FLORAPOP
Sunshine Saturday (Florapop)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

---

Florapop's Sunshine Saturday looks like an Archie and Jughead comic book when in reality it is more - more than just cheeky cartoons and brightly lit panes. It is pop, yes, but it's a Mathew Sweet pop filled with dark moody fringes to compliment its sugar coated hot doughy optimism. Mike Flora who is guitars, vocals, bass and a vase of flowery sounds has just the right fusion of bliss and blues to be extraordinary. The same can be said of Lisa Flora who works vocals as well as piano, pianet and according to the liners notes, copious balloons of helium. The rules of pop arrangement aren't entirely rewritten on Sunshine Saturday but the album comprises enough of a variation on that theme to be utterly entrancing. Its pastiche of influences, from the Byrds to early Beach Boys to psychedelia, borders on delightful.

Overall, Sunshine Saturday is rather hefty around the waist for a confectionery pop album. There are twenty-two songs, weighing in at nearly an hour. Some of the sumptuous favorites are "Doot Doo", "I'll Always Feel This" and a sentimental "Wouldn't It Be Cool." Packaged with a VH1-esque penchant for childhood days, getting past some of Florapop's distractions may be tough. Tough, but worth it.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz