Beach Boys

Beach Boys: Smile SessionsSmile Sessions (2011)
Capital

Reviewer Rating: 2.5

Contributed by: JohnGentileJohnGentile
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on April 3rd 2012In contrast to its front cover, back cover and CD sleeve, this release is not the long lost Beach Boys album Smile. In fact, this isn't even an approximation of that album, a partial sampling of that album or a reconstruction* of that album. Smile does not exist and it never did. As the removabl.

In contrast to its front cover, back cover and CD sleeve, this release is not the long lost Beach Boys album Smile. In fact, this isn't even an approximation of that album, a partial sampling of that album or a reconstruction* of that album. Smile does not exist and it never did.

As the removable paper flyer shrinkwrapped to the back of this package and actual CD label inconspicuously list in tiny letters, this album is the Smile Sessions. That is, in the opinion of the set's curator Mark Linett, it is a collection of the best parts of the boxes and boxes of tapes which head Beach Boys writer Brian Wilson stacked around his sandbox piano as he was composing his follow up to the masterpiece Pet Sounds. This is as far as Smile ever got to completion, which roughly speaking, is maybe halfway through the race.

Most accurately, it is a collection of the demos of demos of demos which may have been used to create what may have been the greatest album ever made had it actually been completed. And that's what makes this set so frustrating.

There is pure genius in these reams of "songs," yet despite the electrifying and groundbreaking nature of these songs, they get jumbled and mashed either by Wilson's extraordinary abilities or his rampant drug use (or both). To Wilson and all of the Beach Boys' credit, they sound phenomenal on this release. "Opening Prayer" exhibits the bits in classic Beach Boys six part harmony, yet it is improved by the maturation of their voices and the distanced melancholy of Wilson's own tenor.

The music itself is light years beyond nearly all contemporary composers and probably even out weirds and out experiments the Beatles. While 1967 found pop bands experimenting with the concept of civil protest, domestic abuse, and metaphysics, Wilson launches past such…trivialities…and ponders if he is even real on "Wonderful," only to step from the macro scale to the micro and ponder why he likes vegetables on "Vega-Tables" only to subvert and praise traditional songs on "You are My Sunshine" only to wink back to the band's older days in "Good Vibrations."

Yet, for all the genius exhibited on Wilson's grand scale, he can't seem to stay in one place long enough for any of these grand topics to get their due. While the set proper is 19 tracks, there are probably about 40-50 songs crammed in the set. Just as Wilson establishes a clever phrase or riff, he jumps to another movement that is tangentially related, or even wholly unrelated, to the starting point, and never returns back to the original thought. At points, it seems as though he almost opened an album of unreleased Beach Boys masterpieces, and then only recorded the first line of each song, and then put those lines together as one song, creating a disjointed piece.

Now, it could be that Wilson is such a genius, that he has moved beyond the traditional need of pop music to repeat itself, and that to a genius such as himself, repeating a phrase or riff more than once is maddening, whereas to regular people, repletion is necessary to appreciate the value of the pieces as well as the slight differences between each chorus.** But then, as a piece of music for anyone except Wilson, the piece fails simply because no one but Wilson can understand it.

Indeed, even subversive avant garde composers, such as Frank Zappa, would whip from piece to piece, but they would return to previous themes, giving albums a cohesiveness, as well as detours into doo wop or soul to give the listener a chance to catch his or her breath. But, the Smile Sessions never break from the rapid tune jumping and never circle back around, making it seem more rambling and LSD induced than deliberately chaotic.

What makes the release so frustrating is that with just perhaps a little tweaking, it really could have been the masterpiece. To suggest that Wilson needs an editor would be heretical, yet if someone sat down and said something like "Repeat that chorus two more times" and "Break this into three separate songs," Smile could not have only been a digestible masterpiece, but there's enough material here to make two or three Smiles.

Of course, Capital's packaging doesn't help matters much. Even the baseline package, which retails for $30, comes with loads of bonus material that adds nothing to the already fractured affair, and includes meaningless doodads like a button and small poster than enable the label to charge an extra $5 for the release. But, most damningly of all, the release is almost false advertising as it presents itself as Smile when really, it's just some guy's favorite picks from Brian Wilson's giant box of old tapes. For completists and deep pocketed adventurers only.

*Indeed, Smile has already been reconstructed twice! First in 1967's Beach Boy's LP Smiley Smile and second in Brian Wilson's 2004 solo Smile.

**I find there to be an interesting parallel between this and Rudimentary Peni's Cacophony. Like Smile, Cacophony was written and recorded while its author, Nick Blinko, was rapidly descending into incoherent madness. In place of standard songs, Cacophony features dozens of fractured segments as well, that address sounds and topics not previously seen before in its respective genre. Yet even the Rudimentary Peni album, as frantic as it is, features an underlying strand that ties the piece together in the form of references to H.P. Lovecraft and returns to previous topics, as wispy as each individual address may be. I wonder why it is that mad genius seem so often to only be able to think or record in short fractured thoughts.

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

justthetip (April 4, 2012)

I haven't actually heard this version of the album, but the smiley smile/wild honey packaging of the album is awesome and well worth whatever I paid for it years ago. If you like the Beach Boys you should check that version out because it is really well done, in my opinion.
http://www.amazon.com/Smiley-Smile-Wild-Honey-Beach/dp/ B00005ABX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1333597905&sr=1-1

johngentile (April 4, 2012)

Dr Nick, if I may defend myself:

First, The review factors in the price tag as well as the misleading marketing of this. It's not "Smille" as the front and back cover proclaim, it is "the smile sessions" as the tiny type on the cd sleeve says.

Second, the music is good, but it is also a rambling mess. I'm not grading on possibility, I'm grading on what is presented before me. the music is so frantic, that one can't appreciate any of the little bits. I'm not saying it has to be a traditional pop album, but some cohesion is needed to prevent this from being a series of unfinished sketches.

These unfinished sketches are clever, but they are equally grating and annoying because they go nowhere. People have said that it was intended to be a "suite" and not a pop album, but even suites have movements, returns to themes, and cohesion. By contrast, this is one 20 second whimsy after another.

It has potential, but doesn't complete what it could have done. If this wasn't the beach boys, would people be so protective of it? I doubt it.

It's good, but certianly imperfect.

MN_DrNick (April 4, 2012)

Well, John.... I was impressed with your musical taste until I saw your rating for this.

I'm disappointed.

pufferfish (April 4, 2012)

Phenomenal record, horrible review. d_boons_ghost essentially said everything I wanted to in the first part of his comment.

I also own the Purple Chick version, and this release is vastly superior sonically. I also prefer this version to Brian Wilson's version.

davebrave4 (April 3, 2012)

Good review. I like a lot of your points. But it sounds like you wanted Wilson to make the album more commercial and consumer friendly; I think it's great when a pop band does away with conventions like choruses and repetition. This album was a breath of fresh air for me.

NewKid (April 3, 2012)

This record is fantastic. I couldn't disagree with the review more. I also have not read it.

soundstudy (April 3, 2012)

The album credits say "All songs: music by Brian Wilson, lyrics by Van Dyke Parks" Van Dyke's lyrics were the main point of contention between Brian and the rest of the Beach Boys. Mike Love walked off the project after Van Dyke refused the explain the phrase "columnated ruins domino" to him.

eatbicycles (April 3, 2012)

Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson wrote the lyrics together, I believe.

eatdogs (April 3, 2012)

its crazy when you read about the history of this album. just the amount of time it took for brian to perfect the song "heroes and villians" is insane.

heh heh, but it all reminds me of that movie walk hard: the dewy cox story. there's this scene where' john c reilly is in the studio with, like a 50 piece orchestra and he's all burned out from too many drugs and is trying to come up with some sort of sound from his mind. i like to think that's how awesome and crazy brian wilson was...

soundstudy (April 3, 2012)

Glad you reviewed this John! A couple things should be noted though. Brain Wilson didn't write the lyrics to SMiLE, Van Dyke Parks did. Like Tony Asher on Pet Sounds he was hired by Brian to write words to his songs. Also, the reason the album sounds like it jumps around or starts and stops is that is was recorded in sections and assembled into songs later. Several parts were recorded without knowing what song they would belong to. The musicians recording the material rarely knew where or how their piece fit. Brain did the assembly later. These tapes weren't demos either. The instrumental recordings you hear on this are what was meant to be the final album. The only thing lacking is the final vocal takes (Mike Love walked off the project) and the final mixes and song assembly (Brain gave up).

eatdogs (April 3, 2012)

remarkable album. love the beach boys.

d_boons_ghost (April 3, 2012)

I think the album (read: "Our Prayer" through "Good Vibrations," everything after is honestly dispensable) is fantastic, and probably the best approximation of SMiLE that will ever exist. Your main criticism seems to be against the fractured nature of the whole affair, but the album was never intended to be a set of songs like Pet Sounds. It was always supposed to be a song suite. It was also originally supposed to have a unifying theme in The Elements (fire, water, etc) that would reoccur throughout the album, but that's only present on Mrs. O'Leary's Cow.

I think the biggest crime of this set is that it barely outstrips the fan-made albums that have been around for ten or fifteen years, like the edition made by somebody under the name Purple Chick (the version I originally fell in love with). It's obvious that this official release is just a means of wrapping up some weird mythology and maybe selling a few hundred thousand records. Anybody who actually gives a shit has had a version of SMiLE very close to this one for almost a decade.

jephso (April 3, 2012)

Great analysis. I thought a similar thing when listening the first few times. There were glimpses of greatness but the album felt fractured as a whole, like you say. Knowing the nature of the project though I didn't expect it to be anything else. I still love it.