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Author Topic: Beach Boys write-up for local newspaper  (Read 2372 times)
Disney Boy (1985)
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« on: May 20, 2016, 08:46:51 AM »

Hey all,

I write for a local independent newspaper and, as a Beach Boys tribute band were performing here recently (and as everyone in the office knows I love the Beach Boys), I was asked to put together a piece to appear alongside the tribute band write-up. Hope you enjoy it  Smiley

P.S. Before anyone asks, much as I adore Smile, I didn't include it in the list because I find the CD1 Smile Sessions mix quite frustrating, and I could hardly recommend readers start trawling through the sessions.  
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Our resident Beach Boys fanatic picks ten of the legendary Californian quintet’s finest long-players.

1. PET SOUNDS (1966)
Music critics’ frequent proclaiming of Pet Sounds as The Greatest Album of All Time arguably works against it. However, listen to a stereo mix via a pair of good quality headphones and the album’s stellar reputation proves impossible to dispute. A masterpiece.

2. ALL SUMMER LONG (1964)
Possibly the quintessential Beach Boys album, All Summer Long features 12 tracks of perfectly-produced pop filled with pristine harmonies proclaiming the joys of sun, fun and young love. As always with Brian Wilson’s finest music, there’s also a prevailing undercurrent of exquisite sadness throughout.

3. TODAY! (1965)
Their best pre-Pet Sounds album, Today! is split into two distinct halves, with side one featuring half a dozen typically catchy pop gems, such as the bittersweet When I Grow Up; side two, however, consists of five achingly beautiful ballads that are simply as good as pop music gets.

4. SMILEY SMILE (1967)
Wherein the Fab Five ditch their clean-cut image and deliver one of the most wonderfully eccentric albums in music history. By turns trippy, tender, funny and downright disturbing, Smiley Smile is an experimental lo-fi classic.

5. WILD HONEY (1967)
In which the Beach Boys go R’n’B. Light on guitar, heavy on tack piano and doo-wop harmonies, Wild Honey is barely 25 minutes long but doesn’t put a foot wrong from Theremin-packed start to A Capella finish.

6. FRIENDS (1968)
Another shockingly short album (half of its 12 tracks are under two minutes long), Friends nevertheless contains some of the band’s warmest, and most under-rated, music. Reportedly Brian Wilson’s very favourite Beach Boys album.

7. 20/20 (1969)
A fascinatingly schizophrenic late-‘60’s offering, 20/20 features some of the bands most angelic songs (Our Prayer, I Went To Sleep) nestled alongside the likes of the notorious Never Learn Not To Love, an ill-fated collaboration with one Charles Manson, and All I Want To Do, which ends with the delightful sound of drummer Dennis shagging a groupie.

8. SUNFLOWER (1970)
A flop on release, Sunflower is now rightly hailed as one of the Beach Boys’ very greatest works. Listening to the album’s crisp production and the spine-tingling multi-layered vocal harmonies on tracks such as This Whole World and All I Wanna Do, it’s almost impossible to believe it was recorded over four and a half decades ago.

9. SURF’S UP (1971)
The album to play to anyone who still thinks of the Beach Boys as smiling choir boys who only sing about cars and surfing. Surf’s Up mixes off-centre psychedelic experimentation with environmentally-conscious lyrics to stunning effect, not least on Carl Wilson’s jaw-dropping Feel Flows and the achingly gorgeous ‘Til I Die.

10. HOLLAND (1973)
Arguably their last truly great album. Holland may well feature spoken poetry and moog solos, yet it is otherwise entirely free of the self-indulgent trappings that were prevalent in rock at the time. Instead, the Boys deliver one of the most mature and stylistically rich albums of their career – and, in The Trader, one of the finest songs of the decade.
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« Last Edit: May 21, 2016, 04:35:35 AM by Disney Boy (1985) » Logged
KDS
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« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2016, 09:02:32 AM »

Pretty close to my Top 10. 

Except, I'd swap out Smiley Smile for Surfer Girl.  But, to each their own. 

The Smile Sessions is kind of a different beast all together.  Since it's not really complete, and they used the template from the Brian Wilson solo Smile, I'm not sure if I'd put in on the list of BB LPS. 
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« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016, 09:04:33 AM »

Solid top 10!
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« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2016, 09:22:39 AM »

Hard to argue!

For me it's between All Summer Long and Summer Days, not necessarily for number 2, but for inclusion in top 10.
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« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2016, 09:28:30 AM »

Good list! The only one I'd include would be Summer Days. As scattershot as it is, less cohesive then others on the list (although 20/20 was basically a catch-all with some incredible tracks), Summer Days to me has the prime examples of what many think is the "Brian Wilson Sound", with all of the sonic trappings that any number of copycat bands and artists even to this day rely on when they try to do a track that sounds like Brian's classic studio sounds. It's easier with Summer Days sounds because the ensembles were smaller than Pet Sounds but still sounded big on tape (just like mid-60's Bacharach's productions), yet the instrumentation is more available and easier to mimic.
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« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2016, 10:04:41 AM »

Pretty much the list I'd have. Maybe, maybe Love You or Summer Days or Surfer Girl instead of All Summer Long, but probably not - oh, and Smile Sessions 1 instead of Smiley Smile, but then I might have to have Smiley Smile instead of All Summer Long...
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KDS
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« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2016, 10:06:33 AM »

I don't know how I forgot SDSN, but that one's in my top ten too.  I'd probably reluctantly knock Wild Honey out of my top 10 for SDSN. 

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« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2016, 10:16:48 AM »

Pretty close to mine, though I'd nix Surf's Up and 20/20 and add Love You and Summer Days.
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« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2016, 05:19:47 PM »

I would have included Summer Days. Good list, though, can't fault any of those picks. (I can hear the howls now: "where is Love You?")
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« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2016, 05:25:45 PM »

  Very good list.
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« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2016, 06:33:41 PM »

Agree with Summer Days. Disagree with Friends.
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« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2016, 12:41:55 AM »

Agree with Summer Days. Disagree with Friends.
I personally think side one of Friends is excellent; can't find fault with any of those songs, it just flows very nicely. Side two is weaker IMO. I know Diamond Head is seen by some as Brian tapping into his SMiLE mode again, but I find it just meanders aimlessly for far too long. And Transcendental Meditation is one of the worst tracks in their entire catalog. Summer Days is strong from start to finish.
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Disney Boy (1985)
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« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2016, 12:45:38 AM »

Thanks all. Just to clarify, it's not in order of preference, just order of release (bar Pet Sounds).

And yes, Summer Days is actually one of my very favourite BB records - sometimes I think I even prefer it to Today and All Summer Long - however, I was trying to give as varied a selection of albums as possible, and one that would give readers an idea of the band's work away from the 'fun in the sun' stereotype, so for that reason I stuck to just two pre-Pet Sounds albums. (Not a popular opinion I know, but my own personal favourite of the 'early' albums is actually Shut Down Vol 2 - the talk track and Louie, Louie aside, I think it's great!)

Also, re Love You - I do love it, and it actually came down to Holland, Love You and POB for the number 10 slot. In the end, I went with Holland because I just think it's a phenomenal record that any rock/pop fan can enjoy. Whereas Love You, I always suspect you kinda have to be clued-up on Brian's personal history to really get it, something that not everyone is.

Honestly, I spent far more time agonising over this list than is probably healthy (at one point, LA Light Album was even in it...)
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« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2016, 03:07:52 AM »

Good selection and some great succinct descriptions. Thanks for that, DB. :=) 
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Disney Boy (1985)
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« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2016, 04:25:51 AM »

I actually have a full Best to Worst list - or, in my opinion, Most Essential to Least Essential list - mapped out ready for if and when I'm called upon to write about the Beach Boys again. As it stands, it's in this order (I've done descriptions for them all, but only included certain descriptions here where I thought some explanation was warranted)...

5 STARS
1. Pet Sounds
2. Surf's Up
3. Today!
4. Smiley Smile
5. Sunflower
6. Summer Days...
7. The Smile Sessions
('The all-time great lost album, had Smile been completed back in the 1960s, it's likely it would be nestled comfortably at the top of this list. Sadly, it remains agonisingly unfinished, although there is still more than enough magic here to show that, had the album been released in 1967, it would have wiped the smile off the faces of the competition, Sgt Pepper included')
8. Friends
9. All Summer Long
10. Wild Honey
11. Holland
12. Pacific Ocean Blue
('Okay, so not an official Beach Boys album; however, drummer Dennis Wilson's solo album features enough contributions from his bandmates to warrant inclusion. Plus, there's the fact that it's a gnarled, hungover, heartbroken masterpiece that is easily one of the best albums of the 1970s and, in River Song, contains arguably the single greatest song of the decade, too')
FOUR STARS
13. 20/20
14. Love You
15. Surfer Girl
16. Shut Down Vol II
17. L.A. Light Album
THREE STARS
18. Carl & The Passions...
19. Surfin' USA
20. Little Deuce Coupe
21. Christmas Album
22. The Beach Boys
23. That's Why God Made The Radio
('This 2012 comeback album features some of Brian's finest songwriting in decades, particularly during the tremendous closing suite of ballads. Alas, the group's vocals are smothered in alienating auto-tune throughout the entire album, thus killing much of the positive vibe. If ever a band didn't need their vocals auto-tuned...')
24. Party!
TWO STARS
25. Surfin' Safari
26. 15 Big Ones
27. MIU Album
28. Keepin' The Summer Alive
ONE STAR
29. Still Cruisin'
30. Summer in Paradise

P.S. Yeah, no Star & Stripes Vol 1. What can I say, my OCD prevented me from doing a list of 31 albums. It had to be a nice round 30. Plus, it's crap Smiley
« Last Edit: May 22, 2016, 08:26:06 AM by Disney Boy (1985) » Logged
Disney Boy (1985)
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« Reply #15 on: May 21, 2016, 04:33:56 AM »

Would be very interested in seeing how other people would rank the albums differently, and why...
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