Young Approach: More Love Around

“The young approach to music is here.  We choose love as our theme.  We sing, we write, we play and live it.  It’s in our every scheme.  Of all that we have experienced, love is the best we’ve found.  Now we pass it on to you, so there’s more love around.”  If ever there was a perfect manifesto for a sunshine pop soft rock group with a slightly Xian bent, this one from the New York-based Young Approach is it.  Released in 1976 on the Revelare Productions label, fans of the Free Design and other soft sunshine harmony pop groups will dig the sounds herein, as the LP often sounds like it could have emanated from the tail end of the flower power era. 

A couple of the songs, like Feeling All Right – Tonight and You Gotta Seek feature guitars a bit heavier than expected from the usual sunshine crowd, and Time includes some well-placed sound effects.  Recorded in New York and mixed in Nashville, this appears to be a bit of a family affair, with guitars and bass by Rick & Ron Runyeon, and vocals arranged and directed by Dick Runyeon.  Other musicians include Larry Goodwin on guitars, Tom Lummis on percussion and Eric Westfall on bass, with additional vocals by Rebecca Hardin.  The songwriting and arrangements are superb throughout, and the Xian elements are subtle, which allows for repeated listening enjoyment by the non-converted.