New review of "That's Why God Made the Radio"

[bossaroo]

nice piece, but i've never seen such disdain for a simple modulation! guess i'm just a sucker for a key change.

most of the songs are nostalgic and about trying to recapture yesterday in one way or another, even the good ones.


I've been wondering... is it just a coincidence that the title "From There To Back Again" is so similar to this:

[Wirestone]

It's a quote from the subtitle to "The Hobbit."

Really. And I'll bet you anything it's intentional. Brian was apparently into that book in the '60s.

[Summertime Blooz]

I think a healthy use of the F word is an accepted convention of rock journalism. To complain about it so un-Rock 'N Roll. Again, nice job on the review. Good to see somebody else notice the Burt Bacharach-ness of the From There To Back Again tag.

[bossaroo]

It's a quote from the subtitle to "The Hobbit."

oh yeah... it sure is. but "From There To Back Again" is a little different than "There and Back Again"
not much though.

[Wirestone]

It's a quote from the subtitle to "The Hobbit."

oh yeah... it sure is. but "From There To Back Again" is a little different than "There and Back Again"
not much though.

Yeah, it's not enough alike to get sued.  But given that the Hobbit has, I believe, come up in reference to Brian's 60s reading, I find it hard to believe the two aren't connected, y'know?

[Disney Boy (1985)]

I am not a fan of profane language in scholarly work; I find it neither kitsch nor usefully.  







What the f**k is this daft tw*t on about?

[The Heartical Don]

Hi, and thanks for reading, and for all the nice comments here. But when it comes to profanity, y'know, I could have done a better job of it, I suppose. Maybe it's beneath my dignity, or something. But that said, I don't have a lot of dignity, and I also think a well placed cussword, especially the one that begins with an 'f',' that is perhaps the most flexible word in the English language -- It's a verb! It's an adjective! It's an audible pause! -- is far more expressive and meaningful than a lot of other words I encounter on a daily basis. Like 'mimetics.' Ran up against that one today. I get it, it's one of those words you get issued in graduate school, the better to deconstruct and analyze in terms that only a small segment of other readers will be able to understand. (I'd imitate that kind of thinking/writing, but I just don't know a good word to describe/analyze my decision to do so. Oh wait, maybe I do. . .it's on the tip of my tongue. . .)

The smartest, coolest people I know curse. Some of them a lot. They're not profane people. They just understand the power of language, which does not always reside in the houses of propriety.

Is my frickin' opinion, anyway.

Hiya Peter –
great review, great comment. You are spot on about the profanity issue, inasmuch that tough words do have their place in the scheme of things, perhaps more so than posh words. The lovely paradox is that the use of the strong stuff (fit for spontaneous expression) has to be very carefully considered and measured, and that in turn are acts that require observation and rationality – one might call it: meta-cognition (haha, very posh, this one).

And I think the Professor has a point, re: the skipping of certain songs on the album (either factually or attention-wise). But your and Prof’s opinion are not mutually exclusive to me. I can accept that there may be days that I listen with a little distance, and thus get the whole picture; the Boys were this, and that too, and the CD tells the whole story. And there may be days that I need to have the ‘deeper stuff’ very close to me.

Cheers for posting.

[Quzi]

I think you were perfectly right in swearing Peter. Whenever this issue is brought up I have to bring up this Stephen Fry interview for he manages to articulate my feelings exactly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM

[drbeachboy]

I was going to complain about the profanity too, but then decided "ah, fu*k-it", why bother. I enjoyed the album review, well done.

[Outtasight!]

I've noticed you and many other reviewers have criticised the use of steel drums on Bill and Sue, however I can't hear them. I hear drums, timpani drums and vibraphones but no steel drums. Does anyone agree or have my ears packed in?

[southbay]

I get the complaints about BIll and Sue, but is it just me or are the bgv's amazing on this song? I particularly love the acapella break, I play that small section on repeat.

[the professor]

Hi, and thanks for reading, and for all the nice comments here. But when it comes to profanity, y'know, I could have done a better job of it, I suppose. Maybe it's beneath my dignity, or something. But that said, I don't have a lot of dignity, and I also think a well placed cussword, especially the one that begins with an 'f',' that is perhaps the most flexible word in the English language -- It's a verb! It's an adjective! It's an audible pause! -- is far more expressive and meaningful than a lot of other words I encounter on a daily basis. Like 'mimetics.' Ran up against that one today. I get it, it's one of those words you get issued in graduate school, the better to deconstruct and analyze in terms that only a small segment of other readers will be able to understand. (I'd imitate that kind of thinking/writing, but I just don't know a good word to describe/analyze my decision to do so. Oh wait, maybe I do. . .it's on the tip of my tongue. . .)

The smartest, coolest people I know curse. Some of them a lot. They're not profane people. They just understand the power of language, which does not always reside in the houses of propriety.

Is my foderin' opinion, anyway.

Hiya Peter –
great review, great comment. You are spot on about the profanity issue, inasmuch that tough words do have their place in the scheme of things, perhaps more so than posh words. The lovely paradox is that the use of the strong stuff (fit for spontaneous expression) has to be very carefully considered and measured, and that in turn are acts that require observation and rationality – one might call it: meta-cognition (haha, very posh, this one).

And I think the Professor has a point, re: the skipping of certain songs on the album (either factually or attention-wise). But your and Prof’s opinion are not mutually exclusive to me. I can accept that there may be days that I listen with a little distance, and thus get the whole picture; the Boys were this, and that too, and the CD tells the whole story. And there may be days that I need to have the ‘deeper stuff’ very close to me.

Cheers for posting.

Thank you, Don. The friendly debate draws attention, provocatively, to the entire narrative arc of the album.  Peter's injunction makes the various songs to be skipped like forbidden fruit. I don't doubt he intended less to dismiss than to provoke, a worthy function of criticism at the present time.

No further comment on the issue of profanity, which is not substantive to the analysis of the album.

I choose to enjoy that fact that we are so engaged with our beloved BB that we fight over the aesthetic status of one song or another. As I continue to listen,even the songs I don't like I now love.  Even when not listening, I hear the songs all night in my head--even Shelter, SW, and TPLOBAS, each of which have their hypnotic, lulling charms. No failure nor clunkers for me at all.

For those resisting on ideological grounds, give BIM and Daybreak an objective listen. We never head to the beach during the day to hear the strains of "Summer's Gone," though we hear it every night as we head home.  And on that point, to update Oscar Wilde, there were no sunsets in California until the Beach Boys invented them.

Please note a now-fixed typo in my posting above "usefully" now corrected to "useful."

Assigned reading for this thread:  Pope's "Essay on Criticism" and Hume's "On the Standard of Taste."

And while I seem to have some readers' attention, can anyone analyze what Dave is playing on the album, song by song? I want to celebrate his work in detail without conflating or confusing it with Baxter's.  And as to the omission of a credit for Dave as vocalist, I now think this must have been some odd omission based on some arcane contractual glitch.  I can see myself, for example, composing an introduction for a translation of, say, Dante, while, un-credited, helping with the translation itself, which would then betray my distinctive mark (without the publisher acknowledging it).  That is a shame in Dave's case, and I hope they reveal the truth soon and properly credit him. All I want is for the BB to be satisfied artistically and, however measured, commercially, which looks inevitable as of tomorrow.

best wishes to all,

[Wirestone]

I've noticed you and many other reviewers have criticised the use of steel drums on Bill and Sue, however I can't hear them. I hear drums, timpani drums and vibraphones but no steel drums. Does anyone agree or have my ears packed in?

I'm with you. No steel drums.

I get the complaints about BIll and Sue, but is it just me or are the bgv's amazing on this song? I particularly love the acapella break, I play that small section on repeat.

I really only hear Brian and Jeff there -- ditto for the Strange World break.

[ontor pertawst]

a worthy function of criticism at the present time.

Keep me posted as to when the worth of various functions of criticism change, it is so very hard to keep up. Does what you said there actually mean anything relevant or is it a meaningless appendage to the sentence in an effort to sound deep? Does the worth of the functions of criticism change in the future? Has it changed from the past? Was provocation not a worthy function in the past? I don't quite understand why you added "at the present time" other than reasons of linguistic flatulence...

No further comment on the issue of profanity, which is not substantive to the analysis of the album.

Well, then you probably shouldn't have said it to begin with... or claimed a blog posting was somehow a scholarly work.  Not enough footnotes, for one.

ASSIGNED READING: Mencken and more Mencken after that.

It seems a perfectly valid response to the album to see it form a grand narrative arc (what with fragments from it wrenched from a longform piece that DID form a grand narrative arc!) that doesn't include a track or two that your personal taste disagrees with. I've tried with Daybreak, I have! I swear, Mike! Don't hit me! Sticks out like a sore thumb and plods. I'm glad some people curl up in a pleasurable cocoon as that plays and gurgle contently, tho!

[the professor]

ontor, you gave it a chance, which is all that matters; taste is not universal, so I will never try to convince you; thank you for your posting.  I ought to have glossed the phrase "at the present time," but our British colleagues will get the reference to the work of their most famous inspector of schools and Victorian critic.

best to you and to all,

[Ron]

I get the complaints about BIll and Sue, but is it just me or are the bgv's amazing on this song? I particularly love the acapella break, I play that small section on repeat.

Yeah, they're really good.  REALLY good, imho. 

[Ron]

We never head to the beach during the day to hear the strains of "Summer's Gone," though we hear it every night as we head home.  

YEAH!  This is what i've been thinking for years.  I guess to each his own, but I never understood why people don't see that. 

[Danimalist]

I get the complaints about BIll and Sue, but is it just me or are the bgv's amazing on this song? I particularly love the acapella break, I play that small section on repeat.

I really only hear Brian and Jeff there -- ditto for the Strange World break.
[/quote]

Agreed. Sounds like Brian's solo albums to me. Sounds great, but not like the Beach Boys. I can hear Mike's fairly buried bass part on the B&S break, though.
The vocals on the whole album are so processed, it makes the Boys individual voices, so discernible on the 60's tracks, difficult to delineate. I've been listening to it for weeks since I found it streaming, but won't get the disc until Father's Day. Are there non-Jeff/BB's vocal credits? I'm not sure if I'm hearing other voices or BB's voices that have been processed out of recognition.

[pacarlin]

My ears believe that there's a ton of processing happening with the vocals all over the album. Though I'm also impressed with the amount of feeling in Brian's voice, which I don't believe you can create with a computer. For all that I feel out of sync with Joe Thomas's more MOR sensibilities -- the generic lead guitar riffage, the cheap dramatic moves, e.g. the key change in the title track, which doesn't flow from the melody as per 99 percent of Brian's modulations, but just happens on its own in order to signal to listeners that THIS is the climax of the song, so please get excited now. But he also seems to have some connection to Brian that helps him relax and really put himself into his vocals. "Imagination" is a very similar album in both respects (the schlocky sounds and the great sounding vocals). It's also worth noting that a bunch of these songs were either started or set aside during the 'Imagination' sessions in the late '90s. What I'm waiting for is for 'Imagination,' and maybe this album, to be remixed by someone who can strip out the fairy floss (e.g., the nylon-string guitars that plague 'Imagination' like a horde of zombies) and deliver clean versions of "Lay Down Burden," "Cry" and etc. That said, I give props to Joe for helping Brian invest himself in his performances.

Oh, when it comes to my skipping over some songs on the new record in my website review, let me clarify: I'm not implying anything beyond the need to keep the review a bit shorter than longer, and that I didn't have a lot/anything to say about them. I encourage anyone who feels more strongly about them to love the hell out of them. Art, and consuming it, are hugely subjective. If something speaks to you, for whatever reason, that's beautiful. I don't have an intellectual argument constructed to defend or explain my love for, say, Lisa Loeb's "Stay." It just rings a chime in my head, for whatever reason. I listen to it all the time. With headphones.

[Ron]

I didn't realize Joe came up with the key change in the title track, I heard it was Brian. 

[Zach95]

a worthy function of criticism at the present time.

Keep me posted as to when the worth of various functions of criticism change, it is so very hard to keep up. Does what you said there actually mean anything relevant or is it a meaningless appendage to the sentence in an effort to sound deep? Does the worth of the functions of criticism change in the future? Has it changed from the past? Was provocation not a worthy function in the past? I don't quite understand why you added "at the present time" other than reasons of linguistic flatulence...

No further comment on the issue of profanity, which is not substantive to the analysis of the album.

Well, then you probably shouldn't have said it to begin with... or claimed a blog posting was somehow a scholarly work.  Not enough footnotes, for one.

ASSIGNED READING: Mencken and more Mencken after that.

It seems a perfectly valid response to the album to see it form a grand narrative arc (what with fragments from it wrenched from a longform piece that DID form a grand narrative arc!) that doesn't include a track or two that your personal taste disagrees with. I've tried with Daybreak, I have! I swear, Mike! Don't hit me! Sticks out like a sore thumb and plods. I'm glad some people curl up in a pleasurable cocoon as that plays and gurgle contently, tho!

Aww, I love the professor's posts and intellectual insight. I found the "assigned reading" bit quite funny, to tell you the truth.  No need to attack him with bitterness and sarcasm simply because his language may be more sophisticated than you would expect from Beacg Boys message board users.

By the way, I enjoy your comments as well. Maybe I misinterpreted your tone, anyway.

[Amanda Hart]

My ears believe that there's a ton of processing happening with the vocals all over the album. Though I'm also impressed with the amount of feeling in Brian's voice, which I don't believe you can create with a computer. For all that I feel out of sync with Joe Thomas's more MOR sensibilities -- the generic lead guitar riffage, the cheap dramatic moves, e.g. the key change in the title track, which doesn't flow from the melody as per 99 percent of Brian's modulations, but just happens on its own in order to signal to listeners that THIS is the climax of the song, so please get excited now. But he also seems to have some connection to Brian that helps him relax and really put himself into his vocals. "Imagination" is a very similar album in both respects (the schlocky sounds and the great sounding vocals). It's also worth noting that a bunch of these songs were either started or set aside during the 'Imagination' sessions in the late '90s. What I'm waiting for is for 'Imagination,' and maybe this album, to be remixed by someone who can strip out the fairy floss (e.g., the nylon-string guitars that plague 'Imagination' like a horde of zombies) and deliver clean versions of "Lay Down Burden," "Cry" and etc. That said, I give props to Joe for helping Brian invest himself in his performances.

Thanks for this and your review Peter, it sums up how I feel about the album, too. I've been hard on the album, but it's not like I hate it or anything, it's just that a lot of things going on with the instrumentation and production feel disingenuous. The key change thing you pointed out above from the title track is a good example. Joe Thomas clearly has a talent for working with vocalists, but his overall production choices seem to out-dated and uninspired. If, somehow, we get another Beach Boys album, I hope they give the final say on mixing and production to someone else.

I'm still holding out hope for the vinyl mix, though. Am being too optimistic in hoping part of the delay in its release is because they are taking their time putting together a separate mix?

[Danimalist]

Strangely enough, I (thought I) posted this earlier, but it does not seem to be here. However, this is an even better place to post, given the discussion above.
The Professor is an excellent example of someone whose opinions I nearly wholeheartedly disagree with but whose contributions I, nevertheless, respect and appreciate. That is quite rare on an anonymous message board.

[Wirestone]

Peter: If you haven't already, it's worth it to take a look at the otherwise unpublished in-depth interview with Joe by the Newsweek writer. It rather changed my perspective on the record.

http://andrewromano.tumblr.com/joethomasbeachboys

At least according to Joe (and Brian's interviews over the past couple of years back up some of this), Think About the Days, Isn't It Time, Bill and Sue, Shelter, and From There to Back Again are all newly written. In the case of Isn't it Time, written in February-March of this year, even.

[Wirestone]

I didn't realize Joe came up with the key change in the title track, I heard it was Brian. 

I think the account given is that Brian came up with the song's general chord changes -- Peter is speaking specifically about the 80's style key change that kicks things up a notch at the end of the bridge. It's known more generally as the truck driver's gear change.

http://www.gearchange.org/