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Post by kds on Mar 24, 2019 4:15:36 GMT
Let's give the Boys credit for doing a reunion album with no remakes. OK, there's autotune and not as many real BB harmonies as we'd like, but at least they left off Do It Again '12, which has since been redone by Mike 24 times since with various pop stars from the 90s and 00s.
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Post by sebevedomy on Mar 24, 2019 8:06:04 GMT
About three songs of genius, three really good songs, three songs that are ok but enjoyable and three pieces of shit: aka, a Beach Boys album.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 29, 2019 14:38:29 GMT
Approaching a decade since its release--which reminds me time flies and I'm aging at a terrifying rate!--I still can't believe the band put out this good an album in 2012. I'm under no illusions that it's Pet Sounds II (or even SDSN II), but it's still really good. In a traditional sense, I'd say the best since Surf's Up (with "traditional" excluding Love You, which I love but honestly has to be acknowledged as a divisive and odd album).
My biggest regret about it isn't the autotune, but the lack of real group vocals. It sounds like about 3/4 a Brian Wilson (and Jeff Foskett) solo album with other voices plugged in on occasion. That's a shame. But it's still something I'm really glad to have.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 24, 2019 23:11:45 GMT
With no disrespect to the wonderful and talented and somewhat elvish Al Jardine, does anyone think Al should have held off just a few more years and contributed his best songs to this rather than releasing A Postcard From California? What are the odds the power that be (the powers that were?) would have allowed some Jardine originals?
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Post by kds on Oct 25, 2019 16:39:45 GMT
With no disrespect to the wonderful and talented and somewhat elvish Al Jardine, does anyone think Al should have held off just a few more years and contributed his best songs to this rather than releasing A Postcard From California? What are the odds the power that be (the powers that were?) would have allowed some Jardine originals? I could be wrong, but I think he pitched Waves of Love for TWGMTR and was shot down. The title track to Postcard could've made a fine BB song, maybe with Mike or Brian singing the Glen Campbell part.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 25, 2019 17:41:24 GMT
You are correct about "Waves of Love." One of the features from around the album's release talked about Al prodding Brian (repeatedly) to work on it, and Brian conveniently dodging the topic. I don't blame him: while I get the appeal of getting Carl's vocals onto the album, that song is not very good (in any of its 30,000 renditions).
But the title track, "Drivin'," "And I Always Will," and "San Simeon" could each have been a decent addition to TWGMTR. (Each, not all. I'm not asking for four Al songs.) Everything else on Al's album is just a remake anyway.
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Post by kds on Oct 25, 2019 17:44:08 GMT
You are correct about "Waves of Love." One of the features from around the album's release talked about Al prodding Brian (repeatedly) to work on it, and Brian conveniently dodging the topic. I don't blame him: while I get the appeal of getting Carl's vocals onto the album, that song is not very good (in any of its 30,000 renditions).
But the title track, "Drivin'," "And I Always Will," and "San Simeon" could each have been a decent addition to TWGMTR. (Each, not all. I'm not asking for four Al songs.) Everything else on Al's album is just a remake anyway.
I'm kind of glad they opted not to include any Carl, or even Dennis, canned vocals. I liked the fact that TWGMTR was the 2012 Beach Boys (despite the fact that some of the songs can be traced to 1998). That includes Don't Fight the Sea, as much as I really enjoy that song. I'm not too keen on Waves of Love either to be honest.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 25, 2019 17:57:18 GMT
I am 100% on board with the "no flown in vocals" aspect. It's not necessary. Get those songs out there, sure, but not on the first new studio album in decades.
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Post by kds on Oct 25, 2019 18:08:55 GMT
I am 100% on board with the "no flown in vocals" aspect. It's not necessary. Get those songs out there, sure, but not on the first new studio album in decades. Yeah, I was fine with the video board tributes to Carl and Dennis during the C50 tour since those are older songs. But, for the new album, they were wise to be forward thinking. When you think of all of the illogical and just flat out dumb decisions that have been made in their long careers, the existence of TWGMTR, and the quality of it, is a damn near miracle.
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Post by jk on Dec 4, 2019 20:32:03 GMT
TWGMTR is so far removed from anything else they've done that you simply can't compare it. (At least I can't.) For what it's worth, this is my verdict of June 2012:
"Bowing out gracefully. This is how I would describe That's Why God Made The Radio by the surviving Beach Boys. In response to comments made in earlier posts [elsewhere, needless to say], I do feel that up-tempo tunes would have been inappropriate to what is clearly their swansong as a band. (The idea of a follow-up is patently absurd.) "There are plenty of joyous songs on board but the undercurrent is one of sadness and finality: 'Summer's gone / It's finally sinking in.' The Beach Boys are saying goodbye. "This is a CD I feel I could play at any time, in any company. There are tracks on the original albums that would throw the casual listener and I feel the compilations of hits sell the Boys short, musically. Which is why I've never played Beach Boys records when we've had visitors--until now. "Recorded if not written more than forty years since the original Beach Boys peaked, it's fascinating to hear the nods to musical styles that have emerged since then. I'm reminded too of recent things by Peter Lacey, himself heavily influenced by Brian's Boys. (It's hard to say who is being paid the bigger compliment.) "That's Why God Made The Radio has far surpassed my expectations. This is a band whose members had long gone their separate, often acrimonious ways. There can't be many who could pull off something as contrived as an anniversary album in such fine style."
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 6, 2020 16:11:50 GMT
The title track came up on shuffle a few minutes ago and I was to some extent hearing it with fresh ears: it's been a while. (While I intentionally listen to several tracks on this one, the title track isn't one.)
But what really came to mind was, remember the prominent and obviously marketing-team-approved messaging in 2012 was that it "sounds like 1965 all over again?"
Which songs, if any, actually sound anything like songs that could have been on a 1965 Beach Boys album? I'd say VERY few. Like ... none? "Summer's Gone" seems the most like a song that might have appeared then, but otherwise, nothing much sounds anything like what they were doing in those days.
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Post by kds on Feb 6, 2020 16:29:00 GMT
There's a very quick guitar lick (I assume from David) just after the "there's a place in the sun, where everyone can have fun" lyric in Beaches in Mind that sounds like it could've been on a mid 60s BB album. That, and maybe the vocal intro to Pacific Coast Highway are the only brief moments of TWGMTR that could've been on a 1965 album.
But, I think saying "it sounds like 1965 all over again," is poor marketing, and setting people up to be disappointed. Unfortunately, this is the unfair gauge often used to judge new releases by legacy artists.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 6, 2020 16:32:43 GMT
But, I think saying "it sounds like 1965 all over again," is poor marketing, and setting people up to be disappointed. Unfortunately, this is the unfair gauge often used to judge new releases by legacy artists. I partway agree with you, but for me it isn't really even a question of quality. It's a question of description. I really like TWGMTR, and I think maybe a third or half of its songs are every bit as good as what was on Today, for the best 1965 example. It's just that those good songs from 2012 don't sound much of anything like the good songs from 1965!
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Post by kds on Feb 6, 2020 16:40:20 GMT
But, I think saying "it sounds like 1965 all over again," is poor marketing, and setting people up to be disappointed. Unfortunately, this is the unfair gauge often used to judge new releases by legacy artists. I partway agree with you, but for me it isn't really even a question of quality. It's a question of description. I really like TWGMTR, and I think maybe a third or half of its songs are every bit as good as what was on Today, for the best 1965 example. It's just that those good songs from 2012 don't sound much of anything like the good songs from 1965! I agree on that point too. In fact, there is very little that the band released after 1965 that really sounds like The Beach Boys from 1965 to my ears.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 6, 2020 16:46:08 GMT
Yeah, really you've got the stuff from 1966, mostly ... and that's about it. Very little, including their attempts at nostalgia and retro, actually sound like that material. Presumably it's because the recording process changed dramatically, the production trends and capabilities changed dramatically, their voices over time changed dramatically...all of it.
Consider something like "Do It Again." It has always been referred to as a throwback, a recycling, whatever. But it doesn't sound like their older music. It sounds like a band making something that hearkens back, yes, but it doesn't sound like the thing it hearkens back to.
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