The Llama’s debut full-length remains one of the most unique in their catalogue.

The rock press at the time, enamoured with grunge, virtually ignored O’Hagan’s first solo album High Llamas. Undeterred, he formed a band named after the album and recorded the mini-LP Apricots with engineer Marc Pringle at a small home studio. Encouraged by it’s reception, particularly in France, the band expanded Apricots into a full-length LP entitled Santa Barbara, recording four new songs at The Stone Room with engineer Charlie Francis, who went on to work with band throughout the decade.

Even in a catalogue full of left turns, Santa Barbara sticks out in the Llamas’ oeuvre; the influence of Alex Chilton’s post-Big Star work looms large over the album, giving it a markedly different feel than almost everything that followed. It was also the band’s only release with Anita Visser, the last time a female vocalist would feature until 1999’s Snowbug.

Initially released by Creation offshoot Plastic, the album was later reissued with different cover art by Alpaca Park/V2 in 1998 and received it’s first vinyl release from Drag City in 2024 as part of the band’s reissue campaign.