Aaron Arnold's Reviews

[Don_Zabu]

I don't remember how I found this guy, but I'm glad I did because the way he puts the Beach Boys's music into words is phenomenal. He really gets everything there is to get about the band and what it represents. Just read his description of "Good Vibrations":

A perennial contender for their finest single work, it really does seem to sum up all that made them great: catchy melodies, intricate construction, far-out arrangement, and some of their most feverishly intoxicating vocal harmonies. It has been said to death but it's true: this song says more in three and a half minutes than most albums do in forty. How is that the slow contemplative part at the end lasts for less than a minute but still manages to convey Brian's near-religious attitude to happiness so well? Who else would think of putting in a Theremin, previously known only for its unearthly wails in cheap science fiction and horror movies, in to a pop single, or cellos to simulate a fuzz bass? I really can't say enough good things about it in strong enough terms: it's perfect.

Anyway, the guy's original site's gone down, so here's an archive.org link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20071115190429/http://www.utdallas.edu/~awa021000/music/the-beach-boys.html

[Sammy]

friends - D+
20/20 - A-
 

[phirnis]

Dennis' Little Bird (his first song! Go Dennis!) is one of the halfway decent songs on the whole album, but it's about birds.

So? What topics do songwriters have to explore in order to please Mr. Arnold?

I did enjoy reading some of these reviews, however, and it's great to see Holland getting the praise it deserves, even though I don't think "Funky Pretty" being "a harbinger of the synth nightmare of Love You" is a bad thing at all.

In a way I can even see where he's coming from in terms of describing Friends as "nearly comatose". It sure doesn't fit what you'd expect from a "classic rock album" or any such thing and that's fine. It actually does sound kind of drowsy, but in the most otherworldly beautiful way imaginable (if you ask me, that is...).