The Beach Boys - Sunflower / Surf's Up
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Free Music Notes for Sunflower / Surf's Up
Free Music Review: Wonderful
Hit: 5 Stars
I was asked by a good friend if I wanted to see Brian Wilson in concert on July 11, 2000. I figured why not? I had been a Beach Boy fan for a number of years and thought it might be interesting. I never expected that the concert would be great! The concert rekindled a renewed in Wilson and the Beach Boys. For many years I had been searching for Surf's Up and Holland on CD. Surfing through Amazon, I came upon this CD. More familiar with Surf's Up than Sunflower, I quickly ordered it. As great as their music was in their "surfing" and "hot-rod" years, these two albums contain some of the band's best work. While not as commercially successful, it is my humble opinion that Sunflower is the better of the two. Others may disagree, but I think that "Add Some Music to Your Day" is one of the Beach Boys greatest songs. Both CD's capture the growing maturation of Brian Wilson and the rest of the band at this point in their career. If you are a Beach Boy fan and are not familiar with this material, you will be pleasantly surprised. If you do remember it, it is as fresh today as it was 30 years ago (with the possible exception of "Student Demonstration Time"). Thanks Amazon for offering such a great selection!Free Music Review: childrens' songs?
Hit: 5 Stars
Reading the reviews, you'll note a lot of "I dunno what to think about Surf's Up" from both the pros and the rest of us. Here's a highly personal take, but one which makes sense, I think. Our free clue is the line which underscores the emotional climax of the lovely and extraordinary title song: "I heard the word, wonderful thing, a childrens' song..." Isn't this an album of childrens' songs? I suspect so. Heard in this context, several of the Surf's Up tunes, such as "Don't Go Near the Water", "Take a Load Off Your Feet", and "A Day in The Life Of a Tree", considered "naive" by reviewers, take on a good-natured charm which reminds me of something like Shonen Knife's cleverly political "Little Tree", or some of McCartney's tunes which seem intended for kids. I bet these are too, and that explains the mystery.Regardless, this is really a fine and beautiful album. It might be worth noting that it's Carl's little masterpiece "Feel Flows" which made it onto the "Almost Famous" soundtrack, rather than one of Brian's songs. IMO, that's a pretty impressive endorsement of the post-Smile Beach Boys, without Brian at his peak.
Free Music Review: I missed out on this one but making up for it
Hit: 5 Stars
So I'm a late Beach Boys fan, thanks to a compilation a friend made for me with some great songs. I was motivated to surf my way through their works. I got this one first. It's amazing. I've heard "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" enjoyed them wholeheartedly but I wasn't prepared for this. This is sheerly astounding. It aches me how good it is and that it slipped through the popular music cracks in it's day. I couldn't believe it. "This Whole World", "Deirdre", "All I Wanna Do", "Forever", "Cool, Cool Water" and that's just what hit me hard on Sunflower. They already sound like the greatest BB songs I've ever heard. "This Whole World" just warms me too much for words, Brian has that charm with his voice and lyrics, he's a clever clever musician, good at making the listener join him on his ingenius musical romps. It feels like they're traipsing over their melodies, it shows by how short "This Whole World" is, that they can merely grace over something that could in fact be a great deal longer, but this isn't that group. No, they want to keep it beachy and they really really do. Surf's Up's great too, but I felt like I might have given something away going into what I liked about Sunflower so I'll just stop there.Free Music Review: surf's up - at last....
Hit: 5 Stars
On holiday recently in San Francisco I was shocked to find how little Beach Boys back catalogue was available in their native California. Returning to the UK I was delighted to see that SURF'S UP had finally made it to CD - I'd despaired of ever seeing it in that format. I bought this album on vinyl when a student and loved it immediately, but somewhere along the line my copy went walkabout.... Interestingly the reaction to SURF'S UP's re-release on Amazon's UK website is more positive than on its US counterpart. Yes, there are duff tracks here (Student Demonstration Time is awful), but some of the most beautiful (perhaps THE most beautiful) songs the Beach Boys ever recorded - Disney Girls, Until I Die, and the title track especially. I reckon this is one of the great albums, period, and I'd recommend it to any Beach Boys follower, or anyone who thrills to the art of close harmony singing. And on THAT subject, would Capitol PLEASE now get their finger out and start transferring at least some of the original albums by the FOUR FRESHMEN (e.g. Voices in Love, Freshmen Favorites), acknowledged by the Beach Boys as a seminal influence? Now that really would be interesting....Free Music Review: musical bliss
Hit: 5 Stars
At a time when the band we're looked upon as 'yesterdays news', and an increasing lack of interest from their leader Brian Wilson, the Beach boys proved that their song writing spark was far from dwindling. Hailed as 'second only to Pet Sounds' by many critics and fans alike, Sunflower not only features such strong Brian Wilson tracks as 'This whole world' & 'Cool, Cool water', but it also saw the emergence of Dennis Wilson & Bruce Johnston as very capable songwriters. Johnstons' Beatlesque 'deirdre' & Dennis Wilsons' beautiful song 'forever' clearly showed that Brian was'nt the only one capable of 'genius' qualities in the band. Another shining quality of Sunflower( & the previous 20/20 & Friends albums) is that the boys were starting to use the new stereo facilities available to produce more lush sounding backing tracks and amazing stereophonic vocal harmonies as heard on such tracks as 'add some music' & 'All I wanna do'.Previously unavailable on cd for many years, this re-release is a must-have for any beach boys fan, & will hopefully one day recieve the shining recognition that it should have recieved in 1970.