Most/Least Cohesive BB album

[SunBurn]

I've noticed that cohesion within an album seems to be a desirable trait with a lot of members here. With that, which record shows the most cohesion, and which the least? What kind of cohesion (arrangements, musical style, lyrics/story, sound engineering, creative vision, etc.) matters to you? How important is cohesion, any way? If you ask me, 20/20 is more than a bit of a crumble, but very tasty!

[pixletwin]

Most: Love You
Least: 20/20

[Reddiwhip]

Most:

Pet Sounds

Least:

It's a tie for me between Carl and The Passions "So Tough" and 20/20.

[MBE]

Most:

Pet Sounds

Least:

It's a tie for me between Carl and The Passions "So Tough" and 20/20.

I agree though I must point out that So Tough and 20/20 are very very good anyway.

[MBE]

Actually Still Cruisin and LA Light may be even worse cohesively.

[punkinhead]

Friends came to mind for most (besides TM)

[Jukka]

I know 20/20 isn't really cohesive by any stretch of imagination, but I swear if I didn't know the stories behind the songs, I couldn't tell! I'd just think it's a really cool album with lots of variety. Which is a good thing.

LA is almost one of their more cohesive albums, but thanks, but thanks to HCTN and SB it probably is the least cohesive. Go figure.

Stars & Stripes is probably their most unified sounding album, but I don't think it really counts...

[Reddiwhip]

Most:

Pet Sounds

Least:

It's a tie for me between Carl and The Passions "So Tough" and 20/20.

I agree though I must point out that So Tough and 20/20 are very very good anyway.

I totally agree that they are good albums.  It just seems like the variety in songwriting and song quality period is problematic.  All I Want To Do crossed with Cabinessence or Here She Comes crossed with All This Is That?  Kinda weird.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

I think Wild Honey is pretty cohesive too.
Awesome R&B feel all the way through.

[Myk Luhv]

I think Todaay! and Surf's Up sound cohesive but not Sunflower -- it's almost as jarring as 20/20!

[mr_oleary]

Most has to be Pet Sounds.  It's about as cohesive of a record as you could ask for.

Least I'll say 20/20.  Lots of different songs in terms of theme and instrumentation. 

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Most - Pet Sounds
Least - Still Cruisin'

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Most - Pet Sounds
Least - Still Cruisin'

This.

[Runaways]

i can only talk for what i have (which is nothing past Love You), but ignoring the obvious pet sounds, I'd say most is Friends.  That album has a clear style and feel all the way through.  Least is 20/20.  It doesn't even feel like an album to me. 

[rab2591]

i can only talk for what i have (which is nothing past Love You), but ignoring the obvious pet sounds, I'd say most is Friends.  That album has a clear style and feel all the way through.  Least is 20/20.  It doesn't even feel like an album to me. 

Same!

I don't own LA or MIU - I feel like those must sound very patched together, but that's just based off of samples I've heard.

And I agree, Friends is the most cohesive. 20/20 sounds more like a demo album than an actual release.

[Summer_Days]

Most - Pet Sounds
Least - Still Cruisin'

There are Beach Boys albums that are in cohesive and are crap (like Still Cruisin') and albums that are good (20/20 and Shut Down volume 2). It's kind of a norm for the Beach Boys to put out studio albums with a few miss-mashed songs, often weird, spotty songs out of left field rubbing shoulders with greatness. The one big exception to this is Pet Sounds and maybe Wild Honey (Smile not counted). Surfer Girl has stuff like 'The South Bay Surfer' alongside wonderful stuff like 'In My Room'. All Summer Long is a great album, marred by filler tracks like 'Carl's Big Chance' and 'Our Favorite Recording Sessions', which stick out like sore thumbs amongst the goodies. To a lesser extant, Today and Summer Days have these problems, too.

[Summer_Days]

i can only talk for what i have (which is nothing past Love You), but ignoring the obvious pet sounds, I'd say most is Friends.  That album has a clear style and feel all the way through.  Least is 20/20.  It doesn't even feel like an album to me. 

Same!

I don't own LA or MIU - I feel like those must sound very patched together, but that's just based off of samples I've heard.

Well, MIU isn't cohesive 'cause it's a crappy album. I wouldn't say there's any production or melodic bits that don't mix well with others on that album, though. Not that patchy, IMO.

LA Light Album is better than MIU and more patchy. Disco 'Here Comes The Night', then graceful, astounding 'Baby Blue'? Snore-inducing laid-back sweetness of 'Goin' South' against the bump n' grind rockin' 'Shortenin' Bread'? The album is kind of all over the place, but all in all it's pretty good (long is you forget about 'Sumahama' and 'Here Comes The Night').

[EgoHanger1966]

i can only talk for what i have (which is nothing past Love You), but ignoring the obvious pet sounds, I'd say most is Friends.  That album has a clear style and feel all the way through.  Least is 20/20.  It doesn't even feel like an album to me. 

Same!

I don't own LA or MIU - I feel like those must sound very patched together, but that's just based off of samples I've heard.

And I agree, Friends is the most cohesive. 20/20 sounds more like a demo album than an actual release.

MIU has a very cohesive sound. I can understand how 20/20 might be dismissed based on it's mix of variety and sequencing, but listen to most of the tracks on it - it's certainly head and shoulders above demo quality in regard to production.

[Music Machine]

Most: Wild Honey (it's a shame it didn't have a few more songs on it, I like the outtakes,) and Holland.


Least: Still Cruisin' (you know what, Mike Love was right here, it should have just rounded up the 80's soundtrack contributions and a couple of various 80's odds and ends,) and 20/20 (although technically this is not really an album proper, more a Beach Boys version of an album like the Monkees' Instant Replay, The Who's Odds and Sods or The Rolling Stones' Tattoo You. I do find 20/20 sounds slightly more unified if you drop the Smile and Friends outtakes and use some of the bonus tracks from the Friends and 20/20 twofer to fill in the gaps.)

[Quzi]

i can only talk for what i have (which is nothing past Love You), but ignoring the obvious pet sounds, I'd say most is Friends.  That album has a clear style and feel all the way through.  Least is 20/20.  It doesn't even feel like an album to me. 

Same!

I don't own LA or MIU - I feel like those must sound very patched together, but that's just based off of samples I've heard.

And I agree, Friends is the most cohesive. 20/20 sounds more like a demo album than an actual release.

MIU has a very cohesive sound. I can understand how 20/20 might be dismissed based on it's mix of variety and sequencing, but listen to most of the tracks on it - it's certainly head and shoulders above demo quality in regard to production.

Head and shoulders in production maybe when compared to, heck I don't know, the Little Deuce Coupe album, but it's all about context. It's hard to take MIU's production seriously when it sounds like it's trying to capture a Sunflower production quality when Sunflower did it so much better nearly a decade prior with inferior technology.

[LetHimRun]

Most - Pet Sounds
Least - 20/20 (but I LOVE this album)

[Ron]

I've noticed that cohesion within an album seems to be a desirable trait with a lot of members here. With that, which record shows the most cohesion, and which the least? What kind of cohesion (arrangements, musical style, lyrics/story, sound engineering, creative vision, etc.) matters to you? How important is cohesion, any way? If you ask me, 20/20 is more than a bit of a crumble, but very tasty!

Best Cohesion is Surfer Girl, followed by Shut Down Vol. 2. 

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

For most cohesion, I'd give a tie to All Summer Long, and Pet Sounds.  The Beach Boys Love You is close but Brian's voice on "Good Time" gives the game away.

For least, I'd give it to Carl and the Passions-So Tough.  It might be a cliche to say that it sounds like it was made by three different bands, but that doesn't make it any less true.

One further note-while I generally think cohesion is a desirable trait, it cannot make up for a lack of quality.  MIU and Summer In Paradise both have a lot of cohesion, but they are two of the band's worst albums.  I guess the moral of the story is that it's better to be inconsistent than it is to be consistently bad.

[Autotune]

Most: Party

Least: Still Cruisin'

[EgoHanger1966]

I can't understand why people on this thread (and others) cite 20/20 as a complete hodge-podge album, dismissing it as a compilation. The two earliest tracks are the SMiLE ones, from late '66 - nothing goes further back than that. Almost all of the songs were started AFTER Friends was finished! It certainly is a mix of styles, but just because "Bluebirds" is so different from "Be With Me", which is so different from "I Went To Sleep", doesn't mean it was a haphazardly thrown together colllection of tracks from all different eras.