Friends

[Charles LePage @ ComicList]

Discuss, review and rate Friends, released June 1968.

[dogbreath]

Gorgeous. A modest triumph. The TM song is, well, ironically discordant, but the rest is blissful. Replace TM with "I Went To Sleep" and you have the perfect summer album to cool out by/with/to. Four and a half stars, rounded up.

[APPLEI]

satisfying is the word that desribes FRIENDS
i believe it was released around the time bobby kennedy was killed

[the captain]

Friends generates a nice, pleasant "AAaaahahhhhhhhhh..." out of me every time. Not quite perfect -- you'd have had to include some things like Time to Get Alone, I Went To Sleep and maybe finished versions of something like Lonely Days for that. But it is wonderful, relaxed and subtle, high-quality music that is so understated it would be easy to not notice it. It was the third BB disc I purchased, and it's always been a favorite.

As an amusing aside, a friend of mine is working toward his doctorate in music composition at the local university, and he 1) doesn't even like the BBs, but loves this album, and 2) uses several of these tracks in his course on pop music, showing how good writers can use 3/4 time, showing how to write outside of a standard aaba form, etc. Last year he brought me in to guest lecture on the Beach Boys! (OK, that was completely out of the topic. Sorry.)

I love Friends. I'd give it a 4.65 if we could use fractions, but I will instead have to round up.

[Jason]

Flawed. Insane. Brilliant. 'Nuff said.

[I. Spaceman]

5. Completely genius in every way.

[Matinee Idyll]

Like "Pet Sounds", another that everyone hails as a triumph that doesn't connect with me much at all.

Could any album with "When a Man Loves a Woman" and "Be Still" on really be 'perfect'?

The gorgeous title track kicks the sh*t out of everything else, production-wise, and there are a few truly beautiful songs "Diamond Head, Little Bird, Passing By" and many that are just two minutes of... well, nothing.  Things with no emotional weight, things that just literally do absolutely nothing (Be Here in the Mornin', Transcendental Meditation, Anna Lee) for their duration.

2 1/2.   Sounds even more detatched to me than Smiley.

[SurferGirl7]

Sweet album. Very flowy. Doesn't get a lot of play from me but I like it. I find it nicely mellow. I find the TM track more funny then annoying.




3 1/2 - 4 stars 

[Jason]

You have it on vinyl, I'm jealous!

[I. Spaceman]

It's pretty easy to find the Brother vinyl twofer. That's the one to grab, the quality is streets beyond the Capitol. Same for ALL the Capitol LP's, from PS on.

[SurferGirl7]

Yeah that's how I got Friends with Smiley Smile. There is always ebay too 

[monkee knutz]

Oh... Friends! I though it said Fiends?!

[Aegir]

My favorite Beach Boys album, and the least favorite of anyone that's been in the room/car when I've been listening to it.

The vocals are amazing, the lyrics are peaceful, and the entire album gives me a nice, soothing feeling... until Transcendental Meditation, a rocking tune that sends you back to the real world.

[analogdemon]

Absolutely gorgeous.  Someone once said that if there was ever an album to base a religion on, Friends would be it.  I agree wholeheartedly.  This album has so much great chillout music and the human element in so many of the songs totally seal the deal.  Two huge greasy thumbs up.  A shameless 5!

[the captain]

Someone once said that if there was ever an album to base a religion on, [blank] would be it. 

This would be a cool thread in the General Music Discussion section.

[I. Spaceman]

Do it.

[the captain]

You.

[I. Spaceman]

OK.

[Chris D.]

Like "Pet Sounds", another that everyone hails as a triumph that doesn't connect with me much at all.

Could any album with "When a Man Loves a Woman" and "Be Still" on really be 'perfect'?

f*** yeah.  If I could, I'd hump it.

[Susan]

Like "Pet Sounds", another that everyone hails as a triumph that doesn't connect with me much at all.

Could any album with "When a Man Loves a Woman" and "Be Still" on really be 'perfect'?

foda yeah.  If I could, I'd hump it.

Me, too.  LOVE this album....it's got a gentle vibe that isn't duplicated anywhere else in the BB ouvre. 

[RONDEMON]

Friends is a favorite of mine, but add on Time to Get Alone, Were Together Again, and I Went to Sleep and it's a 5 star album.  Considering those would have perfectly fit in with the other slow waltzs and they were written and probably recorded the same time as the other tracks. 

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Friends is a favorite of mine, but add on Time to Get Alone, Were Together Again, and I Went to Sleep and it's a 5 star album.  Considering those would have perfectly fit in with the other slow waltzs and they were written and probably recorded the same time as the other tracks. 

Lot's of people call out TM as the "off" track for Friends. When I first heard the album I thought it was a great track and had a cool drum sound.

I can't imagine the album closing with "I Went To Sleep" it'd be almost too calm and serene, I think it needs that jolt at the end with the TM song.

[Mitchell]

I absolutely love Transcendental Meditation. The saxes are awesome, the feel is jazzy and really unique to the Beach Boys, and Brian's singing is really cool and 'out there'.

[NC]

I give it a 3. Very average for me. I tend to rate the album based on the strength of the songs, and there are a lack of classics on this one as far as I see it. A lot of the songs seem to just meander along without really going anywhere. Never been a big fan of "Busy Doin' Nothing". I guess if you can get into the whole "laid back" feel it could be more enjoyable.

That being said, there are tunes on the album I really like. Mainly the title song, "Little Bird", and I LOVE Transcendental Meditation.

[Compost]

I'd have babies with this album if I could.

5