Reviews (page 7 of 9)
Somehow manages to be indulgent, unfinished, superfluous, redundant and anachronistic and completely unnecessary at the same time.
I like the upbeat tone, it's kinda rare to see those in contemporary music. Fav Track: Heroes and Villains
Doesn't connect emotionally for me. Not something I will listen to often.
I barely remember it, though I DO remember not hating it.
2.3 Pretty disappointing, I always thought Pet Sounds was overrated, but I did quite like Beach Boy's 'darker' side - surfs up, Dennis Wilson's album etc. So I presumed the album that they ditched and Brian seems to have had a mental breakdown album must be along the lines of the latter but no. Too whimsical, too pet sounds'y, a scattergun of random ideas that just bore me to be honest. Good Vibrations I've saved down as it's the only time it'll appear on this list but even that just sounds more awkward compared to the original.
It’s a little much
not for me
It's not Pet Sounds. Is this written for children?
theres definitely a lot going on the treblemakers would have a field day with this one
Our Prayer / Gee - 3.5/5 Heroes and Villains - 4/5 Roll Plymouth Rock - 3.5/5 Barnyard - 3/5 Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine - 3/5 Cabin Essence - 3/5 Wonderful - 3/5 Song for Children - 3.5/5 Child Is Father of the Man - 3.5/5 Surf's Up - 3/5 I'm in Great Shape / I Wanna Be Around / Workshop - 2.5/5 Vega-Tables - 2.5/5 On a Holiday - 3/5 Wind Chimes - 3/5 Mrs. O'Leary's Cow - 2.5/5 In Blue Hawaii - 3/5 Good Vibrations - 3/5 Heroes and Villains - Instrumental - 2.5/5
Good Vibrations - always a bop. But the rest of this album just didn’t do it for me. Cute fun songs, but nothing that really caught my attention.
I’ve listened to plenty of The Beach Boys over the years, but somehow never got around to Smile by Brian Wilson. Going in, I was expecting harmonies, clever songwriting and some sunshine soaked pop. Instead this just didn’t land for me at all. I know I’m firmly in the minority here looking at the reviews but to my ears it feels overworked, self-indulgent and baffling. There’s no flow, no killer song apart from good vibrations, and far too many moments where I’m left wondering what the point actually is. I get it’s ambitious, different and experimental. But ambition alone doesn’t make something enjoyable, and for me this was a frustrating listen rather than a rewarding one. Favourite track: Good Vibrations is an absolutely brilliant pop song and, honestly, the album’s saving grace. Least favourite tracks: I clearly don’t “get” this record, but tracks like I’m in Great Shape and Vega-Tables just left me scratching my head. Album artwork: Bright, colourful and genuinely lovely – the most instantly appealing thing about the album.
It started out nice with our prayer and Heroes and Villains, but it got worse with every song. These songs have got some nice music, but the lyrics are stupid and annoying. The performances are good, but they end up being good performances of bad songs. Not for me.
So here's the thing... This album is incredible; conceptually and in practice it is one of the most forwarding and expansive uses of harmony and psychedelia ever, period. Except I should say, that is true of the original recordings, later released as The Smile Sessions in 2011. Brian Wilson's Smile, while largely true to the original compositions from three decades prior, is completely overshadowed and practically obsolete with the release of the archival. I understand why Smile was made, and had it been the only version of these songs recorded I would probably praise it much more. Unfortunately, I am very familiar with The Smile Sessions, and the only thing I could think of throughout the entirety of this album is how much I would rather be listening to The Smile Sessions. If I completely ignore that the other release exists, Smile is perfectly serviceable, but definitely lacks the magic of Surf's Up or other recordings from this era of The Beach Boys. It's a little too clean, the harmonies are nowhere near as expansive, and I hate to bring this up but Brian Wilson understandably doesn't have the same perfect vocal he once did. I don't want to solely rate this in comparison to The Smile Sessions, but unfortunately it kind of ruined Smile for me. I'm sure if I was going in with fresh ears I would be able to appreciate it for similar reasons I fell in love with The Smile Sessions. As is, I would never willingly put this on except in the rare situation where I need to listen to The Beach Boys and this is the only option available. Or maybe they'd have Summer in Paradise... would have to think about it...
Didn’t do much for me. Some iconic stuff in here tho.
Sometimes ventured too far into clown music? I love the beach boys, pet sounds absolutely rocks, but this felt like a pale imitation of it in a lot of ways.
I much prefer the legend of the Smile sessions to this album
I wanted to like this, but couldn’t get into it. One where the story behind the album is more interesting that the album it self
“I have never found a way of enjoying listening to this album despite often wanting to. I have always thought that “Vege-tables” was a great song though, for which an overall 2 stars”. Tom.
I like Heros and Villians but that’s just because it’s in Fantastic Mr Fox. Great film
This sounded like someone making fun of Pet Sounds
never made unless it was BW …2004 effort, sounded like a money grab
it's okay, I guess
I don't really care for this kind of orchestral chamber pop. It could be considered one of the best albums ever made, but I just don't care for it. I'm not really hearing the genius here, just a bunch of mediocre orchestral pop. I know that's the Beach Boys' (and apparently, Brian Wilson's) thing, but I just don't vibe with it. Most of the songs don't really feel fleshed out, and the few that do don't resonate with me. So I'll have to pass on this one.
nah
I understand why this was selected, but I didn't enjoy listening to it.
;J'ai déjà écouté les 3 albums des Beach Boys, mais je ne les ai pas appréciés (tous notés 2/5). Cet album solo n'est pas désagréable (+1), mais n'est pas plus intéressant. Aucune envie de l'écouter de nouveau. =>2/5
Een ambitieus en duidelijk historisch belangrijk project dat meer aanvoelt als een muzikale collage of pop-opera dan als een traditioneel album. De muziek is melodisch en verbeeldend, soms bijna filmisch of musical-achtig, maar bleef voor mij emotioneel afstandelijk. Ondanks interessante beelden en ideeën ontwikkelde het album zich voor mijn gevoel niet verder, waardoor mijn aandacht gaandeweg wegebde. Ik snap de iconische status en het verhaal achter dit werk, maar het nodigt mij niet uit tot herbeluisteren
Yup.
Cheerful. Nice for a movie soundtrack but I wouldn't play it for myself.
Not my kind of music.
I much prefer Smile Sessions, and even moderately prefer Smiley Smile, over Brian Wilson Presents Smile. I didn’t even crack a smile listening to the album today, which I remember so clearly hearing it after its release. I was obsessed with Pet Sounds as a high school freshman with not much else to do than listen to music. But I just can’t find much to make me desire another repeat listen.
I suspect this is a love it or hate it album. There are some beautiful moments but overall I doubt there will be many repeat listens.
Can’t do it
I’m not really a Beach Boys fan, and I don’t feel connected to all the drama around Wilson and this project. It sounds like pre–Pet Sounds surf pop: lots of harmonies… but a very clean 2000s production, so clean and conceptual it mostly feels like a musical. I keep waiting for a straightforward rock moment, but it never arrives. Some songs are genuinely nice and creative, but overall it’s too polished and overworked for my taste. The lack of spontaneity kills it a bit.
Halb Folk- halb experimental
reading about the history was very interesting and the journey is quite cool, however i don't see myself revisiting this compared to the beach boys' actual discography (and i'd probably sooner check out brian wilson's other solo work)
Too much acid or just crazy!
not my cup of tea but plenty of classics.
If there was ever any question as to who was the creative force behind The Beach Boys, this should put that to rest. But this album also has the sound of someone who is going through some emotional and mental health issues. And while working on the album may have been therapeutic, with the exception of “good vibrations,“ I’m not so sure the point of releasing it.
thought it was cool how each track flowed into the next. the listening experience was a bit overwhelming, felt like watching a musical with only the songs and no dialogue and being really confused as to what was going on and what they were singing about. objectively a really awesome album in terms of songwriting, storytelling, and production. not my personal cup of tea or something i’d find myself listening to regularly because i feel like listening to it is an experience you have to be fully immersed in.
4.5/10
More noodling around. Meh
Effectively the music of the Beach Boys but in 2004 instead of the 1960s. Also an hour long. This did not feel like it worked. A bit of a nostalgia trip that went too far.
Basically, it's The Beach Boys album😈. It's okay, I like original versions of Heroes and Villains and Good Vibrations and I kinda like the versions on this album too. In Blue Hawaii is unexpectedly good. In general, 2/5. —————————————— Liked: — In Blue Hawaii — Heroes and Villains — Good Vibrations
It was ok I guess, doesn't really do much for me.
Litt gøy og koselig, egentlig
not my vibe
Shite. Whole album sounds like one song, with an idiot given access to a radio hosts soundboard
Smiley Smile is a concise half-hour of very silly pop music, whose only pretension is the idea that any of it is funny. The Beach Boys don’t have a sophisticated sense of humour. Indeed, little about them is sophisticated, beyond Brian Wilson’s ear for arrangement. For decades, the Smile mystery dangled the possibility of a truly sophisticated Wilson work, one that integrated ideas and themes and allowed him to move beyond the limits of a US pop vocal group – “a teenage symphony to God” and all that. But when Brian Wilson Presents Smile finally saw release, it was clear that Smiley Smile had the right idea: brief, cheery tunes, one after the other. That’s all it takes. Smile contains all those catchy little hooks but tries to string them together to no real effect. It’s no failure that it isn’t a symphony – it’s still just a seventeen-track pop album – but, as with McCartney’s symphonic efforts, it reveals a pop writer’s lack of focus. One catchy idea follows another, with no development or integration, and the songs themselves are harder to locate within the unnecessary transitions. Wilson’s collaborator Van Dyke Parks did a better job on his own 1967 album Song Cycle – less catchy, less beautiful even, but a more complete work. And he’s funnier too. 2 I’m glad we had an extra week to think about this one because it is an unusual case. I have heard it before and found it pleasant enough but trying to think critically about it this time opened a can of worms. Although I do like worms. Or do I? I am no great fan of the Beach Boys. But I love the idea of Smile - the masterwork so ambitious that it eats its eccentric creator and self-destructs. That it can be carefully reconstructed over thirty years later to allow the audience to hear what it was ‘supposed’ to sound like and to imaginatively insert it in an alternate 1967 is a singularly engrossing idea. There are several problems with this though. First there is the suspicion that Brian Wilson was brought down less by gazing too long into the abyss of Art than by just taking far too much LSD and making himself very ill. Second and Third, and both more nourishing and fatal to the function of this particular conceit, are Smiley Smile (1967) and the Smile Sessions (2011). I actually listened to ‘Brian Wilson Presents Smile’ before I heard either of those other releases. Which you would think would give BWPS an advantage. Here was the first time I heard ‘Wonderful’, for example. I didn’t appreciate until years later when I listened to Sessions, that Wilson’s re-recording amounts to a meticulous, even uncanny, version of the unreleased 1960s recording. And now the worm that I don’t like begins to gnaw - ‘Why?’ Setting aside any complications there might have been about licensing and rights because I dare say I wouldn’t understand or care, the essential answer to why Brian Wilson ‘presented’ Smile in the way he did seems to me to be disrespect. There is disrespect for the other Beach Boys and their (patient) work in 1967. There is also disrespect for Smiley Smile. Poor Smiley Smile, kicked by critics and consumers in 67, kicked also I recently learned in its exclusion by the compiler of ‘1001 Albums…’, was here on BWPS given a fresh kicking for the new century by its chief creator. It isn’t merely that the romantic conceit of ‘Smile’: The Greatest Pop Album Ever Not Quite Made’ requires that Smiley Smile be continually acknowledged as failure; as the mere flotsam of a lost Galleon. It is the tone of ‘Brian Wilson Presents Smile’. It’s so clean. So airless. Every note less played than presented in a spotless mix, lest anyone mistake that anything accidental, much less chaotic, happens on the path to Great Art. Even the music of Good Vibrations gets tidied up a bit - the backing vocals in the chorus are clarified and the phrase neatly tied off in a way that they aren’t in the original. The subtext of this sort of behaviour is that Smiley Smile’s failure was built in from the start because it wasn’t properly ‘composed’. Well let’s get down to it. Smiley Smile is a far, far better album than Brian Wilson Presents Smile. The versions of Vegetables, Wind Chimes and Wonderful on that record are the best versions of those songs. Moreover it is a charming record, full of atmosphere. BWPS is not. Smiley Smile certainly has flaws but the biggest of them is that one of the greatest (and most expensively recorded) songs in pop music was dumped right in the middle of it. Good Vibrations on Smiley Smile is like seeing someone in a tuxedo turn up uninvited to your student house party. Diverting for a minute but ultimately unsettling, especially once a little weed has been smoked. You know who wears tuxedos probably? Narks. Additionally The Smile Sessions is a far better presentation of a ‘Smile‘ that wasn’t than Brian Wilson’s. Granted there is very little quantifiable musical difference between several tracks but here I can stop and thank Brian Wilson for his efforts. Smile Sessions taken alongside BWPS’s meticulous recreations stands as a valuable and unique testament in popular music that there is something in music beyond the notes and even the studio techniques. Call it ‘relaxed expression’ or more idealistically ‘spirit’ - the Beach Boys 1967 recordings plainly have ‘it’ and BWPS does not. That’s notwithstanding the fact that there is frequently a sort of artifice in Smile Sessions as well. The full version of ‘Surf’s Up’ that appears there, for example, is a composite version that never *really* existed. It is also so far superior to the Surf’s Up that appears on BWPS that I almost can’t feel that it’s the same song. This is an experience I encounter often enough as a listener to classical music, but there is much less opportunity to experience it in pop music. Incidentally I think the Surf’s Up on Sessions is also better than the one that appeared on the 1971 album. The second best version is the Brian Wilson solo piano version, also on Sessions. The Smile Sessions is marvellous. So where does this leave ‘Brian Wilson Presents Smile’? I won’t say that it was needless - at the very least it is uniquely interesting. But even if there is plenty to engage your thoughts and a seductive invitation to go down a week-long wormhole of pondering one of the great myths of popular music, its artistic value is very questionable. Musically I think it represents more harm than good. I feel queasy listening to this version of Good Vibrations especially. It’s not that it’s bad - although the lyric change is certainly no improvement - it’s that despite how much it is Good Vibrations I can still tell it isn’t Good Vibrations. Brian Wilson’s Smile is the smile of a Stepford Wife. It’s not that it isn’t beautiful it’s just…what kind of person wants that in their house instead of their real wife? 1.5/5
Just not for ne
mid album.
Nope
I did not
I’m not sure I get this. Believe me, I’ve been through my Beach Boys faze and even a Brian Wilson one. I’m just struggling with this album. It has The Beach Boys sound. It has that “I’m competing with the druggy Beatles” sound. It’s just sort of lost to me. It’s that classic sound but there’s no takeaway songs. That’s the weakness.
The story behind this album is way better than the album itself. I get it. It’s meant to sound fun and clever at the same time. Assembling a bunch of quirky sounds, arranging them as ”movements” and reusing phrases between songs to make it all seem ”connected” is not enough! In case it’s hard to follow the lyrics, here they are: Aaaaawaaaaa Na-na-na, La-la-la, Do-be-do, Aa-aa-aa, Ba-ba-ba Ooooh Baaaahhh, mooooh, wooh Aaah-aaah-oooh-oooh Naaa-nananananaaah Cha-cha-cha Surf’s up! Mm-mm Aaaaah-do-do-do-doodoo Aaaah-a-a-a-aaaah Oooh, nom-nom-nom Oom-bop-bop 2/5
There some ok stuff on here, but it just felt kind of disjointed and random. I like The Beach Boys, but I couldn’t really get into this.
Basically sounds like a Beach Boys album. Not my thing ultimately. I understand the backstory to the album, but that’s not enough of a reason for it to be on the list. Ok, not great.
Not my thing. The songs seem to be more about Beach Boys-style harmonies than being listenable. And there are so many of them!
I've mentioned before that I don't really care for Brian Wilson, so I was pretty pessimistic about this album. It starts like a pretty standard BW/Beach Boys project and even includes a rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" which really threatened to send me over the edge. Immediately after that though, is "Cabin Essence" which gets a little weird - to the point that it almost sounds like they lose the rhythm at one point before recovering. From there it continues to stay a little strange, even when it threatens to straighten out and be bland there's a subversiveness to arrangements. The whole album feels like you took drugs and then pushed play on a Beach Boys album... which is probably exactly what Brian Wilson was going for. A fun concept but I wish it was done by an artist I like more.
There are some brilliant bits here, but it's mostly a self indulgent and bloated effort. For evidence I present Vega-Tables.
got boring quickly, 2
If you're a Beach Boys fan this is probably essential listening for you. Having never been much of one, I'll leave this to the critics that rave and coo over it.
Als je de Wikipedia leest is het alsof Jezus in 2004 eindelijk terug is gekeerd op aarde met een portie Bijbel DLC waarmee hij eindelijk iedereen kan uitleggen en overtuigen van hoe het allemaal écht zit. Zo mythisch vind ik het nou ook weer niet klinken. Veel oohtjes en aahtjes, wat halve liedjes waarvan met een flinke tube Alabastine toch een soort glad geheel gemaakt wordt. Een beetje musical-achtig. Wat gewoon fijne melodietjes die af en toe verwarrend veel op elkaar lijken. De gehele bak instrumenten die ze bij de kleuters hadden voor wanneer je jarig was en op de stoel mocht staan komt in de tweede helft voorbij. Zo'n trekfluit, een ratel, een scheidsrechtersfluit, een woodblock, allerhande andere fluiten. Het album gaat een beetje onderuit. Een ook dat geluidseffect komt voorbij. Als dat de nummers zijn die verloren zouden zijn gegaan door allerlei perikelen dan hadden we daar weinig aan gemist zeg maar. Al krijg je helemaal aan het einde nog wel een soort Glee versie van 'Good Vibrations'. Aanvankelijk wel oké, uiteindelijk een tikkeltje lang. Ergens tussen de 2 en 3 sterren. Ik ga weer een keer streng zijn.
This album is like one long intro for a song that refuses to start. Or like the intro to every Beach Boys song pasted together with no pay off of the catchy chorus … that is until he just just covers a Beach Boys song, _Good Vibrations_. Sorry, I just don’t get this one!
I don't know. It's so... mushrooms ... 2
So I wanted to love this because I love Pet Sounds but I really just didn’t. Maybe I’m not in the right headspace for this album today but it just didn’t do it for me.
Wishful Thinking - The Album. This isn't an album, and this is not what the editors really wanted to include in the book. This is an idea of an album, a hypothetical release that never happened. A fabled art work that forever lives in all our collective memories as the masterpiece that never was. And when listening to the actual album at hands, our minds distort it and turn it into the ideal no one ever got back in 1967. Just remember, we did not get it in 2004 either. Key tracks: Heroes and Villains Good Vibrations
Barbershop bollocks (like most Beach Boys stuff). It gets 2 for Heroes and Villains, but the rest is just cobbled together antique slop, and if this had been my life work and passion project I’d have gone bonkers too, because of the shitness.
This is a weird one, because I'm not really disliking anything on it, but feel like I'm going to settle on a 2 for a couple specific reasons. Firstly, it's weaker to me than Pet Sounds and Surfs Up (which I gave a 3 and 4 respectively). But also, this doesn't seem to have any hooks or catchy bits for me to latch onto. It's not plodding, but the flow of the album feels very uniform without a ton of distinct verses or choruses. And lastly, I'm just not a big fan of this type of psychedelic chamber pop. Even Pet Sounds I'm not big on. So yeah. This isn't actively doing anything I dislike I guess, but I just don't "get" it I guess?
goofy in a bad way
Meh
Equal parts pretty and silly.
Uummm... I'm not super into the animal noises on Barnyard. It's weird but like, I'm not fucking with it kind of weird. Also, this rendition of You Are a my Sunshine night be the most depressing version I have ever heard. Ok, this is super well recorded, and he can definitely write a hook but this is overall not great. I'm not gonna listen to this again.
A lot of the work that comes from Brian Wilson sounds like circus music. Like, I'll stop paying attention to it for a minute and then something will happen that will make me think a clown is about to walk in the room juggling.
The beach boys ontvingen van mij drie maal een 1. En dit album was blijkbaar door Brian bedoeld als Beach Boys album. Nou, ik verheug me al... Wel een nieuwe band en nieuwe technologie, want we zitten inmiddels in de zero's. En ondanks dat het begin van het album mij nog veel te veel Beach Boys is, helpt dat wel. Het heeft een andere klankkleur, die mij meer aanstaat. Na een tijd, krijgen we een ander geluid. Song for children, Child is Father of Man voelen wat meer gecomposeerd, maar houden een jaren '60 gevoel. Het echte speelse van die jaren '60 komt daarna het meeste terug, waarbij we ook nog Good Vibrations krijgen. Eerlijk is eerlijk. Dit heeft veel meer kwaliteit dan die Beach Boys. En dit mag zeker een plek in de lijst krijgen. Maar ik ben blij dat ik me er doorheen heb geworsteld.
Mijn neefje kwam vrijdagmiddag binnengelopen toen ik dit op had staan en het eerste wat hij zei was: ome Cees, wat is dit voor saaie muziek? Het moest af en de sterren.nl top25 moest op, want daar kon hij alle teksten van voor tot achter van meezingen. Oftewel, hij had liever Frans Bauer dan dit. Naar onze maatstaven zou het dus van hem 1 ster krijgen. Zo ver wil ik niet gelijk gaan, maar ik snap hem ergens wel. Het is net als met de Beach Boys behoorlijk saai, een beetje theatraal. Het zijn wel mooie composities soms en de meerstemmigheid vind ik wel tof, maar het is meer een ingewikkeld kunstwerk, een theaterstuk, een musical. Brian Wilson maakt ook teveel gebruik van gekke geluidjes, ik hoor nog net geen zingende zaag. Maar wel een geluidje van een cartoon die uitglijdt over een bananenschil enzo, van die Disney tekenfilm geluidjes. En als hij dan met wind chimes op de proppen komt, heb je meer het gevoel dat we bij de Rijdende Rechter beland zijn, de irritatiefactor groeit. Er zitten geen lekkere liedjes bij die je mee kan zingen, die had Brian Wilson voor de Beach Boys bewaard. Ok, we krijgen nog even Good Vibrations op het eind, als een soort goedmakertje. Maar daarvoor zijn we al lang in slaap gesust. 2 sterretjes, omdat het wel goed gemaakt is.
not for me
kinda boring tbh
This much whimsy makes me FRoWN
beach boys member re-issue 2004
This album did not make me smile. Honestly, it was hard to get through this in the year 2025. I can appreciate the vocal harmonies here, but that's about it. 1.7
I don’t understand why Brian Wilson should be relevant in 2004.
It's a lot of noise with a handful of decent arrangements and harmonies. Only weirdo boomers and true music snobs will appreciate this. 2/5
Meh
Too much of a musical theater vibe for me
a weird collection of weird songs I like "Good vibrations" but does that count?
Unless you're a Brian Wilson or Beach Boys fan, this is probably not going to be that impressive.
Tröttsamt efter en stund :(
Oväntat trist.
Too long
I like Brian Wilson and I like the Beach Boys but there's something about this album that a slog to listen to. What's probably a 1 is a 2 for me because its Brian Wilson.
point3.
I am not a fan but from everything I read I am in the minority.
Nice
Glad he finally this out of his system I guess…but the fuck? & this guy had the audacity to say that 2000s “rap music” was the lowest point of the music industry? This is some Sgt Peppers shit. Only reason it’s not getting a 1 is cuz Good Vibrations is that good & the occasional reminder that this is The Beach Boys guy.
Oh, what could have been. Feels like had this been recorded at this team it could have been an all time classic, but the 2004 children's tv sounding, over polished production is just too much to look past for me. Sorry Brian, you're still one of the greats
Meh. I like the beach boys enough but it just feels very 'samey' after a while. This album even more so.
Too much...
2.5
wind chimes is pretty good
I have to say I was expecting a bit more from the founder of the Beach Boys.
Pretty creative but not my cup of tea
Fiebertraum Musik. Wenn es ein Paralleluniversum gibt in dem alle Menschen Clowns sind läuft solche Musik 24/7 im Radio.
I’m sure this is brilliant and I’m just too much of a heathen to understand it. But to my primitive ears, it sounds like Wilson is trying way too hard (“Oohh, lyrics in the native Hawaiian tongue”) 🌺. And at the same, time, it’s very predictable. I’ll pass. It’s a 2 — maybe a 1, but he just died, so … 2.
Since Brian Wilson passed away yesterday, getting this album today isn't a coincidence, is it? I just can't get into this music, it all sounds hokey and something I would have heard during a wedding reception as a kid in the 70's, played by the local band made up of the bride's Dad's friends.
Probably would like the Beach Boys version better
I don't like the sound of Brian Wilson songs. I don't know what it is. I appreciate the complexities and nuances in his work when I'm listening for it, but I don't like the sound he's going for. The Beach Boys songs without him are dumber and emptier, but I tend to like them more (although I'm still not big on them). I honestly don't know what it is. I can't hate this, but I can't like it, either.
Found this rather boring
..
I get that he's a genius but only pockets of his music resonate with me. THis was okay, probably needs repeated listens to truly appreciate. Mid 2s
This was my first time hearing his solo work. Lovely harmonies, as expected from him. A lot of songs sound disjointed or unfinished though. It's a shame. The strangest song was Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. My favourite part was Child Is Father of the Man & Surf's Up and of course Good Vibrations.
Pretty sure this came up because Brian Wilson passed yesterday. So much for random album selection. I’m going to call this a okay album because I feel like I’m missing something that others are seeing as brilliant. Sometimes it sounds like The Beach Boys with the lush harmonies. I can see where this would have been a follow up to Pet Sounds with the orchestral elements. But this mostly felt like a bunch of song fragments patched together in the studio. The lyrics were often childish and tiresome. Had anyone else done this album, I feel like this would’ve never been released.
Hmmm.... ok. Nao é minha praia
There are the so-called guilty pleasures in the music world, but when it comes to the Beach Boys, I came up with a brand-new concept I call "Guilty Unpleasure" — it describes the situation where I hate something that everyone else seems to love. As universally acclaimed as the Beach Boys’ work might be from Pet Sounds onward, I can’t stand it. Of course, there are songs from that era that I do love — like Wouldn’t It Be Nice, God Only Knows, and in the case of that album, Good Vibrations — but the rest I find simply unbearable. ------------------------------------ Existem os chamados "guilty pleasures" no mundo da música, mas quando se trata de Beach Boys eu criei um conceito inédito chamado "Guilty Unpleasure", que define a situação de quando eu odeio algo que todo mundo ama. Por mais universalmente aclamado que seja o trabalho do Beach Boys a partir do Pet Sounds, eu detesto. Claro que há músicas que eu adoro dessa fase, como Wouldnt it be Nice, God Only Knows em no caso desse álbum, Good Vibrations, mas o resto eu acho simplesmente insuportável.
I just don't care for this
Mstig
Honestly, I'm not a fan, not of the beach boys either
It does not fall apart from the Beach Boys. Same style, guitars, voice… Sounds like a tribute to Beach Boys.
Mostly happy songs, good vibrations the only hit. It kind of saved the album at the end 2.5/5stars
Some good songs but overall meh
Not my thing - sound kind of like a kids' album.
RIP Brian Wilson
I was given this one the day after Brian died, so thought it was going to feel very significant... maybe there's still too much punk in me but I've never gotten the hype around Brian Wilson. Surely I'm missing something, I know those arrangements on Pet Sounds are incredible well thought out and the harmonis are beautiful... but it never grabbed me. And this? It sounds every bit of the long battle it took to make the record, in a bad way. It's ambitious for sure, but it feels to me like someone very consciously trying to create their magnum opus, getting in their own way and ultimately failing to realise it. It's a mess. Unfocused, indulgent, goofy, the lyrics and use of old tunes are very cheesy and all in all the songs just aren't there. Very talented man with an extremely difficult upbringing, but remove the mystique and this is little more than giving free reign of the studio to someone who would have been a great choir master.
Something about this project does not sit right with me. Did Wilson genuinely want to do this project or was he manipulated into making BWPS? I've read quite a bit about this project and I'm really not sure. Musically, it lies somewhere between 1960s Beach Boys and a Gershwin-esque exploration of pop music. It is both pop and classical music. At the same time it sounds like a pastiche rather than authentic. I cannot put my finger on it, but it sounds sterile. An oddity.
I really wanted to like this one, but it just felt like songs for kids. The highlight was hearing “Good Vibrations.” I don’t even know what this album was supposed to be really.
Can appreciate why this is meaningful for many but just, not my thing
I tried, but it was too flowery for me. Plus I kept thinking about the scene in Walk Hard, where Dewey Cox is in his Smile phase and brings goats into the studio....
Without question, Wilson is a highly inventive songwriter, capable of complex harmonies and chord progressions. But this album has two major flaws: First, Wilson is too old for the youthful tone he seeks here. He needed to adapt the album to his much older sensibility, or record it 5 decades ago. Second, it's just too much of him. Too many stacked layers of his odd falsetto and weird vocal rhythms. He needed more musicians to fill out the sound, even if he's the mastermind. It would have been brilliant in the '60s, but it's an odd anachronism decades later.
Hard to score it as a 2 star, but it’s pretty rough at spots.
Meh
It's ok! RIP Mr.Wilson
that one I sold. didn't like it much.
Huh well isn’t this a quinky dink?Brian Wilson died yesterday. I’ve never listened to this before. Feels like a good day for it. Unpopular opinion alert, I just don’t like this. I know it’s genius and original but it just doesn’t hit for me. I feel bad that I don’t like it more. At times like this I am starkly reminded how un California I am.
Never heard Brian's solo music. I can see why the generator gave me his album now (RIP) 2/5
Quite disappointing
The album as a whole is okay and Brians voice is easy to recognize. But to me there is something missing that a lot of beach boys songs have and I can't quite put my finger on what. This isn't bad by any means but not something I will listen to again I think.
I respect the man and all but this wasn't it. RIP.
With Brian Wilson's death yesterday, receiving this album today feels a bit eerie. I am a fan of the Beach Boys, but a fan of the original Beach Boys material prior to 1970. With the exception of Kokomo, I am not a fan of pretty much any of the later work. Academically, I admit, I was intrigued to hear a 2004 version of "Good Vibrations", and the rest of the album, but ultimately, with due respect to Brian's significant accomplishments in American pop music, these versions felt like they lacked the vitality of the originals, and the rest of the album didn't click with me at all. They were just a pale imitation of the originals. The performance skills were top tier, but the changes to the material were not. I am stunned that British don't hear the difference.
Not a Beach Boys fan and this just The Beach Boys in the 2000s.
I only ever liked a couple Beach Boy songs. This is actually pretty bad.
Eerie. Brian Wilson died yesterday, and today's album of the day is by him. The closeness and connection to the Beach Boys, with whom I can't do much, is audible. Nevertheless, something else also resonates. In the end, it sounded too much like the Beach Boys to me. And that still sticks with me. 2/5
What a coincidence that I got this album a day after Wilson passed away. This album left me a bit confused. All the things that made the Beach Boys sound so unique are here. However, there is also this peculiar choice of sounds, instruments, and lyrics. Somehow, I'm reminded of a children's music album.
Unfassbar schlechtes Album mit Musik wie von einer Beatles-Cover-Band im falschen Jahrzehnt. Es passen weder Stil, Zeit noch Konzept und es bleibt ein qualvolles Gejaule.
There are some decent parts here, but overall you can tell these are mostly just Beach Boys throwaways.
This album is a wacky freakin' ride. Super experimental and strange for a pop record. If i had little crumb-snatching kids I'd probably play this for them all the time and let them get weird with it. This feels like a work you have to treat like watching a movie in the theatre - it demands a fully dedicated listen. Put on some decent cans and just sit there in a chair with your eyes closed, immersed in the production value and compositions. Listening to it while doing practically anything else, however, it's hard to imagine a setting or moment that I would want to soundtrack this with. Perhaps a room with oil lamp projections and wigs and pillows and hallucinogenic substances... (Though, by the time you get to Mrs. O'Leary's Cow the walls and your face would start melting for sure). I think of Pet Sounds as the first emo record and a remarkable time capsule that captured a cultural moment and holds up to just putting on whenever. All of the lore and controversy surrounding SMiLE resulted in a sort of hype that is pretty impossible to ignore; or live up to. That said, this doesn't really do it for me. It feels like a lot of unfinished, half-baked ideas sandwiched and smashed and shoehorned in between two recognizable bookend songs that provide some sort of grounding to anchor the whole exercise. That said, I can nevertheless appreciate that this might be an important piece of work. The experimental, fragmentary deconstruction and reconstruction of Wilson's creative legacy evident here is kinda fascinating. Sure, it's art. But like some some important painting I would never wanna hang on the wall, it's also kinda just a widely-celebrated cultural artifact to me: I really have no idea where it would fit into my listening habits or personal aesthetics.
Don't understand why anyone would listen to this when Pet Sounds exists much prefer Pet Sounds songs and style
A very strange experiment of how many instruments you can put together that really just don't go together.
This was almost tough one to review. First of all, R.I.P Brian, I got the album curated the day after his death. I have never listened to the beach boys and I think this was a "you had to be there to get it" kind of thing, this album is special to fans as it was the album that was never made but today I don't think it holds up as well. I felt the album didn't really have a direction, the lyrics were arbitrary and I felt like this was the sound track to a play I didn't watch. 'Heroes and Villans' and 'Good Vibrations' were good songs and if the album was consistent with these then it would be a 4/5 for me
Ugh wanted to like it but it found me on a day when I just felt it was grating.
RIP Brian Wilson.
Every track except except Surf’s Up violently overstimulated me
I don't GET IT
Have basically never come around on these recordings and much prefer the older ones. For BW's sake I'm glad it happened at all, but...
This is one of those albums where half of everyone’s glowing reviews mention the big long complicated backstory for its production as a major part of the reason why it’s good or important. I tried to go in with an open mind, but I just didn’t “get it,” I guess. Even after learning about its whole history it didn’t click with me. RIP Brian Wilson
Pet Sounds was my very first album on this challenge, and my feelings toward Smile are much the same - I love the production, but the cotton-candy sweetness of their singing wears thin real fast. It feels really silly to dislike something so cheerful and whimsy in sound, especially given the sheer ambition on display. It's all the more a shame to not fully enjoy the project in light of Brian Wilson's passing yesterday. Try as I might, though, I just can't seem to vibe with the music. Standout: Heroes & Villains
Similar to things like Count Basie, big band music, that we've had before, this is just a style and era of music that doesn't hit with me. I can appreciate the technical accomplishment and the cultural phenomenon of The Beach Boys, but this isn't it for me. Solid 2.
Alright gents I’m back rating albums after a ~3ish month break. Time to catch up. Is it too late for an RIP Brian Wilson? Ironically I just finished with my semiannual Beach Boys music listening bender. Fun fact, none of these songs made the cut. Not that these songs are like really bad. It just feels like what it is, an old guy attempting to copy the musical formula that crushed 40 years earlier. Idk why I feel hateful right now, I do really love Brian Wilson’s songwriting. This album just isn’t what I will ever know him by. There are interesting and cute moments in this album, I just don’t know if this album should make the cut to be on this list. Strong 2/Weak 3.
Pretty disappointing. I wanted this to be amazing but it sounds more like pet sounds leftovers at best. Makes me feel sorry for Brian Wilson, this clearly took a lot of work but just isn’t very good. 2/5. PS I don’t like how this album was “generated” bc Wilson died, rather it be truly a random album no matter what.
Not my jam
Not surprised to get this album today of all days, and obviously RIP Brian, but what on earth were you on about here It's not horrific, it's just bizarre and deeply all over the place - yes you know how to write songs and harmonies, but you also need to make them ACTUAL songs
Brian just died so now isn’t a great time to say that I don’t like his solo work or the Beach Boys is it? 1.65
3/10 - I really don’t like his voice it seems. Idk the songs were alright but he just sounded goofy
OKish album. It makes me feel cozy, while still holding the original style present in some of Beach Boys songs.
There are so many sounds layered over each song that at times it becomes cacophonous. I'm sure there are good songs in there somewhere but it's hard to hear through all the noise. Would I listen to it again: No
Listening to this the day after Brian Wilson has died. I can only be honest. I don't like it. It seems that every 30 seconds a new song has started or a new melody or a return to Heroes and Villains. It's too much.
Joo ei, ei vaan toimi itselle tämä. Ei omaan makuun.
Maybe because it came straight of the back of a Beach Boys album, but just didn't get on with this.
Nah, this wasn't for me. RIP Brian Wilson :(
# 501 : SMILE : 12/06/2025 : Probably not a coincidence, but I got this on the day that he died, anyway, it was a bit nostalgic and ordinary. I don't love it, I don't hate it. A couple of things stood out but nothing that made me go Wow!. It’s ok, but not great.
this album was released in 2004... except it sounds exactly like every other Beach Boys album from 1968. poppy melodies, blended vocal harmonies. I guess if that's how you write songs then this album is what you might expect. Not my cup of tea
Didn't not hit like I thought it would.
incredible timing for this. it's good and uplifting, but a little repetitive.
I was going to give this 3 stars - it's a pleasant enough listen - but then there were just a few too many lurches to something more avantgarde which didn't really land for me.
calm, good
Hymnal....like walking past a monestry.
No-one can tell me there was anything interesting on this album besides Good Vibrations.
Not for me, strange happy but uncanny
I’m not a fan of the Beach Boys so I wasn’t too excited about listening to this. I think this was going to be a Beach Boys album before it got canned so I feel this is a BB album. It was okay and not unpleasant to listen to but I’m not sure I’d listen again. Brian contributed a lot to music though and I respect that RIP
Beach boys adjacent - did not care for this style of rock, as described by Apple Music
????
Not for me. It was ok
Not really my thing. RIP
It was all the same and seeemed way too peopy. Nice harmony though
A fascinating musical history, and I definitely appreciate the effort by Brian Wilson. However, would I ever listen to this again? I don't think so.
Sonically very interesting but there was so much going on that it was tricky to follow and just felt all over the place.
good vibrations. it let you listen to it with a smile in your face. 2.5/5
I don't know, man. It sounds like the Beach Boys, but instead written and performed by a bunch of young guys on drugs, it's written and performed by a bunch of old guys on drugs, which I suppose it is. Sure?
2/5, not good and not for me
Brian Wilson died yesterday (6/11/25) and then this album pops up. This album is not that bad but it’s not music for me. It’s music for boomers that grew up with The Beach Boys and are nostalgic for that. Some of the songs are catchy but some sound unfinished and silly.
Rip
Interesting for sure, but did I actually enjoy it? Not really.
I like the idea of returning to an unfinished project, and the music by no means is bad and I didn’t mind listening at times, I think the bigger question is was this needed? To me it’s trying so hard to be another pet sounds and because of that it can sound dated especially with all the musical moments that are call backs to it. If I wanted pet sounds I’ll listen to it. I can tell this is especially for the really big beach boys/Brian Wilson fans but probably not for me
A few high points but not really for me 2
Not for me....
A collection of fairly tales, nursery rhymes, children's stories with a dash of music hall. Had heard Smiley Smile before but this is different, feels more like a theatre performance than an album. I can see some of the appeal but it just didn't click for me. Brian Wilson died yesterday and he gave us some brilliant music over his lifetime, which was very troubled. If anyone deserved a chance to rerecord their dream album it was him, even if I'm not a fan!
Happy but redundant
Well done but not my vibe
I don’t really have anything novel to say about this. I listened to it and didn’t hate it, but it just felt majorly drab and I can’t say I would actively listen to any of it if I happened to hear it again. Most likely I would switch the radio/skip.
He literally died day before this came up. Couple of great songs and that was it for me. This can't match beach boys surely. It's just 60/70s pop that hasn't lasted? It's not bad but quite samey. I will avoid the long waffle I just don't think this breaks through.
Bra musiker men jag skulle inte lyssna på det igen.
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.
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.
#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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
Of its time. Overdue, overrated and probably should have been left unfinished.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Beach Boys repetitions
Feel like I should like it more but it’s just what you expect
Bleh
Nope.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
#576. I don't really want to listen to this whole thing. 2/5: please stop.
could i write poetry to this? n
Meh, didn't hate it. But it sound suspiciously like the background music in a Goodwill.
Interesting instrumentals brought down by short songs with strange lyrics.
Es ist zu durcheinander, in den Liedern passiert zu viel auf einmal. Und die guten Lieder dieses Albums höre ich lieber als Originalfassung
After listening, I read that this was (based on) a previously abandoned album, and I could tell why they abandoned it.
Bit weird
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
Being géneros with my score
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Blech
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.
Very beach boys like, understandably
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.
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 didn’t like this at all
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.
Frustratingly boring, a hard listen. 1.5
interesting doesn’t necessarily mean good, brian
eh
This is one of those albums that I think if I liked the Beach Boys at all I would have cared so much more but as it stands it just really didn’t make an impression on me.
As an unrepentant Beach Boy fan, this was delightful suggestion. However, I can see why the project was originally scrapped in the 60s. Nothing on here is as compelling as early Beach Boy stuff. In fact most of it seems very childish - they always had some playful songs, but these are just too much at times. Barnyard is a very weird song. So is Vega-tables...I am deducting points just for those two. Bummer, I so wanted to like this.
It’s like a drug fueled Beach Boys children’s album. Unsettling.
RIP Brian. Unfortunately this did not work for me - its a sonic assualt of ideas / snippets and lesser versions of Pet Sounds tracks and a song about effin vegetables.
Brian Wilson was a tortured genius, and Pet Sounds was proof of the genius. Smile, in it's resurrected effort decades later, is proof of the torture. It attempts to revive the brilliance of Pet Sounds, but it just comes off as chaotic and haphazard. Even the reworking of Good Vibrations is just...less. Perhaps that's why it's was included, so Brian Wilson could subtly tell us not to judge this effort against the 1960s brilliance, but use this as a guidepost on which to compare where the true high water make may have been if this had been completed back then. As it is, it feels like a disoriented children's album.
Sorry but this is an irritating mess. Good Vibrations is great though
So there are a couple iconic songs on here, namely Surf’s Up and Good Vibrations. But outside that, it’s pretty self indulgent
Beach Boys without the name
Some instrumental - not my fsvorite
Not for me personally
I did not get this at all. The random noises, sound effects, and the incessant whoops were just annoying. Every time I started to enjoy a song (which was rare), it would be drowned out by the noises, or a completely different song would suddenly interrupt for a few seconds. Songs that I particularly hated include Barnyard and Vega-Tables. Contrary to the title, this overly long and irritating album did not in fact make me smile
really boring, and I lost interest really quickly. The only reason that this isn't a one-star is because it looks like someone has created this album cover on Microsoft Paint
It was fine. Although I spent the whole album thinking I’d rather be listening to Pet Sounds
Heroes and Villians is an alright track but the rest of it is kinda forgettable
Listen to Wonderful. This is when I decided no higher than two stars.
Not one for me.
Sounded like a beachboys album...
Good vibrations is the only song I enjoyed on this album, and that's because he actually changed pitch for once. Even then I skipped it towards the end just to get over this album. Didn't enjoy the high pitched singing over high pitched layers of him going 'Do-Do' all the way fucking through. Literally felt like I was trapped in a Willy Wonka Nightmare. Another old white man track to the list of 1001 boomer albums.
I think Brian Wilson is a genius, Pet Sounds is an incredible album. A very interesting man, a sad and complicated life. A lot of this albums hype came from the achievement to BW, having finally released it after it sat unfinished since the 60s, overcoming his mental battles ect ect. It's a bit circus music in places, just doesn't have the same charm as Beach Boys, all a bit Disney at points with the slide whistles and sound effect. I certainly wouldn't pop this album on. Good Vibrations always slaps though tbf It's a shame because I think the man is brilliant otherwise lol.
I just couldn’t get along with this. It was very hard work. Harmonies just like the beach boys but I never felt like any of the songs actually came together as songs. Just Brian Wilson doing Veian Wilson.
Horseshit, lahme Songs, manche Songs einfach nur komische Geräusche, holt mich nicht ab. Für die Geschichte und einzelne Songs, gerade noch 2 Sterne gerettet.
I could not get into Pet Sounds when I tried years ago, so a discount Beach Boys album is obviously not going to be epiphanic. (Though I remain slightly hopeful for when the former inevitably shows up for me on this list.)
I don't see how this appeals to an audience beyond hardcore Beach Boy fans of which I was never one.
Sorry, but this is so unappealing to me.
Wince.
I don't get it
Great in retrospect. But this sound is very dated. Good historical reference but no longer valid or listenable.
The Brian Wilson harmonies you expect, but with much fewer hooks and choruses to sing along to.
It's like they just gave Brian Wilson some acid and let him loose in the studio playing with the equipment. PEt Sounds may be a masterpiece, but this is some real half baked sort of songs that wasn't a great listen
I saw Vega-Tables and was thinking about options... and then it went into health food. -sigh- :P
I accidentally read reviews on this album before I listened to it, so my rating is a bit skewed, I think. I like the Beach Boys, and I liked the new versions of Heroes & Villains and Good Vibrations, but the stuff in between sounded like unfinished songs that were pieced together.
I could respect the history behind the making of this album, but I wasn't a fan
I'll need to relisten to this. Some I enjoyed, some I appreciated, some just wasn't what I wanted to listen to at the time.
2.5/5
Its rich, more like robust. Like he used every knob in the sound room and every instrument in the studio and used that constantly irritating beach boys harmony.
Not my type of music
A little indulgent, maybe?
Irritating songs with some interesting musical effects.
Acapella, more like acapell-NAWWWW Mrs. O'Leary's Cow was a trip. Interesting concept, didn't care for the execution. Definitely grew on me towards the end though.
Well that was really weird. I felt like I was stuck in a terrible acid trip that I could not escape. It at least had some portions of cool instrumentals but the singing was freaking me out the whole time. This get a 2.0000000000000001 star
2.5
took Brian Wilson nearly 40 years to get this album made and then i just came on here and gave it two stars for having too many annoying clown sound effects
I’m not much of a Beach Boys fan. I can appreciate some of their more upbeat material, and I admire their commitment to psychedelia, but I just don’t connect deeply. The harmonies are pretty, of course, at least for a little while, but that seems simply a matter of technical skill. I just don’t understand the need to revisit a whole bunch of old tunes so many years later. They’re clever tunes, but not emotionally engaging, and I woulda just left ‘em where they were. Actually, I listened to the demo sessions of the old material, and quite preferred it.