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.

[The Real Beach Boy]

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!

[Curtis Leon]

At least KTSA wasn't that overproduced, as much as it pains me to say it. This is just... a mocking parody of a shitty band attempting to emulate something that sounds like, but isn't really, the Beach Boys. Terrible. Completely terrible. The Boys even have the gall to throw on a cover of Forever, featuring John Stamos on vocals. It just goes to show a document of just how fall the once great Beach Boys have fallen. The cover of Surfin' is horrible too, but at least that song wasn't that good to begin with. I mean, God. Mike Love couldn't recognize a good song even if it knocked him out and FORCED him to write it (Sumahama). Still Crusin'. as God awful as that was, seems like a long lost Da Vinci painting compared to this. (Okay, maybe not THAT much). I mean, I'm glad no one bought it. At least then, only die-hards could hear this Satanic pile of merda. Imagine if radios were spammed with "Hot Fun in the Summertime" or "Still Surfin'". God, I don't know what keeps giving me the urge to review sub-par albums. Lemme go put on 20/20...

[Wirestone]

For what it is, SIP isn't actually bad.

It's the "what it is" that people have problems with.

That is, it's an album that tests a certain concept of creative autonomy that started with 15 Big Ones and Love You. In those two albums, but in the latter specifically, Brian Wilson was given nearly total control in writing and producing a Beach Boys album. With MIU, Alan was given a similar chance (although he clearly wanted to feature as many BW compositions as possible). Carl nearly dominated BB85 by force of his vocals and compositions alone.

So in 1993, with Brian absent, Al banished and Carl abdicating any creative input, Mike stepped up to the plate. He was going to prove his spot, finally, with a Beach Boys album conceived, co-written and nearly entirely sung by himself. It's really kind of remarkable it hadn't happened before then.

Think of SIP, then, as a Mike solo album with the other guys as guest vocalists. And when you consider it that way, it's not bad.

As a Beach Boys album, of course, it's tasteless and wretched.

[Alex]

Carl's vocals saved Lahaina Aloha and the cover songs.

[Malc]

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

Sure it wasn't the vinyl version ?? These do fetch an AWFUL lot of money on the circuit. I think it only appeared in the Far East and, maybe, Oz on record ...

[Paulos]

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

Sure it wasn't the vinyl version ?? These do fetch an AWFUL lot of money on the circuit. I think it only appeared in the Far East and, maybe, Oz on record ...

Nope, definately the CD version - some people ask crazy amounts for SIP, I had to pay £25 for it!

[The Madcap]

Absolutely horrible. Most of the songs seem like half-assed attempts at repeating the success of Kokomo. The problem is that 4 years had passed since Kokomo was a hit, and by then this sort of thing sounded extremely dated. The production just screams 80s. Most of the songs go on for way too long. The two remakes are atrocious (well, I never liked Surfin' too much to begin with, but Forever was one of my all-time favorite Beach Boys songs). This album has no redeeming qualities. I don't normally give albums ratings, but I'll gladly give this a 0.

[Luther]

Absolutely horrible. Most of the songs seem like half-assed attempts at repeating the success of Kokomo. The problem is that 4 years had passed since Kokomo was a hit, and by then this sort of thing sounded extremely dated. The production just screams 80s. Most of the songs go on for way too long. The two remakes are atrocious (well, I never liked Surfin' too much to begin with, but Forever was one of my all-time favorite Beach Boys songs). This album has no redeeming qualities. I don't normally give albums ratings, but I'll gladly give this a 0.

Now this is remarkable. not the review, which is as one would expect. But to have one's first ever post on the board be about SIP?! Wow. Better than the two guys whose first posts were MIU. Congrats. Welcome aboard.

[drbeachboy]

Yes, doesn't like the last album or the very first song. The dislike has come full circle. I'm kind of surprised with all the great stuff that was recorded by The Beach Boys and Brian's new album due out in a few days, that a first post would be about Summer In Paradise. Indeed, welcome aboard!

[Curtis Leon]

Absolutely horrible. Most of the songs seem like half-assed attempts at repeating the success of Kokomo. The problem is that 4 years had passed since Kokomo was a hit, and by then this sort of thing sounded extremely dated. The production just screams 80s. Most of the songs go on for way too long. The two remakes are atrocious (well, I never liked Surfin' too much to begin with, but Forever was one of my all-time favorite Beach Boys songs). This album has no redeeming qualities. I don't normally give albums ratings, but I'll gladly give this a 0.

Now this is remarkable. not the review, which is as one would expect. But to have one's first ever post on the board be about SIP?! Wow. Better than the two guys whose first posts were MIU. Congrats. Welcome aboard.

Well, I made my review because I thought there was something to defend! 

[elchriso]

Absolutely horrible. Most of the songs seem like half-assed attempts at repeating the success of Kokomo. The problem is that 4 years had passed since Kokomo was a hit, and by then this sort of thing sounded extremely dated. The production just screams 80s. Most of the songs go on for way too long. The two remakes are atrocious (well, I never liked Surfin' too much to begin with, but Forever was one of my all-time favorite Beach Boys songs). This album has no redeeming qualities. I don't normally give albums ratings, but I'll gladly give this a 0.

Now this is remarkable. not the review, which is as one would expect. But to have one's first ever post on the board be about SIP?! Wow. Better than the two guys whose first posts were MIU. Congrats. Welcome aboard.

Well, I made my review because I thought there was something to defend! 

no no no! The only people that need to defend anything are people who LIKE SIP!

[OGoldin]

[/quote] no no no! The only people that need to defend anything are people who LIKE SIP!
[/quote]

To say that they like the album requires no defense.  If they like it, they like it.  What would require defense is a claim such as "SIP rivals "Pet Sounds" in its clear, careful, visionary arrangements." 

I have kept away from this album, on the basis of having watched the "Hot Fun" video, but, hey, if someone likes it, maybe there is something there to like.

The problem with a lot of late Beach Boys is that no matter how catchy the tune is, I can't stop myself from thinking "NO!  This is not what I want a Beach Boys album to be!"