Smiley Smile (studio album)
by The Beach Boys

This is my introduction to Beach Boys. Hooooly shit, is this terrifying. I've never been in such existential horror at a song about eating vegetables. The songs skip around randomly, so I checked a bunch of times whether songs were done, and most of the time they were around halfway through, besides the final seconds of Whistle In. Listening to this genuinely feels like you're going insane. 10/10.

After Pet Sounds the group really went downhill in terms of song composition and for some reason struggled to fully flesh out tracks. This is evidenced on their releases Wild Honey, Friends and first displayed on this album where we get half formed songs which never feel complete and leave you feeling empty once they are done. You can see all the potential for fantastic music but it never comes to fruition and that drastically holds all three of the albums I mentioned earlier back. In spite of this, you are treated to some delightful moments of genius music from Brian Wilson where the sound is so rich and complex but it is soon lost due to it slowing down or becoming convoluted. There is obviously the two tracks of Heroes And Villains and Good Vibrations that make this album slightly superior to Wild Honey and Friends but not by much. Overall, a frustrating listen as the music could be so much more but we have to appreciate the little snippets of quality we get in this album.

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From teague 07/08/2020 23:36

Ballsy move for the Beach Boys to release this after Pet Sounds. Looking back on this album, it helped to further develop ambient music and pioneered the bedroom pop genre, make of that what you will. There's nothing awful on here, but there are definitely high points and low points (ie Good Vibrations vs. She's Goin' Bald). Nonetheless, Smiley Smile is a very pleasant sounding record, lo-fi works really well for them.

From mdbaxter 06/18/2020 15:46

Loose collection of some good ideas held together by a general nicesoundingness. A couple of the Beach Boys best songs are included on this record. But, outside of "Heroes and Villains" and "Good Vibrations" there isn't much other than easy to listen to music. The substance isn't really there but it's still a good listen.

From LebowskiRams 05/01/2020 20:14

Still good but it's so bare compared to SMiLE :(

Smiley Smile (2001 Remaster) (1967) by The Beach Boys - 7.18181818/10 - Listened to on 9/29/2019
A1 - Heroes and Villains - 9/10
A2 - Vegetables - 7/10
A3 - Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony) - 6/10
A4 - She's Goin' Bald - 8/10
A5 - Little Pad - 7/10
B1 - Good Vibrations - 8/10
B2 - With Me Tonight - 7/10
B3 - Wind Chimes - 7/10
B4 - Gettin' Hungry - 7/10
B5 - Wonderful - 7/10
B6 - Whistle In - 6/10

This album is a case of what could have been. I highly prefer The Smile Sessions over this, their versions of the songs on here are done better. As it is, Smiley Smile is still a good album.

From Boltzmann 08/05/2018 06:30

Picking my favorite Beach Boys album... there's nothing harder in life. But I chose this one, and that's because everytime I listen to it, I can feel it. I resonate with this album (pun intended); I know what Brian Wilson was aiming at, and I understand why he failed to perfect it. He wanted an album that sent the listener to another world, but this result sends him/her to an abandoned train station between worlds, but it’s further than anyone has gone.
It’s completely crazy and one of a kind, even now decades later.
The humor that is in the music is not merely an addition to the music, it is part of the music; he shows that humor is an integral part of music that people have forgotten about.
The lo-fi quality - although clearly incorporated because of the emergency situation - creates an atmosphere that was completely new at the time.
And all the while he creates an early version of ambient music, which here has a function as world building so to say.
All in all, this is clearly the work of a genius in despair, comparable with Mozart’s Requiem. It is imperfect, unfinished, and although I am really curious how the project would’ve turned out, I am aware that it was probably just too hard a task for one human being to complete, and we should be sufficiently content with this: The echo of the best album ever made.

From adnielsen 06/04/2018 04:40

This album is said to be the work of a mad genius. Unfortunately, I get more mad than genius listening to this my first time through. Weird, lo-fi sound. More of a miss than a hit. I’ll revisit soon and see if this grows on me.