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Smile

~ Brian Wilson
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
Price: £10.88 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

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  • This item: Smile ~ Brian Wilson

    Usually dispatched within 6 to 10 days.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
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Product details

  • Audio CD (27 Sep 2004)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Nonesuch
  • ASIN: B0002LI11M
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,145 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Our Prayer
2. Heroes and Villains
3. Roll Plymouth Rock
4. Barnyard
5. Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine
6. Cabin Essence
7. Wonderful
8. Song for Children
9. Child Is Father of the Man
10. Surf's Up
11. I'm In Great Shape
12. Workshop
13. Vega-Tables
14. On a Holiday
15. Wind Chimes
16. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
17. In Blue Hawaii
18. Good Vibrations

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
There should be fanfares. Every contributor to pop's legacy should respectfully bow down in silent thanks that Smile has finally been officially released. It may not be the original album (the tragic deaths of Carl and Dennis Wilson, and perpetual legal wrangles ensure The Beach Boys remain steadfastly estranged from this re-recording, and each other), but that won't matter to fans who devoured bootlegs, worshipped the recycled Smile songs that appeared on later albums and obsessed over literature such as "Look! Listen! Smile! Vibrate!" or Andrew Doe and John Tobler's Definitive Beach Boys guide.

Imagine waiting 37 years for a train to the best theme park in the world. Finally, there you are, and despite the paint job, it still doesn't fail to delight. Well, that's what it is to listen to Smile. The ideas may seem far-out initially, but they soon reveal themselves as pop-art at its absolute zenith. Who can argue with the sublime "Cabinessence"? The majesty of "Surf's Up"? And (least of all) the jewel in the crown of pop music "Good Vibrations"? Modern music may have caught up, but Smile's joyous trundle through Americana will leave mouths open wide in wonder. The gripes over the absence of Beach Boy vocals, (particularly Carl Wilson and Mike Love) may be valid, but Wilson's band are respectful imitators, and this is the best Brian's sounded in years--his world-weary, poignant voice conveys Van Dyke Parks' impressionistic lyrics more maturely than his younger self.

It's impossible to give a definitive opinion, because it's something that everyone needs to hear, history or no history, and though it may not quite satisfy 37 years worth of anticipation, or stand up to the original version (this version shows Brian was so, so close to originally finishing it), it's unquestionably the album of the decade. --Thom Allott

Album Description
Smile is inarguably the most long awaited album in modern pop history. It's been more than 37 years since the title first appeared on a label release schedule, intended as the January, 1967 follow-up to the groundbreaking art-rock of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. But Smile never made its initial release date. Today, this album is not a mere reconstruction of past performances, but something entirely new, a serious summation of a project that has been gestating for nearly four decades.

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Customer Reviews

80 Reviews
5 star:
 (52)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
 (10)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (80 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Smile, 29 Oct 2004
By Cheerio (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
The CD flopped through the letterbox, and got put to one side till later in the day. Busy lifestyle and all that! Later in the evening, I sneaked through to the kitchen to have a quick listen (mostly all I manage these days is a snatched few tracks in the car). Within 5 minutes I was sucked into a musical world I haven't experienced since, well I can't remember when, if ever. I sat tranfixed right through the album. "Whats that rubbish you've been buying now?" asked the wife later on. Next day on a car jouney, she sat silent as it played right though, and agreed, this is an astonishing album. The objective stuff has been well said above, all I want to add is this - For me, this album lifts me up gently to a higher place, and holds me there for about half an hour, before gently bringing me down again. It is a timeless classic. You want to drop your blood pressure back to a level you never thought you'd see again? Try this, it works. Just keep it in your head thoughout the day.
Columnated Ruins Domino!
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239 of 286 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Smile - The Masterpiece, 26 Aug 2004
Those of us fortunate enough to see Brian Wilson perform smile at the Royal
Festival Hall will already know and no doubt agree with most of what I'm
about to say.
Smile, originally supposed to be released in 1967 is probably the most
famous
of all unreleased albums. Composed and produced by Brian Wilson, the sole
genius behind all of the Beach Boys music before 1967, Smile was intended as
the big follow up to Pet Sounds which at the time didn't do so well in the
States but picked up a huge following here in the UK where the Beach Boys
over took the Beatles in popularity for a time.
The Beatles then struck back with Sgt Pepper, heralded as the greatest album
of all time, shifting the Beatles into even higher stardom and creating an
enormous amount of pressure for an already seriously troubled Brian.
Most people at the time heard that Smile's failure was a result of Brian's
breakdown after hearing Sgt Pepper. It's true he had a breakdown (more a
slow retreat from reality over the previous years as oppose to a sudden
cracking!) but it wasn't a result of hearing Sgt Pepper that caused it.
The Culmination of writing music for nearly 12 albums in 5 or 6 years, an
incredibly abusive father, and Brian's inability to cope with the pressure
of dealing with the record company and the other Beach Boys jealousy and
demands drove him into paranoid schizophrenia and an eventual total retreat
from the world for nearly 20 years.
Those few lucky enough to hear the original tapes of Smile have always
described it as an incredible musical journey exploring areas of music that
no other musician had come close to creating. And most would agree after
hearing it performed live that this music really is something special.
Brian's voice isn't what it used to be, but the fact this man is still alive
after everything he went through, still relatively coherent is enough to
impress most Beach Boys fans.
The new version of the album has been recorded with Brian's current backing
band, The Wondermints. A group of incredibly talented singers and musicians
who give Brian the support and confidence that he would've needed at the
time he wrote Smile but never received from the Beach Boys.
Brian himself mentioned to his wife after first hearing the Wondermints
perform the Smile song 'Surfs Up' in '96, that if he had them as his backing
band at the time he wrote it, it would have gotten released then and there.
So, 37 years later Brian finally decided it was time for the world to hear
smile as he originally intended it. Having gone through the original Smile
tapes with his companion lyricist Van Dyke Parks, who wrote the Smile
lyrics. Brian and Van Dyke organised the songs into an arrangement that
could be performed successfully live, unleashing this truly wonderful
arrangement on the world (well, the UK at least) earlier this year.
Brian on a number of occasions, even recently said that he would never
release Smile as an album but the incredible success the Smile Tour
generated coupled no doubt with the support he's received from his family,
the band and us fans has convinced the time is right for Smile.
I have no doubt in my mind about how brilliant this album will be, Brian's
already proved with 3 successful solo albums that he still has the gift.
Now, he has the chance to really prove it to us..........My only sadness
with this release is that if only he had released it back then, it most
likely would have rightfully overtaken anything the Beatles were producing
at the time and beyond and given Brian the musical credit that he deserves
far more then any other artist in history.
Surfs Up................
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brian Wilson may have lost a battle in 1967, but he finally won the war 37 years later, 20 May 2007
By jayhikkss - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
"Smile" is a mythical Brian Wilson recording that originally began in 1966. The project came in the wake of Brian Wilson's finishing the recording of "Good Vibrations", the Beach Boy's innovative big hit single. After its success, Wilson began to build an album around it. As for "Good Vibrations", he used a very laborious process involving the recording of numerous fragments that he would later painstakingly edit and orchestrate.

Working very hard, already put off by his fellow band members negative reactions, the already fragile and instable Brian Wilson grew dispirited with the whole thing and subsequently "dropped out" in the spring of 1967.

Parts of the original "Smile" tracks appeared on subsequent Beach Boys LP's and on the 1993 "Good Vibrations" CD boxed set. Of course, the original sequence imagined by Brian was completely lost.

Decades passed by before Brian would resolve many personal problems. Having established an association with the Wondermints, Brian Wilson began toying with the idea of resurrecting "Smile" in concert. After the fantastic reception of the concerts, Wilson reconvened with Parks in order to resume work on their abandoned opus.

Rather than manipulating the material from the original sessions, however, Brian took his backing band into the studio to recreate his suite, sometimes employing equipment identical to that utilized by The Beach Boys throughout the 1960s.

The album sounds like a highly textured orchestral piece presented in three suites. Moreover, if these recordings are surely a stripped-down version of Wilson's original version, the results heard here are consistently powerful and breathtaking. These song cycles are melodically Infectious and hummable and make for a remarkably unified, irresistible piece of pop music.

Smile's strengths stem from Wilson's sweeping melodies and singular talent for arranging, most notably the voices. If the harmonies here are not those of the Beach Boys and if Brian's voice is now lower and more ragged, the vocals are, however, excellent.

Brian Wilson has also retained the variety of instruments originally layered into the production. Listen, for instance, to the banjo, harmonica and chimes perfectly blending with the vocal gymnastics on "Cabin Essence."

He has also reinstated Park's lyrics in the brilliant but short instrumentals featured in the unreleased (but heavily bootlegged) Smile recordings. Listen to "Barnyard"; "On a Holiday"; "Song for Children" (formerly "Look") and "I Love to Say Da-Da," now part of "In Blue Hawaii."

This album gives the impression that "Smile" was not far from completion at the time of its conception (reinforcing the importance of Brian's then current psychological problems.)

With the music and lyrics remaining easily abreast of current levels of creativity, the long-lost album has received a brand new life and can now take its long-rumoured, rightful place within the pantheon of music history.

As such, this album is a definite must for all Beach Boys fans.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Perfect
This Is my Fave album ever!
Everthing about it is perfect.
If you dont own it i swill tell you to buy it.
It's different and very very open minded. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Rachel Czajkowski

4.0 out of 5 stars Only 38 years to make and worth the wait, but the live DVD is even better!!!
When the original project was aborted in 1967, only 'Heroes and Villains' and 'Good Vibrations' really saw the light of day. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Red Rose

2.0 out of 5 stars Let it Be
I think this is the first review I've written on here for a piece of music. I am not sure really how valuable such reviews are because music is such a personal preference. Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. Peters

4.0 out of 5 stars The smile that you send out returns to you
Brian Wilson went through countless personal crises for a third of a century after he abandoned the original Smile project. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Bob Sherunkle

5.0 out of 5 stars A new fan
I'd never heard any of the original Smile recordings before I bought this, except Good Vibrations, so there's no annoyance at how "different" it sounds here. Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2007 by monkeycheese

5.0 out of 5 stars Long live the king of harmonies!
Smile... a record of melodies, pop symphonies, something like you've never heard before. Even after more than two decades of being written and not finished it's something so... Read more
Published on 4 Jul 2006 by David Calcano

5.0 out of 5 stars One One Wonderful!

"Smile" was the album that was intended to be the Beach Boys' follow-up to their highly regarded 1966 album "Pet Sounds". Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2006 by Morten Vindberg

3.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing
I waited 10 years for this and after hearing some of the Smile 1966/7 recordings this fails to come up to the mark. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2006 by JB

4.0 out of 5 stars A music fan from Highbury, London is so wrong.....
I'm not going to type in a long review here. All that really needs saying is that Smile is not what it perhaps should have been, and in 2005 did not perhaps appear as cataclysmic... Read more
Published on 3 April 2006 by Samson Briggs

5.0 out of 5 stars This is amazing!
I only really got into the beach boys and Brian Wilson about a year ago, and being only 20, knew nothing of smile and the legend, but when i heard about it, i figured this is an... Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2006 by M. Mason

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