The Smiley Smile Message Board

I can't believe That's Why God Made The Radio Is four years old already! Where does that time go! I love the album listened to it every day that whole summer and still listen and enjoy it! Do you think the Beach Boys will ever come out with a new 30th studio album? I sure hope so! hard to believe that the 50th ann. was 4 years ago? Anything planned for the 55th Anniversary???

I sincerely hope not. if any album was a swansong, it was TWGMTR.

"Summer's gone / It's finally sinking in."

Let it be said of them that they bowed out gracefully.

I hope for a new album produced by Adam Schlesinger (producer of the new Monkees album)

Keep being positive, The_Beach. To finish career with "Summer's gone"? They can do better than that. Imo if they started with fun ("Surfin") they should end with fun. It just seems cliched to end with sentimental song.

Well, Surfin' was their first single and Isn't It Time was their last single so they did start and end with fun.

I don't believe it will happen.  The guys don't even talk (again) anymore.  Mike has his way, Brian has his, and they are too stuck in their ways
and getting too old to compromise. Their focuses are too far apart once again.

Agreed. But it's such a shame.

As much as I enjoy the best parts of NPP, there was something really special about them singing together again. I think the best tracks of NPP could have been fantastic to hear in a Beach Boys setting on a follow-up album to That's Why God Made the Radio.

It was an excellent way to go out!

Wow, four years already.  The album was way better than I expected it to be.  It's not without it's flaws, but if it's the end, it's a fine album to go out with.

It's still an enjoyable listen. Beaches in Mind is one of their worst songs ever and the record's overall sound is way too glossy. The high points however are all pretty strong, especially Pacific Coast Highway, which I think is as good as any BW song after 1977.

Four years, wow, time flies! I'll have to listen to TWGMTR in its entirety soon as it's been a while.  :hat

2ThreeCats: good point. I went with "1st song to feature the BBs to last". Yes, IIT is fun.

2phirnis: you like Pacific coast better even than From There To Back Again?

Thanks for that reminder on TWGMTR!  It hardly seems possible that 4 years have elapsed since C50.  That song was such a "full-circle" C50 event hit.  I love it, even if my favorite one on that album is Think About The Days.  Thanks again.  ;)

I think it was also poignant that Brian reportedly chose to *not* name the album "Summer's Gone" because he didn't feel it had to be the last BB album, but then made a very obvious decision to close out their final show of the 2012 tour with "Summer's Gone" (at that point I think Brian knew it was over). How quickly the outlook on the band's future changed. Five months from start to finish on that tour.

I also think at least some of these guys don't give much weight to the context of the songs and just treat them as songs, hence Mike and his band doing "Isn't It Time" *after* the reunion, and as recently as 2015. The song, as most any, can certainly be interpreted any number of ways, but it certainly seemed to be tied to more hopeful feelings about having the band reunited.

Agreed. I don't like having "Summer's Gone" as the final song on the album. That's why I reorder my playlist lineup for TWGMTR so it ends with "Strange World."

YMMV

I think that Pacific Coast Highway would have made a better album closer, with the group's last word being "Goodbye" sung in harmony. 

I agree and I also think that is one of the GREAT Brian Wilson tunes.  My playlist in the car has Think About The Days, Summer's Gone and then Pacific Coast Highway as the closer. It still works in that order.

Agree.
But I also think Spring Vacation should have been the first single. Is it the best thing on TWGMTR? Hell no, but I think it's catchy, had an easy sound and good tempo. Surely this is not a popular opinion though, lol.

The end of the album has classic cuts, no question.

What did it end up selling, 300k copies? 'Good' in todays industry?

Given that 100,000 seems to be a high bar for today's 'artists'  [Like Long Road Out of Eden sold what?  10 times as many copies as Brittany Spears moved in the same time-frame?]  TWGMTR did remarkably well...and is likely still selling.

Remember that when the lp was recorded...Brian expected to do another Beach Boys record and was composing/writing for that eventuality.  But then 'the fan' was used as a propellant and plans for a Beach Boys 'future' were squashed.

Summer's Gone wasn't supposed to be the LAST word.  As it turned out though...devoid of Beach Boys' harmonies...it is exactly appropriate.  The 'cruiser' was left parked...and locked.

If not for Adele, it might've hit #1.  Funny how, in 2012, Adele was able to keep both Van Halen and The Beach Boys out of the #1 album spot.  (VH's album was released in February, right after Adele won every Grammy ever made). 

It could be smb. worse than Adele. At least she got voice.

I'll agree Adele is talented, even if she's not my cup of tea.

But wouldn't you have thought by June 5th, 2012, when TWGMTR was released, that everyone who really wanted that album would've bought it already? 

Yeah, I like it a bit more. Love to hear Al's voice on Back Again but some of the lyrics seem a bit forced to me. Still a very good song, though!

Another thing re the album, I think I said it before but to me TWGMTR sounds pretty much like a cross between Today and Still Cruisin'. It's an odd mixture but for the most part it works.

I like that.

And no change to the running order (of any album).

After a few listens, I realized that for me, From There To Back Again was their best song since All This is That.

I can believe that. It has the mood and spirituality of "ATiT" at times. 

Bought a still-sealed vinyl copy last week for just £4 - can't wait to rediscover the album, Beach Boys albums tend to sound so much better on vinyl! Listened to the 1985 self-titled on vinyl yesterday and enjoyed it more than I ever did! 8)

If for some reason, Capitol decided to put out a remixed version of this album with most of the pitch correction removed and some of the vocals mixed differently, I'd be first in line to buy it. Pretty good way to go out though. The first three and last three or four tracks on the album are all pretty good

I don't rate it that highly, but it is a good track. Glad the BB's came back and left strong tracks like From There To Back Again as their final music together instead of Stars and Stripes, or Summer in Paradise.

Respectfully disagree. TWGMTR is overall a sad/reflective album because it's about being old and reflecting on your past while coming to grips with the fact that death is inevitable.

Summer's Gone is one of my top 5 favorite beach boys songs and i couldn't think of a more beautiful close to their careers.

There are plenty of songs I love on Love You and Holland, so I don't know if I'd go that far, but I totally agree that From There to Back Again and Summer's Gone are GREAT songs.  I also feel that the title track and Isn't It Time are minor classics, and 'Pacific Coast Highway,' 'Strange World' and 'Think About the Days' are at least arguably great songs.  The album has its downsides (too many vocal effects, overbearing nostagia on certain tracks, etc.) but overall it's miles better than any album since Love You.

Respectfully disagree. It's their best song since "Baby Blue"

It's a strong album - their best since LA - that is, my version of LA, with a 4 minute HCTN, and It's a Beautiful Day added. No cringe worthy tracks on TWGMTR, the vinyl version flows nicely from start to finish. Think About the Days starts things off sounding sweet and sad at the same time - there's just something slightly sad about the sound of the song. Side one seems to be a latter day return to Summer Days and Summer Nights - Isn't it Time, Spring Vacation, Beaches in Mind - which doesn't surprise me at all. Back at the time of Imagination, Joe Thomas said his favorite period of the Beach Boys was just before Pet Sounds. One gripe I have with this album is the use of autotune is so heavy handed that at times I can't tell which voice I am hearing. There are parts of the title track where I still can't tell who is singing! It's odd they had to play with the vocals so much; in contrast, the backing tracks have a more organic sound than anything the group has done in decades. This is definitely not BB85 or SIP. Side two on the vinyl is a nice song cycle; especially From There to Back Again, Pacific Coast Highway and Summer's Gone. It does end kind of sad, as did Pet Sounds. Well, that is life. The guys are all up there in age, the sun is slowly setting. Yes, we can all dream about "what if the reunion hadn't ended the way it did?" We're lucky they got together at all.

I got to thinkin' yesterday that The Beach Boys could [and this is just a barely likely MAYBE/me thinkin' out loud 'thing'] do an album sort of along the lines of the new Monkee's 50th  Anniversary album 'Good Times'.  There's a song on it featuring the late Davey Jones pieced together from sessions in 1967, 1969 and 2016.  There are songs featuring just Peter. or Mickey or Mike alone.  And there are songs featuring different combinations of 2 and also of the 3 of them.  So?  It's an album featuring both the collective and individual efforts with the sum of the parts being the final goal.  Most of it was done in Feb., Mar., and April this year.  Seems to me that THAT is about the only way we could get an album of NEW material which would/could involve ALL of the surviving Beach Boys...along with the inclusion of something from the vaults revamped to include both Carl and Dennis as well.  There is a further problem over and above the obvious though.

Crosby Stills and Nash are NO MORE.  Good pals David Crosby and Graham Nash are walking in different directions and barely being civil to one another.  Why?  Graham's book from a few years back.  Full of fiction and BS in order to help it sell says David.  THAT sh*t is about to hit the fan in Beach Boysville.

So then I got to thinkin'...ya...Summer's Gone alright.

Some would argue "TWMGTR" is already a kind of piecemeal BB album (as much as a lot of the songs are excellent); a good hunk of it was sessions musicians cutting backing track, and then later Brian and Foskett doing guide vocals, and then yet later the other guys adding some extra vocals. A few were done anew, and then of course Mike's solo track just has some overdubbed BB backing vocals.

If the Hallmark BBs "Songs from There and Back" CD is any indication, a new album of essentially "solo" tracks strung together isn't worth it. If they guys literally can't even sing on each other's stuff for a few album (at least just overdubbing vocals on *all* the songs), then don't bother. Just cut solo albums.

I don't need to have an album that is technically a "Beach Boys" album because they put that on the album cover.

And yeah, I agree that the upcoming BB autobiographies are unlikely to *improve* BB relations. When they were announced, that was another sign to me that these guys sense they aren't going to be working together anytime soon.

I don't care if there is another Beach Boys album. Or any solo albums. What the guys are really about these days is going on tour, singing the old favorites.