Rating: 2/5
Review:
Not great
I know a lot of people think this is one of the Beach Boys’ classic
albums, but I can’t agree. For me, it’s a mixed bag of a couple
of very good tracks – including the title song, which may possibly
be classed as a classic track – some mediocre stuff and a couple of
utter clunkers.
I thought when it
came out that it was a long way from the Beach Boys glory days of
surf classics like Fun, Fun Fun, then pop masterpieces like God Only
Knows, Good Vibrations and so on, but one’s judgement aged 17 isn’t
always the most reliable. However, revisiting it now, almost 50
years later, I think the same. There’s a sense of a band
struggling to recapture lost magic and not managing it most of the
time. Surf’s Up is still a very fine song, but much of the
material is thin and relies far too heavily on arrangement and
production, so although there’s a generic Beach Boys sound a lot of
the time, it’s largely forgettable. Student Demonstration Time,
their lyrically clumsy reworking of Riot In Cell Block #9, is pretty
feeble and shows that pounding rock has never been their forte, while
Take A Load Off Your Feet and A Day In The Life Of A Tree are to me
just embarrassing.
This isn’t an
album to be completely written off, but it’s a long way from their
best. Other than the title track, I can’t see this finding its way
into my player again any time soon.
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