Sunshine Fix: Green Imagination : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The poppier constituent of the neo-psychedelic Olivia Tremor Control, bespectacled, mutton-chopped Bill Doss fully indulges his jones for hooks and melodies in his project the Sunshine Fix. The group's second full-length release, Green Imagination, packs multi-part harmonies and myriad influences into succinct pop songs. The specter of Revolver and Rubber Soul re-invention -- like the backwards guitar on "What Do You Know?" -- pervades the disc, but there's so much more here: Nuggets-style garage rock ("Extraordinary/Ordinary"), Todd Rundgren-sounding choruses ("Enjoy the Teeth") and blasts of distorted bluesy harmonica ("Afterglow"). California's Paisley Underground of the 1980s and Big Star collide on "Statues and Glue." The piano-based ballad "Rx" is reminiscent Gram Parsons' excursions into soul music. And "Face the Ghost" has a vague T. Rex feel. Still, Doss leaves room for idiosyncrasy as he did in his old band -- an appearance by the Georgia Children's Chorus on "Runaway Run" and B-52's-inspired whooping on "Extraordinary/Ordinary" serve as unlikely reminders of the Sunshine Fix's Athens, Georgia, home base.