The Smiley Smile Message Board

I meant to do this poll jsut after That's Why God Made The Radio was released, but I couldn't get the poll function working. Now I've figured it out, there's no stopping me!

So which album do you think it's the best since? I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that no one will go back as far as the 60s, but if you do, please post which album.

My vote goes to MIU, which I feel TWGMTR is kind of on a par with. Overall there are more songs I like on MIU, although I think the good songs are far stronger on this new one, especially the last three.

SIP

Vote, TWGMTR hater!!

Friends.

My decision isn't based off of songwriting, band contribution, vocal quality, etc (things that albums like Sunflower are known for)....it's based off of how happy this album makes me ;D

Much like Friends, TWGMTR seems to have upbeat songs, sad songs, great harmonies, beautiful chords. It's everything I'd ever ask for in a Beach Boys record.

My top 5 BB list now goes:

1. Pet Sounds
2. SMiLE
3. Friends
4. Surfer Girl
5. That's Why God Made The Radio

Edit: i'll probably change my mind next week after randomly listening to Sunflower or Love You haha

Hey I'm the first one to vote!  I'm never the first one to do anything!   :lol

I picked:  Love You -- the high point of their post glory days.  I love MIU and LA...but it was "down hill" after Love You, and TWGMTR is another, new high-point... end o' story!

That said, I don't like comparing TWGMTR to anything because there's way too much time between it and ....what, Beach Boys 85!!??!!  It's like comparing Love You to Pet Sounds.  They're so far removed from each other, it's like comparing two different bands.  

Well good on ya! Now I wish I'd polled the whole catalogue! Maybe pet sounds would've been a better cut off point.

I picked Love You, though some days I like TWGMTR better.

I went with Surf's Up. 

I think it's their best since Still Cruisin, padded though it was with oldies. But I think Al's solo album is a more BB like effort.

Love You. I know some people argue that Love You is a Brian album, but the Beach Boys are all over it. Hell, it's more of a BB album than Pet Sounds is.

I don't know, it's somwhere in between MIU and LA for me, so i voted LA.

No brainer. Best since Love You. Hands down.

Good point!  Both albums are "penned" by Brian...but Love You feels WAY more like of a group effort.  I think you're spot on there.

Someone's actually voted for "it's the worst yet"? Poll trolling, much?

Best since Love You, and most Brian involvement since Love You. No coincidence.

The best since the L.A. (Light Album).

Right!? Apparently they've never heard SIP.

The best since Love You, which is a more consistently quality work.  Every album after that is marred by either more notorious lows or fewer highs than TWGMTR.

However, From There to Back Again may be the best Beach Boys song since the Surf's Up album (excluding the since released Smile tracks).

I, like almost everyone else, voted for "Best since Love You" too. As I looked through the list and decided where to put it, I thought at first about answering with KTSA and then had to carefully consider L.A and MIU too. I rank TWGMTR ahead of each of those because it's more consistent. There are individual songs on each of those albums that i like a lot more than what's on the new album, as a whole the new album is stronger. Basically every album has production issues since Steve Desper stopped working with them regularly, so looking past that and strictly at the songs, TWGMTR for me, is the best since Love You.

....Love You. I think it just edges out LA.

HAHA, someone voted 'best since Still Cruisin'!! That's great!

Mike Love is a member here, obviously.

Absolutely this.  'Goin' On' is phenomenal but it alone is not enough to make it's parent album that good.

It's their best since Beach Boys '85. TWGMTR is far more consistent than '85 - and the lows on '85 are far worse than the lows on TWGMTR - however for me - in my own personal opinion - there's nothing on the new album to match Where I Belong. Some of the closing suite comes close, but i really do genuinely believe Where I Belong is an absolute classic! I also think the very best of '85 (It's Gettin' Late, I Do Love You and Male Ego) is about on a par with the best of TWGMTR: Isn't It Time, Summer's Gone, etc.

Best since In Concert, but not better than all but two of 1962-73 releases.

Definitely best since LY.

+1

Best since BB85. I think it's much better than KTSA but not quite as good as L.A. (Light Album). I enjoy most of Still Cruisin' to a certain extent but except for "SNJ" and "Kokomo" it's pretty sub-standard as a collection of newly written songs. Now BB85 has some real high points alongside the cheese and some of the singing on it is absolutely great. For me, TWGMTR is about equal, in a good way! "From There to Back Again" I think is every bit as good as "Getcha Back" and "Where I Belong".

+ another 1

Best since Holland-Luhv Yew should never have been released.

facepalm

Dennis and  Carl?

Well, it's gotta be Love You. I'm really starting to take a liking to MIU and LA, but Love You is GREAT in my mind, and the last one they did that i can say that about. TWGMTR is probably a notch or two below, but i still have more listens in my system.

right arm!  :hat

You should never have been released.

I gotta ask - what's with the constant misspellings (always involving an H, for some reason) when you dislike something? From now on, I'm going to misspell all band member's names, album names, and song titles. Just because.

LOL HAWLLUHND RULLZ, OLDSURFHURD00D

Make that 3

 +1

Agreed! While MIU, LA, KTSA and BB 85 all had some good songs, those albums (and of course, SC and SIP as well) suffered from a "too many cooks spoiling the broth" effect--they just didn't sound cohesive to me. I think that having Brian writing and arranging most of the music (w/ help from Joe Thomas, string arranger Paul Mertens, etc.) gives the album a more unified feel. And while some songs on TWGMTR are better than others, none of them out-and-out "suck." Which songs are your favorites and which you don't like as much just depends on your personal taste. For example, "Beaches in Mind" is my least favorite, but I don't dislike it, whereas all of the BBs albums from 1978 through 1992 all had songs that I just plain couldn't (and can't) get into, no matter how open-minded I tried to be. With TWGMTR, I can pop it into the player, and just let it play from beginning to end.  :)

Guhd won,RDZ! It's all about embellishment and emphasis-beats underlining, ya knoh? ;)

It's their best album since Surfin' Safari...  just kidding.  Glad to see Love You in the lead, because that's what I voted for. 

You guys are nuts.

LA (Light Album) has two Dennis Wilson tracks, including Baby Blue for cry-eye!  Good Timin' is great, and Al and Carl have their moments to shine, as does Mike (to the extent that he can).  I mean, the album ends with friggin Shortenin' Bread!

   

Yeah, who'd have thought prior to release that the majority here would rank it the finest since Love You. That's really no mean feat, all things considered. Let's hope this reunion produces at least one more studio album.

Not sure if this has already been posted, but Mojo gave it an absolutely glowing 4 star review in the latest edition.

Yeah, that's two songs on a 10-track album. And it's not like late-period Dennis is to all tastes -- the songs sound like they're taken from a separate project, and so they were.

The other eight tracks have exactly one good (not great) tune -- Good Timin -- and other material that is among the most cringe-inducing the group ever cut. TWGMTR doesn't just pull even with L.A. -- it smokes it.

Mmmmh, not sure, still can't really tell.

Maybe I just need to hear it some more.  It does seem to start well and end well, though there's stuff in the middle that I could take or leave.

That's exactly how I feel about L.A.

L.A. has four tracks I think are great (Good Timin', Angel Come Home, Love Surrounds Me, Baby Blue).  TWGMTR, on the other hand, has five (Think About the Days, Isn't It Time, From There to Back Again, Pacific Coast Highway, Summer's Gone).   From There to Back Again is the best song from either of the albums to my ears as well.  And to TWGTR's Beaches in Mind and Bill and Sue, L.A. counters with an 11-minute disco song (even if I liked it, it shouldn't go on that long), a dull Shortenin' Bread, a sleepy Goin' South, and a lesser sibling to Somewhere Near Japan.  L.A.'s highs are respectable to say the least, but listening as an album from beginning to end it's not even my favourite post-Love You besides TWGMTR.

I guess one think I prefer about LA Light is the fact that they were still trying (for the most part) to write lyrics beyond just the old BBs cliches about beaches, driving, and summer.

As good as I think TWGMTR is (I love the same 5 songs others have mentioned), the lyrics do often fall back on those things.  It's also more of a "meta" album in that the BBs are consciously addressing themselves and their career, which isn't necessarily a bad thing I guess.   

Agree! Actually, this "...addressing themselves" and coming to terms with where they are now, will be a great chronicle about them as time goes by. Much how we look at songs like "Busy Doin' Nothing" chronicling Brian's day.

Best since LA, easily, although I'd rank LA and That's Why God Made The Radio equally. Love You is a notch higher.

I understand what you mean from that perspective.  It was really the last instance where they weren't regular nostalgic nods and self-references (Full Sail is closest being water/ocean/sea-oriented).  That being said, I've never been one to pay much attention to lyrics at all.  I don't even know the lyrics of my favourite songs all too well.  Short of making me downright uncomfortable (e.g. Hey Little Tomboy with others in earshot) I can't say I care as long as the music works.  That doesn't mean strong lyrics don't add to an already nice song, but my music appreciation pretty much begins and ends with the music.

With The Beach Boys though, the melody is carried through the lyrics. As well as I know the tunes and the lyrics, I always find it quite hard to sing along with a lot of songs on Stack -o- Tracks.

I would, however, distinguish between lyrics and vocals.  If I sing along to a song, of course I'm singing the melody that the vocals carry in the song.  That doesn't mean I comprehend what the lyrics mean.

I'll put it this way regarding TWGMTR as an example.  Beaches In Mind could have the most sophisticated lyrics in music history and I still wouldn't much care for it as a song.  Meanwhile, From There to Back Again literally be reciting gibberish (in the case of some songs they might as well be anyways :lol) and it wouldn't do much to hurt my high opinion of that song.

That's great--I didn't know that.  I have a subscription to Uncut, and they only gave it 5 stars out of 10.  Mojo has been covering the BBs a lot, and I'm glad that they liked the album better.  4 stars out of 5 is just about perfect.  I'll have to look for the review--what issue is it in?

I went for Surfs Up. Though I rate Love You up there with both TWGMTR and Surfs Up. I've given it at least 60-70 listens now and love it dearly (Daybreak being the only exception). If you think anything post Love You is anywhere near the quality of TWGMTR I think you should make an appointment with Dr Landy, you are nuts and deserve to be mistreated! (I know he's dead).

Who voted 'it's the worst yet'!  :lol