Aug 20, 2015 For this review, we're going to be using the tracklist on Brian Wilson Presents Smile as the basis for what I'm reviewing. So, if you want to follow along with what I'm talking about, we're going to be using tracks 1-19 on The Smile Sessions as the album. Anyways, onto the review. Despite being technically unfinished, Smile is one of the greatest albums ever made. I recently heard it only a few months ago and I'm just extremely blown away with how it was made between 1966-1967. Pet Sounds was already a sonic and technical breakthrough in music, but Smile just built and built and built upon that breakthrough to the point, where due to technical limitations, Brian Wilson could not achieve what he wanted. Almost nobody was ready for Smile, not even technology. Let's talk about the music though. There are many ideas and themes present on Smile. Unlike Pet Sounds which was more singular themed and personal, Smile was built to take on the world, or at least the United States. We start off on “Our Prayer,” a great intro showcasing some amazing Beach Boys vocal harmonies which goes into “Gee,” a cover/adaption of a 1953 The Crows single which serves as an intro of sorts to “Heroes and Villains,” which I consider to be somewhat of a spiritual successor to Good Vibrations. The lyrics and parts of the production play out like it was a western, pitting the Spanish against the Native Americans, but also according to Brian Wilson’s ex-wife Marilyn the song can be seen as an allegory to the music industry. My favorite part about this song is definitely the “Heroes and villains / Just see what you've done” sections, which really give the song an epic feel. To me, 'Heroes And Villains' sounds like a ballad out of the Southwest. That’s what it was intended to be—as good as any of those—and, really, to be a ballad. This Spanish and Indian fascination is a big chapter in Californian history, and that’s what it’s supposed to be—historically reflective, to reflect this place. I think it did it. Click to expand...Then, we transition into “Do You Like Worms? (Roll Plymouth Rock)” which has a bit of a lo-fi texture to it with the intro with some pounding drums until Brian starts singing behind a very prominent and somewhat psychedelic bassline. Then, the song changes things up once again for another new arrangement with prominent piano strings, something that can also be seen in “You Still Believe In Me” from Pet Sounds. Co-writer Van Dyke Parks imagined this song as a lyrical coast-to-coast journey across the United States, going from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii (compare the lyrics in the intro to the lyrics towards the end of the track). Now this next track, despite it’s short length, is actually one of my favorite’s from the album. This track of course is “I’m In Great Shape,” a 28-second beauty of a track featuring some great vocals and some of the most interesting instrumentation on the album, with great horn work and an urgent piano line which echoes furiously until we go into “Barnyard,” one of the most psychedelic tracks on the album with it’s bassline and just generally odd concept, with Brian talking about his experiences in the barnyard with animal sounds going on in the background. Overall just a really odd, but short and hilarious track. I’m just gonna say for this next track, it’s definitely one of the most emotionally striking thanks to the depressing vocals of Dennis Wilson and a couple little changes to the lyrics (“You made me happy when skies were blue” and “How could you take my sunshine away?”) just really portray the state of depression really well. In the original song it’s “skies are grey”, but a change to the color shows that even when the world is happy, I can’t be without you. It’s a seemingly simple song with complex emotions behind it. Then the songs last half is a medley of sorts using the melody of the song “The Old Master Painter.” “Cabin Essence” is another track like “Heroes and Villains” or “Good Vibrations” which feature many different and varying sections within the song. While not as epic and grand as those two tracks, the track has a very cozy-like feeling outside of the “Who ran the iron horse?” part. According to Brian Wilson, this track was supposed to be Chinese laborers working on the railroad, continuing one of the album’s overarching themes about it being a history of sorts of the United States. Also, this track is known for being one of the reasons Van Dyke Parks left the Smile project due to a heated argument with Mike Love about what some of his lyrics in the song meant. In an interview on October 1966, Brian Wilson described Smile to be a “teenage symphony to God.” Tracks like “Wonderful” (which starts the second movement of the album) really hold onto that quote, as this track is beautifully written and composed (specifically, that harpsichord is jaw-dropping) and speaks upon some of the religious themes of the album, using a young girl losing her innocence to a “non-believer” as the backdrop. This innocence can be interpreted as a lot of things, whether it’d be her faith in God or her virginity. The next track of this second movement is “Look (Song for Children)” which is more of an instrumental track outside of the group vocals singing “Child, child, the child.” I end up viewing this song like a choreographed dance in a school musical, as the track is just really pretty and has a child-like wonder which really could describe the second movement overall, innocent wonder and the loss of it. “Child Is The Father of the Man” has a feeling of loss innocence through it’s breath-taking instrumentation, which towards the second half feels like a larger-expanded “Surf’s Up,” which funnily enough is the next track and final part of movement two. “Surf’s Up” is one of the greatest written songs ever. The fact that Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks (who Brian attributes to being the main songwriter for the song) pumped this out in a hour is mind-blowing. The track takes a stream-of-consciousness type approach to the lyrics and vocal delivery. It’s a song that takes on many messages, whether it’d be a slap in the face to early Beach Boys fans (“Surf's Up, mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm / Aboard a tidal wave / Come about hard and join / The young and often spring you gave), taking action about politics (“Canvass the town and brush the backdrop / Are you sleeping?”), and goodbye to the past (“The glass was raised, the fired rose / The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting / While at port adieu or die”). This is easily my favorite song off of Smile. Go back to the kids, to the beach, to childhood. “‘I heard the word’—of God; ‘Wonderful thing’—the joy of enlightenment, of seeing God. And what is it? ‘A children’s song!’ And then there’s the song itself, the song of children, the song of the universe rising and falling in wave after wave, the song of God, hiding the love from us, but always letting us find it again, like a mother singing to her children.” Click to expand...Okay I’m about 10,000 characters in so I need to start wrapping things up so I’m going to have to lighting-round movement three (tracks 13-19). “I Wanna Be Around / Workshop” is a skit/instrumental that pretty much sounds like The Beach Boys f---ing around in a workshop, it’s great. “Vega-Tables” is a track that shows another theme the album wanted to achieve which would be promoting healthy-living via good nutrition, exercise, and rest. It’s a very goofy track that’s just pure fun to listen to. “Holidays” mainly serves it’s purpose to be the song that builds up into the next track “Wind Chimes,” which is actually pretty simple lyrically, as it just describes Brian Wilson looking upon his wind chimes and basking in the beauty of them. It’s somewhat of a stark contrast to the next song, “The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow)” which is pretty much the sonic equivalent of panicking during a fire or an LSD trip, both pretty much. This song is mostly known for the story behind it, in which Brian Wilson actually thought this track burned down a nearby warehouse, causing Brian to have a nervous breakdown. “Love to Say Dada” starts off extremely atmospheric and stripped back, which plays like The Beach Boys singing a lullaby to a child before some more instrumentation is added which I interpret being the child dreaming. And then finally we have “Good Vibrations,” an absolute classic of a track for it’s groundbreaking production and psychedelic lyrics. A great way to end this elongated-mystery of an album. < link removed >
Aug 20, 2015 I love the album, very dense melodies, heroes and villains is incredible, It just sucks that whenever i hear 'good vibrations' all i can think of is the good guy's advertisement song.....
Aug 20, 2015 Cringe is what it is: Used to be on TV all the f---ing time when i was growing up, and it has forever haunted me...
