The Smiley Smile Message Board

Word is a UK music, film, lit mag - its pretty good but not quite same circulation as MOJO, UNCUT and Q

I had a very quick peak at the  latest issue which has a review if TSS and it wasn't particularly great reading

Basically H&V, SU, W, GV and CE all magnificent, everything else not

I only had a quick flick - it was midnight - will try and get the rest today

BE PREPARED for some not so positive reviews

Not a problem. Keep in mind it is a compilation of a incomplete work which SHOULD be mentioned in every TSS review or story.

Yes, some negative reviews are to be expected (especially for the big box).  Not everyone is going to love session after session of H&V and GV.   This sort of obsessive-fan treatment of a single album (or, in this case, incomplete album) isn't everyone's cup of tea.  I remember that the Pet Sounds box received some very harsh reviews even from critics who normally give Brian and the BBs top marks.

Ultimately, I think that the reviews of the 2CD and 2LP sets (and 1CD, where available) will be more important than reviews of the box, as those basic configurations are geared more to casual fans and the curious.  I suspect that most fans buying the big box have been waiting for a package like this for decades and really couldn't care less what the critics think.

To my mind Word mag isn't that BB-friendly anyway. Of the three 'older' generation mags in the UK, it's the one that pays least attention. Didn't expect a review at all. 

How you could hear a surreal piece of art like the Chorus of CITFOTM and just go, "meh", is lost on me but I guess the reviewer is entitled to his/her opinion.

All ten readers of that magazine are getting the wrong idea

Never been a fan of Word to be honest I'm glad to say. I'd much prefer Mojo or Q & Uncut....NME gets my vote too after a lovely Syd Barrett tribute issue a few years back & for the respect it has for 60's bands.

This very thing is going to happen a lot. In fact, it's been a common sentiment for many years, i suspect since the very first bootleg.

People like "songs." With singing.

Also, i would hope there'd be negative reviews. Nothing is immune from criticism. I would hate to see this set suffer from overpraise and being thought of as overly precious. It's my favorite music of all time and i happily look forward to hearing some sources/people ripping it to shreds.

In fact it was Mojo I think that turned me onto the music of Beach Boys, Syd Barrett, Nick Drake within the same year...I think it was 97??. Musically speaking it was one of the best years of my life, Hearing "Pet Sounds, "The Madcap Laughs", & "Five Leaves Left" was pretty mind blowing I can tell you :).   

It seems more a criticism of Brian's original work rather than of Linnet and Boyd's work in compiling the set, so I don't think it's necessarily a worrying review from the fan's perspective. After all, you either love this music or you don't. The reviewer just doesn't seem to be a fan. Here's one of the more positive excerpts:

On the upside the package contains what is surely the definitive Smile yet released - better organised and better sounding than the bootlegs, and more lively than Brian's own reconstruction of the album using The Wondermints released in 2004. There's something about the familial combination of The Beach Boys' voices that remains inescapably unique and blessed, however accurately others may try and emulate the timbres; and the overasll thrust of the project has never been as clearly caprtured as here. On the downside, the several discs of discs of additional rehearsals, demos and takes, far from increasing one's awe, raher detracts from the experience.

Well, the Word can vega my tables and they can go to cabinessence themselves

Not even going to lie, this damn review has got me nervous

What if other reviews just don't "get it"

This the same magazine who put Guy Garvey on the cover with the headline: "The People's Poet".

 :lol

I don't see what negative reviews has to do with our, as fanatics, enjoyment of the set. I mean, we're the converted. And, as much as we'd like to hope, a release of SMiLE in 2011 is not going to change the popular discourse about sixties pop.

The thing is to enjoy the fact that future generations can listen to SMiLE properly, and not have to hunt down the hissy, lossy, unmastered, repetitive, inaccurate, and elusive bootlegs. This music is now available to everyone. Isn't that wonderful?

So the worst review so far says it's the best version of SMiLE?


Sounds like we've got a winner

Someone should hack into this dude's review stream. I doubt that it's being accessed much.

Right on. I don't see much to be nervous about in this review. If it was slating Linett's mixes or the sequencing or the fly ins or whatever then that would be more worrying, but this guy is basically just saying Smile doesn't live up to the hype, and the sessions are boring. His opinion and he's entitled to it, and I suspect there may be other reviews that say similar things.

We might be able to read something into the review though -  if McCartney's carrot crunching was conformed, it's likely that Word would give the set a much higher rating!  ;D

The Word is okay, if you want Rolling Stone circa 1980 without the politics. Who wrote the review, btw?

Andy Gill

Hmmmm.  Writes for either the Independent or the Telegraph too, so you can expect another review like it...