Best Ever Albums

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

AranD — Mon, 7 Oct 2013 11:05:12 GMT

Author: AranD

Posted: 10/07/2013 15:05

I've got as far as Pet Sounds in their discography. Today! is the best of the others so far, but not a patch on Pet Sounds. Before today! I struggle to get through whole albums of bubblegum pop.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

Listmeister — Mon, 7 Oct 2013 10:43:44 GMT

Author: Listmeister

Posted: 10/07/2013 14:43

What about "Little Deuce Coupe" (1963)?

It's got Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down, which are two of the three best Beach Boys tracks of all time (the third is Good Vibrations). It also has Be True to Your School, 409, and less well-known Our Car Club and Custom Machine.

This is one of five BB albums in my 100, and the highest ranked of the original studio albums.

Little Deuce Coupe (1963)
All Summer Long (1964) (this was the one I voted for, as Little Deuce Coupe was unavailable.
The Smile Sessions (2011)
Pet Sounds (1966) (although I'm starting to think it's over-rated)
Endless Summer (1974, a compilation, but I think it's their definitive one)

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

meccalecca — Mon, 7 Oct 2013 09:57:52 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 10/07/2013 13:57

Norman Bates wrote:

My favourite BB-album-other-than-PS-or-Smile is Today!. Then it's Surf's Up, then Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, then Surfin' Safari and Surfin' USA, then Summer Days (and Summer Nights!).

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. it's like Pet Sounds and Smile are the sun, and everything else revolves around them.

I've read that Today! was really the turning point for their approach to music. Brian Wilson was beginning to finally experiment with the production.

"Wilson later disclosed that he had begun using marijuana during December 1964 as a stress reliever, but became a regular user after he realized the profound effect it had on the way he perceived music."

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

Anonymous — Mon, 7 Oct 2013 09:25:06 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 10/07/2013 13:25

I would Surf's Up highly among the best albums of the 70's and the title track is easily one of the best tracks of the decade. The 3 track suite at the end of the album are some of the best work Brian Wilson has ever done. Smiley Smile is also excellent and I hope it doesn't get forgotten now that the album it replaced is finally out. Few bands have songs as great as "Heroes and Villians", "Good Vibrations", and "Vegatables" and for this album to have all 3 makes it a classic.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

junodog4 — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 22:30:27 GMT

Author: junodog4

Posted: 10/07/2013 02:30

Today! is fantastic. It may be #2 in their catelogue, and is the best of the pre Pet Sounds.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

drakonium — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 05:22:21 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 10/06/2013 09:22

I've just given another listen to both Surf's Up and Sunflower, and my judgement haven't changed much one these ones. They're nice, but that's all they do for me. I'll listen to Today! again later (enough Beach Boys for now).

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

KarlPG — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 04:11:43 GMT

Author: KarlPG

Posted: 10/06/2013 08:11

Actually.....That's Why God Made the Radio is a very fine record, perhaps far better than it had any right to be.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

KarlPG — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 04:10:24 GMT

Author: KarlPG

Posted: 10/06/2013 08:10

There is a lot of wonderful music from the Beach Boys outside of Pet Sounds and Smile. Sunflower is probably the best complete album outside of those two however, I think there is something positive to take from every album they released up to and including Love You. Pretty much a case of avoid thereafter.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

Norman Bates — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 02:50:20 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 10/06/2013 06:50

My favourite BB-album-other-than-PS-or-Smile is Today!. Then it's Surf's Up, then Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, then Surfin' Safari and Surfin' USA, then Summer Days (and Summer Nights!).

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

drakonium — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 18:49:04 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 10/05/2013 22:49

OK, so I've just listened to Today!, and I'm like WTF. It was amazing. Like, really. Wow. Blown away. It may be Brian's voice, or I don't know, but it's without any doubt my album of the week.

Thanks a lot man, without this thread is wouldn't have listened to it before months, or even years. I may relisten to Sunflower and Surf's Up tomorrow to see if my opinion of these has changed.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

revolver94 — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 18:19:17 GMT

Author: revolver94

Posted: 10/05/2013 22:19

I really like Today!, which might have even been on my chart if I didn't have the (poorly followed) 1 album/artist limit. After that, my favorite of these albums is Surf's Up, probably. But Today! is definitely my favorite of these, just hit after hit after hit.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

ShaneSpear — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 17:39:01 GMT

Author: ShaneSpear

Posted: 10/05/2013 21:39

If you're a fan of Animal Collective, you should probably listen to Sunflower. You can totally tell the influence on MPP, Strawberry Jam, and Panda Bear's Person Pitch.

Link

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

kramerfan86 — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 16:47:44 GMT

Author: kramerfan86

Posted: 10/05/2013 20:47

They have more good albums than they are given credit for, Pet Sounds is the peak, but Sunflower, Surfs Up, Today, and Love You are all great and Wild Honey, Smiley Smile, Summer Days, and friends are all fairly good.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

meccalecca — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 10:45:02 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 10/05/2013 14:45

For me the quality of the Beach Boys is in direct relation to Mike Love's role. The more songs he wrote, the less I liked them because his lyrics were so damn juvenile, and uninspired. On those early Beach Boys albums, nearly every song I really like was be Brian or sometimes Carl Wilson. Brian had passion. I don't hear that in Mike Love

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

newbands1 — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 09:44:54 GMT

Author: newbands1

Posted: 10/05/2013 13:44

drakonium wrote:

I'm not saying you're complaining or anything, you raise an interesting point. I just answer based on what I've listened to so far, which I think is far from exceptional. That said, I'll gladly listen to your favorite BB album out of your list, if you think it could change my mind (because is actually like my mind to be changed) :wink:

Today! even though it is the third album before Pet Sounds this is the album that hints of the greatness that they would eventually perfect on Pet Sounds.

And as Mother Nature's Son already mentioned the sessions stuff are literally filler that reduces the quality of the overall albums.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

Johnnyo — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 09:17:56 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 10/05/2013 13:17

There is one criminally under rated album missing fron the list though. Take a listen to Holland. Absolutely fabulous album. My favourite BB album of all time.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

Mother Nature's Son — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 08:57:44 GMT

Author: Mother Nature's Son

Posted: 10/05/2013 12:57

I second this. Their albums outside Pet Sounds and the stuff related to the Smile album, especially their 70s stuff, are massively underrated. After Love You, their only relatively consistent album is L.A. (Light Album), but probably listen to them all anyway because of their highlights. I think their adult-oriented musical direction and their occasional major flops gave them the label as "irrelevant", but I still think they were a great band releasing quality songs, though they were found on inconsistent albums.

Regarding their 60s days, no, it was not all about Pet Sounds and yes, they were almost as good as The Beatles. Just fun, youthful pop energy combined with their gorgeous trademark vocal harmonies. However, compared to The Beatles, their albums were a bit more inconsistent and especially this filler garbage found on three different albums brought their albums down:

Link

The Beach Boys Today!, Wild Honey, Friends, Sunflower, Holland and Love You are great from start to finish (except "Bull Session with the 'Big Daddy'" on Today! of course). All other Beach Boys albums have plenty of great tracks (not only the singles) on them to check them out. My favourite album on the poll is probably Wild Honey, but it could easily be Today!, Friends or Sunflower a day in the future.

Re: Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

drakonium — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 08:38:41 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 10/05/2013 12:38

From this list, I've only listened to the last two, but to be honest, although I'd take Pet Sounds over anything The Beatles have ever done, I'd take anything by The Beatles over Sunflower and Surf's Up. I don't think they are bad, I like them, but that's all, they're just nice albums. What I mean is that I'm not sure whether Pet Sounds is good or not for the rest of their discography : because of it, all their other works may sound worse than they truly are, but without it, I'm not sure anyone would give a fuck about The Beach Boys as an album band (not talking about their singles, eh). It's like people complaining about the fact that Pablo Honey would be recognized as a great album if Radiohead had not recorded much better albums after it; actually, I'm pretty sure that if they had only released Pablo Honey, nobody would even care about its existence anymore. Radiohead would be that band with the Creep single.

I'm not saying you're complaining or anything, you raise an interesting point. I just answer based on what I've listened to so far, which I think is far from exceptional. That said, I'll gladly listen to your favorite BB album out of your list, if you think it could change my mind (because is actually like my mind to be changed) 😉

Beach Boys Albums outside of Pet sounds/Smile

newbands1 — Sat, 5 Oct 2013 08:08:07 GMT

Author: newbands1

Posted: 10/05/2013 12:08

I have been revisiting the Beach Boys discography recently starting from Surfin Safari(1962) to Love You(1977)(never bothered with albums after this,should i?) and discovered that they have just as many great and memorable songs as The Beatles.Their early pop period starting from Please Please Me - Help gets praised in lists yet Beach Boys is represented only by Pet Sounds.

So to all of u who never heard BB music outside of Pet sounds/Smile(kokomo maybe).Give these albums a listen and honestly compare them to the other 60s pop albums instead of endlessly saying it's no Pet Sounds.