Album Reviews

First of all the back cover photo doesn't include Brian Wilson! What's that all about?

Harvey Kubernik's three part  Smile extravaganza beginning here: http://www.musicangle.com/feat.php?id=191 tell you everything you ever wanted to know about this mythical album that only existed until now only as snippets and pieces and probably some things you didn't want to know. 

That it finally was released in 2011—and on vinyl yet—and created a major sensation even though many of the songs were assembled from parts and issued on other albums, is testament to its mythical staying power and its pull on the musical imagination of Beach Boys fans worldwide.

While the world waited Sean O'Hagan formed The High Llamas and built a career based on what was issued from these sessions (particularly Cabin Essence) and of course the whole of  Pet Sounds. 

Later, as Brian Wilson explains in the set's notes, he dabbled in Smile: tracks were issued on the ...Good Vibrations box set and then Van Dyke Parks and Wilson's "musical secretary" Darian Sahanaja produced a finished version of the album that Wilson toured with. People loved it live and Wilson later recorded and released it.

But it wasn't the original legend and people still clamored for it even though it never really existed, other than in pieces that were never fully assembled. Wilson created a musical template in 2004 and using it Mark Linett, Alan Boyd and Dennis Wolfe edited, re-edited and sequenced a finished album that finally met with Brian Wilson's approval. But as Linett writes in the CD box set's liner notes, had only razor blade and analog tape been available as editing tools, it's not likely this project ever would or could have been finished.

It's been out for a while now and it made it to #27 on the Billboard pop charts. Not exactly a blockbuster, but not bad for a 40+ year old album! And who cares about being popular anyway? Better to be good than popular.

Wilson says the music was "serious," and no doubt it was, but it was also whimsical, goofy and childish particularly in its instrumentation, which often sounded like it was orchestrated by Emenee, but that can be deceiving because underneath the surface are sophisticated rhythmic and tonal constructions anchored by complex arrangements and on the surface were Parks' often abstract lyrics that Mike Love (who now looks alarmingly like Bob Hope!) didn't appreciate though he and the others and them well.

The "Frankenstein" stereo version of "Surf's Up" found on the album of the same name sure sounds more luxurious and mysterious than the original mono version here but this has an attractive directness and forthright economy missing from the 1971 stereo edition pieced together by Carl with his lead vocal on the first section followed by an old double tracked Brian vocal from 1966.  

The songs other than the best known ones  "Heroes and Villains," "Surf's Up,"  "Vega-Tables" "Wind Chimes" and "Good Vibrations" mostly serve as effective bridges for those and help to create a coherent musical narrative.

Some say Van Dyke Parks "ruined" Brian Wilson, others (the more enlightened) say this was Wilson's best work. Even if you find the lyrics pretentious and some of the songs goofy, if you listen below the surface to the arrangements, you can only marvel at what Wilson was up to during this most experimental period. 

In fact, the more you listen, the more you'll marvel. "Good Vibrations" speaks for itself and anyone old enough to remember when it came out in 1966 and dominated AM radio airplay knows how it changed the musical fermament—if just when it aired!

Side four consists of stereo mixes of "Vega-Tables," "Wind Chimes" "Cabin Essence" and "Surf's Up" plus the bonus track "You're Welcome" that opens the side. 

Whether you listen as an arranging and engineering workshop or just to enjoy the tunes, the release of Smile both closes and opens a  chapter in American musical history. You can take much of what you hear for granted until you get to the "Cabin Essence" studio highights and then you realize that real people sitting in a real studio were playing all of this crazy and complex stuff all directed and supervised by the musical master Brian Wilson all of 24 at the time.

Of course this was cut from a digital source but Chris Bellman manages to make it sound much better than the CD versions of the same tunes and Rainbo's 180g pressing quality is acceptable and generally quiet. If you're really smitten, you'll want at least the two CD set that contains much more studio stuff and assorted outtakes.