That's Why God Made the Radio

I always thought that this would be a pointless exercise, a bit like the awful Jeffferson Airplane comeback album from 1989, or Sinatra's Duets recordings from the early 1990s.

Thankfully not, as I found this to be a great album, bar Mike Love's sole soul-less composition. Of late, and I refer to previous albums from MIU onwards, The Beach Boys output has been throughly insipid, throughly uninspired, thoroughly awful. The best Beach Boy albums have been the solo recordings, i.e Carl's Youngblood, Dennis' Pacific Ocean Blue, and Brian's wonderful comeback as a functioning recording artist, from Brian Wilson (1988), I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (1995), Live At The Roxy, Smile, Lucky old Sun, etc.

The album does show that the Boys can revisit the close harmony material, a la Our Prayer, Brian's One For The Boys, on Think About The Days. It is also good that Brian's Wondermints backing musicians aid and abet the regular Beach Boys, i.e. Jeffrey Foskett and Darian Sahanaja, into creating an album that doesn't seem anachronistic, and this is apparent on the title track. I think this also harkens back to the vibe of Mount Vernon from Holland, but is, however, in a happier un-drugged state of mind.

Another old associate of Brian's appears as songwriter on most of the tracks, i.e. Joe Thomas - he produced 1998's solo album Imagination, which was a trifle over-done, but also contained great tracks, i.e Lay Down Burden. Isn't It Time is great, but Spring Vacation does over-egg the pudding somewhat with an unsubtle reference to Good Vibrations.

The Private Life of Bill & Sue shows that Brian is not afraid to write about a day to day scenario, a bit like McCartney on Another Day and Back Seat of My Car, or English Tea for that matter. Brian was good at it, too, on Busy Doing Nothing and Johnny Carson, and he returns to that scenario with aplomb. I am also wondering if Brian read the story of the insurance fraud scamster who fled in a canoe to Panama, faking his own death. If so, it may belie the assumption that Brian is a drug casualty being told what to do, and that he has a great ear for the news. That last verse, read by Skip Masters, does show an alert artist, with a Randy Newmanesque tongue in cheek sense of humour.

Shelter is a great track too, and shows just the right amount of yearning, with the infinitely sad lines of "Do you ever still think of me, and the way we used to be". Beaches In Mind, to me, is a little underwhelming, but the last four tracks on the album bring the album up to an amazing conclusion. If it be the last ever Beach Boys album, they leave us with love and more than a little mercy.

Now, if only Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would follow their example, and produce a final album of this quality. We can but hope !!

Let's be clear, this isn't another Pet Sounds or Smile but if it is the final studio album from the Beach Boys it does provide the perfect coda to what has been a magnificent career. It begins with outstanding track "Think about the days" where sublime vocals are set against a beautiful piano piece. Then we are on to the title track where the chorus features the sort of cascading vocals that were such a central feature of "God only knows. The following three tracks wouldn't have sounded out of place on "The Beach Boys Love You" album. It would be interesting to know if Mike Love (who went from frontman and chief lyricist to pantomime villain in the eyes of many fans) wrote the couplet,

"As for the past, it's all behind us
Happier now, look where life finds us".

"Shelter" starts of a bit weakly but suddenly takes off with a superb Carl Wilson like vocal on the chorus, by Jeffrey Foskett. "Daybreak over the Ocean" the only track not at least co-written or produced by Brian follows. Fortunately for a Mike Love penned track this more "Brian's Back" rather than "Student Demonstration Time" and with it's 50's and early 60's feel would have fitted nicely alongside some of the covers on "15 Big Ones". "Beaches in Mind" seems to me to be the weakest track on the album. "Strange World" sounds like it would fit perfectly on "That Lucky Old Sun" and we finish with a series of three gems, that were apparently originally supposed to be part of six song suite. I've read that Brian originally intended that "Summer's Gone" would be the final song on the last Beach Boys album and with the final verse one can see why,

"Summer's Gone
I'm gonna sit and watch the waves
We laugh, we cry
We live then die
And dream about our yesterday."

Many of the more negative reviews of the album seem to have focused on the fact that there is nothing new here, that it seems to be almost recapping previous glories but they seem to miss the point that when your past glories have been as glorious as the Beach Boys then this recapturing produces wonderful music, so sit back and hear those wondrous harmonies surround you.

If you want to know why God made the radio, it was so he could listen to Brian and the boys.

People who tend to think that come-backs and reunions are only made for commercial reasons must be people who don't know about the deep bonding that happpens when people play music together. Ok, it is not always the magic can be re-created, but in most cases something surprisingly worthwhile comes out of the effort.

That is definitely the case with this 50 years reunion album from one of the greatest bands ever. Uniting the three surviving original members Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love with 2 musicians who has an imporatant place in the history of the band. Mainstay Bruce Johnstone and the more obscure surf guitarist David Marks who joined the band at only 13 and played on the first 4 albums.

Not surprisingly Brian Wilson is the driving force here, many of the tracks based on demos of songs he had made over the years - with Beach Boys in mind. Helped out by old time friend - and sometimes 'enemy, at least in the court rooms - Mike Love, multi-talent Jeff Foskett and co-producer Joe Thomas. And a host of first-rate studio-musicians, mostly from Brian's touring band but also guitar-legend Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter.

There are some beautiful gems here. The title track is certainly a bona fide hit song. Some more introspective songs like "From there to back again". Not a bad song, interesting arrangements, exemplary playing and on top it: the still present and vital vocal magic. And as always with music of this calliber an album that wins tremedously from repeated listenings