Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun
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Free Music Notes for The Warmth of the Sun
Free Music Review: A Beachboys fan must.
Hit: 5 Stars
There are numerous Beachboys Best CDs but I think over all this has the best selection of songs throughout all their recordings.Free Music Review: Give me more!
Hit: 5 Stars
As a Beach Boys fan since their very first I can say is "Give Me More of these fine sounds"Free Music Review: My feel-good music
Hit: 5 Stars
Beach Boys music never fails to make me feel good and always brings great memories to mind.Free Music Review: Lingering Summer Leftovers
Hit: 4 Stars
The amazing thing about The Beach Boys' new collection `The Warmth of the Sun' is that they have any additional material to offer after the incredible `Sounds of Summer'. Generous like before, the twenty-eight songs, nevertheless, are a mixed bag. But if you've paid your dues like me, anyone can mix and match these two collections without having to wait for the perfect collection. Cynically, if they had taken out about five songs from `Sounds of Summer' and put in the best of `The Warmth of the Sun,' few would argue the best Beach Boys' collection could have been conceived without our own editing tools. Marketing wouldn't have it that way. Besides `The Warmth of the Sun' has plenty of accommodations in its own right.
How could we forget such essential numbers as the finale title track, "All Summer Long," the multi-layered "Catch a Wave," or the essential and primitive "409"? The rest of the nuggets are real or fool's gold, but the lesser material serves its own purpose. In the middle are pleasant numbers from "Kiss Me Baby" through most of the material up to "Cool, Cool Water". Pleasant, but often forgettable, many of these songs serve up a mellow Beach Boys' outing. Meant for the sand or the living room, these songs serve as snooze control during the siesta portions of summer. (In their defense, even the lesser numbers have excellent multi-layered harmonizing that can't be beat.) Not exactly a direct parallel, but the two collections almost split fast and slow like the Beatles' collections, `Rock and Roll Music' and `Love Songs'.
There are hidden gems along the way to be sure. The terrific little "Hawaii" and the catchy gem "Little Honda" continue the greatness from the beginning. We're kept alive and awake up to and concluding with the playful "It's okay." Much later "Break Away" and the obscure, but excellent "Sail on Sailor" shake us out of the summer nap that's been laid before us. Furthermore, "California Saga" is a nice rhythmic variation of "California Girls," and "Don't Go Near the Water" is a quirky, but impressive multi-layered appeal for environmental integrity. Their remakes are better than average, too. Brian Wilson being influenced by the girl groups The Shirelles and the Crystals, produces good alternative versions of "Then I Kissed Her" and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?". Near the end we are treated to a luxuriously produced tribute to fellow icons The Mamas and the Papas with their own "California Dreamin'".
`The Warmth of the Sun' is properly titled. Whether better suited for the I-Pod or MP3 player while lying on the sand is the luxury of choice. Just be aware that the C.D. can be dangerous if you're inordinately tired and stuck in traffic.
Free Music Review: + 1/2 stars...Why Did They Leave Off 'Caroline, No'?
Hit: 4 Stars
As other reviewers have noted, THE WARMTH OF THE SUN makes an excellent companion volume to 2003's superb SOUNDS OF SUMMER. Between 1962 and 1988, the Beach Boys charted 33 singles on Billboard's Top 40 (34 if you count 1981's "The Beach Boy Medley"). Thirty of those singles appeared on SOUNDS OF SUMMER. That left only "The Little Girl I Once Knew," "Caroline, No" and "It's O.K." for this new release. Inexplicably, "Caroline, No" is not included here. [In fact, there are no tracks from 1967's ground-breaking PET SOUNDS.]
So with only a handful of singles and well known album tracks, the 28 tracks found on THE WARMTH OF THE SUN enable the compilers to plumb deeper into the Beach Boys' catalog. Tracks range from 1962's "409" (the b-side to "Surfin' Safari" taken from their Capitol debut) to 1986's cover of the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" (which features some terrific 12-string guitar playing from Roger McGuinn).
This latest collection was compiled and sequenced by surviving group members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston. While Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of these songs (including three tracks from the minor classic LP ALL SUMMER LONG), Johnston wrote the gorgeous "Disney Girls (1957)" and Jardine composed the lush "California Saga (On My Way to Sunny Californ-i-a)" which went Top 40 in the U.K. in 1973.
[Note: New stereo mixes are included for the following songs: "All Summer Long," "You're So Good to Me," "Then I Kissed Her," "Please Let Me Wonder," "Let Him Run Wild" and "Wendy."]
While the Beach Boys only reached the Top 10 twice after 1966's "Good Vibrations," this compilation shows that they were still an artistically viable band decades after their commercial heyday. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED