After Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds, pop music started to take itself a bit more seriously.

Suddenly, alongside the guitars, bass, and drums, you'd hear string sections and brass, or electric harpsichords and sitars. Albums might feature an 'Overture' or a suite, or be based on a particular concept. Production got more creative, and along with more intricate instrumentation, complex vocal harmonies started to come to the fore.

Suddenly, alongside the guitars, bass, and drums, you'd hear string sections and brass, or electric harpsicords and sitars.

In the recent few decades this style of late-60s pop has come to be labelled as 'Sunshine Pop', 'Baroque Pop', or sometimes 'Pop Psych'.

While there are seemingly endless groups that fit this mould, the one that perhaps best represents this kind of thing for me is The Free Design, represented here by the terrific 'Make The Madness Stop'. Across a handful of albums, the Dedrick siblings crafted creative and intricate compositions characterised by their beautiful and original vocal harmonies.

(Like many people, I first came across them in the late 1990's via Stereolab, who named a song after the group. Lucky that I did, because not long after I found a copy of their first album — Kites Are Fun — in a country op-shop. I probably would have picked it up anyway, but recognising the title ensured that I did.)

I wasn't too strict in choosing the tracks for this mix. Bubblegum acts like John Fred and His Playboy Band and The Third Rail rub shoulders with more serious singer-songwriters like Bonnie Dobson (best know for writing the classic post-apocalyptic tune 'Morning Dew') and the vocal jazz group Sound Of Feeling.

Lyrically, the tracks touch on some pretty heavy themes — abortion, murder, Oedipal relationships, death, withcraft, and mutations(!) — while musically you get fuzz guitar, brass, strings, sitar, vibraphone, Moog and more.

Hopefully this small selection illustrates just how creative and experimental this era of pop music could be.