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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 27, 2020 23:49:56 GMT
That, along with lonelysummer's choice of Youngblood and Carl Wilson, is the most surprising album I've seen picked. Youngblood is a good album, maybe a very good album. Possibly Carl's best ANY album vocally, some good ballads and rockers. As BB solo albums go, I have it:
1. Pacific Ocean Blue 2. No Pier Pressure 3. Youngblood
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 1, 2020 13:44:10 GMT
1. Pet Sounds 2. Today 3. Sunflower 4. That's Why God Made the Radio 5. Smile 6. SDSN 7. All Summer Long 8. No Pier Pressure 9. Love You 10. MIU Interesting ranking with That's Why God Made The Radio AHEAD OF SMiLE, Summer Days (And Summer Nights), and All Summer Long. If I remember correctly, I think you're a fairly young and new BB fan. Does the newness of the album (and probably your first NEW BB album) influence your ranking?
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Post by kds on Feb 1, 2020 19:15:58 GMT
TWGMTR cracked my top ten while Smile didnt. For me, its partly sentimental since its the only BB album I experienced in real time, but eight years later, I still find myself playing it far more than Smile. Also, the best parts of Smile are available on other albums.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 1, 2020 19:35:30 GMT
TWGMTR cracked my top ten while Smile didnt. For me, its partly sentimental since its the only BB album I experienced in real time, but eight years later, I still find myself playing it far more than Smile. Also, the best parts of Smile are available on other albums. Oh, I've given up on you. After all of these years, and trying to wear you down, you STILL don't recognize The Beach Boys Love You for the great album it is!
But there's still time to work on The Cincinnati Kid.
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Post by kds on Feb 1, 2020 23:19:54 GMT
TWGMTR cracked my top ten while Smile didnt. For me, its partly sentimental since its the only BB album I experienced in real time, but eight years later, I still find myself playing it far more than Smile. Also, the best parts of Smile are available on other albums. Oh, I've given up on you. After all of these years, and trying to wear you down, you STILL don't recognize The Beach Boys Love You for the great album it is!
But there's still time to work on The Cincinnati Kid.
I can't believe The Beach Boys would advertise an album like that. Its almost like they don't care about their legacy at all. If it helps, I do like Love You better than SIP.....most days.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Feb 5, 2020 2:38:10 GMT
1. Pet Sounds 2. Today 3. Sunflower 4. That's Why God Made the Radio 5. Smile 6. SDSN 7. All Summer Long 8. No Pier Pressure 9. Love You 10. MIU Interesting ranking with That's Why God Made The Radio AHEAD OF SMiLE, Summer Days (And Summer Nights), and All Summer Long. If I remember correctly, I think you're a fairly young and new BB fan. Does the newness of the album (and probably your first NEW BB album) influence your ranking? I'd say it's definitely played a role. I know I've mentioned it before, but it was like a dream come true hearing they reunited. Carl died when I was not much more than two years old, so I never got to experience *the* Beach Boys. Finding out they were making an album of new music was icing on the cake. I also legitimately thought it was a good album and for me, From There to Back Again ranks right up there with the other Beach Boy classics. I remember when the SS forum did the survivor game, it ended up being ranked as one of their top three or four songs. Not sure I'd put it that high, but you get the idea. TWGMTR is one of the few albums I find myself always going back to listen to from start to finish. Smile is almost at the opposite end of the spectrum. Everyone had been waiting decades for it to be released, but when I became interested in the band, the entire sessions had already been released, not to mention BWPS. I was already familiar with the songs through other albums, so I was like, what's the big deal, it's still not finished? I've also never really been into reconstructing the album and doing what ifs, beyond what would have happened if it was released in January 1967.
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 5, 2020 7:20:34 GMT
The love for Wild Honey has always been surprising to me. It's very short (23:58), the album ends weakly (How She Boogalooed It, Mama Says), the title song is overrated (terrible vocal by Carl), and the album has a shortage of all-time great songs (IMHO). When I make comps of greatest or best BB songs, I might choose "Darlin'" but that's about it from Wild Honey. It does have a few strong second-tier songs (Aren't You Glad, Here Comes the Night, Let The Wind Blow) which helps Wild Honey's ranking, but... All of those late 60's albums are very short. I agree about Boogalooed...that's the one track I would omit from the album. I think Carl would have sung Wild Honey a lot better if they had attempted it in the 80's. It's a bit similar to stuff he was doing on his solo albums. But I absolutely love Aren't You Glad, Country Air, Darlin', Here Comes the Night, Let the Wind Blow, I'd Love Just Once to See You, and yes, Mama Says. On the other hand, I absolutely cannot stand Transcendental Meditation, and Diamond Head goes nowhere. Other than that, Friends is a wonderful album. It's very hard to find any Beach Boys albums without at least one stinker. Case in point: Take a Load Off Your Stinky Feet! Sunflower has only one track I don't love, the oh so cutesy Dierdrie. But I don't the hate it.
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Post by kds on Feb 5, 2020 13:29:02 GMT
I think WH is a good, not great album. I also think its an important album as the Boys hit "Reset" after the nonrelease of Smile and experimental Smiley Smile.
I do agree the title track isn't Carl's finest moment, and much prefer live versions with Blondie.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 5, 2020 13:39:45 GMT
The love for Wild Honey has always been surprising to me. It's very short (23:58), the album ends weakly (How She Boogalooed It, Mama Says), the title song is overrated (terrible vocal by Carl), and the album has a shortage of all-time great songs (IMHO). When I make comps of greatest or best BB songs, I might choose "Darlin'" but that's about it from Wild Honey. It does have a few strong second-tier songs (Aren't You Glad, Here Comes the Night, Let The Wind Blow) which helps Wild Honey's ranking, but... All of those late 60's albums are very short. I agree about Boogalooed...that's the one track I would omit from the album. I think Carl would have sung Wild Honey a lot better if they had attempted it in the 80's. It's a bit similar to stuff he was doing on his solo albums. But I absolutely love Aren't You Glad, Country Air, Darlin', Here Comes the Night, Let the Wind Blow, I'd Love Just Once to See You, and yes, Mama Says. On the other hand, I absolutely cannot stand Transcendental Meditation, and Diamond Head goes nowhere. Other than that, Friends is a wonderful album. It's very hard to find any Beach Boys albums without at least one stinker. Case in point: Take a Load Off Your Stinky Feet! Sunflower has only one track I don't love, the oh so cutesy Dierdrie. But I don't the hate it. Again, my problem (and it's not really a "problem") with Wild Honey's high ranking in Beach Boys' fandom isn't just one factor like "one stinker" on an album, but more of a combination of factors. And, that goes to another topic which is why some (most?) Beach Boys' albums ultimately don't reach their potential despite some outstanding tracks on those albums. IMO, Brian/the group didn't value the length (or lack of) of albums, employed "humor" tracks that really didn't work, left other great songs in the can, and again IMO, didn't spend enough time and care on sequencing. I can understand the occasional stinker appearing on the albums. There are probably several reasons, inter-band reasons to keep the peace, for some inferior songs that make the final cut. It just seems like The Beach Boys had a lot more head-scratchers than a lot of bands.
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Post by kds on Feb 5, 2020 13:50:51 GMT
Sheriff, I think that, with the exception of Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys never really embraced the album as an artform. While their peers like The Beatles, The Who, The Zombies, etc made the transition from focusing on albums instead of singles, The Boys never really did that. That's why I think even their best LPs tended to have a few head scratchers on them.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 5, 2020 13:59:10 GMT
KDS, I don’t know about that. I think they did at times try to work at the album level. It’s just that their judgment wasn’t always good. They or their labels were thinking “album” as early as the Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down Vol. 2 albums with their concepts. Party was certainly conceived on the album level. A few years later, I think both Surf’s Up and Holland were more album than batch-o-songs. And of course much later, you have Mike’s brilliant “movie songs” concept for Still Cruisin’. So I think they did, at least at times, really focus on creating albums. I think they just weren’t always particularly good at it.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 5, 2020 14:06:39 GMT
Sheriff, I think that, with the exception of Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys never really embraced the album as an artform. While their peers like The Beatles, The Who, The Zombies, etc made the transition from focusing on albums instead of singles, The Boys never really did that. That's why I think even their best LPs tended to have a few head scratchers on them. Well, we know that Brian WAS trying to make great albums with Pet Sounds and SMiLE. I do think that approach was somewhat present with Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, and Friends. Those three albums do sound unified in their respective sound and concepts. Surf's Up and Holland? Ditto. Now, for the rest of 'em - pre-Pet Sounds and post-Holland - there's no question that those albums were all over the place, depending more on the strength of certain songs than the album as a whole, and gave the listener a feeling of patchwork. I'll open up another can of worms. If only the group had a manager who knew what he was doing, who the group would listen to, and somebody who would've overseen the albums before releasing the final product. Certainly the record companies weren't happy. But that's another big "what if" that only leads to more frustration.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 5, 2020 14:11:54 GMT
KDS, I don’t know about that. I think they did at times try to work at the album level. It’s just that their judgment wasn’t always good. They or their labels were thinking “album” as early as the Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down Vol. 2 albums with their concepts. Party was certainly conceived on the album level. A few years later, I think both Surf’s Up and Holland were more album than batch-o-songs. And of course much later, you have Mike’s brilliant “movie songs” concept for Still Cruisin’. So I think they did, at least at times, really focus on creating albums. I think they just weren’t always particularly good at it. But only as far as the "concept" went, or more specifically the lyrics. Some of those early albums were still short, some very good songs stayed in the can, and, heck, they even repeated some songs on albums!
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Post by kds on Feb 5, 2020 14:30:03 GMT
Fair points, so they sporatically embraced the album from time to time while even the best of the lot had questionable decisions.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 5, 2020 14:44:37 GMT
KDS, I don’t know about that. I think they did at times try to work at the album level. It’s just that their judgment wasn’t always good. They or their labels were thinking “album” as early as the Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down Vol. 2 albums with their concepts. Party was certainly conceived on the album level. A few years later, I think both Surf’s Up and Holland were more album than batch-o-songs. And of course much later, you have Mike’s brilliant “movie songs” concept for Still Cruisin’. So I think they did, at least at times, really focus on creating albums. I think they just weren’t always particularly good at it. But only as far as the "concept" went, or more specifically the lyrics. Some of those early albums were still short, some very good songs stayed in the can, and, heck, they even repeated some songs on albums! Sure, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t embrace or respect the form, just that their execution was poor.
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