Brian Wilson - SMiLE
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CD Details
Artist: Brian WilsonEdition: Music CD
Published: 2004
CD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Music Label: Nonesuch
Soundtracks:
- Our Prayer/Gee
- Heroes and Villians
- Roll Plymouth Rock
- Barnyard
- Old Master Painter/You are My Sunshine
- Cabin Essence
- Wonderful
- Song For Children
- Child is Father of the Man
- Surf's Up
- I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop
- Vega-Tables
- On a Holiday
- Wind Chimes
- Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
- In Blue Hawaii
- Good Vibrations
Music reviews of SMiLE
Music Review: What the hell?
Rating: 5 Stars
I'm a very recent Brian Wilson fan, first of all. It all started last year sometime, when I decided to really "know" the Beatles. I was 16 years old at the time, and... I mean, I knew their hits and I knew I liked the band a lot, but I wanted to really know everything about them. So I got a torrent (yes, I'm sorry, I know piracy is wrong, but I ended up buying the albums later) of their entire discography and proceeded to listen to them all in order, listening to each album over and over while reading about the band's history and the album's reception before moving on to the next. About halfway through this musical "quest," I started a similar "discovery" of Led Zeppelin. After awhile... I really don't know what prompted it, but I decided to "discover" the Beach Boys. Of course, I knew about Pet Sounds--it was a big influence on the Beatles, after all!
Anyway, when I first started listening to the Beach Boys' discography, I was... underwhelmed. Simply put, their early stuff is... not good. I resolved to just listen to each album once through or MAYBE twice if I really liked it. So I sped through their pre-Pet Sounds discography whilst doing my homework on two consecutive Saturdays. As I progressed, the music got better and better... but still incomparable to the Beatles. As I got closer and closer to "Pet Sounds," I started to catch the hype... I read all the good things about it and my hopes started to build up. But I expected to be disappointed... I mean, how much better than their other stuff could it possibly be?
Boy was I wrong. The following Sunday I listened to it. Then I listened again. Then I listened something like 20 times over the course of the next week. So yeah, good stuff.
Obviously, I couldn't help but learn about SMiLE, as well. But this time, I REALLY expected to be disappointed... but in only two or three weeks, I pirated (again, sorry!) Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE! And honestly? I was pretty disappointed. I think I listened to it twice, and... I didn't get it. I definitely LIKED it, but... I didn't love it. Not even close. I continued to listen to Pet Sounds religiously and recommend it to all of my friends. Occasionally I'd pop in SMiLE, just to try and see why everyone loved it so much. I think it started to grow on me.
And then... Idunno. I really liked the opening a lot, and one day while mowing the lawn I got sort of... inspired. I'm an aspiring author/videogame-producer, you see, and I guess guess you could say I figured out "how to end it." My future dream game, that is. I hadn't worked out the PLOT details yet, but I all of a sudden knew two things: one, it would have a happy ending; two, it will end with "Our Prayer," cutting to credits with "Gee." And maybe the whole rest of the album.
After that I started listening to it again and now I love it. It's so... it's really weird. "What the Hell?" is an extremely apt description of this album. But slowly, ever so slowly... Brian Wilson's inner child wins you over. This album must be listened to LOUDLY, at least at first. The arrangements and layers are so subtle and complex that much of it is lost at anything less than full volume.
The album is divided into three "suites," or something. The first one is amazing. Practically perfect. The beautiful vocal harmonies of "Heroes and Villains" set the mood for the rest of the album perfectly, and "Cabinessence," though initially EXTREMELY inaccessible, is a wonderful climax. My personal favorite, however, is the brief rendition of "You WERE my Sunshine." The altered melody and lyrics, combined with Wilson's aged voice, paints a picture of intense nostalgia and loss, a good counterpoint to the adventurous suite of the rest of the album.
Suite Two is really great, too. I'm still in the process of "learning" this album--it grows on me more every day--so I don't have much to say except that I like it a lot. It might be the best part of the album.
Suite Three is odd. Personally, I think the first half of it (from "In Great Shape" to the first half of "On a Holiday") is the weakest part of the album. It's... really really really percussive, the melodies are way too jumpy and schizophrenic, and the arrangements are a bit too out-there, even for Wilson. But everything from the second half of "On a Holiday" (the part with the bells after "Long ago") to the end of "In Blue Hawaii" is pure bliss.
The final song, Wilson's classic "Good Vibrations," stands oddly apart from the rest of the album as a sort of epilogue. It's an odd decision, and though the song is still amazing, it is much simpler from a musical and thematic standpoint than the rest of the album. Still, I think it's a good ending, a sort of encore performance. This version... I can't decide if I like it better or worse than the original. It's very similar. I like the old lyrics more, and the vocals, but this one has more refined production and generally has more "power," if that counts for anything...
So yeah, I guess I'm done. BUY IT. And don't force yourself to listen to it a billion times until you like it... just play it every now and then. You'll get it eventually. It's like... you have to be in a certain mood to be receptive to its charms, but once it hooks you you'll love it forever. GET IT.
Description of SMiLE
Smile is inarguably the most long-awaited album in modern pop history. It's been more than 37 years since the title first appeared on a label release schedule, intended as the January 1967 follow-up to the groundbreaking art-rock of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. But Smile never made its initial release date. Today, this album is not a mere reconstruction of past performances, but something entirely new, a serious summation of a project that has been gestating for nearly four decades.Chamber Pop CDs
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