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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2019 4:47:41 GMT
This week's album is That's Why God Made The Radio, a reunion album from 2012:
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Post by kds on Aug 8, 2019 12:37:54 GMT
Great minds think alike, Wata.
I was actually going to suggest TWGMTR as the next AOTW.
I've shared this story on several BB related boards, but I have a special connection with TWGMTR. It's the only BB album I really experienced in real time.
At the beginning of the summer of 2012, I was a casual BB fan who pulled out my comps for summer listening. When I had a chance to see the reunited band, I bought a ticket at midnight the night before the show. I wasn't blown away by Isn't It Time or the title track, so I decided not to buy the new album. However, the deeper tracks enticed me to explore more of the BB catalog during that wonderful summer of 2012.
As summer started to wane, I decided that I wanted to buy a copy of the BB 2012 album in the summer of 2012. I gathered some Best Buy Reward Zone bucks and got a copy at the local Best Buy.
After my roommate went to bed, I put the CD in my player and hit PLAY. The opening Think About the Days gave me goosebumps. The title track and Isn't It Time still didn't do a lot for me. The next five songs were pleasant enough. But, when Strange World started, my ears perked up. And the closing trio was very powerful.
To really get a feel for the album, I probably listened to it every night for a week or two straight. The opening trio of songs grew on me, as did many of the songs in the middle, but there was nothing like that closing trio of From There to Back Again, Pacific Coast Highway, and Summer's Gone.
Just as the song says, summer was soon gone, but the rest of 2012 was special. There had already been something in the air that I can't quite define to this day that summer. My Orioles were in their first playoff race in 15 years. My Ravens embarked on a Super Bowl Championship season. On the first day of Fall, I met the girl I would eventually marry.
Seven years later, TWGMTR is still one of my favorite BB albums, and one of the ones I listen to the most straight through.
I gave it a nine, because, in all honestly, the only BB album I can really rate a ten is Pet Sounds. TWGMTR still drags a bit during Spring Vacation, Bill and Sue, and Shelter. But, overall, it's a very good listening experience, and the closing songs provide a great end to The Beach Boys studio career (most likely).
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 8, 2019 13:18:31 GMT
I’m giving an 8. The actual album on its own merit in a vacuum would probably be more like a 7, but its existence in its real-world context warrants a 10, so this is a compromise of sorts. The fact that the album exists and is as good as it is, is a miracle. When I heard the recycled “Do It Again” and the title track leadoff single, I wasn’t really excited. But I was interested, of course. Very interested. And ready to be disappointed. I figured if “That’s Why God Made the Radio” was the leadoff and presumptive strongest song, this was going to be a mediocre album. I was surprised. Very, very pleasantly surprised. My opinions of individual songs vary a little from what seems to be consensus: I’m not at all impressed by “Think About the Days,” and I don’t much like “Summer’s Gone”; conversely, I really like “Shelter,” “Isn’t It Time,” and even (to a lesser degree) “Bill and Sue” (especially the refrain’s background vocals). “From There to Back Again” and “Pacific Coast Highway” are pure gold. I’ve got my gripes. There aren’t as many Beach Boys vocals as I’d like: a lot of the songs sound like exactly what I suspect they were, which is done with Foskett vocals on all the parts to be occasionally replaced in prominent spots by Beach Boys. (I’d bet $100 that the Beach Boys sang and recorded live harmonies together for fewer than 10 minutes total in the creation of the album.) But overall, that this even happened at all is great. That it turned out to be a good album with some great spots, that’s just a tremendous achievement. I almost wish they’d just finished the tour on good terms and hung it up for good right then and there to leave everyone with a positive feeling. But they’re the Beach Boys. So they had to end it all in a big, public fight and go on squabbling from their separate camps and factions. And with fresh memories in their fans’ minds of how good they could be together, it made it all seem that much sadder that they couldn’t seem to manage it.
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Post by kds on Aug 8, 2019 13:54:52 GMT
The lack of BB harmonies is one of my few gripes. If the rest of the harmonies sounded as good as the intro to PCH, it would've given the overall album more of a "Beach Boys" sound. Where as at times, especially in the middle, it sounds more like Brian or Mike solo songs.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2019 11:06:36 GMT
Great minds think alike, Wata. I was actually going to suggest TWGMTR as the next AOTW. Thank you, but actually, the choice of "album of the week" is completely random - I listed all the albums (we have 90!) to discuss on google spreadsheet, and let the software rearrange the list at random. Summer Days came on the top, so we did it first. Live in London came next, so we did it secondly. the third row was TWGMTR, so we're doing it now. So, this choice is nothing to do with my intension, but I'm glad you liked the choice For your information, Christmas albums are exception - they will be discussed in December, not in some random month.
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Post by kds on Aug 9, 2019 12:14:54 GMT
Great minds think alike, Wata. I was actually going to suggest TWGMTR as the next AOTW. Thank you, but actually, the choice of "album of the week" is completely random - I listed all the albums (we have 90!) to discuss on google spreadsheet, and let the software rearrange the list at random. Summer Days came on the top, so we did it first. Live in London came next, so we did it secondly. the third row was TWGMTR, so we're doing it now. So, this choice is nothing to do with my intension, but I'm glad you liked the choice For your information, Christmas albums are exception - they will be discussed in December, not in some random month. That makes sense as the time of the year can definitely affect the way I rate a Christmas album. I should add one thing about TWGMTR. There are some bonafide BB classics on that album, and the worst part about the reunion "fall out" is that they're never performed live. I know Mike and Bruce did Isn't It Time a couple times, and Brian did PCH and Summer's Gone at the 2014 Soundstage show, but to my knowledge nothing since. I met Al Jardine after his show in Annapolis a couple weeks ago, and said I'd love to hear From There to Back Again, which to my knowledge have never been done by any BB live act. His response was an enthusiastic "Oh yeah." Although I'm not sure if he was being polite to a fanboy who also thanked him for adding Santa Ann Winds, or real enthusiasm for the song.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 9, 2019 13:11:07 GMT
Brian's band also did TWGMTR during the post-C50 Brian-Al-David tour. (Not that this changes your point.)
"From There to Back Again" is such a natural to do live, a real showstopper opportunity, I'd think.
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Post by kds on Aug 9, 2019 16:47:28 GMT
Brian's band also did TWGMTR during the post-C50 Brian-Al-David tour. (Not that this changes your point.)
"From There to Back Again" is such a natural to do live, a real showstopper opportunity, I'd think.
And one would think a no brainer with Al in the band. But, then again, there are a lot of "no brainer" decisions that ellude this band.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 9, 2019 17:17:47 GMT
In fact, if it were up to me to design the setlist for theater shows, I'd have had the BW band do the entire trilogy of FTTBA, PCH, and Summer's Gone to close the show, followed with a return to a few uptempo tunes for the encore. I know a trio of slow songs isn't typical of rock bands, but this is balladeer Brian Wilson, after all. I think it would be stunning. (Or would have been five years ago, when he was still regularly carrying a tune.)
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Post by kds on Aug 9, 2019 17:29:15 GMT
In fact, if it were up to me to design the setlist for theater shows, I'd have had the BW band do the entire trilogy of FTTBA, PCH, and Summer's Gone to close the show, followed with a return to a few uptempo tunes for the encore. I know a trio of slow songs isn't typical of rock bands, but this is balladeer Brian Wilson, after all. I think it would be stunning. (Or would have been five years ago, when he was still regularly carrying a tune.) That would (would've been) great. It also would've been a great way to close the C50 shows.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 11, 2019 12:43:03 GMT
When That's Why God Made The Radio was released in 2012, I remember fans posting on a couple of message boards that it was much better than they expected, and that we should just be happy that it turned out as good as it was/is. I never subscribed to that theory. Despite some Beach Boys' authors, historians, and "authorities" being totally wrong in predicting that the album and tour - basically the entire reunion - would never happen in the first place, I always held out hope and predicted it not only would happen, but would be good. As Eddie Vedder says, "You can check the tapes."
While the C50 reunion tour was not only good but great, I think the TMGMTR album is only good. And, unfortunately, it falls into that long line of woulda/shoulda/coulda's in the group's career. But it didn't have to be that way.
In my opinion, TWGMTR has two main flaws. The first one is too much Jeff Foskett. Now, I like Jeff's voice and I still think he was the best Brian high-part duplicator on stage. However, I didn't need to hear his high voice so prominent on this album. There are several parts on TWGMTR that call for such a high vocal, and, unfortunately, when I hear Jeff, I get a disappointing feeling because I know that Brian was available, and I really think, with multiple takes and (cough) technology, Brian could've done the job. Were things rushed? Did Brian cop out? Didn't they think the fans would notice? Or care? I did.
The second flaw is still a head-scratcher. This was supposed to be a reunion album, Right? Wrong? Well, it doesn't feel like one. But forget the "reunuion" aspect for a minute. Where was Al, Bruce, and David? It was obviously decided by whomever that this album was going to be a Brian Wilson-dominated project. But, didn't "they" do their homework and realize that Brian - with his solo albums - didn't have enough quality material to fill an entire album. This was a golden opportunity, a missed opportunity, to allow Al, Bruce, and David to contribute one ace in their hand to the album. C,mon, each of them had to have one song in their catalogue. I would've gladly sacrificed one or two of the weaker BW songs for an Al, Bruce, and David contribution. Or, just add a song from each member. That would've given the album more of a group feel, more of a unified feel, not just doing a faux Brian Wilson solo album and adding some BB harmonies here or there. This wasn't 1963-1967 folks. Why not go for the Sunflower approach?
Despite its flaws, TWGMTR is a borderline good album. I knew when Joe Thomas was brought in that the album would sound good, and it does. Joe Thomas is a good producer, and he has a way of bringing out the best in their vocals and making Brian's songs sound up-to-date. Those final three songs are as good as anything the group did since 1966-67. That would not have happened without Joe Thomas. The sequencing isn't bad, but songs 2 through 6 could've been re-arranged better. Again, they screwed up with the singles chosen and when they were released. "Spring Vacation", the most underrated and one of the best songs on the album, should've been released as a single, duh, in the spring! The album itself was only released in June, about a month late.
OK...The beginning flurry on the album is good and the final three or four songs are great. The album sags in the middle. TWGMTR needed a little more - any - rock and roll (see David Marks), more Mike Beach Boys-esque lead vocals, a little more Al, less Jeff, and a spreading of the wealth around more songwriting-wise. I can only go with a 7, and that might be stretching it slightly, but that closing trifecta and "Spring Vacation" are so good.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2019 13:38:15 GMT
I'm sympathetic to the "just be happy it's as good as it is" fans SJS referenced, but not quite there. I do think there is something to be said for the more realistic perspective: it was likely not to happen, and if it did, it was likely to feel as phoned-in and paint-by-numbers a cash-grab as you can imagine. This is the latter-day Beach Boys. Failure has been their middle name for decades.
So to get a solid album was indeed a tremendous success in my opinion.
That said, it's no reason to shut down criticism. I don't ascribe to the rose-colored-glasses approach if it's distorting reality; an optimistic framework is one thing, delusion is quite another.
Regarding the absence of Al, Bruce, and David songs ... it bothers me less. I'd like more of a presence from them, but not necessarily their own songs. It depends on what they had to offer, but since they didn't make the album and haven't been released, we don't know what they would or could have been. It's hard to imagine Al has much quality stuff that failed to make any of the thirty-seven versions of Postcard. ("Waves of Love?" Ugh.) David's songs have never impressed me much. And Bruce? If he's got great work stockpiled, he's really the JD Salinger of pop music, because it's been a long, long time since he's released anything. But we could have used more of them, especially Bruce's voice. (Al got relatively prominent placement in the vocals, anyway.)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 12, 2019 19:15:10 GMT
That's Why God Made The Radio narrowly escaped another Beach Boys' re-recording. "Do It Again" surfaced on the a Japanese edition, and there were rumors that Bruce was floating the idea of a remake of "She Believes In Love Again".
It's also interesting that no oldies made the album. How many BB albums (or BB solo albums) can you say that about? I think I would've welcomed an oldie, a rock and roll oldie featuring a Mike Love lead vocal and David Marks on guitar.
And speaking of That's Why God Made The Radio as the album title...terrible, like several prior terrible album titles from the group.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2019 19:30:48 GMT
I was THRILLED not to have an oldie or a remake.
But agree it’s an atrocious title
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2019 22:31:55 GMT
I was THRILLED not to have an oldie or a remake. Then again, Mike more than made up for that with his three recent albums: all the oldies and remakes a fella could ever hope fo. (Or in my case, far, far more than I would ever hope for.)
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