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[B.E.]

There's also the Price & Reference Guide For The Beach Boys American Records that was released last year.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

A lot of the recent releases appear to be missing:

1) Ken Sharp's book - Dreamer: The Making Of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue
2) Mike's album - Unleash The Love
3) Brian's album - Playback: The Brian Wilson Anthology
4) Brian's CD/DVD - Brian Wilson & Friends
5) Sunshine Tomorrow 2 and Live Sunshine (as well as earlier copyright releases)

Additionally, some of the most recent threads that have been created are missing the date, picture, and/or poll (e.g. Sunshine Tomorrow, Crowley's Carl biography).

Edit: Also, perhaps, Bambu: The Caribou Sessions ?

Working on it

[Summer_Days]

For the video section how about Love & Mercy?

[rab2591]

Will a new thread be created for the newer release of Sounds of Summer? Or should the reviews go in the old SoS thread?

[Julia]

We need one for "A World of Peace Must Come" as that was produced by Brian. (It's not particularly impressive and I doubt many have heard it, but for the sake of completion. I give it a 1/5 personally.)

I think there ought to be a place for unreleased albums unless there is one already and Im missing it. Adult/Child and Sweet Insanity demand my 2/5 ratings!

Also one for the Honeys' various albums. It's Brian's wife and unrequited love, they should go in the "related" category.

[Julia]

In the "Tribute" section, there should be one for Pet Sounds: in the Key of Dee by The Beach Boys vs J Dilla. I thought it was fantastic

[Julia]

Here's another one for ya, Dumb Angel by Journey of Giraffes (SMiLE's working title meets Pet Sounds' alt cover). This seems to be a tribute album of SMiLE-related music by the guys who started the Smile Shop forum, Jon and John. The former is credited with the cover art, the latter with the music itself. Considering this forum is the successor to their old site, and its a clear homage to Brian's best work, I'm REALLY surprised this doesn't have a spot. I don't expect it ever will since none of the other suggestions here are ever acted upon so I'll review it now in this post.

https://ajourneyofgiraffes.bandcamp.com/album/dumb-angel

Angelus/Wow was a great alt take on Prayer/Gee, with the transition from one into the other much more seamless and satisfying than their Prayer/Gee equivalents. I loved this part.

By Hook or By Crook is where it gets spottier. Im not a big fan of the vocals, or at least the way they're mixed. It's incredibly hard to make out what the singer is even saying because he doesn't enunciate well or there's too much echo/reverb whatever in the mix. It's not bad but definitely far inferior to H&V, lacking the playfulness and "You're Under Arrest" oddities.

Fresh Zen Air is ok but another disappointment considering you could easily flesh out what's an annoying fragment that ought to be cut in BWPS/TSS into a full song but chose not to. This is just here out of obligation.

The Old Farmer's Almanac ditto. Ends way too abruptly.

Proper Passage is Cabin Essence without the dramatic shift from quiet verses to booming choruses that makes the original work. The "who laid the tracks down" part is very underwhelming. The fade is better than the choruses but still incredibly weak compared to the BB original. You could say it's an unfair comparison but it's not even close.

She Paints Wonderlands its ok. The sound font of this album is starting to grate on me by this point though. All the songs sound the same, I can hardly make out the words and it feels very "overly digitized singing over midi instruments" for my liking. I know that's the times we live in, there will never be another wrecking crew much less an average joe to have access to them. Still really sucks.

Son & Daughter it's CIFOTM without the thought provoking, initially contradicting lyrics or iconic baby's cry horn sound. Very underwhelming.

And Then, Hope same complaints, just a blander SU without clear vocals or distinct instruments. The lyrics for this and all other tracks (but especially this) are so much more inferior to VDP's work. There's none of the wordplay, references, allusions or alliterative flow. Just a bland dumbed down copy.

Ye Olde Toolshed a charming instrumental. Another highlight, ironically of SMiLE's worst track.

Potatoes it's VT without the optimistic energy--the weird whispering chorus is so not-Veggies like Im wondering where that came from. If you played this to me out of context, I'd never in a million years guess it's a Veggies knockoff.

Dusker bland, without the dramatically louder choruses or tag that make WC so special. (Noticing a pattern yet?)

The Great Baltimore Fire, 1904 is another highlight. I love this one and how it mirrors Fire but with weird oscillating "alien space laser" sounds. It ends too abruptly without the "stamping out the fire" sounds to bring it to a dramatic conclusion.

Clean Cleansing Rain is a serviceable counterpart to CCW. Another highlight.

Keep On the Wavelength is ok. A far less good GV but the chorus is still one of the better moments in this album. The titular phrase is really awkward and unintuitive though--no one would ever use such an awkward phrase in a song except when conceptually bound to sing GV without singing GV.

^Why is there no Worms equivalent? That seems the biggest omission.

Overall, it's a 2/5. It's not just me being sour grapes "ugh it's not SMiLE" it's just an objectively bland recording where all the songs sound the same and the vocals are weak. The arrangements are very weak "cheap digital midi" sounding, without the bisociative use of specific instruments to evoke a mood like Brian did. They all blend into each other, where in SMiLE proper there was such an important "feel" to WC marimbas vs CE's banjos that gave each composition a pictorial identity. I really couldn't recommend this to anybody who isn't a curious diehard fan--the idea of the album (a half-original SMiLE tribute by the guys who made the famous 90s forum) is much more interesting than the results. It's everything wrong with modern amateur digital productions.

[Julia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qa8rswFKEY

Hal Blaine's Psychedelic Percussion ought to be here too. He's probably the best known of the Wrecking Crew, apparently the one with the closest relationship to Brian and it's impossible to read about the BBs career without coming across his name.

Anyway, I liked the album for what it is. None of these songs are going to enter my usual playlist rotations but they're extremely well performed, definitely psychedelic and would serve as great background noise for a stoned party or rave. I'd give it a 3 or 4 out of 5 depending on what mood I'm in and the context it's played in.

[Julia]

It's a moot point since the forum is winding down, but I just want to say for the record I'm shocked there isn't a space to discuss Bambu (The Caribou Sessions) from 2017. I understand the argument for leaving out Adult/Child and Paley since they were never officially released (well, until just last year for the former) but this particular omission is inexcusable. In general, I'm surprised there isn't as much discussion of this fabled lost album, Dennis' SMiLE (although without the chance to change rock history and it's not as good).

Im not nearly as well-versed on Bambu as I am SMiLE or even Paley, Adult/Child and Sweet Insanity. With those, I've heard at least two bootlegs each (with SMiLE I've lost count but including fan mixes it's easily 25+).  Bambu somehow always alluded me. I only just listened to it a few years ago and while very impressive, definitely the foundation for a great album, with what we have I don't think it's as good as POB. Not quite, but I'm sure Dennis would've gotten there if he stuck to it. Also, I wondered if perhaps the tracklist I was using (YouTube playlist of 2017) wasn't at least partially to blame. So that got me wondering how else the album might be assembled. At this time, I don't have a strong opinion the way I do with SMiLE*, but I wanted to see what the more dedicated Dennis fans had come up with though...

*(I think the modular recording process as well as the many interconnected themes of SMiLE make it particularly fun to play around with, which is why it holds up to the legend and continues to be a favorite of fanmixers and theorists where other lost albums are more...idk, stagnant).

During my first sweep of the forum trying to archive some of the more interesting threads I could find, I used the search function to look for Bambu/Bamboo stuff and was surprised how sparse it is. This time around, I managed to find exactly what I was looking for http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,5739.0.html. I'll have to give some of these combinations a try! Also, looking at that other forum and the tracklists of the 2008 & 2017 official releases as well as bootlegs, I see the following sequences--

WILLJC'S LIST OF DEF INCLUDED TRACKS @ EH, SOURCE Gregg Jakobson

Tug of Love
Time for Bed
Love Remember Me
If Love Had Its Way
He's a Bum
Baby Blue
Wild Situation

"other songs either left over from POB or newly recorded that were possible album contenders"

Holy Man (likely)
Are You Real (probably not)
School Girl (likely)
Taking Off (maybe)
Album Tag (probably not)
Only Love for You (probably not)
Fever (probably not)
Only With You (definitely)
10,000 Years Ago (likely)
I Wanna Live (likely)

ALBUMS THAT SHOULDNT EXIST FANMIX
http://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/05/dennis-wilson-bambu-alternate-version.html

01 Under the Moonlight (Dennis Wilson)
02 It's Not Too Late (Dennis Wilson)
03 Love Remember Me (Dennis Wilson)
04 Wild Situation (Dennis Wilson)
05 Are You Real (Dennis Wilson)
06 He's a Bum (Dennis Wilson)
07 Cocktails (Dennis Wilson)
08 I Love You (Dennis Wilson)
09 Constant Companion [Alternate Version] (Dennis Wilson)
10 Time for Bed (Dennis Wilson)
11 All Alone (Dennis Wilson)
12 Mexico [Edit] [Instrumental] (Dennis Wilson)
13 Baby Blue [Alternate Version] (Dennis Wilson)

2008 POB REISSUE TRACKLIST
second, third and four columns/(in parentheses) represent each track's placement on a 1987, 2000 & 2006 bootleg
SOURCES FOR BOOTLEG SEQUENCES: https://beachboyslegacy.com

1.   "Under the Moonlight" (1/1/1)
2.   "It's Not Too Late" (2/2/2)
3.   "School Girl" (4/4/4)
4.   "Love Remember Me"   
5.   "Love Surrounds Me" (7/7/7)
6.   "Wild Situation" (5/5/5)
7.   "Common"   
8.   "Are You Real"   
9.   "He's a Bum" (9/9/9)
10.   "Cocktails"   
11.   "I Love You"   
12.   "Constant Companion" (3/3/3)
13.   "Time for Bed"   
14.   "Album Tag Song"
15.   "All Alone"

*1987 has "Baby Blue Eyes" at #6, New Orleans at #8, Holy Evening at #10
2000 also has BBE at #6, NO at #8, HE at #10, then 10,000 Years at #11, another WS at #12 (alt mix?), then Lady and non-Bambu tracks.
2006 has BBE at #6, NO at #8, HE at #10...and it continues to be the same as 2000 but with extra non-Bambu tracks at the end.
^The 2017 release also uses the same tracklist of the main body of songs, then some extras.

For better or worse, it seems we have two main competing "traditions" in the bootlegs and archival releases, then the fan mixes are more varied. Honestly, it's kinda like SMiLE, with BWPS and Priore's America/Elements models as the standard options while other fanmixers release their own (far superior!) alternatives.

In the absence of a dedicated Bambu review thread, and since it'll never happen now, I just want to say for the record I give this music a 4/5. Even unfinished and unsequenced, Dennis was sitting on a would-be masterpiece, better than even what Brian was capable of creating post-LY. You can definitely tell there was something here, though I'm of the opinion it could've used a few more "left turns" as it's a bit "same-y" to listen to. It's so frustrating imagining that better world, where Brian finishes SMiLE and goes on to produce Redwood while Dennis (and to a lesser extent Carl) steps up to the plate and leads the BBs boldly into the new decade and beyond... (Brian occasionally popping in to offer them a few songs as he pleases, maybe releasing his weirder stuff like Mt Vernon, A/C and even LY as solo ventures.) Ah, what could've been!