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difficult to pick one

but I'd put 'Beach Boys Today!' and 'Sunflower' as the next best two.

And 'SMiLE' if you count that as a kind of beach boys release.

John_K | 30 Mar '08, 17:55 | Send note | Report this | Reply

surfs up

has the bleakest album cover of all time too I dont know what they were thinking

ThingsThatFly | 30 Mar '08, 17:56 | Send note | Report this | Reply

the fact that Surf's Up

is sold as a twofer with Sunflower, makes that a pretty great Beach Boys cd to get.

Surf's Up would be a whole lot better if it didn't have student demonstration time on it.

John_K | 30 Mar '08, 18:04 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Surf's Up contains some of their best stuff, you can really hear where Super Furry Animals got a lot of their sound from, but it also contains their 2 worst songs by a mile (Disney Girls and Student Demonstration Time) so can't be counted as a perfect album.

remittanceman | 30 Mar '08, 18:03 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Don't say things like that!

Disney Girls is great.

EustaceHPlimsoll | 31 Mar '08, 09:35 | Send note | Report this | Reply

i've grown to dislike Pet Sounds

For the climate at the time it's a remarkably conservative affair. "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"? Everyone else was out getting laid and fucking shit up and dear old Brian wanted nights in with his mum. It's got its moments, obviously - it is the Beach Boys - but when you consider what was going on in '66 it seems like a frightened response to things they didn't understand.

Removed from all of that it's better and the legacy will always remain, and I'd much rather a record actually have something like this within that can lead to thought and debate, but I can't hear the record now without comparing it to contemporary music.

ideserve2 | 30 Mar '08, 18:16 | Send note | Report this | Reply

If you want to hear

The Beach boys 'fucking shit up' (and eating vegetables) try 'Smiley Smile'. That's what happens when a band who enjoy wearing jumpers, and cuddling up with their moms, drop acid.

there_is_no_proof | 30 Mar '08, 18:24 | Send note | Report this | Reply

disagree with that

i'd say there was a lot of drug taking and partying going on amongst the beach boys at that point. The sentiment of 'i wasn't made for these times' is more to do with brian wilson's creativity and need to innovate and push the boundries musically being stifled by those around him and his own paranoia.

At that point, with Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations, and the smile sessions, the Beach Boys were pretty much leading the way musically.

John_K | 30 Mar '08, 18:24 | Send note | Report this | Reply

i'm aware of their drug taking etc.

but i think lyrically (at least the Brian Wilson songs) they reveal a lot of discomfort with everything that was going on.

i'm not sure i see Brian Wilson as 'avantgarde'... by 1966 the Beach Boys sound was remarkably traditional if you look at what was happening within jazz and rock music had taken on yet more of the youth rebellion aspect that'd been present since the 50s. The Beach Boys didn't have any of that.

I like the Beach Boys, but most of my preferred stuff isn't the Brian-dominant work...

ideserve2 | 30 Mar '08, 18:33 | Send note | Report this | Reply

none of us were there at the time

but it goes without saying that everyone's experiences in the music scene of the 1960's would have been different. It doesn't have to be one collective zeitgeist of partying and drug taking. Some people (like brian wilson) wouldn't have been suited to that, and any discomfort expressed on Pet Sounds is just as relevant to the times as say, Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix.

Also, if you listen to the bootleg tapes available of the Smile sessions, there's some pretty avantgarde stuff going on. But the label and people around brian shelved it (as well as his own personal problems).

John_K | 30 Mar '08, 18:41 | Send note | Report this | Reply

tbh i've not heard any of the Smile tapes

and i've not listened to any other Beach Boys stuff in so long i'm having trouble remembering it; you'll have to bear with me because i'm mostly trying to provoke some debate.

i'm not one to defend hippies and baby boomers and their horrible self-indulgence; but there's something rather wussy about Brian Wilson's attitude to the 60s and his opting out of all of that shit when he could've confronted that whole scene head on, especially when you consider the kind of people on the periphery of the Beach Boys and their social circles. Rather than becoming a critic of it, the lyrics and style of Pet Sounds now seem to me like a man retreating into the past rather than facing up to the future.

ideserve2 | 30 Mar '08, 18:50 | Send note | Report this | Reply

that's, for want of a better word, bullshit

The entire album is remarkably forward thinking. Yeah the majority of the lyrical content is about love, and things going on at the side of love, but it comes at it completely from leftfield. It is the first great concept album.

Brian Wilson didnt write the lyrics. He brought in a gentleman by the name of Tony Asher, an advertising jingle man to pitch his ideas at. He would then write the lyrics and go through with Brian and edit them to the music. This sounds awful - but in fact is the most inspired decisions ever made in rock music. This young guy Tony Asher, knew how to look at things differently. It was his job. Therefore we get a song like That's Not Me - a kid moves away from home to the big city to prove something to himself, but realises in fact what matters to him is finding and being with the right girl. He's in the big city and totally alone, and he just knows it isnt who he is.

Then there's the instrumentals. And the music itself. Awe-inspiringly complex and yet seems so simple. A complete rethink of everything that had happened up to that point.

And your argument is that Brian Wilson is a bit sentimental, and was out partying it up fucking loads of girls and enjoying being a rock star in the 60s.

Nice work

i_compromise | 30 Mar '08, 19:41 | Send note | Report this | Reply

* wasnt out partying

i_compromise | 30 Mar '08, 19:41 | Send note | Report this | Reply

=)

Your main complaint of the Beach Boys seems to be this idea that they didn't encapsulate the 60s enough for you. For me, Pet Sounds is timeless and I'm so glad they steered clear of too many overt 60s-isms. If Wilson had adhered to the rigid western pop characteristics of their contempories and the same lyrical themes they wouldn't have nearly the impact they do when I listen to them. You say Wilson is retreating, and err, yeah I guess he is; the chord modulations and complex arrangement borrows more from classical music then any of the other bands we associate with that time.

Darlin' is probably my favourite Beach Boys song. This changes all too often though.

albear | 30 Mar '08, 20:05 | Send note | Report this | Reply

forward thinking?

the main theme appears to be that Brian Wilson (and this record is all Brian, ultimately; he had the final say on everything) is uncomfortable with aging and becoming an adult, and would rather look back to the comfort of childhood. The songs contain no attempts to understand or challenge this new world, more a cowardly desire to curl up and hide from it all. There's no fight to it, and this at a time in American history when fighting for rights and beliefs was at the forefront.

The negativity of the lyrical content is rather striking in terms of the general sound of the record and the style, but the simpering nature of it all doesn't make it an enjoyable listen.

don't bring the instrumentation into this, that's obviously brilliant and i'm not disputing that at all. this is hardly black and white, is it? i'm trying to stimulate some debate as to the content of the album. this isn't a personal dig at you and your beliefs, as much as you seem to want it to be.

ideserve2 | 30 Mar '08, 20:14 | Send note | Report this | Reply

i dont think i said it was, merely your words are bullshit to my ears

unlike those of Tony Asher (and Brian Wilson's final say)

i_compromise | 30 Mar '08, 21:04 | Send note | Report this | Reply

If there's much truth to the huge essay on Wilson in The Dark Stuff

then it's clear why he wrote along the themes he did. He sounds pretty much impossible as a person.

TheoGB | 31 Mar '08, 11:25 | Send note | Report this | Reply

yeah

it's all very understandable. i'm being contrary for the most part because i like getting people to debate these things.

i do think it's a great record and any record that can inspire a decent amount of thought/debate is worthwhile certainly. there aren't many pop albums you'd be able to discuss like this.

ideserve2 | 31 Mar '08, 11:50 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I've actually never heard it.

Or not sat and listened to it, anyway.

TheoGB | 31 Mar '08, 13:02 | Send note | Report this | Reply

i'd go

for sunflower/surfs up next, then so tough/holland or smiley smile/wild honey. trouble with the beach boys is that some amazing stuff is spread right through all their albums.....with quite a lot of guff too..... if not get the good vibrations boxset, it's a great round up (if not digitally remastered)

withdean1 | 30 Mar '08, 18:36 | Send note | Report this | Reply

IJWMFTT

is about feeling too far ahead of everyone, not behind. Brian Wilson is a guy who essentially destroyed himself in a effort to transcend and push on from what was around him. if you want to hear retreat and fear, it's so obviously there in the post-Smile work ('Friends' is probably the biggest example of music as comfort food) that to pick out Pet Sounds beggars belief.

Zoo1 | 31 Mar '08, 12:33 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I like

Summer Days & Summer Nights for awesome naive pop stuff like Help Me Rhonda, Then I Kissed her and Girl Don't Tell Me (clearly the best song ever...)

and Surf's Up for woozy weirdness like Long Promised Road and Feel Flows... But NOT Student Demo Time :(

stanstubbs | 30 Mar '08, 19:06 | Send note | Report this | Reply

The best album is called Love You

Its effectively a Brian Wilson solo album. Its pretty rough and has a farting synth bass althrough it but its an amazing album full of Brian Wilson moments of genius.

Howevere there is an even better album called American Spring by American Spring its Brian and his wife at the time Marilyn and her sister Diana, try and find a copy of this it really is amazing.

All these othe albums are great:
Today
Smiley Smile
Wild Honey
Friends
20/20
Sunflower
Holland

Also
Pacific Ocean Blue - Dennis Wilson

ElasticMan | 30 Mar '08, 20:28 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I don't think Pet Sounds is all that, at all.

I was led to believe it was up there with all of those ultra music defining albums made in the 60s (Revolver, Doors, Piper At The Gates..., Highway 61, etc.) but I was ultimately underwhelmed.

That's not to say I don't like them. In fact I'd say they were one of my favourite bands. They make me happy like no other band. But I'm worried that if that album apparently stands high above the others, then the others won't be much cop at all.

I think the rest of the American stuff at that time was streets ahead of Pet Sounds. 'Parsley Sage...' by Simon & Garfunkel, 'Younger Than Yesterday' by The Byrds, and obviously what Dylan was doing.

wrightylew | 30 Mar '08, 20:42 | Send note | Report this | Reply

hype's always a dangerous thing

before hearing an album. But as has been said, it's best not to think of Pet Sounds as a 60's album, with all the perceptions and expectations that come with it. It's just great timeless music that could exist anywhere.

And even if Pet Sounds isn't your thing, all of the other albums mentioned above are well worth checking out, all good in their own ways. As are the solo albums - Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson, and SMiLE by Brian Wilson. Plenty of great music all round really.

John_K | 30 Mar '08, 21:08 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Wild Honey

Is the one for me. Nice, back to R&B basics. Plus the Beach Boys Party album is pretty cool.

Albert_Swearengen | 31 Mar '08, 10:16 | Send note | Report this | Reply

hmmmm

there are some diverse opinions on here, i am just glad that one of my friends got heavily into the beach boys and that i got to listen to the stuff beyond what you pick up from tv and radio, they really did some great stuff and its all there for music lovers to enjoy.

there is a song called 'busy doing nothin' on the friends record, it encapsulates brian wilson, tender, fragile, lost. it also has sublime chord structures and melodies. the guy was capable of fine pop music which also sounded like it came over from another planet.

there are loads of great songs across their catalogue, dennis wilson did some top stuff later on - im still waiting for pacific ocean blue to come out on cd...

a_ghost_is_bored | 31 Mar '08, 10:55 | Send note | Report this | Reply

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