The Beach Boys: Feel Flows - the Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971

Five-disc examination of how the band evolved to meet the 1970s

“Add some music to your day,” the Beach Boys urged in their song of the same name, from their 1970 album Sunflower. There’s far more than a day’s worth of music included on this immense five-CD package, which scrutinises the turn-of-the Seventies Beach Boys in miniscule detail as they made the awkward transition from their California surf-and-sand past to a more diffuse, more democratic and in many ways more interesting group.

Album: Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

★★★ BILLIE EILISH - HAPPIER THAN EVER Fame is the fuel for a teenage mega-star's leap into maturity

Fame is the fuel for a teenage mega-star's leap into maturity

Billie Eilish was shot through fame’s looking glass with increasing force right through her teens. A girl’s hopeful artistic dreams exposed her to infinite judgement of her body and soul, social and mass media magnifying every blemish and stumble.

Album: Tomu DJ - Feminista

★★★★ TOMU DJ - FEMINISTA Pastoral beauty from somewhere out of time on Californian's DJ debut

Pastoral beauty from somewhere out of time on Californian DJ's debut

The endless circles and spirals that dance music moves in can take you to some strange places.

Album: Wavves - Hideaway

★★★ WAVVES - HIDEAWAY Ripped and torn emotions as pop-punks return to roots

Ripped and torn emotions as pop-punks return to roots

Wavves’ Nathan Williams found you can go home again. Following a deteriorating decade on a major label, and 2017’s raucous retrenchment You’re Welcome (2017), the punk-pop Californians have returned to their first label, Fat Possum.

Physical, Apple TV+ review - too much pain, not enough gain

★★★ PHYSICAL, APPLE TV+ Dark comedy which could have been called 'never trust a hippy'

Dark comedy which could have been called 'never trust a hippy'

It’s not easy to sum up Physical in a pithy soundbite, though “quasi-political misanthropic comedy” might be vaguely in the right ballpark.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH AND YOUNG Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

California combo's fabled second album gets a monster 4-disc reissue

With over eight million copies sold in its 50-year lifespan, Déjà Vu was, as Cameron Crowe writes in the booklet accompanying this compendious four-CD edition, “one of the most famous second albums in rock history”.

Album: Tune-Yards - Sketchy

★★★★ TUNE-YARDS - SKETCHY Californian alt-pop innovators sounding fresh

Californian alt-pop innovators sounding fresh and maintaining their unique trajectory

Tune-Yards have been much-feted for bringing an original sound to pop. Quite rightly so.

Album: Skyway Man - The World Only Ends When You Die

★★★★ SKYWAY MAN - THE WORLD ONLY ENDS WHEN YOU DIE Warm psychedelic Californian indie-gospel-country ruminations on the path to the beyond

Warm psychedelic Californian indie-gospel-country ruminations on the path to the beyond

When the concept album first properly took flight, in the late 1960s, before it became slave to the bloated artifice of prog-rock, it was an extension of the LSD-soaked times: “Songs aren’t big enough, man, I need a bigger canvas!” Famed albums by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Kinks and The Pretty Things sum up this golden period.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Lost Innocence - Garpax 1960s Punk & Psych

LOST INNOCENCE - GARPAX 1960S PUNK & PSYCH High-octane collection of engineer-producer Gary Paxton’s excursions into garage rock

High-octane collection of engineer-producer Gary Paxton’s excursions into garage rock

An old saw relating to The Doors says their ambition when they formed was to be as big as Los Angeles-based garage-psych sensations The Seeds. After listening to Lost Innocence – Garpax 1960s Punk & Psych, it’s hard not to wonder where the bands heard were aiming. What’s collected is from 1965 to 1969. All these combos operated in California, generally working in and around the LA area.

Blu-ray: Visual Acoustics

★★★★ BLU-RAY: VISUAL ACOUSTICS 'The Modernism of Julius Shulman' salutes an eminent American architectural photographer

'The Modernism of Julius Shulman' salutes an eminent American architectural photographer

One of the world’s leading architectural photographers, Julius Shulman was the subject of a show at London’s Photographers’ Gallery this autumn, “Altered States of America”. That title surely alluded to the visual modernism that changed the face of that country over the course of the 20th century, which Shulman, working in close tandem with the architects concerned, captured over a career of almost eight decades, in California especially.