Reviews (page 6 of 9)
This album was a playful one and I can appreciate an artist in their fifth decade of music still having that kind of energy. But at the end of the day, there doesn't appear to be enough new sounds or anything really interesting that grabs your attention too much. 3.5 stars, but rounding down to 3.
what was the quote? something to the effect of "brian wilson can do with four tracks what other produces fail to do with sixteen."
Ultimately this is Brian Wilson trying to reconvene and recover a lost album, and while there’s great music and concepts, it all mushes together after the first 1/3 of the album. It’s not that I wouldn’t listen to it again, but it clearly takes some dedicated time to enjoy each song as it is and also find the common threads. Unfortunately it’s just not there for me now, but at least there’s some killer tunes.
Bra musiker men jag skulle inte lyssna på det igen.
I miss him so much
Brian suffered so you could listen to Good Vibrations in a Long John Silvers bathroom
I love Brian Wilson’s producing style and he does a lot of interesting things. However it’s a mid-3 from me, based on how much I liked listening to it. There are interesting components but it’s not interesting over all to just listen to. At risk of sounding pretentious, this would be a fun album to listen to someone who’s knowledgeable in music theory to dissect.
It was odd. I'd like to know why the author chooses the specific albums he does. Some of these are just odd choices for, presumably, the best 1001 albums or most influential or whatever the reason is.
Is Brian Wilson ok? This album sounds like it was written by his child. Lots of strange sounds from slide whistles and questionable lyrics about vegetables.
A big surprise from me. I didn't think I was going to like this but it was a great time. Good wholesome fun the whole way through.
Dryer than cardboard. At least I can use cardboard for something practical.
This is a disjointed collection of song ideas. If you enjoyed the sparse musicals combined with barbershop quartet vocals the Beach Boys were known for you can perhaps stomach this. But I never understood the appeal and am thus having a hard time finding things to love. As I listened I was wondering how long this thing went on for... The answer is too long.
In some ways, Smile doesn't exist. That is to say, the Smile that Brian Wilson originally intended to make. This is, instead, Brian's attempt to construct an album out of what he'd already got. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, because it's great. The Wondermints do a great job in being The Beach Boys without being them, and Brian's voice keeps up decently. (And in some ways, his weakened voice actually adds to it). Not everything fits perfectly (the first suite is uneven, and the third suite doesn't actually seem to have a through-line, but I'm just happy it's here, and the second suite is easily the best bit. Tangent: the moment in Heroes and Villains where Brian sings by himself always makes the hairs on my arms stand up. I'm glad he was able to find peace. Favourite Section: Surfs Up Least Favourite: Roll Plymouth Rock Strong Bad Demerit Count: 5
Convenient this one popped up the day after Brian Wilson died. Ok album.
Nisam imala pojma za ovo! Moram priznati kad sam pročitala da sam očekivala puno više. Neke stvari su mi čak kul, ali overall bih rekla underwhelming. 2/5, 4/10
Boring.
What a strange album but I definitely didn’t hate it. I definitely appreciate the writing because I have no idea how any of these ideas would have came up. And a song all about vegetables? Made me laugh.
Fun, but once is enough
Not bad, I really liked the song Heroes and Villains.
Bit too long, a couple of nice songs and the rest unremarkable. RIP though
Wait.. What? This is .. I can't even. 5 stars
I wasn't in the right mood for this album when it came into the rotation. This is like what I imagine listening to Pet Sounds while on an LSD trip would sound like. There are a lot of really interesting sounds and moments on this album. I'm going with 4 stars because if I'd been in a better headspace for it, I would have absolutely loved this album.
#Rally Review - Day 5# Sorry to hear you carked it, mate. Not to state the obvious, but this is extremely reminiscent of Pet Sounds - but that's not necessarily a good thing here. A lot of the soul of this thing feels lost to the past. The production on this thing was really good though. The mixing was spot on, but the real high vocals did pierce my eardrums a bit, similarly to Bob Dylan's soul screeching harmonica. I just think this one was a bit boring, and fuck me did it drag. Jamie: Really not sure when in my life I'll be putting that back on.
Well, I'm sure quite a few people will be visiting this one today. It certainly lives up to the name in terms of the upbeat nature and tone which permeates through each track. If that goofy picture of the dog with the propellor hat and lollipop had a spotify playlist, you could guarantee a good chunk of this album would be there. Where I have problems as a listener is more or less the same that I had with Pet Sounds, I can recognize the production talent on display but can't say it gels with me stylistically. RIP Brian Wilson, I may not find a lot of your tracks to be something I could listen to regularly, but to downplay the joy you have brought to others and the influence your talents had on the music industry would be impossible.
I enjoy this weird old cunt (former, RIP) on his own way more than with the beach boys. Enjoyable easy listening album that just sorta sounds like he’s happy to be there.
Feels like a greatest hits beach boys album that's missing 90% of their best songs Still some great tracks on here though. RIP 7/10
It would be very easy to judge this album through the lens of what it would have been if it came out following Pet Sounds. It would be an easy 5 in that case, the musical equivalent of Klaatu landing on Earth. Judging it like a normal person: I enjoyed this album a lot. I'm also not going to let the wild history of this album and Brian Wilson's personal life cloud my judgement, but seriously it's a great story go read about it or at least watch Love and Mercy. Unfortunately for me, it does feel like this album exists in the shadow of both the Beach Boys and the potential of what Smile could have been if it had been finished forty years prior. Surf's Up and Good Vibrations are great songs but their addition here serves as a reminder of this fact. It also helps to illustrate that this feels like a recreation to me, like a lost language that was reconstituted by a team of linguists thousands of years after the fact. Weird feelings aside, this is still phenomenal. Of the three movements that the album is divided into, the first is my favourite and while the third is very novel it falls flat compared to the first two. This album can feel like a weird circus act at times and I love it for that reason, but it can be a bit much at times. This is a pleasant, joyous album that genuinely gets me grinning and happy listening to it but it's just not quite a 5. Fun fact: when asked, Brian Wilson said his favourite movie is Norbit. Highlights: Heroes and Villains, Child Is Father of the Man, Surf's Up, Good Vibrations
Heroes and Villains was great. The rest was very pleasant. Interesting to hear the history of the album! Look forward to listening to some Beach Boys albums when they inevitably come up here!
absolute masterpiece made by a genius. more than 30 years in the making. rest in peace. 8/10 fav songs : Heroes and Villains & Surf's Up
I found this boring. We had to wait 30 years for this...
I suspect the random generator isn't so random. RIP Brian Wilson and your experimental odd harmonies.
Some of this is standard Beach Boys, and some of it is pretty experimental. Good Vibrations stands out as being very well developed and richer; the others sound lighter and more whimsical, mostly xylophone and vocal harmonization. Sometimes a kids show or singalong (Vega-Tables, On A Holiday), some a soundtrack for a travel advert (In Blue Hawaii), This album doesn't want to be a big thing, just a bit of occasional whimsy to match its title.
I know he's a musical genius and I appreciate his career and contributions, but this isn't something I would ever listen to.
The man just passed yesterday, I don’t want to be too harsh so I’ll just say this: Some of the Beach Boys stuff is fun, but this is not really my favorite style of music.
Let's just admit that Brian Wilson isn't an actual genius. He's a gifted musician with an ear for catchy songs. However, this particular unfinished album should have stayed in the vault and not seen the light of day. It's overstuffed with flourishes and isn't coherent in anyway. It's more of the Pet Sounds feel and it suffers from the same overworked, overproduced "genius" of Brian Wilson. It's not good, it's not entertaining.
Oddly auspicious to get this album the day after BW dies. I don't really care for this record, I understand there is history behind this album and all but I really couldn't get into it.
Only smiling i did was when this was over
Yes, brilliant!
Some great tracks and a very distinctive sound. Brian Wilson was certainly one of a kind
I can see why this has an overall average rating of 3 as it’s going to polarise opinions. Personally I can’t decide if I like or not but it grew on me after a couple of listens. Ok so some tracks are just a bit too out there but plenty to enjoy. I also feel like the list giving us this the day after Brian’s passing is enough to tug on the heartstrings and that’s enough to bump it up from 3.5 to 4 stars today.
RIP Brian Wilson🥲 An odd album of snippets of good parts of tracks that are clearly not fully formed. It makes it a very fragmented effort that jumps about all over the place. Dragged on and partly redeemed by good vibrations.
This album is like some ultra manicured stately home garden where everything is so perfectly in place, including the striped lawn. It’s impeccably written, recorded and produced. Packed with perfect harmonies, interesting fills, and bits of whimsy. It feels more like a piece of art than an album in the normal sense. But like that garden, it also seems very fragile and not quite real, touch something and it will break. So while it’s extremely nice and pleasant to listen to, it’s hard to feel that you belong to it; like a stranger visiting someone else’s dream.
Without trying to disrespect the recently dead, this is not my thing. Literally sounds like circus music to me. Even as a single album I'd dislike this. As a double it is infuriating, and I HATE it.
For a heroes and villains MEGAFAN, this was really, really cool to listen to. I do think it should be optional listening for us BBheads rather than mandatory, but I didn't make the list
Cool grouping of tunes that play like the soundtrack of a pleasant day at a seashore; nay a beach. Much like Pet Sounds, this feels transparently dream-state in nature. Is that too obtuse of an analysis? Probably.
Presumably not a coincidence to get this the day after he died, but can't give this a sympathy rating. Some of these tracks were just kind of annoying and his singing is just not my favorite
Prefer smiley smile, which has a lot of overlap. this was pretty long
I feel like I'm being gaslit that Brian Wilson is actually a genius because I thought that this was fine
Gotta be honest, this was a tough listen. I appreciate his process (watched the "Beautiful Dreamer" doc on the making of this album), but these are sonically not enjoyable. I feel like his reputation of "musical genius" preceeds him and excuses his weird arrangements and music as good. I think how the Paul and John were able to reign in each other's songwriting to make each other better. I wish Brian was able to take feedback and work with a more pop-oriented co-songwriter in his later stages. I think he needed to be reigned in. In other words, if Mike Love wasn't such a douche, and Brian wasn't so crazy, just imagine what they could have done with this material. see the only enjoyable song on this album: "Good Vibrations" , which was much better performed by the beach boys in the 60s.
This album also drove me crazy!
Sometimes beautiful, but sad in a lot of ways
Brian Wilson may be a musical genius. But I just find this awful.
I sincerely don’t get it.
Heroes and Villains, Cabin Essence, Surfs Up, Good Vibrations.
His music is always pretty and ridiculously well produced.
I think I liked that guy’s review about how this is like a museum Art piece more than I like this album, but the man’s producer skills are undeniable.
Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys for me have a unique style that always sits close to my heart. They are the canon of surfer pop, that started many niche genres within all sorts of categories, pop, rock, punk, etc. But surf, in itself has a kind of California innocence, a kind of promise of adventure (and often love) that is not yet realized. Maybe I am overstating it, or nostalgic, IDK. But ever since I was a little kid I liked the groove. Still do.
This is probably not a coincidence that this posts the day after he dies. The project he worked on for a large portion of his life and it's really great. Maybe not in need of the tweaking and dedication he put on it, but from beginning to end it's a really good listen and always surprising and interesting.
Listening to this album is bitter sweet. Brian desperately wanted to complete this album back in the 60s as a follow up to the classic Pet Sounds but for various reasons it was never finished. The stress of this probably contributed to his problems with his mental health and the eventual breakup of the Beach Boys. He was finally able to lay this to rest in 2004 with a live performance and accompanying album but you can’t help wondering how things might have panned out if everything had gone to plan back in 1967. Rest in Peace Brian.
It sounds like two things: The Beach Boys from the sixties, even though it was recorded in '04, and a musical or something. The result feels like a bad acid trip.
Interesting
I listened to this the day after his death. It's a shame, then, that I don't "get" it, even today. I understand that he's truly revered in musical history, and still important to lots of people. I hope that returning to this music was a good experience for him. But. With the exception of a handful of tracks that I really enjoy (eg God Only Knows) his music usually either annoys me (all that quirkiness and stopping and starting!), or sends me to sleep. Simultaneously, in some cases. Sorry.
I’ve realised that songs that stop abruptly, change tempo/genre and have novelty background sound effects irritate the living hell out of me so it’s a lost star for the necessary track skipping.
It is genuinely a miracle this thing exists. I wish it existed as he initially intended, but this is a pretty impressive simulacrum.
Interesting revisit of an abandoned album…. with good results!
this album almost broke my brain. almost. won't be able to listen again tho.
Gorgeous album
- war auch ganz moody, aber etwas zu lang für meinen Geschmack / mittig deutlich schwächer, als am Start u. am Ende
Brian Wilson’s (beach boys) life and talent is often likened to Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd). Musical geniuses plagued by mental health issues that eventually forced them out of their respective bands. That said, the surf sound, falsetto harmonies created by Brian just annoy me!
I hope there are lots of slide whistles, unnecessary banjos, crazy layered harmonies, songs with way too many sections and psychedelic circus tunes for you in the after life Brian! Vale! (not-so-random generator today!)
Of its time. Overdue, overrated and probably should have been left unfinished.
Ok, sorry that he died, but the guy was a bit of a knob and he had the most annoying voice.
I don’t get why everyone thinks Brian Wilson is such a genius. I figured this was a movie score or something until I read up on it. Good vibrations saved it a little but I wasn’t a fan.
4.0 The "randomizer" strikes again. Got this album the day after Brian Wilson died. Ive sat on this review for a few days now as I wanted to give the album a couple more listens and I am starting to dig it more and more. Avant-garde with pop sensibilities. Equal parts mainstream and madman. Heros and Villains is a burner. The Dewy Cox parody in Walk Hard is hilarious, Baaaa with some urgency
Very lavishly produced with incredible instrumentation. Cellos, organs, harpsichords, all the bells and whistles (literally!). Listening to this album is like an auditory carnival. Nearly a 5* album, but is really missing some memorable hooks.
A couple of great songs balanced out by some not great ones, but the scales were tipped into better than average.
I am sure this came up because Brian Wilson just passed away. RIP. The music is quality, but the Beach Boys sound has never doe it for me and this was no exception.
Brian Wilson is a musical magician. He's able to conjure up emotions through music. His harmonies are always so intricate and tight. They're really a joy to listen to. This album also feels like a culmination of his musical career. It's an album worth listening to without break from beginning to end multiple times. Rest in peace, Brian Favorite Song(s): Cabin Essence, Good Vibrations
Ten eerste; RIP, blijkbaar is deze man gisteren overleden. Luguber wel. Ik ken nummers als Good Vibrations enzo wel, maar moet verder bekennen dat ik niet super bekend ben met het werk van de Beach Boys. En wat ik weet van de Beach Boys is dat het een beetje surfy rock is. Lekker chill om te luisteren. Dit is veel experimenteler, veel meer in de folk hoek. Nummers lopen in elkaar over, er zit ontzettend veel meerstemmige zang in, de instrumenten zijn interessant maar ook heel erg vreemd..? Ik heb hiervoor wat gelezen over hoe dit album tot stand is gekomen en daarin stond dat de beste man zichzelf opsloot met een giga hoeveelheid LSD om het album te maken. Dat geloof ik METEEN. Dit hele album bestaat niet echt uit nummers, het is 1 grote in elkaar overlopende brei aan muziek. Zeg maar, zo'n lekkere typische LSD plaat, waarin je overtuigd bent dat ALLES connected is en je de sleutel tot het universum hebt gevonden. Een FAVO hieruit lichten is ook ontzettend moeilijk en ik denk ook niet echt te doen. Ik weet niet man. Dit album voelt alsof iemand ALLE IDEEËN OOIT in 1 album heeft willen proppen. Nummers voelen niet af, productie is bij tijd echt slordig en het is nou niet zo dat Brian een lyricaal genie is of een heerlijke zangstem heeft. Ik vind het album heel vet, omdat het een soort van mythisch album is, maar dit voelt alsof Half-Life 3 nu uit zou komen en dan een voetbalsimulator, racesimulator, shooter, zowel 1st and 3rd person is en dan ook nog eens een volledig turn based combat stuk zou hebben. Terwijl de art style elke 10 minuten volledig anders is. Het is te veel, het is te experimenteel, voor mij althans. En ik vind dit gewoon niet heel goed. Daar kan zelfs het ontzettend domme, maar toch ook een beetje grappige, Vega-tables niets aan veranderen. Sorry Brian, nogmaals RIP.
Filed under Tedious
The legendary Smiley Smile, finally completed in 2004 was a big deal back then. After reading many accounts regarding its rather unconventional approaches to recording an album I was not surprised it was abandoned. Not to mention Brian Wilson's legendary trip to the cinema to see what is regarded a cult classic 'Seconds', appeared to be the final nail in its coffin. I'm so glad he revisited it to finish this psychedelic masterpiece. Seriously odd in places, wondrous harmonies and melodies, as well as the use of some peculiar instruments. A 5 star all day long.
i really enjoyed this, even if it was strange to hear him singer at a deeper, raspier timbre. time comes for us all. rest in peace, brian <3
idk what to tell you man, this slapped. rip brian, you were one of a kind. i hope you're in heaven doing the same shit you would be doing on earth (listening to shortnin bread on an endless loop) favorites: our prayer/gee, heroes and villains, roll plymouth rock, barnyard, old master painter/you are my sunshine, surf's up, wind chimes, in blue hawaii, good vibrations
i have no clue wtf that was but i think i liked it
Well it has Good Vibrations, I guess. Otherwise it sounds like the disheveled ramblings of a very troubled guy with a lot of talent and studio time. RIP Brian Best song: Good Vibrations
What a strange album. This apparently supposed to be the follow up album to Pet Sounds in '67, but was then re-recorded and released by Brian in 2004? It also features 'Good Vibrations', which I remember being a Beach Boys song, not Brian Wilson specific... though I'm sure he wrote it. Anyways, to the music. This sounds like a straight up Beach Boys album to me mostly, which is not surprising given Brian seemed to be one of the main songwriters. You lack some of the choir voices usually heard on Beach Boys, but otherwise this is pretty bang Beach Boys on for me. I usually associate Beach Boys music with being cheerful, a bit up-tempo, experimental, and a bit quirky and nerdy somehow. This record has most of that as well, but adds some darker soundscapes in some songs at the of the album in 'Wind Chimes', 'Mrs. O'Leary's Cow', and 'Blue Hawaii', which I would never have expected from Beach Boys, so that might be where Brian puts some of his own identity stamp in. Beach Boys have never been my favourite band really. I always feel like they're on the border of sounding a bit too much like a Tom & Jerry's main theme, and that sound is still very present here. The overall experience was decent, but I had trouble finding songs that stood out that I liked.
Sound like Beach boys. Not much to say except R.I.P Brian Wilson. It's a good album with a lot of interesting songs and well worth a listen. Nice that it finally got released though I get why the other Beach Boys were pissed. Very much a nice vibe album. Weak 4.
+1 for recent death
It was quite a bit better than I was expecting. RIP!
Really great stuff
Very good and very interesting album. RIP!
Hints of excellence in a sea of self indulgent garbage. Brian Wilson's head was simultaneously in the clouds and deep up his own ass.
This is historically significant as the album of Smile as Brian Wilson intended. He was such an influence to rock music that it’s hard to overstate. The arrangements are very lush and beautiful.
Pleasant enough to work to
Why is this on this list?
Great!
One of the few times in history that what if gets answered. Great tracklist, great band, great songs. Brian’s voice (who had died at 83 the day before our group got this pick) shows wear making the whole proceedings more charming than it otherwise would be. Only thing missing are The Beach Boys harmonies.
RIP
Nice summer time vibe with some classics thrown in
It's good, but it doesn't really speak to me.
Brian Wilson smile- truly one of a kind as a composer. I love the vocal harmonies. I don’t really get the lyrical themes but they are definetely the best songs about vegetables and barnyard animals ever written. Oh my god, Mrs O Leary cow is wild ride. also really cool album in headphones
Undeniable genius and such an epic piece of music. Totally brilliant but i am not eager to listen to it again.
It must be terrible to be in his mind lol. I love Heros and Villans and Mrs. O'Leary's Cow.
I was first encouraged to listen to this in 2004 and I was curious to see how my engagement had evolved since then: turns out, not much. I have the same reservations and appreciations. Flashes of brilliance and confusion. I can't separate the showtune bedrock, insightful critique of American history, the pop sensibilities of heyday Beach Boys, classical references, operatic drama, mature wonderment, and pop Freudianism into the appropriate boxes. I can see how it has become mythic for some, but don't share the acolytes' wonderment.
This is apposite in light of his death this week. Are we due for a Sly Stone offering now as well? This feels like a grower but following a terrible international news week and a head that can barely carry a thought, I just can’t bring myself to smile.
Despite many (many) pundits and fans and Scott professing the genius of Brian Wilson, I've never been able to understand what it is that evokes the superlatives and insistence that he's the all-time greatest (or at least one of the all-time greats). And I don't mean to be dismissive — the arrangements are one-of-a-kind, the harmonies are distinctive, he's been massively influential, there's a lot to praise. It's the material, mostly, that keeps me at a distance. Whatever is turning Wilson on — the wind chimes, carrots, Plymouth Rock — doesn't connect. And I guess it's me... there are other artists I love who I might wax poetic about when they take ordinary things — like wind chimes, carrots, and rocks — and find beautiful stories and marvel at the simple truths they reveal. But here, they just seem so weird and covered in harmonies that sound like the ones from the other song. Good Vibrations is easily the best track on the record, IMO. I want to rate it higher, I know this is regarded as a masterpiece. I'm kind of flat down the middle.
I get why people don't care for this. It's not cool. It doesn't rock. It's corny and goofy. And this version of Smile is a bit of a Disney-fication of the original. But of course, the original never came out. And frankly, the fact that we got this was a miracle. I'll never forget listening to the compilation album, Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys and hearing the Smile sessions for the first time. (I'd heard <of> Smile, of course, but the only inkling I had of what it might possibly be was Smiley Smile—a record I've since come to love, but one that in no way represented anything close to the supposed masterpiece that was this lost classic.) On this compilation album, I couldn't stop listening to Our Prayer, Cabinessence, and Wind Chimes, but the two that absolutely floored me were the Zen koan that is Wonderful and the gorgeously apocalyptic Surf's Up. (The latter is still one of my favorite songs of all time.) Hearing these songs did something to me. They were mystifying and puzzling and endlessly fascinating. I finally understood the whole "Brian Wilson is a genius" thing. I, like so many BW acolytes before me, sought out Smile bootlegs, and then I attempted to make my own. I just HAD to see how this bizarre album fit together. What to make of all these weird instrumentals and nonsense vocal arrangements and animal sounds and all the starts and stops and snippets and motifs? I listened to bootleg after bootleg and I felt like I was getting closer and at the same time, I resigned myself to knowing that I'd never reach the finish line, or that they never had been a finishing line in the first place. Like one of the lost plays of Shakespeare, we would never have Smile. And maybe it was for the best. How could it ever live up to the hype? And then suddenly, this came out. Nearly 40 years later. And not only was it good, it was way better than I had ever expected. All those fragments fitted together so perfectly. (Every bootlegger had been wrong about song sequencing. We all had Surf's Up as the last song, but this sequencing was so much better.) All those crazy instrumentals suddenly had lyrics and melodies and were no fully fledged songs. But the thing that struck me most of all was that Brian had been SOOOO close to finishing the damn thing in 1967! Of course, it's not perfect. Brian can't sing like he could back in the day, and although the Wondermints do a stellar job, they aren't the Beach Boys. And the production is a bit muzaky at times. This album is missing a bit of soul and all of the biting bitonality that infused the original sessions. (Although, if I'm being honest, the original sessions sometimes sound like ass.) But fuck me, we got a gift. A gift no Beach Boys fan ever expected to get, and a gift that keeps on giving. God, there's so much to enjoy on this thing. All the recurring motifs—the subtle foreshadowing and triumphant callbacks. The sheer magnitude of Brian's ambition. His musical celebration of America coupled with Van Dyke Park's critique of it. I could go on and on (and have!). It's an interesting thought experiment to consider what would have happened had Brian completed this in '67. I'm sure it would have been a commercial flop, just like Pet Sound was. But I'm also sure it would have blown minds and inspired his contemporaries just like Pet Sounds did. I like to think it would have kept him sane and energized and productive, and I like to imagine it would have inspired him to even greater heights, but who knows? He was a troubled man who had suffered so much and whose psyche was so fragile, it's possible he still would have crashed and burned. At any rate, we got this. Brian's fans celebrated, and he got to revel in our love, appreciation, and gratitude. And I hope it made him smile.
I mean I always liked the Beach Boys. But to be honest, I never understood when people (whose music taste I mostly agree with...looking at you, Scotty) speak about the brilliance of Pet Sounds and the musical mastermind of Brian Wilson. Thought this album was fine but I hear his voice and all I'm doing is waiting for him to start singing God Only Knows. RIP though. I appreciate his contribution to the American musical canon....god only knows where we'd be without you.
It's too bad we had to wait until 2004, by which time Brian's voice had long lost its youthful luster, in order to hear this legendary record. Nevertheless, I'm glad the guy got the chance to put this out at all. How brave, after 30+ years, to revisit the masterpiece that wrecked its artist. I hope Brian was happy with his work.
I feel bad giving this album a low rating a day after Brian Wilson’s passing, but it didn’t really work for me. I’m vaguely familiar with the story behind the original “Smile” album — an epic, unfinished Beach Boys album that was plagued with problems during the recording — and it’s cool that Wilson went back years later and ‘completed’ it. But it feels more like a curiosity than anything else. I think something gets a bit lost in the decades that passed between the 60s and 2004. And, I don’t know, I find the music kind of grating and pretentious. It’s big on orchestral sweep, but short on pop melody. The Beach Boys always struck a nice balance between those two poles, and I think that balance is missing here.
Nice album but not really a favorite of mine from the bunch of Brian Wilson / Beach Boys collection. I enjoy just about all of his / their output, but this one feels a little too cinematic for the sake of being cinematic, and less like brilliant pop songs with great melody, harmony, and arrangements. It feels like as soon as you get into a section and start to groove to it, it switches to something else. One section is a complex multi-voice vocal arrangement and then 10 seconds later it's a big concert-bass drum / clean electric guitar part, and then 10 seconds later it's a minor harpsichord part, and none of these switches have been gradual, all sudden. It kind of demands your full attention- even writing this review while listening is a challenge. With every sentence, I've missed some short section. Because of this, the album feels a bit disjointed. I still think it's a nice record though, and it's really a testament to Brian Wilson that he can do something like this and it will still work to an extent. RIP.
Such an amazing album. YouTube ad breaks kinda suck the life from it though.
Masterpiece. I remember when I bought this CD on release day. I really felt like "we're not worthy" 5 *
It's good, it's beautiful, but outside of the big hits I must say that very little of Smile ends up being memorable. Big respect for finally putting this out, but I didn't hear the masterpiece some claim it is.
I think the original idea would have been amazing in 1967, but sometime some things should say in the Land of Imagination. I also don't think Jodorowsky's Dune would be great if it was finally made today, for example.
This album is pure soft pop/rock songs, but so whimsical and eclectic at the same time. It sounds divine and comfy, warm and uplifting. A lot of my favorite Brian Wilson's cuts are there, even some lesser known ones like Cabinessence, Vegetables or Wind Chimes. A beautiful album from start to finish.
Rest in Peace. God Only Knows is the most beautiful song of all time and I feel like Brian Wilson spent most of the rest of his career trying to top it. Ultimately he did. He got to do what a lot of artistic geniuses don't get to: live long enough to step off the ledge and finish their magnum opus.
Didn't know the history, didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't that. I appreciated his voice sounded good, the album sounded decent, really like the idea of a whole musical experience rather than just a few tracks. But this was wild man, it was disjointed, didn't flow to me, didn't make sense, I didn't know whether to laugh at animals and vegetables, cry during some of the children ones, mostly I was confused, but I definitely didn't smile.
7/10 I’m a little underwhelmed I feel like I should’ve liked this way more than I did the orchestration just really wasn’t doing it for me with Brian Wilson’s style, sorry
This album is difficult for me to judge. The music and unique harmonies are undeniable. The themes are childish and just not my style. I believe that this fully represents Brian Wilson's art, which is great, but just not to my taste. I probably won't listen to this much. 3.5/5
It is a matter of perspective, but I am the sort of person who doesn't want to see what they could have won, so this a painful listen. Other than the spectre of Brian Wilson - who I highly suspect was being puppeteered at this point in his life - there isn't a crumb of genuine Beach Boys magic to be found here really. It's too clean, too slick, too boisterous and feels hollow. If you consider No Way Sis, Antarctic Monkeys, Lez Zeppelin, Non Jovi and Joanne Joanne to be just as good as the real thing I would suggest you grab Surf's Up and Pet Sounds and dream of what Smile could have been instead.
This album is an audio fever dream. I had violent swings between absolutely hating this and finding certain parts bringing me back in and enjoying it.
Man, these looney tunes noises are just not doing it for me. Otherwise a very pleasant listen with a very interesting history.
Fantastic album, captures the spirit of the original style. Truly Mr.Beach Boy
Pretty good even though it’s different.
The album felt very convoluted. While I enjoy Pet Sounds, there seemed to be something missing from this one. Some good songs like Heroes and Villians and Good Vibrations, but other than that just a decent album.
For the first time in 250 albums I feel like I can't give an album a proper rating. At first I questioned why an album from a washed up star 50 years ago was on here but I looked into the history of the album. I feel like the context is important here and not the music (for the most part). While I do like some of the more popular Beach Boys songs I wouldn't really call myself a fan. (That being said, I saw them last year at a festival and the blew the metaphorical roof off the place. 45 minutes of straight bangers) 5/10 I guess because I don't really have a good score for this. Will definitely change on a re-listen.
1. prayer - 1 2. heroez - 1.5 3. rock - 1.5 4. barn - 0 5. painter - 0 6. cabin - 1 7. uuonderful - 1 8. children - 1 9. father - 0 10. zurfz - 1.5 11. zhape - 0 12. vegetablez - 0 13. holiday - 0 14. uuind - 0 15. couu - 0 16. blue - 0 17. good - 2 18. villainz - 1 PIECE OF ZHIT ALBUM , ONLY 1 GOOD ZONG / FUCKING ZERO BUT ONLY ALLOUUZ A 1 ZTAR
Beach Boys repetitions
Probably 5/5, but it’s kind of redundant to listen to this when the Smile Sessions exists.
Honestly really enjoyed this. The vocal percussion is fun throughout, and the fact that he has what sounds like a whole damn orchestra on top of that makes you feel smothered in sound. In a good way. It's also such a happy album that easily put a smile on my face, which seems to have been the goal. Best: Child is the Father of the Man Worst: Vega-Tables
This album makes me Smiley Smile
Enjoyable. Impressive. Not my music, but it has its moments.
Feel like I should like it more but it’s just what you expect
This album also drove me crazy!
Bleh
this sounds like a very personal album and it also sounds very beach boys. unfortunately i don’t really care about brian wilson and i don’t love the beach boys. essentially this album wouldn’t be anywhere near the list if he wasn’t in the beach boys so idk if it should be here now. low 3 because there was at least some interesting stuff there but we’re very close to a 2
Ikke helt min greie, om æ vil høre Beach Boys-aktig musikk hadde æ nu vel like gjerne hørt på Beach Boys, ikke det her? Men bonuspoeng for at vi kjørte forbi en gård med sauer og lam ute på jordet i det «Barnyard» begynte med et bææ.
Nope.
Thought it was okay, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Pet Sounds. It was interesting to read the history of the album and I can see why people love it but it just didn’t do it for me. Fav song: Good Vibrations - also quite liked Cabin Essence and Heroes and Villains - Instrumental Least fav: Mrs O’Leary’s Cow
Enjoyable listening experience overall but it did get a bit kooky for my tastes. Some of the early ones toed the line of sounding like glee songs too so that brought it down a bit. Still liked it though and love the lore. Specific rating - 4.1 Fav song- heroes and villains Least fav- vega-tables
Smile(Brian's Version)(From The Vault). Crazy coincidence to get this album the same week we had Pet Sounds. The story behind the album, good vibrations, the sheer joy of some of the songs and the gorgeous harmonies are nearly enough to make it a five star album. But I can't help but feel like it would be even better if it had been a 1967 Beach Boys album instead of a 2004 Brian Wilson album (and sometimes I felt a little thrown about by all the little snippets of different things happening). (feel like I should say good vibrations is my favourite but that's not the song that's been playing non-stop in my head...) Favourite: Vega-Tables Least: Mrs O'Leary's Cow
It's strange to hear an album released in 2004 that belongs so squarely in the 1960's. I like the Beach Boys sound (I'm always a sucker for harmonies), but it's interesting that he didn't evolve the sound much. I listened to this album over and over today. It has a great sound, the same harmonies, the interesting mix of instruments/sounds, and some interesting progression in the songs (not just a simple verse/chorus), etc. But none of the tracks really hooked me, besides Good Vibrations, which is the one track from other albums.
"You should try to Smile more." No.
It's admirable when someone with mental illness takes their meds and returns to the pursuits that may have once given them joy while also contributing to their stress. But I don't know that that back story makes me like this any more than other Beach Boys albums. There's some interesting elements but a lot of it ultimately feels fragmented and unfinished - which I guess it largely was.
Historic. But 33 years too late. So, not historic.
The big question over this album is whether the myth became more important than the music? I like it but those lost masterpiece expectations were always going to be hard to live up to.
This was a surprise, I didn’t guess I would like this, but I found myself enjoying it. It was fun, and it really held together, almost like one long song. Plus, Good Vibrations.
Has those classic Beach Boy type harmonies. Brian is a master composer, album feels like a musical. Enjoyable, just not an everyday type listen for me.
La tête pensante des beach boys. Un homme plein de talent et longtemps plein de drogues dures mais bon ça rend créatif. Après franchement je trouve que l'album est un peu vu et revu. C'est sympa mais rien de nouveau.
I was interested to listen to this having seen the film and being aware of the story, but the music really did nothing for me, especially when Good Vibrations came on and I realised that's what I'd rather have been listening to for the last 40 minutes.
I love this album!
Most people who are really into music and the Beach Boys have heard about Smile, but I personally have never heard the album. This one feels a lot like some songs from Pet Sounds where they feel like snippets of songs parsed together into one track. I am sure this will be defined as "brilliant" but smarter people than I, but there are a lot of ideas here and nothing that I find to be terribly compelling. I tend to agree with the other members of the Beach Boys in that if I wanted to hear a better version of this music then I would listen to one of the band's albums in the late 1960's. It seems to me the story behind this album is more interesting than the music on the album is.
It’s good, but I don’t get the acclaim. Maybe I need another listen, or for someone to explain to me why this album is so worthy of this list. I mean it isn’t bad, it’s actually quite enjoyable. It just didn’t knock my socks off.
Beautiful album. Almost forty years after it was first attempted by the Beach Boys, Brian finally finished his masterpiece. Most of these tunes send shivers down my spine.
I listened to this with no knowledge of the album's history, and really didn't enjoy it. Felt like I was listening to a kid's album. Read the back story afterwards. While I can now appreciate the significance for Beach Boys fans, I still didn't enjoy it.
Das Album Smile wurde in den Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles aufgenommen, ergänzt durch Sessions in den Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank. Brian Wilson, US-amerikanischer Musiker und Mitbegründer der Beach Boys, veröffentlichte hier eine überarbeitete Version eines ursprünglich in den 1960er Jahren begonnenen Projekts. Smile enthält unter anderem die Stücke „Heroes and Villains“, „Surf’s Up“ und „Good Vibrations“, die bereits in früheren Fassungen bekannt wurden und stilistisch eng mit der Spätphase der Beach Boys verbunden sind. Das Werk lässt sich dem Genre Artpop mit deutlichen Einflüssen aus Psychedelic Rock und klassischer Popmusik zuordnen. Die Veröffentlichung stellt eine retrospektive Auseinandersetzung mit einem lange unvollendeten Konzeptalbum dar und bietet einen Einblick in Wilsons kompositorische Herangehensweise sowie seine persönliche Interpretation des ursprünglichen Materials.
Frankly, it's amazing this record wasn't salvaged at the time. It's amazing. I understand Brian Wilson was having a lot of mental issues, but anyone involved in the recording should have recognized the brilliance. I can only assume that one of the factors is that the record label probably thought it was far out -- really not at all what anyone would expect from the Beach Boys -- and so the record label wasn't pushing for it to be finished. (I know there's tons of history around this record, and I don't think I've read any of it, so that's just an educated guess. Another great example of this is Daryl Hall "Sacred Songs" which is a fantastic record and it just kind of went into obscurity... his label wouldn't let him release it, they went back and forth, he wrote the sardonic tune "Something in 4/4 Time" which is about as strong of a rebuke as you'll hear from an artist to a record label. That album was totally out there compared to the output from Hall & Oates and understandably the record label was concerned that the solo record would reflect poorly on the duo career. Anyhow, great record, never got any label support, most people have never heard of it...)
Bold and creative - a bit dampened by having heard “The Smile Sessions” first, but still a fantastic album with an interesting history.
Great harmonies, very inventive and weird in the best ways
He got there in the end, but was it worth the wait. Complex harmonies, counterpoints all over the place, tight vocal performances throughout. Gets way too nursery-rhymey through the middle and the crisp production never lets any of the Casio samples hide. Songs aren't at all memorable.
Chato
I understand how influential this guy and The Beach Boys were, just can’t listen to more than a song or two at once.
Too chaotic - didn't even know when it changed songs.
Pet Sounds is one of the greatest albums ever made. This ain’t Pet Sounds.
I won’t question the talent of this guy, but this just feels like “Pet Sounds: Part Deux,” like it’s a “Naked Gun” style parody of the first one. I’m guessing a lot of artsy types forced themselves to like and find meaning in this one.
Muy musical, todo es bien, todo es top. Una maravilla
Thoughts before listening: The Beach Boys' lost masterpiece that was finally finished and released by Brian Wilson in the 2000s. I think that's the story here. I assume the music here will be similar to Pet Sounds or Surfs Up meaning orchestrated pop songs as opposed to surf rock. Review: This is okay, but the best songs on here are the ones I already knew..."Heroes and Villains" and Good Vibrations". There are some moments that I enjoy throughout, but none of the other songs really do much for me as a whole. This feels like a bunch of different ideas that got strung together as a full album...which I guess is true. I feel like this album's history as Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece makes for a better story than it does a listening experience. 3-stars
Didn't know much about Smile or it's story. Watched some of the documentary about it and really enjoyed getting deeper into it. I enjoyed the album itself very much. I don't know if I'd put it over Pet Sounds, but there are some great sounds and ideas. 3.5 rounded up
Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. Didn’t know all the back story and drama surrounding them and this album in particular. Good vibrations is a bop, interesting story hearing about how it was made.
Soft, ethereal pop. Could even be a 5 on more listens
One of the most beautiful albums ever created. Had this come out back in the 60s it would have completely changed the game. Sadly too many issues stopped this project from ever fully realizing back then, but at least now we have this. Superb vocals as always with a Beach Boy, but my god the arrangements are next level. One of my favorite discoveries on here is this album
Compositions are incredible - Abbey Road/White Album come to mind. But too many of them are a little too odd to get me really excited about the album as a whole. The big hits are great, but beyond those, I didn't connect with as much of the cute/weirdness of it as it's clear other people do.
A fun popy album with great harmonies. Easy to listen to and enjoy.
Well, this was strange… Some children’s songs, some instrumental, some creepy, and one familiar.
#576. I don't really want to listen to this whole thing. 2/5: please stop.
I actually liked this album!! It took me to a different place.
Feel good music
I like Pet Sounds. This is like a rough, semi-finished Pet Sounds 2. Good stuff.
I know I only got into the Beach Boys last year in tandem with getting Surf's Up and Pet Sounds in my album journey thus far. Of the members in that group, I have praised Brian Wilson for taking on the bulk of the songwriting, encouraging his bandmates to tackle more ambitious, progressive songs than the standard surf rock affair they were known for. So naturally, the pressure was placed squarely on Brian for the follow-up to Pet Sounds. Brian worked closely with session musician Van Dyke Parks for what would have been the Beach Boys' twelfth studio album Smile, aiming for a more ambitious album that would have further rebuked against contemporary rock bands and the then-rampant British Invasion. Unfortunately, due to a combination of legal entanglements with their label Capitol Records, Parks' withdrawal from the project, and more importantly, Brian's deteriorating mental health, Smile was scrapped. It was just too much for him to handle, spurred on by all the drug use, personal drive for perfection, and the perceived competition he had with the Beatles, who were working on Sgt. Pepper during this time. Songs written and recorded during the Smile sessions were repurposed for the Beach Boys' next album, Smiley Smile, and subsequent releases through the 1970s. Recordings from those sessions were bootlegged and shared around fans as they tried to piece together what the original Smile album would have been like. Brian himself would be haunted for decades by the abject failure of the unfinished album, reclusing himself from his bandmates and turning to drugs and alcohol on multiple occasions through the years. After a second intervention, Brian bounced back and pursued a successful solo career. Then, in 1995, Brian reunited with Parks for a collaborative album, and afterward was invited to a concert performed by the Wondermints, a group led by keyboardist Darian Sahanaja who were fans of Brian Wilson's work with the Beach Boys. After impressing Brian, the Wondermints accepted an offer to join his live band, and they collectively enjoyed a few successful tours. After warming up to the idea, Brian and his new backing band performed a live set of the Smile album. Through working with Parks and Darian, Brian wrote, recorded, and completed a new album under the name Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a collection of the tracks from those original sessions reworked and organized into three separate movements. That was a lot of exposition before even talking about the album. Getting Smile done in some fashion had to have been cathartic for Brian after it hung over his head for all those years. In a sense, I'm glad this album exists to free a man from the mental shackles he carried all that time. I just wish the album itself clicked more for me. Don't get me wrong; this album is good. A lot of care was taken during the recording process to make these albums sound like they would have in the 1960s, as Brian, his backing band, and the accompanying strings and horns section played effortlessly through this curated work. Some excellent songs got translated well here, including "Heroes and Villains", "Cabin Essence", "Surf's Up", "In Blue Hawaii", and of course "Good Vibrations". My frustrations stem from how this album comes across as a hodgepodge of good ideas stitched together under the loose concept of American history and iconography without a cohesive narrative. From the recolonization of America on "Roll Plymouth Rock" into the animal noises that accompany "Barnyard" and the short medley of "Old Master Painter" and "You Are My Sunshine" in movement one, the medley of "I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop" that leads to the tongue-in-cheek "Vega-Tables" to start movement three, and the complete insanity that is "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", there are so many ideas that tonally clash at each other even as Brian and Darian tried sequencing each track into the next. The closest semblance of a thematic tie is movement two, where the sequence from "Wonderful" to "Child Is the Father of Man" works in the shared contemplations of spirituality and childhood, followed by the still-excellent "Surf's Up" about one's spiritual awakening. At the end of the day, I'm glad that Smile is out there in some form as the much-overdue unburdening Brian needed. It is important that the artist themselves enjoy the art they put out in the world. If Brian himself enjoys it, then I respect that, even if I don't fully connect with it.
Kinda disappointing, noodly, self indulgent and quite annoying with all the slide whistles and circus crap. Maybe Mike Love was the talented one. Gets a bonus star for the version of Good Vibrations tho.
Muy buen inicio, algo random pero bastante dirgerible.
Smile reeks desperately of trying to the Beatles. It’s clear why this was abandoned for almost 40 years. Brian Wilson pales in comparison to The Beatles. The fact this album is ever mentioned in the same sentence has Sgt Peppers is disgraceful. It’s an overly long mess, sounds like a musical that goes nowhere and just throws in a bunch of random sounds and harmonies of mediocre melodies. It’s offensive only in what it tries to be, not in how it actually sounds. 4.5/10
could i write poetry to this? n
I really wish I liked this more. Unfortunately, it's just a replica of an antique artifact. Decades too late, the spark that could have made this album truly great has been long extinguished. Add a half-star because the song, "Barnyard" was the inspiration for a hilarious scene in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
It was fine. Think there are much better Wilson/Beach Boys albums.
Sort of a jumbled mess. It's like he needed a couple Beach Boys around to tell him every dooo weee ooo and slide whistle didn't need to be included. 2.5.
Best Beach Boys album, even if it's only 1 of the Beach Boys. Favorite song: Good Vibrations.
The songs on this album seemed like they were written for some strange musical that never made the stage. The music and arrangements sounded complex …. and maybe that was the goal. I would never listen to this again.
very cool really enjoyed how each song seemed to flow into the next
Familiar classics woven together beautifully
Meh, didn't hate it. But it sound suspiciously like the background music in a Goodwill.
Didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as Pet Sounds and I suppose I didn’t but it was still really great. Really weird journey with a story behind it that only makes it more interesting. 4 stars
Bilo bi bolje da je izašlo tad kad je trebalo ali i dalje je nevjerojatno koliko su dobre ove pjesme
I know this album is supposed to be legendary but I think it's just not my thing. I appreciate the bleeding/overlapping elements between songs, and that each song has multiple distinct parts, but it's a bit of a double edge sword because it's hard to pick out key songs that stand out when it's a bit of a repetitive blob of an album. Talented, but a little too messy and rambling for my taste. 2/5
Interesting instrumentals brought down by short songs with strange lyrics.
I need to know it by heart
The backstory to this one is insane. We are truly blessed this came to be. The true spiritual sequel to Pet Sounds. And Brian Wilson proves that even so many years later he is a genius.
Never really understood the lost masterpiece narrative around this album. It ain’t got nothin on Pet Sounds.
Incredibly creepy fall out vibes
I’ve never seen the appeal of the Beach Boys. Good vibrations is maybe good for about a minute then it becomes tedious. Same can be said for all other songs, but the tedium sets in sooner.
10/10. I'm not a fan of The Beach Boys, but this album is literally so amazing. I absolutely love it. :)
Very cool harmonies. Feels like a continuation of Pet Sounds.
1 stern
Late works on the clear spirit of the Beach Boys
Nurse, I think we are going to have to increase the dose.
Didn’t realise Brian Wilson was from the beach boys initially until I did a bit of reading. The album was ok, no stand out tracks for me
Not for me. Too many slide whistles.
Cute, enjoyable. Less impressive than beach boys but a happy continuation if you love the sound.
its okay. its got xylophones, saxophones, it's got marching arrangements, there's even a slide whistle and I really like VDP but I'm also a big baby and I like things that make me feel like a toddler learning new jingles but I am not really a beach boys fan I get that they had the chance to be real progressive psych rockers but the corporate machine got them where they wanted them. I guess its really good, I'm talking myself into it.... but good vibrations can suck it , ok I listened to it in its entirety again its better than ok its alright brb I have to go listen to The Smile Sessions (child is the father of the man) idk how is it so different it’s the same song and Pet Sounds now
This is by no means a bad album. But it's too bubble gummy for my taste to listen to it for too long. But again, this is not a bad album.
Es ist zu durcheinander, in den Liedern passiert zu viel auf einmal. Und die guten Lieder dieses Albums höre ich lieber als Originalfassung
Eh not a fan
After listening, I read that this was (based on) a previously abandoned album, and I could tell why they abandoned it.
I do recognize how this is something of a masterpiece... But I can't say I enjoy listening to it at a 5-level.
Bit weird
Half genius and half freewheeling crazy circus with a dab of movie soundtrack… but incoherent, maybe should have been two albums. Good vibrations is tops though but does not save it 3.33
I’m going to be honest, this probably deserves a 5, but this never it me the way Pet Sounds did. Idk why bye
Why?
I get that there is lore and history to this album. And I get that the Beach Boys are "legends" and Pet Sounds is "Good Music". But this is straight up bad Best Song: Surf's Up Rating: 3/10 Stars: 2/10
Enjoyed this. Felt like summer.
With the best will in the world, this is a tiny bit of a disappointment. It still gets a decent score, because Brian Wilson is outrageously talented, creates heart-soaring melodies and is often lyrically interesting, but actually there is waaaaaaay too much noodling around, sub-outtake level stuff and half-baked ideas on here. It felt longer than it was, is what I'm saying. Still, I'm reserving the right to be totally negative and then contradict that with a score in the high threes.
Being géneros with my score
I love that this album exists, and it's a testament to Brian Wilson that he was eventually able to revisit it and complete it. It's beautifully arranged, whimsical and fun. It's no Pet Sounds, but what is?
A wonderfully produced concept album that unfortunately goes for a vibe I don't care for at all. It's hard for me to come up with any criticism for this album. It has great, detailed, lush production with fantastic vocals. I think it's really good. The only problem that ruins that whole experience for me is that I don't like this pastoral, lively vibe. As a person who hates everything about the countryside, I obviously find the atmosphere this album presets significantly less romantic than Brian Wilson. It is also almost entirely vocal-focused—the vocals are on the top of the mix in most songs—and since I don't particularly enjoy vocals, this is another point that brings this album down for me. Yeah, I think Smile is a great album that just happens to combine a couple of things I don't enjoy, therefore ruining the experience for me.
There are bits of this I like but none of them amount to a song, rather a load of fragments carved up into songs. At best, touching, lyrical and melodic, at worst oddly comic, repetitive and off-putting.
Standouts: • Our Prayer / Gee • Heroes and Villains • Roll Plymouth Rock • Cabin Essence • Song for Children • Surf's Up • On a Holiday • In Blue Hawaii • Good Vibrations
Initial fun then repetitive tedium. For serious fans only.
Häpäistään 2004…. Heh tod. lisuus on se että.. faktaa on nyt se….. mun sellikaveri lähetettiin kammottavaan paikkaan.. täsyi näisten absence… Kurja paikka pedofiiliraiskaajallkkin.. määr, 3kk tahdosta riippumattomaan hoitoon.. Mutta mikä on hoito jos ei tissiä löydä… Missä on norture… Missä on ihmisen perustarpeista huolehtiminen… Missä osaston firtti on kun kaikki on miehiä… röökikoppi wi ole enää sisäpiha vaan se on 1mx1m huone… karmea paikka.. pedofiiliraiskaajallekkin… albumista… hyvää musiikkia itse inhosin mutta tunnistan mestarin.. helppo 4
So... let me get this straight...this is a fragmented collection of scaps and debris that wasn't good enough for The Beach Boys, but it's good enough for this oft questionable list of "must hear" misfits? Got it.
Some things are best left unfinished. In this case the album shouldn’t even have been started.
Listened to this walking to work on the first sunny day of spring. Sonically beautiful and absolutely crackers at the same time.
Everything Brian Wilson touches turns to gold
++: Our Prayer/Gee, Heroes and Villains, Roll Plymouth Rock, Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine, Cabin Essence, Child Is Father of the Man, Surf's Up, Vega-Tables, Wind Chimes, Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, In Blue Hawaii, Good Vibrations +: Barnyard, I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop, On a Holiday +-: Wonderful, Song for Children 8,1/10
Meh
Bien
I'm picking up good vibrations...
This one grew on me. I really didn't care for it at first but the more I listened, the more I enjoyed it. Parts of it kinda feel like if the Beach Boys were slightly psychedelic.
So shite it’s unbelievable.
Should've stuck to his instincts which had decided not to finish this for almost 40 years. Some absolute nonsense
Once left a Daft Punk set to go and see Brian Wilson at a festival. A decision that haunts me to this day.
Not in the mood for this at all, awful. And when those farmyard animals kicked in, I burst out laughing. Urgh.
Unfinished beach boys album
This is so odd I don’t even know what to do with it.
I get why this is here, as it serves as a coda to one of the most interesting stories in rock history. But the 2011 Smile Sessions album, which would get a 5/5, is probably a better fit here. This is a beautiful album, and it’s a tragedy it didn’t get released as intended. But Brian’s 60-year-old voice can’t hold a candle to his 25-year-old one. This album is also missing the presence of (some of) his bandmates, Carl in particular. One thing this album is NOT missing is Mike Love. That asshole contributed diddly squat. Fuck that guy.
A lot of this album feels like demos and there are good reasons they weren’t released. However, there are a lot of highs that fit right in with the Pet Sounds era too. It’s an interesting listen.
Really weird and long, maybe good for dnd lol
Maybe this needs a more in-depth listen but other than some glimmers of the genius that Brian Wilson once was, there was nothing for me here
While listening to this I thought it was recorded in the golden era of The Beach Boys and was shocked to find out that it was recorded in 2004. Great harmonies like all of Brian Wilson’s stuff, but not interesting to listen to. Kinda ho-hum on the excitement scale.
Very good.
It's good but why listen to this when Smile sessions actually exists now
hey that was gorgeous !!!
Loved the a cappella opening as it reminded me of Fleet Foxes. Have always loved (the original version of) Heroes & Villains, mostly because it’s on the Fantastic Mr Fox soundtrack which is one of my all-time favourite movies. Good Vibrations obviously another huge classic. The animal sounds on Barnyard are so kitschy it’s kind of insane but also I can’t be too mad about it because it’s pretty funny. Most of the album is just very ‘eh’ however and the whirring and jingling sound effects etc. get a bit grating. Also one of the worst album covers I’ve ever seen, Microsoft Word Art looking-ass.
Mostly, deliberately listening to these albums without context makes for a great experience. I come in fresh, with no expectations, and can hear the music with no external noise clouding my opinion. Going and reading the Wikipedia article afterwards is just the delicious icing on the cake - I don't need it to appreciate the artistry, but it adds something unique to the overall flavour. Listening to this album without context however, was ghastly. What is it? A children's album? A gospel album? Why am I listening to 80s music that was made in the early 2000s? What's with the lyrics? Is this some kind of cult I'm not aware of? Once I had context, it made more sense, but it didn't make it any more enjoyable.
The Beach Boys - or is it ?
Awesome album, properly enjoyable and exactly what you want from Brian Wilson! Really enjoyed this!
An astonishing record. Was great to listen again. Had to stop still and pay full attention to Surfs up - beautiful
Amazing achievement by Brian Wilson. Went to see this performed live in Manchester 2004. Hearing surfs up made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, still does. Was already familiar with outakes/smiley smile but heard in this format as a cohesive piece of music was a moving experience.
“Surf’s Up” is a sparkling title that’s an odd fit to a song that’s shambling, hesitant and sluggish, not easy to remember in part or entirety. It’s carefully wrought and reaches for the deep parts while also sounding rushed, thrown together and unsure of itself - and this is how the album hits me as a whole. I’m a “Pet Sounds”-liker, am glad this exists, but I prefer thinking about it to listening to it: “Smile” works as a sequence of distractions, but the challenge with presenting a pop album of songs built from many modules is that it needs several times as many tunes as a regular album to hold the ears. “Good Vibrations” is masterful, “Heroes and Villains” has kick, and the rest is a sometimes-intriguing mash, with the inevitable, detestable carnival music interval making a cameo to remind you what decade this comes from.
Jesus Christ what is this shit? Did someone record an open mic at a kindergarten? Van Dye Parks is a fucking self-satisfied charlatan. It's certainly no Pet Sounds..
At times very similar to a Saturday morning preschool show. One of the terrible ones. 2 Stars since I found myself whistling one of the tunes later in the evening, which is also reminiscent of terrible Saturday morning preschool shows.
I dig the harmonies, not so much the random slide whistles.
Blech
yeah i liked this
Pre-listening thoughts: was literally just reading up on this albums history one week ago today 😭. I went down a crazy Beach Boys rabbit hole for some reason and it was super entertaining but one of their biggest pieces of lore is this album/Smile sessions/Smiley Smile. I’m not gonna take the time to explain it ALL here but the main gist is The Beach Boys worked on Smile for a while and it never met Brian’s expectations (among other issues) and it never got released. So then a bunch of the songs were reworked into the album Smiley Smile but it wasn’t the original vision they were going for. Smile was one of the most famous pieces of unreleased material (fans would try to piece together what they thought the album would sound like based on leaks) until Brian released this, and then the record label released more footage from the recording sessions. I think reading the full lore will change your perspective on this album. And lowkey… listen to all 3 mentioned above if you get the chance/have the time. Smiley Smile was the first Beach Boys album I chose to listen to a while back and I knew NONE of the context. I have no clue why I chose that album. Maybe something inside of me knew it had really interesting lore. Post/during listening thoughts: man if you don’t know the lore this just sounds like Beach Boys stuff but a little more bizarre 😭. Also without the rest of the boys. But like I see the vision. Or at least part of it. But the album itself never really reached a finished state. This may be my most undecided rating ever. On one hand I really want to give this a 5 just because it was so beyond ahead of its time in 1967 and it is really musically inventive and complex. On the other hand, how often would I revisit something as weird (and really unfinished) as this? The lyrics are questionable at times (looking at you, Van Dyke Parks). The newly done production also doesn’t have the same charm as the old sessions. But the top review for this album sums up my feelings pretty well - it’s not really about the music itself and more about the confrontation of a 40 yr old vision with this album. Im so sorry but I have to give this a 5 because the whole story is just so cool to me. But just know, my 5 encompasses not only this album, but also the Smile Sessions, as well as Smiley Smile. I feel like you really need to hear all 3 at some point to have a sense of why this one in particular is important. 9/10 DID I NEED TO HEAR THIS BEFORE I DIE: lowkey… Fav tracks: Heroes and Villains, Roll Plymouth Rock, Wonderful, Surfs Up, Vega-Tables, Good Vibrations Least fav tracks: Barnyard 😭 don’t know why I could handle the veggie song and not this one
Alright, just sounded like Pet Sounds songs that were left on the chopping floor.
Listened to this passively so I don’t think I can give a fair rating but it’s obviously beautiful
Listened to it twice in a row. Good stuff.
Beautiful and theatrical. Excellent production.
I like the other Wilson brother more
Maybe it's better on drugs? Good vibrations is good because I know it. Otherwise it's too much.
I most of the orchestration and music. But it did sound like an old man trying to be young. Something about it made it sound like an imitation of the beach Boys but I can't put my finger on it.
Very beach boys like, understandably
I think it's a bit overrated, although what the original would have been I can't say. Not bad though.
This album dropped about 40 years after his prime and is forgettable.
Interesting story behind this, finishing the album nearly 40 years after it was originally conceived. It does have a sound that is at its core a 60s beach boys album but with a much more modern production. I can't say pet sounds, this or the beach boys in general are really for me, when they are singing barber shop quartet songs about surfing they are fine if a bit one note, the more experimental stuff is in that 60s Beatles/kinks style that I don't like. Was an interesting listen and not terrible but won't be back. 2.5.
I'm afraid I don't really enjoy the genre so my thoughts are clouded by boredom. Appreciate the very high production quality, and the recording of Good Vibrations is excellent. A solid 2.5 album - it seems Brian didn't credit the other Beach Boys enough for some of the conceptualisation behind this album, despite his trauma in the original attempt to make Smile. Tut tut, -0.5 points.
Very clearly beach boysey. Sounds very 60s, but released in 2004, makes sense knowing the story. I don't think there was anything here that wasn't done better by the beech boys at the time.... Which again makes sense given this was made up of a lot that didn't make an album back then! 2.5
I listened to this album twice to be sure. This album didn't make me feel good. It made me feel a little uneasy, in fact. It wasn't the sort of music I'd go back to, aside from 'Good Vibrations', which was originally released almost 40 years before this album (so that doesn't count in this album's favour). 'Child Is Father of the Man' is a pretty interesting song, at least. There may be others, but I'm not the biggest fan of this album, in spite of how highly it's rated by music critics (I usually try to avoid that kind of information before rating, but in this case I discovered it while looking up something else). If I were rating it by how interesting it is, maybe 3.8/5. If rating it by how it made me feel, maybe 2.5/5. The latter seems far more important, so I expect I'll give it two or three stars.
I love me some good vocal harmonies in rock and pop music. Brian Wilson is a genius. However, I feel like on long time these songs sound too similar. An album that has much historical value but as a listening experience I would look for other Wilson and Beach Boys stuff.
I didn’t like this at all
Well composed songs hiding behind the layer of comedy
I'm sorry but I fail to see the perceived genius of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys.. One well known album does not maketh a music career.. Barnyard and Wind Chimes sounds like kids songs and would not be out of place in Sesame Street album just lacks any lyrical depth just a lot of repetition, their UK contemporaries Kinks Ray Davies and Beatles later albums The Who were so much better.. One of my all time favourite bands XTC were influenced by The Beach Boys and I love them! Andy Partridge has the intelligence wit and humour to make it work and that makes him a genius!
Astonishing
I think I only listened to this once or twice when it came out. It was a curiosity because a number of the best songs on this were released on an album about 1970 called Smiley Smile that was the leftovers plus a few other tracks from Brian Wilson’s first attempt at Smile. Fave tracks on both — Heroes and Villains and Vegetables. The Smile Sessions box set has 36 takes and variations and segments of Heroes and Villains alone. Smiley Smile would be a 5 if it was in the 1,001 albums — alas, it is not. This is a solid 4.
I don’t get it. Here’s what I think happened: Brian Wilson is a genius. He is also a perfectionist. Faced with the singular failure of his 60s-era career, he spent approximately 35 years tinkering with this album, ultimately producing a work filled with half-baked ideas. Again, he’s a genius, so some of them kind of work on their own, but there’s no sense of cohesion.
This was an interesting one. I liked the overall composition! Fun, whimsical instrumentals with at times fairly ethereal vocals. It was a fun listen. 'Good Vibrations' was my fave.
I like the way it was put together, but wasn’t wowed by it.
A thoroughly weird album. I would not want to listen to this on LSD. It kind of falls into this uncanny valley between pop sensibility and avant garde inaccessibility Our Prayer/Gee starts with a pleasant chant before leading into a classic Beach Boys a capella and immediately into Heroes and Villains, which is kind of like Zappa and Oingo Boingo had a baroque/doo-wop/barbershop wedding with tempo changes, caesura and disjointed organ phrases. The a capella continues with Roll Plymouth Rock except now with what sounds like tongue twisters. Barnyard evokes late period Residents replete with sheep and chicken noises. Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine is a wilted Kenny G rendition of the classic. Cabin Essence brings out a bazouki to imitate a banjo as far as I can tell. Wonderful goes back to Zappa weirdness in the vocals and scale and chord changes. Song for Children plagiarises Good Vibrations but without any of its catchiness. Child is Father of the Man - all you need to know is in the title. A sort of cool string and piano outro I guess. Surf's Up is probably the closest thing to a pop song but Park Van Dyke's vocals have this jowly Flinstones thing going on. I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop is just hiding the fact that Wilson had some sketches lying around that he couldn't figure out how to finish. Vega-Tables is about vegetables but nowhere near as funny as Zappa on the same subject. On a Holiday is only surprising in that it took this long for the album to break out the slide whistles and sea shanties. "Though its hard/I try not to look at my wind chimes" - genius. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow provides some welcome relief with an actual guitar riff and anxious moaning from the ersatz beach boy choir. What I do like about the album is it leans into the vaguely sinister aspect of all Wilson's songwriting and this song is where the curtain comes down and you discover the monster. That monster is quickly shuffled away in Blue Hawaii and then as if Wilson is in terror that you'll ask more questions he punches out a rendition of Good Vibrations. Heroes and Villains (instrumental) was not necessary. Without the vocals the unfinished aspect of this is really clear. Its unfinished and it sounds like its been realised on Soundblaster general MIDI. I have no problem with Brian Wilson getting some love in the list but I'm not convinced this should be here. Nonetheless this is so bizarre its charming.
Oh really? Ugh. *Deep breath*. Not a beach boys fan. Brian Wilson is not the Messiah. Someone put organ music and a theremin over barbershop. None of these things are appealing to me and by combining them you've just made it worse. No Bueno. But this album reminds me of my mum. I'll give him a two for that.
Bri guy
Frustratingly boring, a hard listen. 1.5
This album is how I found out that the Brian Wilson scenes in walk hard were almost not parody what the fuck man
thankful he stuck good vibrations on the end there bc this was maybe the most solidly mediocre listen i've had so far, and we're over a year in
I read a little blurb about this before listening that talked about this concept of "feels" which were looped portions of sound to maybe be used in songs, and I really liked that. I don't know that this is something that feels like an album of songs for listening to, but it's a pool of nice sounding little bits of music and sound.
interesting doesn’t necessarily mean good, brian
Simply wonderful
Go watch Love & Mercy for this album's lore but also a heartbreaking performance by Paul Dano!
Han pasado muchos años desde su composición.
I loved this album when it came out and for what it is/represents, it still holds up. However, I feel Pet Sounds is better and feels like a more cohesive piece of work. Still gets a 4 out of 5 from me.