Description
The Free Design – Kites Are Fun – Vinyl Record
The Free Design – Kites Are Fun, released in 1967, is a dazzling and delicately crafted debut album that embodies the essence of sunshine pop, soft psychedelia, and chamber pop elegance. The Free Design—comprised of siblings Chris, Sandy, and Bruce Dedrick—brought a level of musical sophistication, jazz-influenced harmony, and innocence to the psychedelic era that set them apart from their contemporaries. Kites Are Fun feels both whimsical and deeply musical, offering a gentle, kaleidoscopic alternative to the louder, fuzzier sound of the late 1960s.
At its core, the album is driven by lush vocal harmonies, intricate arrangements, and an almost childlike lyrical perspective. The title track, “Kites Are Fun,” is perhaps the group’s most well-known song—a light and breezy ode to childhood joy that floats along on a bed of subtle horns, flutes, and soft percussion. While it may sound simplistic on first listen, its rich vocal layering and melodic structure reveal a sophisticated sense of composition, drawing comparisons to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, The Association, or even Burt Bacharach in terms of harmonic complexity.
Other highlights from the album include:
“Proper Ornaments”, a gently baroque number with string embellishments and beautiful counterpoint vocals that suggest a deep classical influence.
“My Brother Woody”, a song that’s both humorous and sincere, illustrating the group’s storytelling charm and sense of familial warmth.
“Umbrellas” and “Bubbles”, which continue the album’s themes of nostalgia, playfulness, and fleeting beauty, wrapped in gossamer harmonies and soft instrumental touches.
Their cover of the Beatles’ “Michelle” shows their ability to reinterpret well-known material with elegance and restraint, adding a new layer of harmonic color.
What distinguishes The Free Design is their studio precision and their blending of jazz, classical, and pop influences into something light but not lightweight. These songs are deceptively complex—full of modulations, shifting time signatures, and unusual chord changes—but performed with such warmth and clarity that they feel effortless.
Although Kites Are Fun didn’t make a huge commercial impact at the time of its release, it became a cult classic over the decades, especially among fans of baroque pop, lounge, and retro-futurist aesthetics. The Free Design would later be rediscovered by artists and listeners in the 1990s and 2000s, with indie bands like Stereolab, The High Llamas, and Belle and Sebastian citing them as influences. The album—and the group’s sound more broadly—has often been described as “music for idealists,” full of hope, harmony, and introspective wonder.
Kites Are Fun is celebrated as a touchstone of sunshine pop and soft psych, and a beautiful example of how gentle music can still carry deep artistic substance. It’s an album that rewards close listening while inviting you to float away on its serene, melodic currents.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Kites Are Fun
Make The Madness Stop
When Love Is Young
The Proper Ornaments
My Brother Woody
59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)
Don’t Turn Away
Umbrellas
Michelle
Never Tell The World
A Man And A Woman
Stay Another Season
