I know this is an old topic, but I have not posted here for a while or have been familiar with Craig Smith's music back in 2012...

Having read about Craig Smith's recording sessions (from Mike Stax's excellent book  and other articles and interviews) it would not be impossible for this track to have been recorded in 1970. To my memory, the tracks Revelation and Love Is Our Existence were recorded back then, and Salesman sounds quite similar in terms of instrumentation (acoustic guitar, bass and a tiny bit amateurish drums), though unlike the two aforementioned tracks Salesman has no vocals fed through a Leslie speaker. After the release of the book, more recordings, writings etc. from Craig Smith have been recovered; some collected on the album Love Is Our Existence but apparently there will be more to come - so I hope you folks do not mind me sharing pure speculation before some actual info comes up.

Nuclear Nightclub very much recommended! A classic.

It's about time Finland's best band (Suomen Paras Bändi) got its own topic. You Spotify lurkers, go to https://play.spotify.com/artist/6JlgvkzzxFaMfDpu7zxUav

dull muzak???
Loveless is a 1991 classic and m b v almost better and a total surprise at that.

I've worn earplugs since 1991 or so, but when it gets loud enough, sh*t happens. Also one specialist diagnosed my hearing to be very sensitive (I had a temporary hearing loss for a couple of days almost out of nowhere). Played in bands, seen some very loud gigs (we are talking 130+ dB here), lived in London for 4 years (a loud city innit?) -  earplugs have saved me from deafness but not from tinnitus. Here in Finnish countryside the annoying hiss/whine in my ears is easily detectable, whereas the constant noise of living in a city makes one forget it, while making the hearing problem itself worse.

A return to form after Surf's Up and Carl and the Passions (not to say neither was that bad really - both have their moments) and another one I have overlooked. Could be their last meaningful collective effort.
4/5 it is.

There are plenty of stunning John Cale albums too. Reed's work varies a lot, the quality seems often to depend on the people he is working with. In case of Metal Machine Music, I guess his musical partner was Mr. Temporary Insanity.
Cale's solos get better after Vintage Violence - which has some awesome songs but still seems like a practice version of the albums that followed later - Paris 1919, Slow Dazzle and especially Fear and Helen Of Troy spring to mind right away. Pop music being performed by a man capable of writing good tunes delivered with excellent arrangements, a slightly sinister voice and (at times) quite disturbing lyrics - what exactly is wrong with that?

Despite many a post mentioning the High Llamas, I could not find a topic dedicated to the band other than"I am not connected to the High Llamas..." at General On Topic Discussions so.............
I would not call their songs forgettable - I think their albums just do not hold up too well as entities - like early BB-albums, some filler here and there. That said, some very good songs, beautiful arrangements. Considering they do not gig every week to say the least, I think I have been lucky as I have seen them twice! Once as a trio (acoustic guitar, electric piano + bass) upstairs of a South London pub (Dog House) May 2007 and with a bigger line-up (again upstairs!) at Whitechapel Gallery in London  (4th of July 2008). Both gigs worked for me, and prove they have good songs that work even when the arrangements are stripped down to bare essentials.
The Retrospective portion of Retrospective, Rarities & Instrumentals has the essential stuff - found it from Archway Library sale for £1 in a completely playable condition - and loved it since! And I just love the opening track of Can Cladders...
(I'm no Brit but my Beach Boys enthusing really began during my four-year stay in London, oddly enough + The High Llamas also bring some nice(r) memories from those days.)

^plus why has he released stuff in stereo???

Saw his recent Hamburg gig, not many old songs. I came in late and thus was in a bad mood, thinking I had missed a whole lot (when in fact I came in during the first song according to the setlist). I have to say I liked more the previous (2005 & 2007) gigs I saw in London, though I came in late for the 2005/RFH one as well and heard Venus In Furs only through the door (as at RFH you have to wait for a song to end when entering the venue as a latecomer)

A solo career far more enjoyable to my taste than Mr. Reed's.  
The Island Years is an excellent starting point to explore the man's music (isn't this the comp with Fear, Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy?). No unkind words about Vintage Violence, Paris 1919 or Music for a New Society either... or Songs for Drella. Love the voice, songwriting and arranging qualities and he did an excellent job at producing Nico. Oh, and playing on  the best VU albums...

The celebratory angle is what makes this book charming - at this day and age, very heart-warming to read something that is not full of dumb pretentious "I'm-Being-So-Ironic"-besserwisserism. This man loves the music of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys.

perhaps slightly unnecessary compilation, but even the "oddities but goodies" stuff from The Beach Boys are more relevant than many more a record released during 2000s
I HAVE LOST MY BOOKLET 

Works very well for a lot of 1950s/60s stuff - anything recorded with a 2-/3-/and maybe 4 track where the original stereo mixes usually have instrumentation on the left and vocals on the right channel for instance... Beatles 
But on the other hand, even if the Righteous Brothers' Just Once In My Life is like this in stereo, it is a bit more pleasant than the mono mix, where the chorus is almost drowned out of the picture so to speak.
My Bloody Valentine actually had some tracks around Isn't Anything almost in mono (with only a very few occasional elements not mixed in the center) like I Believe and Feed Me With Your Kiss, I guess for the effect on blending elements together. (Kevin Shields' appreciation of Brian Wilson's music is well known...)

knowing this might not serve everyone's taste buds here:
SWANS:
Public Castration Is A Good Idea
Children Of God
White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity

  out of interest, do some of you fans of Beach Boys like the SWANS?
Unlikely comparison, but... Michael Gira is to my knowledge very fond of certain Beach Boys records (Smiley Smile & Wild Honey?)

if ifs and buts were candy & nuts:
this album would be pretty out there if the last two tracks had been dropped. And something of a truly kick-ass quality stuff of the era would've been there instead, like Can't Wait Too Long or Cool Cool Water or Lonely Days or whatever unfinished stuff there was.
 Can't Wait Too Long is probably my favorite song from the Beach Boys.
Love the mono, but

For crying out loud, release a stereo version and take my money.

a two-disc edition with bonus material worth six times the album's actual duration would be sufficient.

moved this post to a new thread I started

4 points.

I think it's problem is, it's between Today and Pet Sounds, two outstanding albums of the Boys and if I compare with these, I only have to give 4 point, otherwise it would be unfair.

And personally I don't care for this (or actually any pre-Pet Sounds album THAT MUCH), but: four stars! One each for Girl Don't Tell Me, Help Me Rhonda, California Girls and And Your Dream Comes True. In Brian's words: sound bliss!

Not as good as Wild Honey but slightly better than White Album by their UK colleagues which still makes one ask why was this not deservedly appreciated at its time?

In terms of actual duration, not a proper album! Goddammit!  And thank god for these rulebreakers. Short and sweet, and if in my stupid opinion Surf's Up is really overrated, this one is really underrated (of course a firm favorite among those with an excellent taste). Nice home-baked sound bliss.

Gave it a 4/5. 5/5 would be more accurate but still the goofiness (mainly the instrumentation and the lyrics) is both the strength and the weakness of this album, which makes me a bit  thus preventing me from giving it the proper appreciation it deserves (at least on some levels a return to form if a bit of a "and now for some completely different" to put it mildly!). Goofy enough to prevent regular listening but charming enough to make you feel good when it happens.

A very overrated album. Had this world any justice Surf's Up would have been (one of) the high point(s) of a 1967 album called SMiLE! - but then again Smiley Smile's not to be overlooked. But still, had it happened, the remaining 4 tracks from Carl and Brian  would have made good substitutes for the weaker tracks of Sunflower (again there is nothing too weak there). Another if: if Long Promised Road (not very dear to me but a decent song) replaced Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) on the b-side, I could glue the vinyl to my turntable and never play Side A again. And to omit 4th of July! Pity this was considered by the contemporary music press as the Beach Boys' return to the "to-be-taken-seriously"-league. I mean c'mon, what about the albums after Pet Sounds, how are they inferior to this uneven album?
3/5 (yes the good stuff is worth buying the album... wait, I borrowed the Sunflower/Surf's Up twofer CD from the library and made a copy  )

The last excellent Beach Boys album - (OK, Love You is cool too but a bit.... weird, what with the synth arrangements and slightly goofy lyrics). Bruce Johnston-sung tracks are a bit sappy but not bad. My personal favourite -  All I Wanna Do, almost proto-shoegazing and a pretty overlooked track.

As an album I value it not so much either - but then THE SONGS ARE FANTASTIC (All I Want To Do & Bluebirds don't inspire me too much though...).
I fail to remember which 'underground paper'(?) it was D.Priore quoted in his book, praising the last two tracks, but then:"most of side 2 is weak". Amen, the premiere of the 2 SMiLE! outtakes must have been a revelation even to a Beach Boys-hater like the unknown reviewer quoted above - but side 2 kills! A failure as an album (as in an entity), a great success in terms of meaningful music. A tiny bit better than Sunflower or Friends and a whole lot more than Surf's Up!
5/5

Time has only improved this album, probably not the most praised of its time during the late 1960s. And not depressing, what on earth is depressing about this album? Just listened to the stereo version at Spotify, hmmmm should I invest in an actual CD (I don't buy almost no records these days...)?
5/5