Beach Boys
Sunflower/Surf's Up
[Capitol]
Rating: 8.9
Let's do this. It's the summertime, and we're coming off of a decade-long
re-evaluation of the Beach Boys' legacy. It just doesn't stop. If you
thought it began and ended with Pet Sounds, keep thinking, buddy.
The long out-of-print Beach Boys albums of the '70s have finally been
salvaged and remastered by Capitol from the dregs of the Reprise/Brother
catalog.
Without question, the resurrection of the Beach Boys in a vibrant critical
and commercial capacity was a significant retrospective development of music
in the '90s. Pet Sounds becomes, now that we think about it, arguably
the greatest pop production ever; a box set commemorating the album and the
group's legacy are released and uniformly lauded; pop groups everywhere
shamelessly draw inspiration from the acid-tinged barbershop quartet
arrangements; a handicapped Brian Wilson even manages to release something
of a comeback. With this extensive overhaul, it's right to expect some chafe
only zealots with fat wallets could feel compelled to purchase. But such is
not the case with this particular release, which pairs up the two first and
best artifacts of the slow, golden sunset of the Beach Boys' decline.
Sunflower marked a fresh start for the band as they left Capitol and
established their own label with Reprise, eager to capitalize on the
arrangement and recapture an audience that had deserted them. Perhaps the
strongest album they released post-Pet Sounds, the group dynamic
(no longer as Brian Wilson-focused) reinvigorated the production and
songwriting remarkably. The thematic and lyrical content is suitably
eccentric and cheesy at times, but that element is as much a part of the
work of the Beach Boys as musical innovation.
Dennis Wilson demonstrates impressive songwriting range from rockers "Slip
On Through" and "It's About Time" to beaut-ballad "Forever" and the oddity
"Got to Know the Woman," where his lasciviousness gets a bit unruly. Brian
Wilson hadn't become completely marginalized at this point, however. He
still makes most of the songwriting contributions here, standouts of which
are the proto-shoegazer "All I Wanna Do," the driving "This Whole World," and
"Add Some Music to Your Day," which manages to sound nothing like Fugazi but
whose sentiment is the most punk-rock the group recorded. But despite
Sunflower's merits and critical acclaim, it was not a financial success,
which didn't bode well as the inauguration of the Beach Boys' brand new era.
Some say out of strife and tension comes the best music, and while this doesn't
apply to the band's follow-up, Surf's Up, at least it can be said that
they got one last good record in there before they really started sucking.
Surf's Up's cover art says all that needs to be said about the mood:
painted in mournful blues and greens, a Don Quixote-like figure slouches
heavily on an emaciated horse. Underscoring the irony of the title, Endless
Summer this is not. The most interesting moments of musical texture are
provided by an occasional use of synthesizers. Content-wise, the album
ostensibly addresses pressing environmental, social and health concerns, but
songs like "Don't Go Near the Water" and "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)"
are as much a reflection upon the group's fortunes as they are upon the world's.
Most touching about the album is Brian Wilson's suite-like three-song contribution
as the album's closing, clearly influenced by Paul McCartney's suite on Abbey
Road. By now truly marginalized, the first two tracks document his resignation
to fall away. "A Day in the Life of a Tree" opens with the lines, "Feel the wind
burn through my skin/ The pain, the air is killing me," and on the organ driven
"Til I Die," he laments being "a cork on the ocean/ Floating over the raging sea."
The magnificent title cut closes the album, a track salvaged from the legendary
aborted Smile sessions. "Surf's Up" was intended as the "A Day in the Life"
of the classic album that wasn't, and here it shines through in all its glory, from
Van Dyke Parks' skewed lyricism to the celestial "child is father to the man" coda.
It's likely to be the best reissued track you hear all year.
-Hefner Macauley