ts: Sunflower or Surf's Up

not one single mention of "All I Wanna Do" on this thread, you're all crazy

anyone see there's a new carl wilson bio on the way?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gDq4BBnBL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

1st of all Sunflower >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

but i love the cut of surf's up above

Both start great, dip somewhere in the middle and then go interstellar by the end.

Sunflower, easily.

man it might be surfs up tho if this "lost" denny song was the final piece (like it was supposed to be)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jinTmcYwAdQ

surf's up has higher peaks but i'm not sure why anyone would argue sunflower isn't the better album

I would argue. The only bad song is Student Demonstration Time. I feel like Surf's Up has a more consistent 'vibe' about it whereas Sunflower feels more like a jumble of decent/great tracks mixed in with some pretty forgettable stuff. Never really felt strongly about 'Got to Know the Woman' or 'It's About Time' - those two mar the first side quite a lot. Side two is fantastic, of course especially the run from 'Tears In The Morning' through 'Our Sweet Love'.
But to be fair both these albums are brilliant hatch-jobs. Sunflower especially is a real hotch-potch of styles whereas I think the sequencing of Surf's Up and the ecological/country influences seem to buoy it up a bit more.
Strangely, they seem like mirror images of each other: tracks 3 on each album 'Add Some Music' / 'Take a Load Off Your Feet', both have that naive cheery comic element for example.

"got to know" and "time" are the weakest links of Sunflower, sure, but i just don't think an album works if it's gotta a bomb like "student demonstration" on it. imo Sunflower feels more consistent just on that basis alone (i've always felt Sunflower was a consistent record, though). "take a load" is the perfect bootleg/box set oddity, but it's about as egregious as "demonstration" in the context of a Serious Album that's also about existential suffering, death, and ecological disaster (the fact that this silliness made it on but not the amazing stuff dennis was coming up with at the time really underscores what a petty mess the band/family dynamics were at that point).

granted, tons of my absolute favorite BB songs are on Surf's Up, so i can't get too riled up here. (btw, "don't go near the water" is also pretty goofy on the whole, but that outro has always floored me...)

(also, i do like "got to know" and "about time" just fine, they just aren't on the level of brilliance that pretty much the whole rest of the record is. and if you haven't heard it already, the a capella of "slip on through" might blow your mind)

I don't mind Take a Load Off Your Feet as a bit of light relief. Goofy Beach Boys is one of my favourite Beach Boys (big Smiley Smile fan here). SDT is a wart, but it's easily skippable.

I have a soft spot for Disney Girls: 'Get up, guess what, i'm in love with a girl i've found' is such a sweet teenage line.

But I like the arid feel of Surf's Up - there are recurring themes going on all through and as an album it hangs together a bit better for me (artwork helps). Also feels more like a step on from the awkward interzone between Brian losing his mind and the other Beach Boys coming into their own.

And I mean Day In The Life Of A Tree -> Til I Die -> Surf's Up is such a powerful trio of tunes. My favourite run on any Beach Boys album. Before Smile, this was the only place you could hear 'Surf's Up' as a song.

I don't think I've heard the acappella of Slip On Through though...? Unless it's on a live album. Don't get me wrong, I love the songs on Sunflower, it just doesn't work as a consistent listening experience as well as Surf's Up though.

Ztrangely, they seem like mirror images of each other: tracks 3 on each album 'Add Some Music' / 'Take a Load Off Your Feet', both have that naive cheery comic element for example.

"Add Some Music" is naive, cheery and comic? Have you got the right song there? Notwithstanding the fact that it's ca. a billion times better than "Take the Load", it's kind of a serious, even philosophical song, is it not?

It's lighthearted, whimsical. Maybe not comic, but the whole bit about being in the dentist's chair is pretty amusing to me. I could see either of these appearing on 'Friends'. I think I like 'Pete' just as much, even if 'Add Some Music' is objectively a better song.

I like all the dumb stuff on Surf's Up. Those songs make it what it is, rather than weigh it down. As someone said upthread: "It's just as well there are relative throwaways or else the album would be superhuman, and all too much."

Really -- I think it's a perfectly sequenced record. Sure, Student Demonstration is dreck, but I always listen to it -- and it's perfectly sequenced to be skipped if you turn the record over after Disney Girls. And "Surf's Up" might my favourite ever album closer -- the last 30 seconds are so wonderful I get goosebumps just running over the song in my head.

I do like Sunflower though. I've read a lot of critics dig "This Whole World" but I always found it kind of boring. "It's About Time" is great, though! BONGO FURY.

And that weird phased "ba ba ba" at the end of Lookin At Tomorrow - so good.

'Got To Know The Woman' and 'It's About Time' are two of my personal highlights of Sunflower - 'Take A Load...' is shite.

"It's just as well there are relative throwaways or else the album would be superhuman, and all too much."

though if everything were as strong as the last three tracks we'd have something to rival pet sounds. i nearly love surf's up as it is, but...

@doglatin "slip on through" a capella is on a recent box set (past few years?) and youtube, i'd bet. same release as the full version of "meant for you" :' )

@chuck i think "lookin at tomorrow" is pretty good, and the weird phase is indeed neat, though that song's another example of why sunflower's a more cohesive album than surf's up. the shift in production values for that one song is really jarring...

not one single mention of "All I Wanna Do" on this thread, you're all crazy

― geoffreyess, Thursday, August 6, 2015 3:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No kidding! There are times when I think this might be my favorite BB song.

@turrican "take a load" is dumb as hell, and i love that about it...but it's a friends song they threw on surf's up for no good reason. the more i think about it the idea of this album being cohesive seems a bit nutty – esp in a discography that also includes such clear and focused sets as pet sounds, friends, wild honey, and i guess more controversially, sunflower.

(x-post)

So good. Every one of Gerard Love's songs feels like a rewrite of it!

Seems cohesive to me! I must have listened to it every day as a 16-17-year-old -- I can't imagine the songs any other place.

"all i wanna do" is indeed about as good as it gets, and mike's never sang better. it's been said many times elsewhere but it really is wild that the beach boys, of all people, predicted shoegaze, dream pop, even chillwave – all in one song

The guitar riff in 'All I Wanna Do' could almost be a Robert Smith 6-string bass lick circa Faith.

Wrong thread, I guess, but I think "It's About Time" still holds up as a great BB song.

Whoops, I meant "Isn't it Time"

And that weird phased "ba ba ba" at the end of Lookin At Tomorrow - so good.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, August 7, 2015 2:26 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes! I love that bit!

Song does nothing for me tbh, belongs on an Al Jardine solo album, if you could imagine such an unlikely thing.

Slip on Through reminds me of Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' for some reason. Can't say why.

Lookin At Tomorrow is cool and haunting. it's the 'duck's eye' of that album. doomy, spooky country. i imagine it being sung by the native american on the cover.

This Whole World is amazing in that it's Brian's first lead vocal and full on production since being in bed, which makes it completely joyous and beautiful, not to mention the OOM BA DI DI breakdown.

Did you guys know Bauhaus totally ripped off Lookin At Tomorrow?

Listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nHBWfmMAIY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ2xPTf8jEk

This shoulda been a poll

I prefer Surf's Up, and the argument for why has been made repeatedly and eloquently upthread

I love Sunflower too but as someone said upthread it's way more of a bundle of awesome tracks. Surf's Up is nearly perfect (and I know it's a terrible song but I don't really ever skip "Student Demonstration Time" - I think I like the vocal performance)

not one single mention of "All I Wanna Do" on this thread, you're all crazy

― geoffreyess, Thursday, August 6, 2015 3:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No kidding! There are times when I think this might be my favorite BB song.

― Off Pudding (Old Lunch), Friday, August 7, 2015 8:35 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Mine too, easily.

"all i wanna do" is indeed about as good as it gets, and mike's never sang better. it's been said many times elsewhere but it really is wild that the beach boys, of all people, predicted shoegaze, dream pop, even chillwave – all in one song

― soyrev, Friday, August 7, 2015 8:41 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes.

Slip on Through reminds me of Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' for some reason. Can't say why.

surf's up has higher peaks, but suffers badly from denny pulling his tunes from the record. surf's up with denny's tunes on it would definitely beat sunflower, where dennis's tunes are some of the highlights.

agreed. real shame about that – dennis' songs should have definitely been on the record (replacing "student" and "feet" and reconfiguring the sequence would have solved all problems), though to an extent i also understand carl's conviction that "surf's up" should be the closer. i guess it could have worked well as an opener, too, though – "don't go near the water" is a bit confusing in that position.

holy crap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upfghY2KK3s

1983!

Stephen Desper's "study videos" are p amazing. He's the recording genius that engineered/recorded and produced Sunflower/Surfs Up. There's a melody Brian sang during Cool Cool Water sessions that just gives me chills. Unfortunately Carl demanded that it was buried in the mix wtf.

https://vimeo.com/47129488
PW: Original Intention

This is fucking amazing.