Summer In Paradise

[runnersdialzero]

Discuss, review and rate Summer In Paradise

No.

[Stegibo]

The entire album was recorded using Pro Tools on a Macintosh Quadra computer

This in no way enhances nor takes away from the album. Irrelevant. The album sucks because the songs suck.

'Lahaina Aloha', 'Strange Things Happen' and the live version of 'Summer In Paradise' are very decent.

[Irwin M. Fletcher]

Apparently, Summer In Paradise was recorded with Pro Tools, but the BETA RELEASE version!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Summer In Paradise is just a tragic record period! The entire album was recorded using Pro Tools on a Macintosh Quadra computer, being one of the first albums to do so. Musically, it continued in the vein of The Beach Boys and Still Cruisin'. The entire rhythm section was electronic on most songs, with all the drum parts being programmed and most of the bass parts being synthesized as well.

The only band member to actually play was Bruce Johnston, although Terry Melcher played many keyboard parts, and Van Dyke Parks played accordion on two tracks.  Al Jardine's son Adam did sing backup vocals on the title track, and touring musician Adrian Baker contributed background vocals.

The album sold very badly (reportedly less than 1,000 copies) and was received less favorably than any album put out by the band to date. Critics attacked the album upon release and are still going at it today. In their book "The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson: The Complete Guide to Their Music", Andrew G. Doe and John Tobler call the album "the absolute nadir of their recording career", "pointless, vapid and soulless" and "utterly disposable" (the latter in reference to the songs). In "Catch a Wave", Peter Ames Carlin speaks especially disparagingly about "Summer of Love", referencing its overtly sexual lyrics.

The band never again released an album of original material. The last official group project was Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, an album of Beach Boys classics performed by country stars with the Boys on backup vocals.

And there endeth the lesson!

SIP sold less than 100,000 copies, not less than 1,000...

Bruce told me it sold about 145,000 copies. According to SoundScan, something like 53,000 units shifted (but a lot of those were as a freebie if you bought the 1993 box on QVC). According to someone else closely involved with the project (whose initials might just have been TM), it sold about 1000 copies.

[southbay]

Fair enough, I stand corrected.  I had only heard the 100K numbers before.  1,000 copies...that seems almost impossible

[Paulos]

It does seem impossible that it sold that badly........but then you here it and it all makes perfect sense.

Unbelievably I saw a copy of this on amazon.co.uk the other day for a staggering £131.77 (approx $200)!!

A question by the way, I have the version with the whale on the front, is this the US or UK version?

[southbay]

It does seem impossible that it sold that badly........but then you here it and it all makes perfect sense.

Unbelievably I saw a copy of this on amazon.co.uk the other day for a staggering £131.77 (approx $200)!!

Should be US.  The UK version has  fireworks on the cover, but no whale.

A question by the way, I have the version with the whale on the front, is this the US or UK version?

[Paulos]

Thanks for the clarification Southbay, although you putting your answer above my question in your reply was slightly confusing 

[elchriso]

To be honest, if you can find any redeeming value in this album your Beach Boys fandom has gone too far.  This album actually made me dislike the entire concept of music for a few hours after I heard it. Even my favourite songs did nothing for me immediately after finishing SIP. Early BB albums are the soundtrack to summer, this album tries to be as well but it's more like the soundtrack to a dentist's waiting room. All the magazines are several months old and don't look interesting at all and the radio is set to 106.5 SNOOZE FM "Playing all your bland, boring and inoffensive favorites."

This thing isn't even enjoyable for a few laughs at how bad it is. It's just so pathetically mediocre and unappealing that even Mike's rapping on "Summer Of Love" fails to get any reaction out of you at all, not even a "wow that's horrible and cheesy." The bland non-appeal of the whole thing manages to actually suck the beauty out of everything around you and bring it down to it's level. At the Louvre and looking at the Mona Lisa? Play this on your iPod and you'll soon look at it and think "So what? It's just a painting." Camping in the Rocky Mountains? Play this and you'll think "Meh. Lots of trees around here. There's a lake and that's a big mountain I guess. I see a lot of trees and water every day though and mountains are just really big rocks really. I don't get it."

I guess there is one neat thing about this album though is that I can now say that The Beach Boys are my favourite and least favourite band on earth simultaneously!