The remasters are now on Australian Spotify.


Well, I'm pretty easy to please but I have to say I'm not over the moon with the use of digital reverb, you really can hear the difference and I'm not anywhere near an audiophile, it sounds a lot like the verb I use on my own music in Pro Tools. The stereo mixes are very cool to hear but I think I'm going to stick with the 2001 remasters and just load up Spotify if i want to hear the stereo mixes. Mono for life.

What a bummer, so glad I got to see them a few weeks ago.

Do It Again
Little Honda
Catch a Wave
Hawaii
Don't Back Down
Surfin' Safari
Surfer Girl
You're So Good to Me
Getcha Back
Please Let Me Wonder
Wendy
Kiss Me, Baby
Let Him Run Wild
Then I Kissed Her
(The Crystals cover)
Darlin'
Isn't It Time
Come Go with Me
(The Del-Vikings cover)
Why Do Fools Fall in Love
(Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers cover)
When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)
Disney Girls
Good Timin'
It's OK
Cotton Fields
(Lead Belly cover)
Be True to Your School
All This Is That
Don't Worry Baby
Little Deuce Coupe
409
Shut Down
I Get Around
Pet Sounds
Add Some Music to Your Day
Heroes and Villains
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice
In My Room
That's Why God Made the Radio
California Saga: California
Sail on, Sailor
Forever
God Only Knows
Good Vibrations
California Girls
All Summer Long
Help Me, Rhonda
Rock and Roll Music
(Chuck Berry cover)
Do You Wanna Dance?
(Bobby Freeman cover)
Surfin' U.S.A.
Encore:
Kokomo
Barbara Ann
(The Regents cover)
Fun, Fun, Fun

I only just got my ticket yesterday (long story) but managed to get a gold floor seat for $89. Woo!

I remember reading the very same things about TSS and struggling to hear what anyone was talking about re: clicks and pops.

This has to be one of the worst albums ever. Horrible.

I'd actually love to hear this whole album sans the party noises.  Am I alone on this?

You can, it's out there.

They are coming to my city in Australia soonish and I'm still on the fence. I may regret not going but I don't know if it's worth the money they want. I can't decide.

I like the opener and the last three tracks are not bad, I don't think they are as good as others seem to think but thats ok. I really wasn't expecting much, especially with Joe involved but deep down I had hope. Oh well.

Wow, they sound GREAT. Shows they can still do it.

Finally listened to the album in full. There should be a law to prevent Joe Thomas be anywhere near Brian or any of the band. The songs aren't great and the production is worse. So disappointed.

They have been threatening to do one for decades now. It will happen one day.

The direct source. Joe knew more than people give him credit for:

'When asked to compare his style of producing Brian to that of Andy Paley, Joe Thomas responds, “I think that Andy more comes from that historical perspective than I do. I mean he knows a lot more about the way Brian recorded stuff back in the ‘60s. I know they use a lot of the same musicians like Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine. When I listen to the stuff that Andy has done with Brian in the past, I think there’s more of that group mentality. I’ve got my guys that I really like. And the fact is that right now, I also don’t like to record with a lot of people in the room at the same time. My reasoning is that I just can’t keep track of what’s going on. I think it’s a different way of recording that Brian likes this time around. Brian thinks very conceptually and he’s definitely thematic. I think he’s on one tangent and I think the course that’ll probably happen is that he’ll go through a Joe Thomas phase and maybe we’ll do one more album or two more albums together and... God bless him. I’m just proud to be part of this phase.”

'When told about Brian’s interest in doing a rock and roll record next time around, Thomas replied, “Oh yeah, we came up with about 3 or 4 real rockin’ things. He likes that really crunchy guitar and the big heavy moog bass. So we’ve got a couple of things down. We’ve got 2 or 3 gems there that are really uptempo and slammin’. We recorded like 20 songs for Imagination, and I think he feels kind of guilty that some of the songs didn’t make it. There’s so much stuff that we recorded, and I really have to convince people that the reason some of the songs didn’t get on the album weren’t because they weren’t as good as the songs on the album. They just weren’t conceptual, they weren’t as thematic. So we’ve got a good kick start. There’s eight songs recorded and I’d say four of those songs would fit easily on a new Brian Wilson album. It’s funny too, when we did Imagination, Brian was thinking with the Beach Boys in mind. Even though it was a solo record, that could have easily been a Beach Boys record.” Asked what his favorite Beach Boys album is, Thomas gladly offers, “Surf’s Up was a gem. I gotta tell ya’, as much as everybody—and I’m one them—loves Pet Sounds, my favorite Beach Boys’ album of all time is Surf’s Up. I just was blown away by it, I couldn’t believe it. Sunflower is another one of my favorites.”

http://www.mwe3.com/archive/pastfeature/featurebrianwilson1998.htm

I still love the Paley stuff, more than anything official. I'd kill for a really nice quality version of the songs.

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

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.

I wish it wasn't sounding so much like a Brian album with the boys voices and lyrics added when the reunion came up. I do hope they do another album after that's a full collaboration from the start.

[Exactly.]

I don't understand all the hyperbole. It's not ultra slick production and autotune versus Brian's muddiest mono mix of the 60s - there is a happy middle ground to be found.

Exactly.

And I agree with Hickey that Al's Postcard sounds way better production-wise than the 3 tracks I've heard off TWGMTR.

But yeah, that's just how it is and what we're gonna get. And I'm still positive that we're gonna get a good album. It's just that to a fan of the timeless and well-aged stuff the Beach Boys did in the 60s and 70s and to a music lover in general this mainstreamed production style (that tries to cover as many target groups as possible while taking absolutely no risks creatively) is a huge disappointment when applied to his/her favourite band.

I'd have loved them to get Jason Brewer of The Explorers Club to help produce and maybe even write.

Drug dealing. Duh

If you honestly think Brian has been producing anything in recent years I have some great land to sell you in Florida.

I really don't understand all the negativity here. Of course this song is disappointing if you were expecting a new Beach Boys classic, but didn't we already know that this wasn't going to be the new Good Vibrations or California Girls? I think that this is one of the best songs that the Beach Boys have released since Holland and that's really all I was hoping for.

I never expected it to be very good but finally hearing something new still has a level of disappointment. I like a fair bit of the later boys track so I'm not just all about the classic stuff, I LOVE Goin' On.  I will say though I've never had a problem with Jeff's voice and think it's fine on this other than too prominent.


If only Brian hasn't already released Soul Searching...

But what if you aint in it???

Hey man, I love some good cheese and I am a huge BB fan. I don't like this song and haven't liked much of Brian's output for a bit. I really enjoyed Imagination when it was released but now I go back and listen and I can't get past things like I could when I was younger. It doesn't have to do with anything, it's just the way it is. I still LOVE the old Paley sessions and would kill for perfect quality copies.

The production really does bug me the most, I knew it would sound like that but still. If The Explorers Club can get a great vintage sound why couldn't the real band try for it??

Give me any of the old albums and I can pick the voices easily, I can't on this.  A few lines here and there isn't what I was expecting. I still can't hear Mike at all.

Ok, I've listened to this song about 8 times in a row now (I just got up and saw it was out). Right now it isn't quiet as bad as it was the first time I heard it but only about 3% less sucky. If and I assume this is the best song on the album the rest is going to be so so bad. I like others can hardly hear anyone on this thing save for Brian and Bruce's lines. I don't hear Mike or Al at all and there are voices I don't recognise which irks me.  I do like that Bruce still sounds like he did all those years back.

Overall this is about what I expected. I see myself listening to the album once just out of morbid curiosity and probably to have a laugh at with my fellow BB fanatics. Oh well.