This ranking of the Beach Boys albums is better than most, imho

[Zenobi]

http://redirect.viglink.com/?key=71fe2139a887ad501313cd8cce3053c5&subId=6619793&u=https%3A//www.spin.com/2024/05/every-beach-boys-album-ranked/%3Futm_campaign%3Dlater-linkinbio-spinmag%26utm_content%3Dlater-43240038%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkin.bio%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3YHPHfQfnHtf4Z5PsZG70TCVCJ4PWbhzSI-vaY7eebokDDQ5ElDN0JtXQ_aem_AaYDptQVFviIygJ__NOGi7AXJFo01pCmItXKTCj-toOFEjgC1g4-_M6I-RzDiLWm_HgLt-8pmUkbk28p-v6H2elw

[Emdeeh]

Simpler URL for the Spin article above:

https://www.spin.com/2024/05/every-beach-boys-album-ranked/

[rab2591]

I agree with the general placement of things, but to put MIU ahead of TWGMTR and Little Deuce Coupe is a head-scratcher. Considering Little Deuce Coupe is one of their finest vocal/harmony offerings and TWGMTR has the incredible life-suite, they both beat anything MIU has to offer (and I actually like MIU quite a bit).

Also a head-scratcher is how SIP is not dead last in this thing. Stars & Stripes is bad (at least, it's really not good), and I don't think I've listened to it all the way through even once. But if Stars & Stripes is the "keyring version of an awe-inspiring sculpture sold in a gift shop", then SIP is the is the contents of the unflushed toilet in the gift shop bathroom. Give me Nelson's 'Warmth of the Sun' ANY day over Mike's tawdry "Doing unto others is the golden rule, But doing it with you would be so very cool" 'Summer of Love' lyrics

[Zenobi]

Agree on these, and also would have ranked Today higher.

[HeyJude]

I suspect they probably only put "Stars and Stripes" in there to get to a round number of 30. I really don't think of it as a proper "Beach Boys album", it's a tribute album.

I honestly listen to "Summer in Paradise" far more than I listen to "Stars and Stripes." SIP has a good EP or two of not-so-bad *songs*; it has just the most dire, dated production including the most annoying single snare sample of all time.

I think if they could truly peel back a few songs, especially the two we always mention, "Lahaina Aloha" and "Strange Things Happen", and dial it back to just vocals and maybe an acoustic guitar (and/or re-record the backings), a few tracks like those would stand with some of the best stuff they did in the 80s and 90s.

I think the list overall (wait, Spin is still a thing?) is pretty safe (not in a bad way); I guess I appreciate them not going the clickbait route and putting "Summer in Paradise" ahead of "Pet Sounds."

I bow to nobody in my love of "Smile", but I don't think I could ever rank an unfinished album #1 on a list.

As is usually the case with these lists, it's both fun and daunting to decide whether to do a "My favorite albums" versus "Best Albums" versus "Most Important Albums", etc.

I often find it difficult to even put the early stuff in the same lists with the late 70s and 80s/90s stuff. It's so different. And TWGMTR is even more of an anomaly. Like, I probably listen to "MIU Album" more than the first two albums, but is "Surfin' USA" more "important" maybe?

I think these lists struggle sometimes as well with the realization that, as boring as it might be, it's difficult to not put "Pet Sounds" at #1. To me, setting aside any context other than the songs themselves, it still is hard to beat because all the songs are truly great. It's probably the most consistent album in their catalog.

[Don Malcolm]

Let's take a look at what the board considers the top 10 albums (from the 2018 poll) with Will Ainsley's Top 10 on the other side of the slash line:

1. Pet Sounds/The SMiLE Sessions
2. Sunflower/Pet Sounds
3. The SMiLE Sessions/Sunflower
4. The Beach Boys Today!/The Beach Boys Love You
5. Wild Honey/Surf's Up
6. Friends/Smiley Smile
7. Surf's Up/Friends
8. The Beach Boys Love You/Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
9. Smiley Smile/Holland
10. Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)/Wild Honey
-----------------------------------------------------------
11. Holland/Carl & The Passions
12. 20-20/The Beach Boys Today!

So throw a net over the Top 3. Then the big difference on Today--the Board placed it 4th, Ainsley 12th. A lesser but still sizable split on Wild Honey: the Board has it #5, Ainsley #10.

Surf's Up, Smiley and Friends are almost as consensual as the Top3 in the 5-6-7 slots. Both the Board and Ainsley prefer SDSN to Holland. In the bubbling under the Top 10 (basically slots 11-12) Ainsley likes CATP, the Board goes with 20/20.

The last LP to draw a robust point total in the board voting is All Summer Long (#13). Ainsley's #13 is Shut Down Vol. 2, mainly on the strength of "Don't Worry Baby" and "The Warmth of the Sun."

Personally I'd take Holland over SDSN due to the overall range of quality tracks from the whole band (though "The Beaks of Eagles" is a bit tedious...) and SDSN has a lot of slight stuff on it behind the Big 3 (CG, Rhonda, Let Him Run Wild). That is a Big Big 3, however. But that's about the only change in the Board's consensus picks I would make, though I'd spend a little time on whether I might also reverse the order of Friends and Surf's Up.

So Ainsley doesn't deviate from our wisdom all that much...the biggest area of contention seems to be where he places Love You and Today.

[Zenobi]

The thing I like most in this ranking is the "courage" to put SMiLE at #1 though never released (at least not released by the Beach Boys). I also like the high placements of Love You and Smiley. The Beach Boys are great, but when they screw up the formula they are sublime. I wish they would have done that more often, and the same for Brian's solo output.

[juggler]

  I wouldn't have disagreed if they'd put Pet Sounds first, but I'm okay with putting Smile on top.  Even in its incomplete state, it's pretty obviously one of the strongest collections of songs ever assembled....

Our Prayer
Good Vibrations
H&V
Surf's Up
Wonderful
Wind Chimes
Vega-Tables
Cabin Essense
Mrs O'Leary's Cow

Seriously, just on the basis of the above, how many albums can top that?

The other bits such as Barnyard, Great Shape, TOMP/Sunshine, DaDa, Holidays, Look have a lot of brilliance too.

[Zenobi]

 I wouldn't have disagreed if they'd put Pet Sounds first, but I'm okay with putting Smile on top.  Even in its incomplete state, it's pretty obviously one of the strongest collections of songs ever assembled....

Our Prayer
Good Vibrations
H&V
Surf's Up
Wonderful
Wind Chimes
Vega-Tables
Cabin Essense
Mrs O'Leary's Cow

Seriously, just on the basis of the above, how many albums can top that?

The other bits such as Barnyard, Great Shape, TOMP/Sunshine, DaDa, Holidays, Look have a lot of brilliance too.

Not to mention DYLW and CITFOTM !

[juggler]

Not to mention DYLW and CITFOTM !

Those 2 have always bothered me a bit, as the tracking sessions seem every bit as inventive as Brian's typical efforts of the Pet Sounds/Smile era, yet the void of missing melodies is quite painful.  Brian's tracking session sing-songy "once upon the Sandwich Islands" hints at something quite different than what was done on BWPS, and Child? Who the heck knows.  VDP's 2004 "easy, my child" bits are okay but not on par with his vintage work.  The 1966 Hit Parader reference to CIFOTM as a "cowboy song" that Dennis (or was it Brian) gave a piano demo is an enigma.  Do you do a piano demo of just the chorus one of the *least* finished songs, or was there more to it that was forgotten/lost?  Was it supposed to be a Dennis song, and thus his salvaging of parts of the track for Little Bird? Again, who knows?     CIFOTM is very much "the one that got away."

[Zenobi]

Not to mention DYLW and CITFOTM !

Those 2 have always bothered me a bit, as the tracking sessions seem every bit as inventive as Brian's typical efforts of the Pet Sounds/Smile era, yet the void of missing melodies is quite painful.  Brian's tracking session sing-songy "once upon the Sandwich Islands" hints at something quite different than what was done on BWPS, and Child? Who the heck knows.  VDP's 2004 "easy, my child" bits are okay but not on par with his vintage work.  The 1966 Hit Parader reference to CIFOTM as a "cowboy song" that Dennis (or was it Brian) gave a piano demo is an enigma.  Do you do a piano demo of just the chorus one of the *least* finished songs, or was there more to it that was forgotten/lost?  Was it supposed to be a Dennis song, and thus his salvaging of parts of the track for Little Bird? Again, who knows?     CIFOTM is very much "the one that got away."

If you can stand the use of Artificial Intelligence, I'd refer you to the Dae Lims SMiLE. Particularly "Do You Like Worms", which makes a really brilliant use of that Brian sing-songy. I love the Dae Lims work because imho it really gives an idea of what a SMiLE 1967 could have been...

[Joel Goldenberg]

To say the only good track on Party is Barbara Ann is a mortal sin, as Devoted To You is a stunner.

[juggler]

If you can stand the use of Artificial Intelligence, I'd refer you to the Dae Lims SMiLE. Particularly "Do You Like Worms", which makes a really brilliant use of that Brian sing-songy. I love the Dae Lims work because imho it really gives an idea of what a SMiLE 1967 could have been...

That's a pretty nifty mix. Thanks for the heads up!

[Zenobi]

You're welcome!