Katie Puckrik Presents: ‘A Yacht Rock Odyssey’ - Various Artists

What is Yacht Rock? Yacht Rock is the affectionate nickname for the lush West Coast sound of the 1970s and 80s.

Broadly speaking, its soft rock jazzed up with soulful flourishes, twinned with aspirational lyrics yearning for a better life. A categorisation of grouping songs with a shared DNA, years after they were originally recorded Yacht Rock is enjoying reappraisal by a new generation of music lovers driven by the genre's sonic sophistication, as well as nostalgia for a Miami Vicetinted past. 

A Yacht Rock Odyssey has been curated by TV and radio broadcaster and newspaper columnist, Katie Puckrik into four separate musical voyages of discovery that are the epitome of cool sophistication, with smooth grooves polished to perfection by session musicians and producers at their creative peak. As Katies intro to the genre draws you in, each of the tracks has been annotated to provide background, as she recalls her BBC TV series I Can Go for That The Smooth World of Yacht Rock.

Featuring the Artists long associated with the genre including Michael McDonald, Toto and Average White Band, they sit alongside Carly Simon, Robert Palmer, Robbie Dupree, Stephen Bishop and the Pointer Sisters, with a sprinkling of stardust by Olivia NewtonJohn and Christopher Cross, playing the kind of music piped through quadrophonic speakers on a Sunseeker, as it heads out to sea

For this format of the connoisseurs collection, Katie has gathered 24 of the smartest, deepest cuts in the Yacht canon, along with classic tracks from the supremos of smooth. In compiling this set, her choices reflect compatibility of vibes, a musical kinship across the era, and a whiff of adultsonly ennui.