Disco de Brian Wilson: “SMiLE [LP]”

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.

Though no youngster, I've come to the music of Brian Wilson very lately; only really aware of the Beach Boys bigger hits. Word of a fabulous 'lost' album had barely filtered through other late 20th century distractions;

'Pet Sounds' (I'm ashamed to say) was one of those classic list-topping records that I still hadn't gotten round to buying. A SMiLE-addicted friend and a semi-drunken conversation ignited this latent spark, and so last Friday I bought both SMiLE and Pet Sounds, and taking advantage of an empty household over the weekend, have gorged myself on these aural banquets. I look forward to feasting on them for many years to come.

I think I have an advantage over a lot of the other reviewers here, in that both albums are brand new to me and don't come with the historical baggage that seems to mire a lot of devoted Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fans; who on reading quite a lot of the reviews here seem to have invested too much emotion and time into the SMiLE myth. I hear these songs as the simply heart-stoppingly gorgeous creations they are.

Brian's voice is still a beautiful instrument, I disagree that it has been slightly dulled by the years and the songs just make me ache. I'm going to buy all my friends SMiLE this Christmas and myself the rest of the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys back catalogue. Everybody deserves SMiLE!!

I am giving this album five stars because in its musical ingenuity, its melodic beauty, its moments of emotional power, its originality, its unique structure, its sonic choices, and its good cheer, it is the best album to be released in 2004. I must confess that I am among the world's many "Smile" geeks; I have heard all the bootlegs of the 1966-67 Beach Boys recordings that were to have been the original "Smile," and speculated about how they were supposed to fit together, etc. (For those who would like to hear some of that breathtaking original work, I heartily recommend the Beach Boys Box set "Good Vibrations" which is well worth the money, and contains many of the "Smile" recordings that were made in the sixties with great sound quality.) The myth surrounding "Smile" is so large that one has to admire the artistic courage it took for Brian Wilson to do this now, knowing there was no way on earth he could satisfy everyone or live up to enormous expectations - the same people who pestered him for years to finish the album will now perhaps turn around and complain about it. But Brian Wilson has no axe to grind, he is simply a man who genuinely wants to spread love and mercy and good vibrations to all and sundry through music. That said, let's look at what we have here. We open a CD package that is tastefully done; the liner notes by David Leaf touch on the "Smile" project's tortured history but they are dignified and succinct, without overmuch ado. The old timey Americana illustrations in the booklet set the proper mood of humor and fun (indeed, there is something uniquely American about "Smile" with its frontier and Hawaiian themes, in the same intangible way that there is something uniquely English about the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" with its music hall mood.)The CD itself has a slightly exotic look, which is also fitting given the exotic nature of the music herein. Brian has divided the album into three suites, the first featuring the American pioneer invocations of "Heroes and Villains" and "Cabinessence." From the opening vocal "prayer," we hear that Brian's current backup band, the Wondermints, has done a fine job of recreating the sounds and harmonies of the original recordings, note for note. It sounds good, it feels good, and for those new fans unfamiliar with any of it, you are in for a treat because of the sheer musicality of it all. Moods are evoked through unusual combinations of instruments, the same superb way Brain Wilson has always done things. The next suite, about childhood, is perhaps the most poignant and beautiful, ending with the classic "Surf's Up," that brings chills to the spine with its combination of innocence, joy, hope, and sadness. The final suite, loosely about the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), is perhaps the weakest of the three in its assembly and coherent logic, although the band acquits themselves mightily with terrifying version of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," which conjures up the sounds of a towering inferno with musical instruments alone - fantastic. The album ends with a new version of the well-known "Good Vibrations," this time incorporating lyrics that had originally been part of the songwriting process but had been discarded. This version can hardly come up to the original, but it's a fun song any way you slice it. Overall the album doesn't seem to make a hell of a lot of sense as it veers from theme to theme, due to the abstract ramblings of clever lyricist Van Dyke Parks. But there is an ambitious vision here and a desire to explore different ways of songwriting, arranging, and recording that is amazingly fresh after all these years. This album was made for love, not for money, and that is a much rarer thing today than it was in the sixties, sad to say. My one reservation about these recordings overall (here goes the geek's quibbling) is that the modern recording studio cannot quite equal the warm, rich sounds of the all-analog 1960s and the Beach Boys. This may also be due to the fact that "Smile" was finished as a piece to be performed live in 2004 before it was ever recorded. By contrast, the 60s "Smile" was originally not meant to be performed live but in the fine Beatles and "Pet Sounds" tradition, it was a recording that was unique as such, a work of art like a painting, a cinematic *recording* above and beyond simply the songs themselves and any given performance of those songs, however well done. Thus we have the 2004 version using synthesized keypboards for the sound of a harpsichord or a tack piano, rather than using the real things as would have been done in the sixties. We have less outlandish reverb, and listening to these recordings on headphones does not give me the same overwhelming spiritual thrill that the originals do. It is as if Leonardo went back in his old age and decided to paint another copy of the Mona Lisa; it would be a fine painting in the master's own hand, but it wouldn't be the first Mona Lisa. This is inevitable and unavoidable, and I am still grateful that Brian has finished this work and given us the best idea possible of how it was supposed to all fit together. Most of all I recommend this album not to "Smile" geeks like myself but to new fans who have never heard anything like it. It reminds us that anything is possible, and that we don't have to write or think within the narrow confines of commercial record companies and radio. I know of no other album quite like "Smile" and I can count on my fingers the number of truly unique albums that have appeared since the 1960s. This album offers prayers and good vibes, which will be answered if other artists heed the inspiring call and seek to do things in new and different ways and have some real fun with music and with recording, or in whatever field of endeavor you choose, with sincere good will.

I am listening to "Smile" as I type this, and have seen a number of the reviews here, the varying opinions that run from pure adoration of this work to total loathing. I thought I'd add my two cents.

Music, more than any other artform, is totally personal. It only truly works for us if it moves us in some way. If it doesn't, it's merely noise. And what is going to move us is a combination of our own experiences, our associations of events with melodies, rhythms, memories and so on. So one person's genius is another person's bore. That's how it's always been and how it will always be.

That having been said, I was attending an Arts College when first introduced to "Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece", in the form of the remnant album that was released as a kind of consolation. That album was called "Smiley Smile". Many at the school (from the music department) proclaimed it either "thwarted genius" or "psycho music". Neither is surprising as at that time Brian was undergoing the deepest stages of his mental breakdown.

But listening to Smile at this moment, I'm surprised and rather delighted to hear the final realization of the fragments and bits and pieces that I originally heard on the Smiley Smile album. Some of the melodies and tunes from that earlier incarnation find their way here, but having transmuted to different keys, different tempos, different arrangements. Some have disappeared entirely. I personally would urge everyone to try and obtain a copy of Smiley Smile and listen to the two of them back to back. It's the difference between a raw manuscript and a published volume. In Smiley Smile you'll find Vega-Tables and Wind Chimes as well as Heroes and Villians and Good Vibrations. However with the exception of H & V and Good Vibrations, the others seemed, on that earlier incarnation, to be mere fragments, jotted down and preserved as if in a desperate effort that they not be lost should they never receive a completing make-over. The differences are quite striking.

In terms of the quality of the music on Smile, I can only say this... in an age when "music" consists primarily of nothing but repetitive, banging rhythms topped by staccato, monotone rambling words (as in rap) or flat, jarring, dischordant electrified guitar noise and distorted, tuneless screaming (as in most other contemporary musical forms like metal, punk, grunge, etc. etc. etc.) then it is refreshing to find something that uses a wide range of melodic themes, instrumentations, witty lyrics, harmonics and, dare I say it... feelings.

I'm sure I will be listening to Smile frequently in the coming days. And I'm equally sure I will be smiling when I do.

I must say, I am floored. I haven't been this taken by a pop music release in years. With all of the recycling of Beach Boys, Beatles and Pink Floyd music going on in the pop music genre, it is nice to have something truly original. The production on this recording is wonderful. Brian and company have recreated the "Spectoresque wall of sound" that Brian Wilson made his own in the mid sixties. Now it sparkles in a way that recording technology would not allow in 1966. The musicians truly bring Wilson's vision to fruition in a big way.

My favorite thing about "Smile" is that it is essentially a collection of wonderful little musical morsels that have been very cleverly pieced together. Many of the best themes recur throughout the work when you least expect them such as in "Children's Song" when the theme from "Good Vibrations" is played on the glockenspiel.

Speaking of "Good Vibrations," How did Brian Wilson summon the sheer audacity to re-record that song. I was sceptical, but he pulls it off beautifully. I think many of the Mike Love lyrics were taken out and replaced with Van Dyke Parks lyrics which I like better. It kind of becomes a nerdier version which is more appropriate for Brian Wilson, the ultimate loveable nerd.

The entire spectrum of emotions as well as musical timbres is explored on "Smile." It is truly amazing how it goes from being silly to sad to scary in a matter of seconds. It is also amazing how many different instrumental and vocal sounds are produced on this recording. I have been listening to it with my two year old daughter (who loves it) and using it to teach her the sounds of different instruments.

I have only had smile for about four days. Every time I listen to it, something new jumps out and takes me by surprise. Most of all it makes me smile. Thanks Brian!