SMiLE
At long last, I’ve had an opportunity to listen to Brian Wilson’s SMiLE (as opposed to the Beach Boys’ Smile), laying in bed with the lights out and the stereo cranking to give me a full sensory experience. And I can now say that the album is incredible. Given the cookie-cutter music mass-produced these days, you can’t help but appreciate an album that takes such risks and uses everything from accordions to xylophones. It’s not the greatest album of all time, and it has its problems, but despite its shortcomings, SMiLE is undeniably beautiful.
The album stars with “Our Prayer/Gee,” which has the tightest harmonizing on a mainstream record since, well, probably since “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (which you must listen to the a capella version from the Pet Sounds box set to fully appreciate). It’s a gorgeous 2 minute introduction to the talent that listeners will be exposed to over the next 45. From there you’re launched into “Heroes and Villains,” complete with the legendary Cantina section. “Roll Plymouth Rock” keeps many of the same musical themes of “Heroes,” and to a lesser extent so do “Barnyard,” “Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine,” and “Cabin Essence,” which comprise the first movement (SMiLE is broken up into 3 movements). Wilson’s transposition of “You Are My Sunshine” into a minor key is ingenious, and would be even more effective had it not been usurped by The Simpsons (in the episode where Bart and Lisa go to military school).
The second movement is the weakest, made up of “Wonderful,” “Song for Children,” “Child Is Father of the Man,” and “Surf’s Up.” The songs in this section display the album’s biggest weakness: despite terrific harmonies and instrumentation, Wilson cannot maintain a single melody for more than 30-45 seconds… that is, until the genius “Surf’s Up,” which has long been considered one of his finest compositions.
The third movement has the worst introduction, “I’m in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop," but quickly picks up steam. “Vege-Tables” is sublimely surreal, “Wind Chimes” begins gently before launching into a frenzied instrumental variation on “Heroes and Villains,” and the start of “In Blue Heaven” really highlights the power of his backing band, the Wondermints, as vocalists. The album concludes with “Good Vibrations,” which is so embedded into musical history that very little can be said about it except to note that it is longer and has different lyrics.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that the album has problems. I touched on the biggest, which is the freneticness of the album in jumping among different melodies too frequently, particularly during the second movement. I can also agree with Mike Love that the lyrics make very little sense to me, but given the sound of the album, I am willing to overlook them. Another problem is with Wilson’s vocals. True, he sounds better here than he has on the other studio and live albums he’s released over the past decade, but his voice is still a far cry from his baritone and soaring falsetto of the 60’s. He is fine blending with other musicians, but when forced to sing lead, his vocals are rather rough when they should be soothing. Finally, and this may not be a criticism that everyone agrees with, but it is very disconcerting to hear differences in music and lyrics after hearing the original versions thousands of times. “Good Vibrations” in particular is vastly altered; when you expect to hear “And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair,” but instead hear “And she’s already workin’ on my brain,” you are taken out of the moment. I may get used to these changes in time, but probably not.
All in all, I’m a big fan of the album, and recommend it to everyone, whether you’re a fan of the Beach Boys or not. I also cannot wait until tomorrow night, because I cannot fathom how this album can be recreated live. But I'll find out soon enough.