are Fun
 * 2) I Found Love
 * 3) Bubbles
 * 4) My Brother Woody
 * 5) 2002 - A Hit Song
 * 6) Stay Another Season
 * 7) Felt So Good
 * 8) Kije's Ouija
 * 9) My Very Own Angel
 * 10) Never Tell the World
 * 11) A Man and a Woman
 * 12) Love You
 * 13) Howdjadoo (Fly Me Down)
 * 14) You Could Be Born Again
 * 15) Now is the Time
 * 16) You are My Lover

Review: The Free Design, a folksy, sunshine pop quartet from the late 60s, consisted of two brothers, two sisters and more sugary pop than Lucky Charms with Mountain Dew. This late 90s compilation contains highlights from the group's tenure on Enoch Light's Project 3 label spanning 1967-1972. The Free Design is an unassuming band on first listen, but after a few spins, the complexities in melody and harmony begin to creep forward revealing a innerstructure of great artistic creativity. Snippets of rock, funk and jazz swirl within the upbeat vocal pop to create a sound all its own that distances the group from contemporaries like The Association and The Beach Boys, though The Free Design were the ones without commercial success. To say the lyrics are unobtrusive really does not give the sheer optimism justice, but it's hard to go wrong with lines like "I can feel my heart touch my Adam's Apple." The reinterest in the group (see the Light in the Attic remix project The Now Sound Redesinged) stems from the somewhat confusing longevity of the music. On closer inspection, one can hear the beginnings of the experimental and lavish chamber pop of today influencing everyone from Sufjan Stevens to Andre 3000. Mpardaiolo