TWGMTR Official Reviews

[GeorgeFell]

A very favourable review from Holymoly.com

http://www.holymoly.com/music/reviews/beach-boys-thats-why-god-made-radio-album-make-you-smile63286?

[Zach95]

Looks like Pitchfork won't be running a review.

I'm so disappointed by this. Why not?

[Mr. Cohen]

Pitchfork is scared. No group combines hipness with corniness like the BBs. It has to give Pitchfork's tastemakers brain aneurysms. They have to love the experimental, drugged out SMiLE skits, but hate the intro to "TM Song", all while praising the craziness of Smiley Smile and slagging off the demented piano and spooky ambiance of "Let the Wind Blow". It makes no sense, but they have an image to keep up. How the hell are they supposed to handle this album? Is "Strange World" Polyphonic Spree/Flaming Lips quality musing, or a Disney soundtrack outtake? There would be too much at stake answering a question like that.

[Wirestone]

Looks like Pitchfork won't be running a review.

I'm so disappointed by this. Why not?

Just my guess, given that they didn't do it last week or this week. It seems old to bring it up next, but maybe they will.

But yeah, I agree with Dada ... the album is difficult to critique using their usual standards. Because it's easily 4 or lower if you focus on the Love lyrics, slick production, etc. But you could give it something in the 7s or maybe higher if you focused on the quirky Brian, closing suite aspects. I suspect they're just avoiding it by calling it a piece of 50th anniversary hype.

[Aegir]

Pitchfork is scared. No group combines hipness with corniness like the BBs. It has to give Pitchfork's tastemakers brain aneurysms. They have to love the experimental, drugged out SMiLE skits, but hate the intro to "TM Song", all while praising the craziness of Smiley Smile and slagging off the demented piano and spooky ambiance of "Let the Wind Blow". It makes no sense, but they have an image to keep up.

I don't think you understand that there are multiple reviewers on the site, who don't have the exact same opinion.

[Mr. Cohen]

I don't think you understand that there are multiple reviewers on the site, who don't have the exact same opinion.

Tastemakers is plural. I get that they have multiple reviewers, but I believe they work together to an extent to protect Pitchfork's image. Yeah, one might have cool reasons for hating Bjork while another loves Bjork, but it's all done within the confines of acceptable hip opinion.

[Zach95]

I'm going to try and contact either Mark Richardson or Dominique Leone, who both have written wonderful pieces on the band for Pitchfork. Richardson wrote the Smile Sessions review, and his staff list names Surf's Up as the greatest song of the 60's.

EDIT: Just sent Pitchfork's website email address and Richardson both emails, we'll see what they say.  Richardson's the editor in chief, so he holds the cards when it comes to this stuff.

[Ron]

Not really a review, but a nice write up about the tour and the album on HitsDailyDouble.com again.

http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news09008

[Zach95]

Just wondering, will MOJO be reviewing this?

[ptijerm]

A very well written review by Joe Marchese at The Second Disc:

http://theseconddisc.com/2012/06/05/catch-a-wave-special-review-the-beach-boys-thats-why-god-made-the-radio/#more-14700

(P.S.  An excellent website...well worth the bookmark!)

[joe_blow]

I thought this one was a pretyy honest review, although not giving enough mention to the suite on the latter parts of the album.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Beach+Boys+Those+lazy+days+summer/6728030/story.html


The Beach Boys
 
That’s Why God Made the Radio
 
Capitol
 
three out of five
 
It’s hard not to feel a bit insulted as the reunited Beach Boys tip their hand about this whole 50th-anniversary venture four songs in on their first album in 20 years to feature new material.
 
“Summer weather / We’re back together / Easy money, ain’t life funny / Hey what’s it to ya / Hallelujah,” sing Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston, with early member David Marks on guitar, in Spring Vacation.
 
For the most part, this shallow-end disc takes the easy way out suggested by those nose-thumbing lines, wallowing in trite lyrics about carefree days on the beach, summer romances and general nostalgia. The music often follows suit, helped along by slick arrangements and sanded-down production. (Wilson is credited as producer, with Love as executive producer.)
 
The album’s title track has been around for over a month, and it’s quite the stunner, harmonically and melodically. Even though the song’s lyrics bizarrely use the present tense to evoke a world where the car radio provides life’s soundtrack, it’s a beautiful vision of what the whole album might have been.
 
But hope fades slightly with opening track Think About the Days, as fully intact voices wrap themselves around sweet, wordless harmony and then blemish the moment with Muzak piano tinkling.
 
The glory days are frequently brought up: Good Vibrations is cheaply alluded to in Spring Vacation, Darlin’ is lazily rewritten in the chorus of Shelter and Daybreak Over the Ocean seems, at points, reminiscent of Breakaway. Problem is, this album – which is not nearly as satisfying as Wilson’s 2008 solo disc That Lucky Old Sun – doesn’t belong in the company of classics. Isn’t it a mistake, then, to keep reminding us of the back catalogue?
 
And yet, let’s face it: those harmonies! It’s impossible not to get swept away when they launch the chorus of the otherwise pedestrian The Private Life of Bill and Sue straight to the stars or elevate the already-wonderful Strange World into pop heaven. The years seem to have done no damage to that incomparable vocal blend.
 
More redemption comes with From There to Back Again, an unusual Wilson suite that could have been a true contender with a riskier arrangement. But the general feeling here is that no one really wants to make waves.
 
More’s the pity.
 
Podworthy: That’s Why God Made the Radio

[Ron]

  wallowing in trite lyrics about carefree days on the beach, summer romances and general nostalgia.

I just realized when the reviewers kind of get negative like this in their review, it probably actually HELPS sell albums.  He just described a damn good album to me. 

[bgas]

People magazine gave it a 3/4 saying "A few cloudy patches like "Spring vacation" bit songs like "PCH" make up for it"

They also love "BIM"

Nice thing about the People review, they include a small pic of the current BBs, along with one from the early 1970's; plus Rita Wilson's ( is she a cousin?) favorite BBs song!   

   

[Eireannach]

Of course Pitbull likes Kokomo best. 

[Bud Shaver]

Of course Pitbull likes Kokomo best. 

Well he is 'Mr. Worldwide.'

[Paulos]

Review from the BBC, not very positive and is actually quite a poor review given that they don't even bother mentioning any of the songs: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/h6j9

[Aegir]

Daybreak Over the Ocean seems, at points, reminiscent of Breakaway.

WHAT?!