Pitchfork Review

[Loaf]

http://www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16000-the-smile-sessions/


This just about sums it all up, right?

My copy still hasn't arrived from Spin CDs, but was shipped on Thursday. Argh!

[buddhahat]

Absolutely - lovely review.

Once this and Mojo are added to Metacritic, the overall score will be shaping up pretty nicely, although not sure how many reviews there ultimately will be:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-smile-sessions/critic-reviews

[John Stivaktas]

10 out of 5. That's impressive!

[Shady]

The most perfect review ever, everything I could of ever wanted written in a SMiLE review..

Reads like I wrote it

[UK_Surf]

Definitive. Easily the best review out there, and quite possibly one of the best synopses of Smile ever put down.

[chris.metcalfe]

I thought Petridis' was better.

'Pouring over...' really?
Darian was a 'tape trader' (sounds like he was caught in a back alley in Soho)
'the music holocaust' (??)

Hmmmm.

[thevigilanteoflove]

I really enjoyed that review. I was really interested in seeing what Pitchfork said because they have such a big influence, and possibly they can persuade some cynics to get some more Beach Boys albums. That first paragraph describes the process by which I came to love The Beach Boys exactly. "And then you find out about SMiLE." I love that line. And I love when people spell it that way with the odd capitalization!

[Loaf]

Darian was a 'tape trader' (sounds like he was caught in a back alley in Soho)

He was a tape trader!

'the music holocaust' (??)

Oh yes, the allusive punfilled lyrics of VDP!

[D Cunningham]

Yeah, that "pouring over" is a funny mistake.  But the essay is lovely in many ways.  Catching that natural flow of gradual awareness
of many fans, alluding to the scope of the lyrics without getting too weak-kneed. (Did I spell that right?)  After all, in the end, the lyrics
are just pop-music lyrics.  Not part of a historical exegesis.  Brian's music is the real message.  

[Ron]

I think it's a very well thought out and well spoken review.  It's not exactly how I feel, but pretty close.  Especially the part about how you become aware of the Beach Boys was spot on.  

BTW, on "metacritic", the album is #21 of all time, and that's before this review gets added.

Edit: My bad.  It's tied for #20, lol. 

[chris.metcalfe]

He was a tape trader!
......
Oh yes, the allusive punfilled lyrics of VDP!

This allusive pun was I think invented by Pitchfork. Or, to be absolutely precise (and dull to Monicker levels), the holocaust now refers to WWII Nazi atrocities whereas a) Surf's Up refers to the collapse of European civilisation after WWI and b) the phrase 'the holocaust' didn't begin to be used for this until well after the 1960s.

I dare say DS was a trader in tapes, I was merely pointing out the mildly comical nature of the phrase. Brit worshippers of 'Withnail and I' may understand....
 

[chris.metcalfe]

double post

[anazgnos]

If anyone remembers Pitchfork's infamous Pet Sounds review from the late 90s..In the year of Olivia Tremor Control's Black Foliage, The Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin, Super Furry Animals, Neutral Milk Hotel, Mercury Rev, Spiritualized, etc....owner/head honcho Ryan Schrieber blithely claimed that Pet Sounds was "dated" and had nothing to do with modern indie rock culture.  They've been rightly atoneing for that every time they've written about the BBs since, and the Smile 10.0 review is a nice culmination of that.  There's a reason that Schrieber's reviews have been almost entirely purged, even though he still runs the place.

[Caroline Yes]

A 10! Just like I predicted in the other thread! How could it have gotten any less? 

[Loaf]

He was a tape trader!
......
Oh yes, the allusive punfilled lyrics of VDP!

This allusive pun was I think invented by Pitchfork. Or, to be absolutely precise (and dull to Monicker levels), the holocaust now refers to WWII Nazi atrocities whereas a) Surf's Up refers to the collapse of European civilisation after WWI and b) the phrase 'the holocaust' didn't begin to be used for this until well after the 1960s.

With your (a) and (b) you create and destroy your own argument!  You say that Surf's Up wasn't about the Nazi atrocities, and then say that the term 'holocaust' wasn't even used to mean the atrocities until later... So, maybe, perhaps VDP wasn't writing about WWII...? Just a thought... and in fact the non-Nazi meaning of holocaust fits much better with the themes of SU.

The word 'holocaust', as you mention, was around before the 1960s...perhaps VDP was just making a pun, I'd always heard 'holocaust', for around 10 years before i'd even read Pitchfork...and whoever said anything about WWII? It's not mentioned in the PF review...

[Bleachboy]

The 1st paragraph sums up exactly how I got into the Beach Boys. Great review and read.

[chris.metcalfe]

With your (a) and (b) you create and destroy your own argument!  

Not sure why. Both my points a) and b) were made to show that the Pitchfork reference to the Holocaust is completely irrelevant to Surfs Up. You must have a very linear way of thinking.
My understanding, from the original Brian/VDP interviews, was that its themes were very similar to those of Eliot's The Waste Land.

Of course the word 'holocaust' was 'around' before the 1960s. It's an early English derivation of Greek and Latin words.
Sacrificial fire - perhaps appropriate to Smile..... but I doubt what the Pitchfork guy was thinking.

Hey - I just thought it wasn't a very good bit of writing. Seems that Pitchfork 'means' more to US readers than us.

[Loaf]

With your (a) and (b) you create and destroy your own argument!  

Not sure why.

Pitchfork didn't mention 'The Holocaust', they said that they could hear the word 'holocaust' (lower case) in VDP's lyrics. You created the WWII reference.

You then say that Pitchfork must be wrong to refer to WWII because 'The Holocaust' hadn't been used in ref to WWII by the time of Smile.

Seems simple to me
Or maybe you have a problem with thinking linearly...?

if you don't like the writing, just say so, don't make stuff up. There's plenty of pedantic people on here to call you out on it.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Darian was a 'tape trader' (sounds like he was caught in a back alley in Soho)

Darian is a toilet trader!!!!!!!!

[Aegir]

Brian's backing band is not the Wondermints! Why do people keep saying that? God. Mike D'amico isn't even on BWPS. But tons of other non-Wondermints band members are.