Family of the Year: Loma Vista

An album which has been around the houses (originally released in 2012 but only now receiving an Irish outing), Loma Vista is a riot of sunny-side-up harmonies and melodies. You've experienced these textures and those Beach Boys/Fleet Foxes touchstones before (and not just on the LA band's debut album, Songbook), but that doesn't make the experience any less pleasurable. Family of the Year have a lovely knack for knocking out bright, gleeful sounds with folk and pop frills blowing this way and that. Le Croix, The Stairs and Hero capture the Family way, powered by laidback croons, gentle strums and those heavenly harmonies. One wonders where they can go from here with this particular confection, especially with these stylistic map references. But that's a quibble to be tackled another time. familyoftheyear.net
Download: St Croix, Hero