Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterstroke, September 28, 2004
When the original SMiLE sessions were taking place, it was whispered that the material was far too bizarre to be released. The audience just wouldn't get it. In retrospect, the album that was (and now the album that is) was light-years ahead of its time. With so many artists having been influenced by the bits and pieces of the original SMiLE that have been lovingly put back together in true humpty-dumpty fashion, it turns out that the album that never was actually was a watershed moment in music history. Just take a listen to bands such as The Fiery Furnaces, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Flaming Lips, Dungen, The Shins, All Night Radio...the list goes on. Those bits and pieces of SMiLE gestated and gave birth to these bands, and without SMiLE and its predecessor Pet Sounds, these bands would arguably not even exist.
However, The Beach Boys' SMiLE is a fragile document of what could have been. Until now. When I first heard that Brian Wilson was going to RE-RECORD the album, I almost lost it. I thought "How could he? This will be an embarrassment and will ruin what little we have of the original, sung through post-millennia filter that will cloud Brian Wilson's vision!" Boy, was I wrong. This is not a reproduction. It is a pure and unadulterated channeling of those original sessions as if they were directly tapped through some break in the space/time continuum. This is not SMiLE redux, this IS SMiLE. Arguably, Brian's Voice lost a touch or two in the intervening decades (!), but still sounds terrific. And the backup band The Wondermints recreate the sound of "what could have been" flawlessly. Although it isn't Mike Love and Carl Wilson singing harmonies, that does not matter much. This is Brian and Van Dyke's album. It always was.
So, when all is said and done, the album that could have been is the album that is. It is the album of a career, and one of the best albums of our lifetime. For this effort at least, Humpty Dumpty truly has been put back together again.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you Brian! An unqualified masterpiece.., October 8, 2004
In the "Tribute Concert to Brian Wilson" on DVD, released a couple of years ago, Sir George Martin took the stage and narrated a short film about how Brian Wilson was the biggest influence (and challenge) to The Beatles. How they were blown away when they heard "Pet Sounds." (Paul McCartney has called "God Only Knows" the greatest song ever written.. ) ..
He talked about how it took his own combined talents as their producer, the writing talents of Lennon and McCartney, and the instrumental virtuosity of all four Beatles to create their records, but Brian Wilson did ALL of that for the Beach Boys.. wrote the songs, arranged them, sang them, played instruments and ran the board during production and editing. What George Martin was saying was that it took him and all four Beatles to do what Brian could do alone.
Now who am I to argue with Sir George. As much as I love and adore The Beatles' music, he was right. I can almost picture John and Paul sitting slack jawed when they first heared "Pet Sounds." To which they answered with "Revolver" to which Brian was going to answer with "Smile" but then.. you know the rest.
The catch phrase going around about "Smile" is "Imagine if Sgt. Pepper had been shelved and released 37 years later." It is a very apt and fitting description of the feeling, the tears of joy, that any fan of Brian's will get when they play this album.
Of course, Carl and Dennis are deeply missed, and yes, Brian, now 62 years old, doesn't have that soaring falsetto he had forty years ago (on the same DVD I mentioned above, a must-buy if you are a true fan, Vince Gill performs "Warmth of the Sun" and the high falsettos in "Surf's Up" and he was chosen for that concert, specifically to sing those songs, because his crystalline pure falsetto can reach those notes that Brian can't any more..) ..
The Wondermints, Brian's new band, totally get it. I'm not sure if anyone totally gets Brian, but it's evident that he has a band of guys half his age who are totally devoted to him to the point of worship, and their goal was to do his songs justice. And that is what they've done.
Brian's wife, Melinda has described many times the inner demons that still haunt him, even on stage. The man has gone through some fundamentally sad, tragic, near-fatal periods of total suffering in his life, and for him to emerge from all that's happened to him, decide to revive "Smile" and release an album this beautiful is nothing less than unbelievable.
Sure I have various bootlegs of the 37 year old tapes. What true fan doesn't? And yes, it would be nice to have a companion piece to this new recording made from those original tapes. I wonder what the dolts at Capitol Records think of watching what might have been their album soar to #1 on a little Warners' house label like Nonesuch..
But let's not get bitter here.. the album is, afterall, "Smile" and that's what it will make you do. The music is not always easy. It might take a couple of listens, but it just goes to show again that a true artist is always ahead of his audience, not the other way around. A truly talented artist challenges his audience, whatever medium he works in. Think about it, it's 2004, and this is 1967 music that's still ahead of its audience :) ..
I can only chalk up some of the negative reviews of "Smile" found here to folks who simply are too young to know what 1967 was like. It was, IMO, simply the year of the best pop and rock music ever released. If you were there, if you were in High School or College back then and buying records, you know what I mean. One masterpiece after another came out that year. Maybe we Boomers wouldn't have understood Smile if it had been released in 1967. Sgt. Pepper's is much more accessible music. Smile pushes you to think. It's complex. Challenging. It's as revolutionarily brilliant as George Gershwin's music was in the 1920s. Eighty years later, people can still enjoy and revel in "Rhapsody in Blue" or "An American in Paris." They're still played and new recordings of them are still released.
"Smile" is like that. This is music that people will be listening to, enjoying, and talking about for many years.
Calling Brian a genius is doing him an injustice. We're plain lucky tha he's still around, and could give us "Smile".. it's joy, and leagues and light years ahead of most of what passes for music these days. If it doesn't click for you, put on some good headphones and listen to it seriously, block out distractions, and try to understand where this music came from, and who it came from.
On the last page of the booklet that accompanies the jewel case in the beautiful white textured slipcase, Brian dedicates "Smile" to all his fans who waited so many years for it.
Brian, it was worth the wait. It's beautiful. Thank you!
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sit back and Smile!, October 24, 2004
I don't usually write reviews, but having waited so long to hear this album, I thought I had better give it a shot. What we have here is nothing short of a masterpiece, a tour de force of what can happen when sophisticated, esoteric, impressionistic lyrics are combined with unassaliable melody,inspired production, and wit. The whole thing is inspired charm of breathtaking beauty. A teeneage symphony to God indeed, as we know that Wilson himself once put it-- key and chord shifts to make your head spin, lyric sophisitication grand enough to cry out and demand for repeated listenings; a melange of instrumentation so bold, yet so subtle, that the approprateness of the production is not to be questioned. A banjo here, a theremin there; a new melody rising and dipping, coming and going so rapidly that by the time the whole thing is finished, you are not quite sure where it is that you have come from.
Our Prayer is exactly that-- an underscoring of the whole spritulty that seeps from this music throughout; a prayer for an insite into the soul that sophisticated music often provides. Afterward, let the "First Movement" begin; America as seen through a kalaidascope of stereotypes, charactatures, and cartoons. Heroes and Villains starts us off into this world of Americana; perhaps there is good and bad in people no matter where you end up. Ominous and exciting at turns, its as if the world of Bonanza and Gunsmoke have come to life. Roll plymouth Rock is perhaps one of the more "experimental" pieces on the album; again, a fitting end to our heroes and villians story is to remind us a bit about the Aemrica we come from. Look at the frontiersman, the cattleman in "Barnyard." How many melody lines can a person combine into one song yet have each remain distinct? The desolation of past loves lost in YOu are my Sunshine reminds us all that through it all we are all subject to regret and lost hope. Smell the campfire burning? You can almost see it in front of you in Cabinessence; it is the essence of the frontiersman pushing westward, taming the wild, building the railroads and bringing "civilization" westward (are these people heroes or are they villians?).
Now, movement two in this symphony begins. Wonderful is one of the most sublime melodies that Wilson ever wrote, subtle, beautiful and powerful. I have always taken this piece as a the story of a girl as she enters young womanhood, and leaves her childhood behind. There is hopw, but also a bittersweet sadness, as well, felt in not only the lyrics, but especially the music. Song for children and Child is the Father of the Man is a perfect coda for this thought; again, the idea of growing up and reflecting on our childhood that we all do. By the way, "Child" is a piece that I beleive that in anyone else's hands, with anyone else's production than Brian Wilson, it would become tired and wearysome quickly, but somehow never does. Surf's up is a baroque song of 19th century society that is so cataclysmic in scope, I still shiver when I hear it. An excellent counterpart to the cartoony west painted in the first movement; this is reminder of upper class society in the West and is an excellent juxtaposition of the songs of intraspection that have immediately preceeded it. Is this the life we want our children to grow up and lead? Back to what life is really about with I'm in Great Shape; getting out of bed, eating breakfast, a little communion with nature; that's what starts the Third Movement. Workshop tells us about the need to fix someone's heart, complete with sound effects of the repairs going on. If you are not smiling by this time, perhaps you never will. Or maybe being told to eat your vegetables will do it in the next song, Vegetables. My guess is that this starts the Suite "The Elements" planned for the original 1967 release. On a Holiday is a great sea chanty come to life (is that VAn Dyke Parks on the voice-over? Sure sounds like him!). If we had Earth, now let's have Air: Wind Chimes. This is perhaps one of the greatest additions to the collection not heard before-- in it's finnished state, the second half of this song, beginning with the brass coming bursting down the door, I think this may be the coolest piece of instrumentation that Wilson ever wrote. Cool, indeed! Here come's the Fire, the first half of the song being a cartoony instrumental of a fire, perhaps a barn in some western town-- very Keystone Cops-ish, as another reviewer pointed out. The second part of this instrumental, beginning with the drums, continuing with the earie cello's and other strings, continues to scare the hell out of me. Listening to this, I can now understand why conducting it in 1967 freaked Wilson out at the time! To put out the fire, we need Water-- which we get In Blue Hawaii-- reminding us that America extends from Sea to Shining Sea, when all is said and done. Good Vibrations, the alternate version, with alternate, 1967 lyrics penned by Tony Asher of Pet Sounds fame, closes this set in breathtaking fasion.
Well, what can be said as general observations? First, Wilson's vocals, though not as good as they were 30 years ago, I think that if you never heard the man sing at all, these would be considered top-notch. It's only in comparison with his voice from over three decades ago that they seem to suffer in comparison. And just a bit, too. The Wondermints do a dynamite job throughout, too. I think that the blend of the Beach Boys' voices was unique, though-- I think that there is just Something about those voices that made the whole much, much greater than the some of their parts. Particuarly missed is Carl Wilson, who gave Wind Chimes and Cabinessence a subtle, breathy quality that the the songs do miss. That being said, how can anyone not like this music? Deep, emotional, thematic, melodic, and above all else, fun! It makes me yearn for another album from VAn Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson, a la "Orange Crate ARt" or Smile. So put the CD in, sit back, and Smile.....!
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Amazon.com Music Editor Peter Hilgendorf called Brian Wilson to congratulate him on the release of Smile, and to talk about the recording and some of the history behind this highly anticipated release. Listen now.
Here are a few lists to help unravel the stories and sounds of Smile. 
by Brian Wilson 
