Rank 'Em: The Beach Boys - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Filipe

Happy new year guys! Any chance we could resume this thread? 😁

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Filipe wrote:

Happy new year guys! Any chance we could resume this thread? :D

Thanks for the push, Filipe! I've been preoccupied with this thread - 2026 Release Day Eve.

Will get something posted on the Beach Boys & Ozzy threads soon-ish. Actually spent a bunch of time listening tho the Beach Boy's Christmas album over the Holidays. So will post my thoughts on that & then start delving into Sunflower with then perhaps a detour into that Van Dyke Parks from 1967.

R u keeping up with 2026 releases, Filipe? Would love to get your thoughts on what 2026 releases you've been geeking out on in 2026 Release Day Eve.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

P. The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964)
aka Does It Snow in Southern California?

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964) by The Beach Boys

"... was a real happy time for us, ... and I were real happy doing it. It took about a month to record. We recorded that album at Western Studios. I liked that studio because they had good-sounding bass and good-sounding highs. It doesn’t exist anymore – it was located at 6000 Sunset." – Brain Wilson on the Christmas Album

The Verdict: I guess it must because this is pretty much a perfect marriage of The Beach Boys' distinct sound and '60s Christmas music. Brian pens five original Christmas tunes on Side A in the Beach Boys inimitable style of which three should be Christmas Pop classics, one is a hysterical romp, and one is nice & wholesome for trimming the tree to. Not really a bad one in the bunch. My favorite is "Merry Christmas, Baby."

On Side B, Brian hands the reigns to the arranger of The Four Freshman - Dick Reynolds - so that he can fly the sleigh. Instead of reindeer, this sleigh is driven by a 41 piece orchestra and, of course, those classic Beach Boys' harmonies. Again, just a fantastic set if you like '60s Christmas albums that are heavy on the trimmings.

The real magic occurs when you hit shuffle and get a mixture of both the originals and the classic covers.

All in all another fantastic and worthy Beach Boys album. I'm not going to rank it, but if you know someone who loves The Beach Boys and Christmas Music in equal measure, you've just found your next stocking stuffer.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Filipe

Repo wrote:

Thanks for the push, Filipe! I've been preoccupied with this thread - 2026 Release Day Eve.

Will get something posted on the Beach Boys & Ozzy threads soon-ish. Actually spent a bunch of time listening tho the Beach Boy's Christmas album over the Holidays. So will post my thoughts on that & then start delving into Sunflower with then perhaps a detour into that Van Dyke Parks from 1967.

R u keeping up with 2026 releases, Filipe? Would love to get your thoughts on what 2026 releases you've been geeking out on in 2026 Release Day Eve.

Hey Repo, I haven't heard any 2026 album's yet, actually I very rarely lsiten to current records, for better or worse I'm almost always trying to listen to discover "new" oldies from 60s and 70s ahah.

Perhaps, taking into account the focus of this topic, I'll take this chance to ask you what recommendations you have from the last 5 years, for someone who loves the Beach Boys?

Back to this topic, I've actually been curious to listen to stuff from Van Dyke Parks for a while, so that sounds like a good idea!

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Filipe wrote:

Perhaps, taking into account the focus of this topic, I'll take this chance to ask you what recommendations you have from the last 5 years, for someone who loves the Beach Boys?

Not to kibitz or anything, but Testbild! made a new album as recently as 2024 (actually that was more of an EP). They're from Sweden, so they're not to be confused with DIN A Testbild, who are German and more like an actual Test Build of some sort of computing device.

Some of the earlier stuff by The Loch Ness Mouse was heavily influenced by the Beach Boys too, if you can still find it. They're from Norway, of course... You can't really expect bands like that to come from places outside of Scandinavia.

That said, Owen Pallett is still making records — he's Canadian, but at least it's a similar latitude? Heartland is probably his most Wilsonesque album.

Owen Pallett

Heartland (2010)

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Filipe wrote:

Repo wrote:

Thanks for the push, Filipe! I've been preoccupied with this thread - 2026 Release Day Eve.

Will get something posted on the Beach Boys & Ozzy threads soon-ish. Actually spent a bunch of time listening tho the Beach Boy's Christmas album over the Holidays. So will post my thoughts on that & then start delving into Sunflower with then perhaps a detour into that Van Dyke Parks from 1967.

R u keeping up with 2026 releases, Filipe? Would love to get your thoughts on what 2026 releases you've been geeking out on in 2026 Release Day Eve.

Hey Repo, I haven't heard any 2026 album's yet, actually I very rarely lsiten to current records, for better or worse I'm almost always trying to listen to discover "new" oldies from 60s and 70s ahah.

Perhaps, taking into account the focus of this topic, I'll take this chance to ask you what recommendations you have from the last 5 years, for someone who loves the Beach Boys?

Have you ever heard...

Gideon Gaye (1994) by The High Llamas

or

Music From The Unrealized Film Script&#...or Control

They are both absolutely FANTASTIC exampleS of Beach Boys worship while also putting their own twisted sensibilities into the mix. Both are Indie Rock Classics imo.

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Yeah, but he said "within the last 5 years." If we're going back into the 90s, then we'd have to include this too, from my own all-time Top 100:

Splitsville

The Complete Pet Soul (2001)

This album is both homage and pastiche, written as if the Beatles and the Beach Boys had all gotten together in 1966 to make a collaborative LP on which they mostly made fun of themselves.