The Smiley Smile Message Board

Need I say more?

start talkin peeps!

Al sounds awesome on "From There to Back Again"

Strange World has the Pet Sounds sound!

Initial thoughts.... (of course, from 30 second samples, these are a bit skewed!)

Isn't It Time has a strong melody.
Bill and Sue - the vocal sounds curiously like BW circa '98. Was this REALLY written for the new album?
Shelter is pretty good!
Daybreak is in a nice position, breaks up the Brian tracks and it's a mellow vocal.
Beaches has a bit of bass harmonica,
Not blown away by From There or Paciic....at all. Maybe you have to hear the whole tracks.
Summer's Gone is a beauty.

"Isn't It Time" sounds very MIU-y to me ... and I mean that in a good, Wontcha Come Out Tonight/Pitter Patter sort of way.

Some rockin' Al chorus vocals will do that!

Initial thoughts: if this is the final BBs album, it will be a strong finish. A much more fitting epitaph than SIP.

Genuinely excited now :)

No no no, I refuse to listen!! Leave me alone!!

 :thud

No-one noticed that "TWGMTR" is a slightly different mix ?

Loving what I'm hearing.

Absolutely amazing how great Al sounds at his age. Brian sounds damn good as well.

Yes... they've not chosen the best parts. The entirety of "FTTBA" is stunning. STUN. NING.

That's the only sample I checked. Hard to tell in low quality. Snare sounds possibly a little chunkier. Is that an added acoustic guitar?

Brian is singing falsetto on several tunes, from the sound of it. Ah, JT, you know my weakness ...

Some rockin' Al chorus vocals will do that!

Exactly. One reason I love MIU and "You're Still a Mystery" is the interplay between Al and Brian (and Mike, often). Al doesn't get enough credit for the different textures of voice he has.

HELL YEAH!  ;D

Heard "Spring Vacation" from that Dutch radio thingy...all I can say is...it's the lyrics of the song "Looking Back With Love" set to a backing track better than it would ever deserve.

The samples that stand out for me are From There To Back Again, Isn't It Time, and Summer's Gone. The only sample that I don't think offered any promise was Beaches In Mind. I really believe, from listening to this small sampling, that the album will be a wonderful treat for most Beach Boys fans.

I found enough in each of those samples that I liked - Even Daybreak. I am going to love this album.

Keyboard overdub, to these ears.

Beaches in Mind--I wanted to hear Al's whistling.... Dang.

Do we know to what extent BW was involved in writing these tunes, if at all?  AGD?

i think when brian says he wrote a lot of them in 98 with JT, then i believe it

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=That%27s_Why_God_Made_the_Radio&oldid=492612718

Brian is credited on every song except "Daybreak" (which Mike Love wrote alone).  Same for Joe Thomas.

Wow. Sorta iffy in the middle but this is going to be one amazing album!

I really dig "Think About The Days", "Isn't It Time" (YEAH AL!), "Spring Vacation" I don't know why but I actually like this one, "The Private Life of Bill and Sue" The quirky BW instrumentation in the beginning is awesome, "Shelter" would be better if one of the real BB's did Foskett's part, "Pacific Coast Highway" Brian's voice makes this for me and "Summer's Gone" made me shut my eyes and it took me somewhere else for 29 seconds, only the the BB's.

The title track of course is good too but that's been covered elsewhere although it does sound like a new mix. "Daybreak Over The Ocean"(hard to tell if Mike's going for the psychedelic vibe or the cocktails in paradise vibe), "Beaches In Mind"(good beginning, lame chorus), "Strange World" (meh) and "From There To Back Again" aren't unlistenable to me but I don't feel like they are as strong as the others. But we'll only really know until we hear the full tracks because a Dave guitar solo or BW falsetto we didn't hear in these clips could easily elevate any one of these tracks.

I can't wait to get my best pair of studio headphones and the biggest joint I can roll for this record. Long overdue but soon will be time for the BB fanatics to receive the album they deserve. I'd love to see another record if they can do it. I know they have the material, it's just the whole age and time thing. Anyway, sounds like a great album. I hope this gets some national airplay even though I hate popular radio.

The samples sound a *LOT* better than anything we've heard before. Can't judge the songs from these snippets, but it definitely sounds like the tracks that had been made public were among the worst ones. I've gone from thinking this sounded like an utter embarrassment to thinking it'll be the best they've done since LA. Whether that means it'll actually be any good or not, I won't be able to tell until I hear the full songs, but just from the *sound* of the tracks, it's a lot closer to a more MORish That Lucky Old Sun or a more interesting Postcard From California than it is to the Imagination-ish/SIP sound suggested by Spring Vacation. The remixed That's Why God Made The Radio is a much nicer sound than the single mix, though I still don't think much of the song as a song.

The ones that jump out for me as being interesting are Isn't It Time, The Private Life Of Bill And Sue and Summer's Gone, all of which sound like they have real potential to be genuinely great. But it sounds like only Spring Vacation and maybe Beaches In Mind will be actively bad. I'm not all that keen on the retro-50s-nostalgia feel that seems to be all over the tracks, but that might not be a problem when we hear the full songs -- and I'd rather have them trying to imitate the music of their youth than desperately trying to sound like Katy Perry or whoever the young persons of the day are listening to now.

Just noticed this -

The beginning of the sample of Summer's Gone reminds me of Stay Awake from the Disney album.

 

I was thinking of it as a latter day 'Caroline No', but your observation is spot-on

Wow, that must have been taken from The Record Room. That was quick.

Not necessarily -- David Beard did a post on Examiner doing a track-by-track breakdown that included the writing credits.

....Must.....not......listen.........to...clips.....must....wait...for actual......album....

"Isn't It Time" - sounds a little bit like "You're Still A Mystery" and has the "dancin' the night away" line. Does anyone think this track might be a reworking of a couple of those mid-90s tracks?

I think I'm gonna like that album.....

Daybreak is kinda like the (Love)child of Bluebirds Over The Mountain and the verses of Kokomo, it's really nice and chilled if somewhat unspectacular. As far as Mike songs go it's right up there with his best i'd say.

Overall, it sounds like it will be a nice listen.  Some stray observations:

"Strange World" sounds like it could be a potential next single, no?

The snippet of "From There to Back Again" reminds me a little bit of Elvis Costello's "New Lace Sleeves."

"Spring Vacation" is quite bland and those lyrics have Mike Love written all over them, and I don't mean that in a good way.

"Pacific Coast Highway" and "Summer's Gone" sound very much like they could have been on That Lucky Old Sun.

The chorus of "Shelter" reminds me of the verses of "Darlin.'"

"Beaches in Mind" sounds like it could have been a CSN Daylight Again cut.  Which I mean in a good way.

"Daybreak over the Ocean" sounds very Kokomo-esque, I don't know if that's good or bad yet, I'll have to wait to hear the whole thing.  But Mike's vocal sounds great on it.

The other snippets I don't have much to say about yet but I do really like "Think About the Days" and "Isn't it Time" so far.

I'm kinda hooked on "Isn't it time". That really sounds promising to me

I'm liking what I'm hearing in these snippets. Looks like my expectations might be surpassed after all. The production still sounds like Joe Thomas, but it doesn't seem like the album is going to suffer from it too much. It's pleasant.

I'll appreciate this one for what it is, but I hope we get one more ...

Recorded on 4-track 1/2" tape w/ Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, anyone from the wrecking crew still playing ...

Produced by ONLY BW, for better or worse, anything he says goes, engineered by Mark Linett through his UA board ...

Mixed to mono, no computers ... the guys have to record their vocals together around the same mic (ok, fine, Mike can have a separate mic, an RCA ribbon of course)

Now that's a 'rock & roll' album !

(A man can dream, can't he?)

My thoughts on each track snippet (excluding TWGMTR as i've already said elsewhere how much I like it)

Think About The Days - What an opener! Bruce's super high falsetto parts are soaringly beautiful, as are Brian's falsetto parts. Majestic and refined beauty.

Isn't It Time - Reminds of their best 80's work, great bass vocals from Mike and Al sounds on top form. I like the clunky mechanical feel of the backing track too.

Spring Vacation - Far exceeded my expectations. I had it earmarked as a possible weak point but it's light sunshine pop that sounds like it could get some radio play over the summer with the right push. The autotune on this one is obviously a stylistic choice but I can live with that.

The Private Life of Bill and Sue - The snippet of this one has me disappointed as I was excited about the title and subject matter. I don't mind Brian and the BB's when they go tropical but the title doesn't seem to fit the music here. Also that chorus melody seems overly familiar and i've only had a brief listen to it twice!  ::)

Shelter - Another one that's got me a little disappointed. When I read the title I had imagined a MAD type ballad with sombre B-Dub vocals but it seems to be a fairly upbeat song with Jeff taking the lead in the chorus. If you're going to have Jeff sing lead on a Beach Boys album make him a bloody Beach Boy already! He's put enough time in over the years!  ;)

Daybreak - Sounds much the same as the Mike Love solo version to my ears but that's entirely fine with me as i've always liked it. This will sit nicely in the middle of the album I think.

Beaches In Mind - This one's got me wanting to hear more, it sounds like it's going for the sunshine pop sound and coming much closer to success than the previous attempts at that on the album. Sounds like it has a really cool backing track too from what I could make out.

Strange World - Another one that's got me wanting to hear more. Great B-Dub vocal and the track itself seems to be a nod to 1965 without sounding overly retro.

From There To Back Again - Wow! Lush harmonies, a great ACJ lead and probably the most BB-sounding track so far.

Pacific Coast Highway - This sounds like it wouldn't be out of place on TLOS. Very nice and just as it cuts off at the end it sounds like it may head off into a different direction. Can't wait to hear this one in full.

Summer's Gone - Reminds me of Stay Awake from In The Key Of Disney. Lovely bassline and a fragile lead from Brian that sounds really sweet. I'm scratching my head as to what JBJ contributed to this one?  :lol

I can't give a proper review of the album just yet but going by the clips it's most definitely a solid effort with only a couple of tracks that disappoint my ears.

This?:
http://www.examiner.com/article/that-s-why-god-made-the-radio

It doesn't have writing credits for each song.

It's only a first time listen from 30 seconds samples so my opinion my change down the line, but first impressions are,
The opener sounds terrific,
TWGMTR gets better with each listen,
The last two tracks sound pretty good.

The rest sounds like the result of a drunken one night stand between Imagination and Summer In Paradise, which Jimmy Buffett walked in on midway and decided to make it a threesome.

well, really, the only negative I have to say at this pont (I mean, after all with rare exception we just have snippets and so far I like the snippets)...Daybreak--couldn't they have replaced Adrian Baker's vocals?  I like that C. Love is on the album, would have been a great spot to add M. Jardine as well.   I just can't stand Adrian Baker's vocals. Ok, that's it...

Who is singing From There To Back Again? I assume it's Al but it really doesn't sound like him to me, I've not heard his voice in recent decades.

Sure is Alan! Great lead vocal by the sound of it.

Yeah it does sound good indeed, just wasn't 100% sure. I hope he is prominent on the other tracks, couldn't hear him on the clips other than TWGMTR

Brilliant critical analysis/reaction by Craig.  Shelter, perhaps because it's too explicitly a non-BB lead on the chorus, and the PLOBAS are the two that have not yet gripped me; I just don't care about Bill and Sue as people yet; it is corporate angst that drives them to seek an escape?  I see lots of disenchanted couples on vacation, and I am not interested in their interior lives. So this song had better offer some surprises to get me.  Shelter is going to have to do some acapella move or something unique to get me interested.

 Mike is solid lyrically and vocally on the enghanting Daybreak and Beaches.

I hear tons of radio play with all these songs!

I hear Bruce in Spring Vacation and Think About the Days and singing tone of parts with Brian. Go Bruce!. Al is huge--huge!--in FHTBA. Wow. that's a highlight.

Dave adding breaks and leads and bits here and there?  I don't know what guitar parts are old and which he added. We have not paid proper attention to the fact (we now know) that he added guitar parts to TWGMTR, that "your summer dream" feel, which is a major contribution.

PCH?  I can't wait to put this album in the car and just get on PCH and just drive util I have heard the album a 100 times, returning to the tune of Summer's Gone at sunset over Santa Monica Bay,  as I leave the ocean behind , take the 10, and head for home. . . .

Now we're all here to stay. . . . . .

I think we are going to be struck deeply in the heart by the total magnitude of this; we only see a distant wave, but it's surging gently and ever more powerfully.
Surfs up. . . .I think this is "it"

I'll bet the Boys are already planning a follow up; I can imagine that Capital is anxious to sign them to a big deal if this is as grand a success as I think. . .

You can hear him on the Isn't It Time clip too. There's a list of the featured lead vocalists on one of the threads but I can't remember exactly where. Al's voice smothered in reverb and chorus is always a joy!  ;D

very prominent Jardine on Isn't it Time

Debonbon, I'm assuming you haven't heard Al's very recent solo album A Postcard From California? Cos' his vocals are all over that... ;D

Al's auto-tuned vocals on "From There to Back Again" make it sound like Al Yankovic is singing it.  :-D Of course I am a Weird Al fan, and an Al Jardine fan, and the song sounds great to me. But that's just my observation.

No way, have you heard Carol's bass tone in recent years? Yikes.

Take it as a compliment man. And just cite the record room on wikipedia if you want credit. You don't own the writer's credits.

I did take it as a compliment, if it was indeed taken from that board. It may have been taken from the Blueboard as well, where it was first copied. I don't really care, I just mentioned it. Where did I say I wanted to own anything? Honestly, I don't care if someone tattoos it on their dick. Have fun!

 I have been thinking of getting a Beach Boys tattoo but this isn't quite what I had in mind...

She'll be using a Precision w/ flatwounds through a Super Reverb on this new album ...

Okay, my opinions, being based off of :30 seconds of music...

The last 3 songs, and first 2, make up what I'd call the "Best Album Since Holland", and the rest range from nice songs to "ehhhh...." quality.

Overall, FTTBA's melody is inedible, and PCH has the best piano sound I've heard in a LONG time.

does she still play bass professionally?

I really love the piano bits thrown in there from time to time in these snippets.  I really love this so far.  The instrumentation sounds fantastic, I'll reserve judgement on the voices until I hear the album proper.

Last pop album (as opposed to jazz, which she might still play) she was on, IIRC, was In Reverse by Matthew Sweet. 1999. She's pretty good, I think. So's the album.

That's kinda where I'm at, although I'd stretch that to include the first 3 and the last 4.  Tough to form a solid opinion based on excerpts, of course, but none of those middle tracks really jumped out at me as potentially great songs.  I'm sure some of them will grow on me, but they generally gave me an "Imagination-reject" type of vibe.

That being said though, based on what we're hearing, the high points are going to be every Beach Boys fan's wet dream.  "Summer's Gone" alone sounds like it's going to be one of the best closing tracks ever on a Beach Boys album - pretty lofty territory.

She still teaches, as far as I know. Don't think she's still doing the recording gigs.

I'm going to type my impressions without reading anybody elses so that I know I'm not poisoned by your hate or love of a song :)  I'll listen to each twice.  


Think about the days - Whoa.  Wasn't expecting this.  It has the mellow vibe like "Cool Head" does, but I immediately notice the character we finally get to hear when there's more than 1 beach boy in the room.  Brian's band is excellent, but they're sterlized.  Mike/Al/Dave/Bruce/Brian all have weathered voices, so maybe on this album we'll get to hear 5 distinct, mature voices with character?  Has anybody ever done anything like that before? lol  I can hear Brian, Bruce, Al... Jeff... Mike... don't know what David sounds like.  Brian sounds excellent, if I'm hearing him where I think I'm hearing him.

That's Why God - What I like about this song is it really has 'pop single' written on it, which hasn't happened in quite awhile.  It starts and stops within itself, isn't part of a song suite, doesn't have to have any background history to understand, etc. With that said, though, it does have a hint of mediocrity in it.

Isn't It Time - I'm loving the different voices I haven't heard in forever, and the great melody, but the lyrics are very pedestrian, it sounds like someone sat down with nothing to say and decided to write about what they wrote about because it's easy.  Has the famous Brian Wilson production sound to it.  

Spring Vacation - Catchy as hell.  Can't stand the spring vacation/good vibrations line, though... but the verse sounds GREAT.  I believe I'll probably like the bulk of this one, I like the catchiness of the melody and rhythm.  

Bill and Sue - Is that Brian singing False?  I'm pretty sure he peeps up into it old-school like towards the end there, sounds fantastic.  Cant' really tell much about this one, it could be great, could be boring.  Falsetto!  Whoa!

Shelter - Interesting rhythms vocally.  Great chorus.  Can't hear much though in the short clip, I imagine this will be nice.

Daybreak - never heard Mike's original.  Mike sounds great.  Chorus sounds nice.  I hope it picks up a bit, though later in the song, it's kind of flat in these 20 seconds, LOL

Beaches In Mind - I don't hear anything special, but again it's really hard to judge something by 30 seconds or whatever.  

Strange World - Sounds great.  This has a ton of potential, can't wait to hear the full version.

From There To Back Again - This also sounds fantastic.  I can't tell much though because of the fade out, but it has lots of potential as well.  

Pacific Coast Hwy - Sounds great, once again, lol.  I think for all the crap people have been saying about them abandoning their art, songs like this sound pretty damn impressive at first listen to me.  

Summer's Gone - Almost sad to hear the Beach Boys sing a song called this.  Voices sound so beautiful, this is probably going to be legendary, lol.

Anyways, as you can see I think the end of the album is much stronger than the beginning of the album, although much of this of course remains to be heard.  Cant' wait to pick my copy up!

"someone sat down with nothing to say and decided to write about what they wrote about because it's easy"

A Brian trademark. Busy Doin' Nothing, I'd Love Just Once To See You, I Went To Sleep, etc., etc.

True; but it doesn't seem to have worked this time, LOL 

Okay, I find it increasingly hard to believe that any of these songs were "Imagination-rejects".  First of all, I don't hear it.  I don't hear the connection between the two albums, I think TWGMTR stands on its own in terms of productions and sound.  Are they similar? Yes.  But in terms of quality, there's no way that anyone will ever convince me that these songs were rejected from Imagination! Perhaps they were part of a follow up album, but they just could not have been rejected. No way.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I think I'll wait to hear the full songs before I start giving opinions on what worked and what didn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2MXNT-NRGU

Zach It's bullshit, at best they're probably fragments or snippets that may date to back then, but were never finished.  I guess if they decided not to work on them anymore you could consider it a reject, but regardless, these are new recordings with their current voices of songs that have never been released.  So I'm cool with it.  

Also keep in mind this album was done pretty damn fast so some of that is to be expected.  

You do that, and also while you're at it, don't worry about what the f*** I think or say. 

ROTFLMAO! :) :)

How about we don't turn this thread into another one with pages and pages of people bitching at each other? Why is it so easy to fly off the handle over nothing (Dr Beach Boy saying that he will wait for the full tunes before he judges them)? It is inconsiderate to make everyone else wade through pages of childish BS, and it drags the board down as a whole. I always thought of this as a place with intelligent discourse, that rarely fell into the "internet trap" of people whining back and forth about personal issues.

Paradoxically, with the release of the Smile Sessions, the reunion tour, and the improbable new album, the board is turning into a cesspool of name-calling and defensiveness. I used to think that the mods here had an easy job, but now it must have become tough for them, with everyone squabbling back and forth. I mean, who cares about this pettiness? It is a waste of everybody's time.

When did this board become a place where everyone is waiting for someone else to say something offensive? Life is too short.

Why so testy? Just saying it is really hard to tell how good or bad these songs are by these small snippets.

Well, no-one's claimed that the *productions* are Imagination-rejects -- the instrumental arrangements are clearly very different. But the songs might be. Remember, no-one involved with the Beach Boys at any level seems ever to have understood the meaning of the qords "quality control" -- the whole Smile album was a 'reject' in that sense, they decided not to release Soulful Old Man Sunshine but put out Tears In The Morning, left Still I Dream Of It unreleased but put out Hey Little Tomboy, put Student Demonstration Time on Surf's Up instead of Fourth Of July, rejected the Paley material and put out Stars & Stripes...

I have yet to fathom how the Beach Boys have made their choices of what to release and what to reject over the years, but I imagine a blind man and a dartboard were involved...

Stop bitching, and move along, nothing to see here. 

Please.  You don't think your remark was a little smart?

Be Strong!!!!!

 :lol

I think what it comes down to is, they're all amatuers.  Self taught... pretty relaxed and laid back about their careers and their places in pop culture... and Brian was always one to write and record completely outside of the norm, but somehow make it commercially viable (sometimes!). 

So they've never, ever been good businessmen.  Their idea of good business sense is to charge one of them to use the name.  While that is a good idea, it just shows that they've only scratched the surface of what they could be doing, and the money they could be making. 

Yes, but it wasn't meant that way. I listened to them twice through and I coudn't tell whether anything was good or bad enough to rate. I've already posted that I liked the 3 full songs that I have heard. Some folks are rating with numbers based on 10 second snippets. It seems a bit premature to do so. Of the nine snippets only, my first impression was that it wasn't quite what I expected to hear.

Still not having heard the clips (I'm still hanging on, heysaboda!  ;D) but just going by everyone's comments it seems that the album is looking very promising.  With that in mind, I'm almost hoping that they don't come up with another album to follow this.  If this album is as great as it appears to be--I would love for this to be the band's swan song.  With the final song being titled "Summer's Gone" and apparently the album ending with a very, very appropo "sound" signaling "the end"--I think it would be very risky to gamble it all away by putting out yet another album.  It'll be hard to juggle success with integrity.  I hope they make the right decision.

From an interview with Brian, May 1st of this year:

"Most of the stuff I wrote in 1998 with my collaborator Joe Thomas. [Until now], the guys had never heard it before. They love it. They think it’s great stuff."

Hmm, really quite surprising that in 2012 with the Smile SEssions, the reunion tour and a new album a great proportion of Smiley Smilers seem to be angrier than at any time I can recall. Makes little sense to me.

that doesn't necessarily mean they were cast offs.  They could have been written during and after the recording of imagination and still fallen within 1998.  just as easily they could be cast offs i suppose

Spring Vacation has been stuck in my head for a good portion of the day, and I just listened to it again, and I think I actually like it!!!
These things are earworms.

Agreed. But they've never made the right decision before. Seems like they might have this time, though, finally...

I can understand your thoughts (don't want another end to the story)... but eventually Justin, everybody dies in a bed alone.  The end is always bad.  

So my opinion on it is, I hope they make music as long as they want to, even if it's bad.  And I hope they live as long as they want to, even if nothing's perfect....

None of that will diminish my appreciation of this album if it ends up being good (and it appears it's going to be!)

No, they are not outtakes, they were written for Brian's next album after Imagination.

I know, right?  And we've only heard small, seemingly randomly snipped snippets!  Spring Vacation sounds MUCH better than I thought it would, the verse in particular that we hear the tail end of sounds really really good. 

I hope everybody's right and it's the worst song on the album, we'll be in for a treat!

In the same interview, Brian suggests that Think About the Days, Bill and Sue and Shelter were all newly written. He then says that That's Why God Made the Radio was finished up by him and Joe last year. So that's a third of the album that was newly written or newly finished by Brian in the last year or so.

I'll also remind everybody that Brian Wilson is by any definition insane and doesn't always mean what he says.  If we were throwing a percentage at the truthfullness of things he says in interviews, the percentage would look like an 8. 

Just so you know (it sounds like you might not), the whole song was played on a foreign radio station and is 'making the rounds' along with Think About The Days.

Oh O.K., I didn't realize that.  I'm going to hold off on listening to anything but the snippets I think, however. 

Ron, have you heard the full version? Very catchy song, I've been singing it for 2 days now. People at work must think I'm nuts. ;)

Gonna be a good night, we're all trampling over each other's convos again!  lol  You know it's good by the time you post 3 people have alread posted and you have to read it all again. 

Ha..I was just thinking that too.  Maybe it would be best if they followed tradition??  :lol


Yeah, see...I want them to keep making music too.  Lord knows if Brian somehow makes the decision to permanently use the Beach Boys as his main outlet for music--I'm not gonna protest!  The tone of this album appears to be the "one more ride...for old time's sake" kind of thing, so I think it puts huge pressure on that next album to be better than this one.  But you're right...whatever...if they want to continue writing and singing songs together...I'll be there to listen.

Yeah, so if you take those out, along with Mike's track, that leaves 7. Brian is known to be contradictory across interviews, so that could affect the scenario either way. More or less could be new or old. But I believe most of it is old, as he said.

Maybe, but I would trust his statements more than I'd trust those of fans.

I'd trust his statements more than fans too.  Just saying though.  He's crazy. 

Not like I expect them to do another album after this, but I hope they don't unless they're sure they can  top TWGMTR.

FWIW, I suspect that whatever Joe and Brian worked on in '98 was rather fragmentary. I don't doubt that a good 60 percent or more of the raw material comes from then, but let's break it down a bit --

Newly composed:
Think About the Days (not hard, given that it's essentially a melodic fragment)
Shelter
The Private Life of Bill and Sue

Old Mike Love song:
Daybreak over the Ocean

Started in 98, finished in 2011:
That's Why God Made the Radio

New Mike Love lyrics added in 2011:
Spring Vacation
Beaches in Mind
Isn't It Time

Possibly dating from Joe-Bon Jovi collaboration in '07
Summer's Gone

Other songs, possibly completed in '98:
Strange World
From There to Back Again
Summer's Gone

So it's a grab bag. But a lot has been added or changed for this album. It's kind of a patchwork quilt, so it will be interesting to see how it hangs together.

And, of course, it could be that most of the melody lines on the album turn up as Brian piano improvisations on a Smile tape from '66. You never know.

I highly doubt The Private Life of Bill and Sue and Shelter were newly composed - the backing tracks (and even Bri's vocal on the former) sound the most like Imagination/Joe Thomas 1998 sessions to me out of all of the samples.

We'll have to see what the credits say, but I strongly suspect that the entire album is newly recorded. Vocals and instruments. So what the tracks sound like isn't that relevant IMO. Perhaps those are simply the couple of songs that Joe and Brian recorded in Illinois with Joe's session guys last year.

Given that Brian had never talked about those songs before -- and just started touting them within the last year -- I believe they are new. Plus, he says so in the interview from this month.

http://s3.excoboard.com/therecordroom/54492/907333/4

(Please direct patronage over to the RR -- it is, as frequently stated here, excellent.

What a brilliant idea! Just back from the tatooist - shall I upload photos?

Incidentally, I am thrilled by the sound of the last four tunes. Shelter and Isn't it Time sound cool, too.

I would say that "best since Holland" is an easy call (using Andrew's formula of counting "Love You" as a BW solo record). It also, sadly, says something about the generally abysmal quality of BB records after that point, too.

it's extremely arbitrary to count Love You as a solo record. Carl did a lot of work on it and two songs were cowritten with other members of the band. and they all sing on it.

I love you, Ron. As per your request, I will indeed quit bitching forthwith. Once again, I appreciate your insights, rapier wit, and thoughtful, lucid posts. As I just learned by bitching, if you mess with the bull (Ron), you get the horns (Ron's devastatingly sharp, sober and lucid wit).

As for the new Beach Boys album, I am hoping the snippets on Amazon are not from the final mix. In some cases, the vocal production is a bit over the top with the robotic sound. This doesn't seem to be a consistent aesthetic among all the tracks. It sounds out of place on "From Here to Back Again," as it is an elegiac, subtle song, from what I can tell.

It sounds like "Spring Vacation" was given a very 'au courant' production job with pitch correction used as an effect, perhaps to fit in with the hit songs being played on the radio nowadays. "Isn't It Time" has an interesting sound to it. Very few Brian Wilson songs get this involved percussively, with other instruments picking up the rhythmic slack. I think the production comparison with MIU and "Pitter Patter" in particular has some merit when applied to several songs on the album.

As we heard on "Do it Again 2012," "That's Why God Made The Radio" and the recent live performances, Mike's voice has changed over the last few years. He has a bit of an edge to his voice that he never had before, and I enjoy it.

It sounds like the album is equal parts 'art' and 'commerce.' As implied in several reviews, the first half of the album seems to have a more tropical, beachy sound, and the second half tends more towards the artistic side of The Beach Boys.

I think the music-loving public came around to Pet Sounds and SMiLe in the 1990s, and began to truly appreciate what Brian was capable of. Then in more recent years, post-BWPS and the improved Mike and Bruce concerts, Mike's work has been reassessed as well. If a Beach Boys song had been released pre-2005 with lyrics like the those featured in "Spring Vacation," people on this messageboard would have complained about it much more than they have, and people who didn't know Pet Sounds/SMiLe would use it as a reason to further discount the group as an anachronism.

Today, everybody knows about the group's artistically groundbreaking work, and The Beach Boys can comfortably wed the "cheerfully anachronistic" side of their group (paraphrasing Mike) with the more artistic aspirations found in the opening track and several others.

I think this album will be unique in the band's catalogue for that reason. Some of their early work, like "California Girls," comfortably marries commercial aspirations with uniquely beautiful songwriting. Since then, compromise between art and commerce always meant putting out middle-of-the-road albums like MIU and Beach Boys '85. It seems like "That's Why God Made the Radio" is a bit schizophrenic in this sense, with songs like "Beaches In Mind" sitting alongside "From Here to Back Again."  and I look forward to hearing the whole record.

Of course, I will wait until I have the full album before I judge it...

Don't look at me. Take it up with Doe.

Love You is just such a problematic record to talk about in a context like this, really. It's so singular -- and divides opinion so much -- that saying "best since Love You" doesn't carry the same kind of weight.

Best -- and only -- album in awhile. How about that.  ;D

I have been a fan for 27 years and I still don't know what to make of Love You.  I mean I love it. And I kind of hate it.

Even if Love You is a better album melodically than TWGMTR (and that's far from clear at this point), you have to fairly judge its awful production, bad vocals, and embarrassing songs.  You can't just say "wow, this would be great with Pet Sounds production and different lyrics"

I like the Love You album a lot but it's pretty flawed.

It BETTER have a Record Room copyright on there!

Perfect statement. Says it all.

Only thing is, Bruce said in the interview with our RR friend that some of the album was on Joe Thomas's hard drive. Whether he meant songs or recordings, we don't know yet.

I think my favorite so far is "Isn't It Time." That's a ukelele, right? Nice touch, and not done overly in an islaand kind of way either. That, combined with the "dooby-dooby dum" vocal, followed by Al's stong entrance, sets this arrangement apart.

Even the songs that aren't killing me seem to have great hooks. You can always count on Brian for a great melody.

What the hell is that supposed to mean, anyway?

"Somewhere amongst the huge, and possibly illegal, amount of pornography on his hard-drive, Joe Thomas also has the multi-tracks to Spring Vacation!"

 ???

Amazing that something in the quality of MIU is considered really good in the context of 2012.

Oh absolutely, but the "all rights reserved" etc. ran over a bit into the perineum, hope you don't mind.

While suggestive, I have a hard time figuring out if that means anything. ALL of Brian's albums from the last 14 years are stored on hard drives. It is how all music is saved and stored now, unless you're doing something self-consciously retro and recording to tape. I mean. Bob Dylan's last couple of albums are stored on hard drives too. So yeah, that's where Joe would have the album, because it has to be saved someplace.

Now, we might assume the suggestion is that Joe had bits of the album -- tracks or demos -- saved on his hard drive from back in '98. That's possible! But it's also not what Bruce said.

The album and track listing is up on iTunes, but no previews. All the tracks are ghosted out. It is Pre-order only. I was hoping I would get to listen to longer, 30 second previews.  :(

I think the first song, Isn't It Time, and the last 3 will be my favorite.  The choruses on many songs have a lot of Brian and Al which is a great thing! No overly nasal Mike vocals . I like the tone he uses on Daybreak. I'm very surprised everyone is being kind to the lyrics on Spring Vacation. I guess the mood is just so happy people are loving everything. Vibration and vacation is almost as bad as vibrations and assassinations.  But you knew the BB couldn't do an album without one song like that and that's fine.

A clip of vacation came out a few weeks ago and the lyrics caught hell then

Showed my mom the clips, she says she loves the "sound" which may be the production, and I agree for the most part, so kill us haha

That's a ukelele indeed, genius touch

I think it is quite clear that is the inference, combined with Brian's statement that most of the album was at least written in 1998. I mean, there is no real reason to think otherwise at this point, it doesn't reflect badly on the contents.

Consider how quickly this album came together. If it seems like just a few months since we heard the news that the guys had re-recorded "Do It Again" recently, you're right - it was just a few months ago.

There's also the fact that the album has been floating around between the higher ups for what, a good month now? And the album comes out in just a few weeks.

Take into consideration Brian saying most of the songs date from 1998, Mike's 70s track, etc. and I'm thinking the idea that this album utilizes partially (not completely) older recordings and old ideas isn't far-fetched in the least. It's not a slight on the material or the band's abilities or anything, just seems that it's indeed true.

I don't think it is, though. Brian was recording throughout last year with Joe and Jeff. It just wasn't called a Beach Boys album at the time. It was called a Brian Wilson solo project. Easiest thing in the world to use those tracks -- and those well may have been the tracks on the hard drive that Bruce talked about.

Frankly, I suspect that all of this was hatched in late 2010 / early 2011. A deal was struck to bring Brian back into the group for the 50th anniversary (AGD has mentioned that Brian was indeed lying through his teeth throughout last year). The deal had two or three aspects. 1.) The Smile boxed set had to be released, to secure Brian's legacy. 2.) There needed to be a new album with Brian at the helm. And 3.), in return for those first two things, Brian would commit to an extensive summer tour.

At that point, they had to figure out how to make the album happen. It's doubtful that the group would have accepted Brian working on his own, and they needed someone to figure out logistics in terms of the inevitable DVD, documentary, etc. Well, guess what? Joe Thomas has made his name doing high-def concert videos. And Brian could use some songs for the album, and didn't he and Joe have some worked out? Joe then solved two or three problems simultaneously.

I would expect that this is all tentative, though. Everyone is hoping it will work, but they all know that any piece could fall apart at any moment.

So while the Capitol archives department got to work on Smile, Brian starts hanging out with Joe and fiddling with the new record. They polish off the old songs, then probably wrote a few new ones. Jeff records with them, and word begins to get out. Jean Seivers calls it a BW solo project. In May, the group (and Joe) get together to re-record Do It Again to see if they can all handle being in the studio together. It generally goes well.

I would expect that further work is done during the fall as Brian promotes the Smile box. Finally, in November or December, the group assembles to start recording vocals. Some instrumental tracks are recorded to, because what else is a rock band going to do in a studio? Mike picks out a few tracks to write lyrics to, and slots in one of his own songs. They keep recording and polishing through February.

That doesn't seem like too much of a compressed schedule to me, and I'd bet it's close to what actually happened. (Not to say that 98 elements couldn't have been used, but the only reason they would need to do that is if they liked them better. Remember: Brian's band recorded BWPS in three days.)

iTunes sample are up. So yeah...

"Isn't it Time" sounds like a new classic up-tempo Beach Boys song.

"Strange World" sounds kinda disappointing. I was hoping for more. Very TLOS. But I don't care for that album.

"From There to Back Again" sounds very pretty. I'm really excited. Al sounds great. Brian sounds good.

"Pacific Coast Highway", Brian sounds really nice on.

"Summer's Gone" sounds absolutely beautiful. Brian sounds awesome. "Caroline No" worthy? Maybe. Very tasteful.

I really want to stress the point that the vocals on the iTunes, and presumably CD sound entirely different than on those Amazon clips.  I am exaggerating in no way.  Those robo-voices I heard on the Amazon samples sound nothing like the iTunes vocals.

Yes, but for The Beach Boys, and most artists/groups these days, particularly those that haven't recorded together in decades, it is a very short schedule. Especially if the album was all new. One can use BWPS as an example, but the band was merely duplicating what they did on stage every night. Yes, maybe 90% of this album was wholly rerecorded. But it is probably likely to be similar to the BWPS scenario for many of the tracks, near-exact duplication of an existing template.
I mean, I doubt that we'll hear that the new Black Sabbath album is finished tomorrow, and that has been in the works for a long time.
I understand that the album may have been worked on as the next BW album. But gathering together the group and then hastily turning it into a Beach Boys project over a few month's schedule of scattered sessions, that isn't exactly how the thing was sold initially, or what was hoped for, it is yet another Beach Boys bait-and-switch routine.
Of course, if the album is great, none of this matters, except to the historian.

This seems weird to me. You're arguing, as I take it, that the band didn't spend enough time recording the album to make it a "real" Beach Boys album? That some three or four months worth of vocal sessions weren't sufficient? I believe the group spent a couple of months on Pet Sounds, for example.

And why wasn't that what was hoped for? I, for one, am thrilled to be getting an album that is 90 percent new-to-us Brian Wilson songs. I mean, the exact scenario I'm outlining was how a lot of the group's classic records were created. It's not a Sunfower, but I'm sure the group would like to avoid such a protracted and difficult creative process.

Nothing to apologize about, I think the sound of the clips is great too.  I don't hear any that I don't like the production on, although there's a few that sound kind of boring... for the twenty seconds we get to hear. 

Hear Hear!  Right On. 

Pet Sounds wasn't conceived of as a Brian Wilson solo album, and did not consist of mainly songs written for another solo project 14 years earlier. What I am saying isn't weird and I am not arguing. The band could make a great album in two days if they wanted to, it is just that generally, THESE DAYS, albums take much longer to create if they are newly generated. Unless you're The White Stripes. Comparing it to the recording history of albums that were recorded in the 60's, with most of the backing tracks recorded live in studio on 4 track doesn't really work. In fact, when one considers that most albums of that era were recorded in mere days, the Pet Sounds sessions were marathon.  Adjusting for inflation, one would think an entirely new BB album would take a much longer time to generate, as say, a new Eagles album would.
I really don't think this type of scenario reflects the recording process of any of The Beach Boys' previous works, by its very nature.
But again, this is just for dialogue's sake. If it is good, I don't care if it was written in 5 minutes while Brian was on the toilet in 1982. I have taken great pains to get this across, and I don't get why that isn't coming through.

FTTBA on iTunes made me cry, no joke, SMiLE worthy...
Same with The next two songs...
All these, with maybe 2 exceptions, are good songs, but those three...
Classics... No joke.

Again I've only heard the small clips, but yeah I thought those three sounded really classic too.  Really what more could you ask out of these guys at 70 years old?  I think this is going to be really, really good. 

As much as I've disagreed with you lately and how you act, I gotta say this is a great post. But at the same time, I gotta say I'm not surprised about the content of the album, at all. We figured that each member would probably bring in older material. And that the album's contents would be centered around Brian. Either Brian providing minimal effort and a few songs, or it would be a Brian controlled album. And we got a Brian controlled album. Which is what I personally would prefer, because any song written by Brian is worth hearing to me, even if its bad.

But I don't think this album started as a BW solo album and got turned into a BB album. I think it was probably a BB album the whole time, but they didn't wanna commit to it in the media until they knew for sure it was gonna work.

I don't know if they sold this as this huge studio project, they just sold it as a new studio album, and anybody that's on these type of forums figured it was probably not gonna be made up of all new material with the guys getting together to write new songs.

This is how I understood the reports of the album's creation as well.

Oh, me either. Because of the history of the group. On most of the projects the band has undertaken since the Smile sessions collapsed, one has had to dig at the truth of the matter regarding what has been released and why, and all the varying negotiations thereof, beyond what is stated by the group initially. But that hasn't affected my love of what has been released, at all. It just interests me, it is like a mystery story.
And, of course, the album is mainly being "sold" to the mainstream public, not to those of us who have wider knowledge of the complicated history. I envy those people.

I will mention this:

When this all came together, there was still a lot of bad blood, and issues that were being either resolved or forgotten.  So the safe thing to do was have Brian and his guys do most of the work, and have the Beach Boys come in whenever everything was cool... and since everything was pretty cool, they ended up doing a lot of work on the album.


If there is an album in the future, it may be much more collaboratively written, as long as the issues don't return...

I just don't think Brian in particular was ready to give up some of his safety blankets, like his co-producer from years ago that also gets along with Mike, or that Brian wanted to give up the safety blanket of using old material so he didn't have to be pressured to write new music, etc.  

I imagine once they started getting the framework together he realized that he felt pretty comfortable around the guys.

Okay I'm allowed one negative post a day...

What "Content"? We have "Daybreak" which is not that bad,
Summer vacation that is really very catchy even in it's pool of piss lyrics and "Beaches in mind" which still has some nice harmonies.

Then we have a nice Brian solo EP and 6 VERY good tracks.

I mean, did you want SIP 2, or Pet Sounds 2 or maybe a tilted middle ground?

Something to point out...pretty much every BB album from 20/20  onwards with a few exceptions contained a fair amount of 'vault' tracks.

Very strong harmonies and vocals throughout. I was worried from TWGMTR that the vocals on the album might not be distinct, but that's absolutely not the case here - it's Beach Boys from head to toe.

Little Douce Coupe had "Car Crazy Cutie."
A rewrite of "Pamala Jean", Brian's solo "Survivors" song.

Yep. As stated earlier, it looks like about a third of the album is new, a third is newly rewritten (i.e., Mike put new sets of lyrics on possibly older tunes), and a third unaccounted for, quite possibly from '98. Which is a better ratio than Gettin' In Over My Head ...

By no means was I criticizing this. If you have songs sitting around and you like them, no matter if it's two months or two decades old, these are your songs to finish and put out if you so desire.

I'm sure I'm one of about two fans of theirs on here, but well over half of the new Van Halen album released a few months ago was written before their first album in 1978, with a few other songs dating from the early 80s. It wasn't a matter of "We're too lazy to write new material", but, "These songs are good, they haven't been released, let's add to them as we see fit, finish them up and put them out." And it worked really, really well.

That is a great analogy. The VH album was and is a stunner.

And, Brian has said that most of it was at least written in 1998 by him and Joe Thomas, and not heard by the group until late last year. Maybe he is overestimating, but those are his own words, just for clarity.

You guys are making it very hard for me to wait until I have the actual cd to listen to.  ;D

I'm not disagreeing with you. Honestly. This is really just about the meaning of the word "most."

In the interview that appeared on the Record Room, Brian said that Shelter, Bill and Sue, and Think About the Days were written expressly for the new album.

Here is the relevant exchange:


Source: http://s3.excoboard.com/therecordroom/54492/907333/4

So that's four (or three, if you exclude TWGMTR) songs of 12, which is definitely not "most" of them.

Mike wrote lyrics for three Wilson-Thomas songs. He didn't write them in 1998, so that's why I call those songs "newly rewritten."

Now that the iTunes samples are up, no one should listen to the Amazon ones. The extreme low-bit rate of the Amazon clips give a bad impression.

The sound quality of the iTunes samples is almost stunning, despite the autotune etc, this album sounds like it might be an audiophile experience, in the sense it is mixed well and very dynamic sounding.

The lo-fi-ness of the Amazon samples made the vocals sound more processed than they actually are.

Isn't It Time is really cool, I love the vibe. I'm sort of scratching my head at Bill and Sue, wtf is up with those lyrics? I likes me some quirky Brian, but....
Shelter is very good, sounds like classic BBs and I could see this as the next single if there is one.

Like i said way earlier, I love the 'Pet Sounds' approach to Strange World.
The harmonies in From There To Back Again are stunning. The wordless parts sound closer to the BBs in their 60s prime than anything else I've heard. Not sure how I feel about the actual song, Al is heavily autotuned. Maybe it's a grower in that sense.

I know Andrew hyped up From There....as stunning and everything, but for my money, the real HOLY sh*t! moment of this album is Summer's Gone. It is so beautiful, somber, in the sense that Caroline No was. The harmonies, once again, are stunning, and Brian sounds so good. He's singing so emotively.

I was telling a friend earlier today, (I'm 20), I missed out on so much being born 40+ years too late, but I'll be able to go to the store and buy the brand new Beach Boys album off the rack. It's a wonderful thing.

Thanks for the music, guys.

"The Private Life of Bill and Sue" sounds very "South America", found myself singing the words of it as was listening to it.

We're talking about a good new Beach Boys album.

The year is 2012 right? Sorry...I just needed to check! 8)

I like all the clips! Way more than I was prepared to....good stuff  :smokin

I dunno about that. The music discussion is passionate, but there's a lot of bitching about this board. I Spaceman/Ian Wagner just recently referred to posters in the TWGMTR artwork thread as 'clueless morons' because of the fan edits of the new cover art. Each to their own but wtf's he doing over here on a recruitment drive? Just seems a bit perverse to me.

Meh Songs:
-Daybreak Over The Ocean
-Beaches in Mind

Good Songs:
-Bill And Sue
-Shelter
-Strange World
-Spring Vacation

Very Good Songs:
-That's Why God Made The Radio
-Isn't It Time

INCREDIBLE Songs:
-Think About The Days
-My Life Suite (Best in 30 Years?)
-Summers Gone (Almost Pet Sounds)

My take, based on the Amazon samples (and I really don't think it's fair to form opinions based on samples, but I'll do it anyway):

Think About the Days: Beautiful. Is that Brian doing the falsetto for a few notes there?

TWGMTR: I continue to love this song, remix and original.

Isn't It Time: Cute, but nothing special. Sounds like an old band indulging in nostalgia.

Spring Vacation: Ugh, the production sounds warmed over and MOR. The lyrics are awful. Maybe it will have some redeeming parts.

The Private Life of Bill and Sue: This sounds like it came from Imagination, so it's strange that it's new. I guess I'm not a big fan of the tropical sound, but I don't hate it.

Shelter: Again, the production sounds bland to me.

Daybreak Over the Ocean: Nice melody. Again, not a fan of the production on these middle songs. But the song itself sounds okay.

Beaches in Mind: Could be good. Can't tell.

Strange World: Percussion sounds like someone set out to remind us that this is the guy that did Pet Sounds. But that's the only similarity and it's way down the rung in quality. Still, it's okay.

From There to Back Again: I'm glad Al got a lead. This sounds very pretty to me.

Pacific Coast Highway: The beginning of the clip reminded me of Dennis. The second half is also very pretty. I'm interested to hear the whole thing--sounds like it could be a gem.

Summer's Gone: Really, really gorgeous. This is my favorite clip.

Amy, check out the Itunes samples. You get a bit longer on each song. I agree with a lot of your opinions re the production, but if I put my guilty pleasure ears on, I find a lot to enjoy in the album, although 4 or 5 songs do nothing for me.

I think you should give Isn't It Time another chance though - autotune aside that's a gem in my book!

Ah, you're right. The samples are actually a lot longer on iTunes, and I do like Isn't It Time a bit better. All the songs sound a bit better, although the Autotune is much more glaring. Especially on Shelter. Woah.  But I still like the samples overall-- they're a lot better than I expected. I'm very excited about those last two songs.

I actually found the opposite, the autotune (while technically clearer) sounded a lot less shocking on the iTunes samples.
Can't wait for this album (and my first time seeing Brian or any of the BBs is tomorrow!)

I don't have iTunes. Is tehre any other way to hear the longer previews?



BTW who is singing harmony with Brian on "Strange world" ? It doesn't sound like any Beach Boy to me and not like Jeffrey either.

Yeah. I thought that. A select few over there smacked of elitism. But if they don't like what many of us here have to offer, then their loss. But I'm hoping everybody can get over that and get along. There are good people on both boards and many have great insights into the band.

i think it's natural for a small board like that to get rather clique-ish, and from what i've read, they're no exception; a wee bit of arrogance but whatever, they have some good info and seem like nice folks.  

I don't have a problem with the bitching per se - there's a certain amount of history between the two boards so it's to be expected. The hypocrisy does bug me though, so I won't be posting there again.

That isn't the interview I cited.

And you are an old member of The Record Room. So what are you doing bitching over here? Seems a bit hypocritical to me.

Not any more mate - that's the point. Good luck to you though.

That's cool, I never liked you anyway.

ok back to the clips.

The vocal effect stuff is peculiar.  I wonder if it just came down to brian really digging that sound?  I have my doubts that they did it so they could be modern, wanting to get a hit, because then it would be all over TWGMTR.  There is a little autotuning on TWGMTR, but it isn't used like a vocal effect.  Someone should ask him!

Gotta second that, "A Different Kind of Truth" easily is up there with their best and I even would rate it over their phenomenal debut. I can't think of any major artist who's being around since 30, 40 or in that case 50 years into the business and provides such a good album like that and therefore I am really thrilled by the Boys' new effort.

Hey! I'm not clueless.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52684612/BrianDigsNew%20Cover.jpg)

Made my day after long day at work thank you

you can download itunes for free; I did, though it does not work reliably in windows.

I think it's Brian. There's a lot of him in that song.