The High Llamas

Under the direction of multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and arranger Sean O'Hagan, the High Llamas have developed a sonic fingerprint -- Baroque '60s melodies, sweeping orchestral strings, and warmly bleeping vintage synths blended in smooth harmonies -- that helped define part of the indie sound of the '90s and has proven to be influential to quite a few artists in the decades that followed. The group's early albums balanced soft rock songcraft (Gideon Gaye), circular arrangements (Hawaii), and easy listening (Cold and Bouncy) but it's never strayed far from O'Hagan's original idiosyncratic template. Later albums did see O'Hagan making some stylistic leaps, such as 2003's mostly acoustic Beet, Maize & Corn and 2016's theatrical Here Come the Rattling Trees. After O'Hagan released his second solo album, 2019's Radum Calls, Radum Calls, the High Llamas returned with Hey Panda in 2024, a recording unexpectedly influenced by mainstream pop and R&B sounds.