ts: Sunflower or Surf's Up

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.