Kurt Sampsel Reviews:
December, 2003

The Free Design
Kites are Fun
(Project 3 1967/Light in the Attic 2003)

www.lightintheattic.net

Siblings Chris, Bruce, and Sandy Dedrick-collectively known as the Free Design-started playing together as a group in Greenwich Village in 1966. Although they had been practicing their group harmonies since childhood, this was the Dedricks' first professional stint in pop music. The group was well received, however, and soon received attention from several record labels. The group signed with Enoch Light's legendary audiophile label Project 3, and soon began recording what would become their first album. Kites are Fun was released in 1967 and bore witness to the Free Design's wealth of performing and songwriting talent.

The album opens appropriately enough with its title track, a truly charming, innocent, and utterly uncomplicated pop song with vocal harmonies easily on par with those of the Association or the Beach Boys, which only narrowly missed Billboard's Hot 100 when released as a single. In addition to its well-known title track, the album Kites are Fun features a bunch of other gems, including the upbeat "Make the Madness Stop", the sophisticated, satirical "The Proper Ornaments", and the very pretty "Never Tell the World". "When Love is Young" and "Don't Turn Away" are both lovely ballads which feature fine vocals against a well-produced, but understated, background. "My Brother Woody" and "Umbrellas" are the kind of weightless, bubbly pop tunes that the Free Design seem to have been made to create.

Kites are Fun is well balanced between ballads and bouncy pop songs, all of which are graced by some of the most beautiful vocal harmonies of the era. And in addition to some fine original material, Kites are Fun features very creative interpretations of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song" and the Beatles' "Michelle," as well as the title track from the film A Man and a Woman. This outside material fits in quite comfortably among the strong originals on the album, and the group shows real versatility as they effortlessly make the transition from original to cover material and back again. This CD reissue from the new Light in the Attic label is the first legitimate reissue of any Free Design album to be released in the US, and as well as featuring informative liners, it includes two bonus tracks: the mono, single mixes of "Kites are Fun" and "The Proper Ornaments." Light in the Attic has reissued Kites are Fun and the Free Design's third album Heaven/Earth on both CD and 180 gram vinyl, and has more Free Design releases planned for 2004. These reissues come much anticipated, as the group has received a lot of attention in recent years in light of admiration by modern artists like Beck, Belle & Sebastian, and Stereolab.

Kites are Fun is an easy recommendation to fans of 60s soft pop, and the CD is undoubtedly a very welcome reissue.

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