Ah, the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys are one of those bands I’ve loved since childhood in the most simplistic sense. Mum and Dad had a greatest hits album that was always a bit of a favourite, but it was only as a teenager that I did any further listening, discovering Pet Sounds, then working forwards and backwards through the back catalogue in a doomed effort to find something equally good.
The trouble with the Beach Boys is they did too much. I remain convinced that the number of great Beach Boys songs is equal to the number of great Beatles songs. Trouble is, they’re spread over about three times as many albums. To find a Beach Boys gem, you have to wade through a lot of dross.
20/20 is an album that sums up this situation in a little over half an hour. Released at the end of their first record deal (and following the breakdown of Brian Wilson), this was the 20th album they’d released in about six years. It’s no wonder they couldn’t maintain any consistent quality. It sounds very much like a contractual obligation, and that’s what it is – a round up of orphaned single tracks, and a rag-tag collection of songs that sound like leftovers from other albums, padded out to the end with Smile off-cuts. Presumably they weren’t contractually obliged to provide a decent title or cover.
The album starts with ‘Do It Again’, a track generally considered to be the last great Beach Boys single, but I’m not convinced by this description. There’s a fine line between an affectionate nostalgic gesture and a tired retread, and I think ‘Do It Again’ is, at best, sitting firmly on that line. ‘I Can Hear Music’ and ‘Bluebirds Over The Mountains’ follow – the first is a reasonably forgettable slice of Beach-Boys-lite, the latter is livened up by a muted horn section and a bizarrely over the top lead guitar line.
Dennis Wilson’s ‘Be With Me’ follows, and is the most interesting moment so far. Due to his mental health problems, Brian Wilson contributed virtually nothing to this album, so it was up to the rest of the band to fill in the gaps, and ‘Be With Me’ is a wonderful illustration of Dennis’ developing talent as a songwriter and singer. That said, ‘All I Want To Do’, also co-written by Dennis, and the next track, is a bit rubbish. It sounds like a leftover from ‘Wild Honey’, where it probably would have sat nicely, but it jars here. Side one finishes with ‘The Nearest Far Away Place’, an instrumental by touring-band-extra-turned-full-member-in-an-emergency, Bruce Johnston. It’s nice enough, but a bit cloying, a description which aptly fits pretty much all his writing contributions to the Beach Boys catalogue.
‘Cotton Fields’ starts the second half. It’s an attempt by Al Jardine to follow ‘Sloop John B’ in putting a Beach Boys stamp on an old American folk song. It’s moderately successful, but lacks the Wilson-touch production of ‘Sloop John B’. ‘I Went To Sleep’ and ‘Time To Get Alone’ follow, and would have both fitted nicely onto ‘Friends’, the band’s previous album. ‘Never Learn Not To Love’ is another Dennis track. Any musical interest it provides is hugely overshadowed by the fact that Charles Manson co-wrote the songs lyrics – in retrospect, probably not a career high point.
The album finishes with two tracks from the aborted ‘Smile’ sessions. ‘Our Prayer’ is a brief but utterly glorious blend of acapella harmony, and ‘Cabinessence’ is a fascinating, if bewildering piece of music. It must have been a bittersweet moment for fans at the time – the chance to hear these tracks must have been very exciting, but the realisation that nothing recorded since could quite match them must have put a bit of a downer on it.So on the whole? Very patchy, but plenty to enjoy if your expectations aren’t too high. Let’s face it, the Beach Boys back catalogue contains far greater horrors than this.
The trouble with the Beach Boys is they did too much. I remain convinced that the number of great Beach Boys songs is equal to the number of great Beatles songs. Trouble is, they’re spread over about three times as many albums. To find a Beach Boys gem, you have to wade through a lot of dross.
20/20 is an album that sums up this situation in a little over half an hour. Released at the end of their first record deal (and following the breakdown of Brian Wilson), this was the 20th album they’d released in about six years. It’s no wonder they couldn’t maintain any consistent quality. It sounds very much like a contractual obligation, and that’s what it is – a round up of orphaned single tracks, and a rag-tag collection of songs that sound like leftovers from other albums, padded out to the end with Smile off-cuts. Presumably they weren’t contractually obliged to provide a decent title or cover.
The album starts with ‘Do It Again’, a track generally considered to be the last great Beach Boys single, but I’m not convinced by this description. There’s a fine line between an affectionate nostalgic gesture and a tired retread, and I think ‘Do It Again’ is, at best, sitting firmly on that line. ‘I Can Hear Music’ and ‘Bluebirds Over The Mountains’ follow – the first is a reasonably forgettable slice of Beach-Boys-lite, the latter is livened up by a muted horn section and a bizarrely over the top lead guitar line.
Dennis Wilson’s ‘Be With Me’ follows, and is the most interesting moment so far. Due to his mental health problems, Brian Wilson contributed virtually nothing to this album, so it was up to the rest of the band to fill in the gaps, and ‘Be With Me’ is a wonderful illustration of Dennis’ developing talent as a songwriter and singer. That said, ‘All I Want To Do’, also co-written by Dennis, and the next track, is a bit rubbish. It sounds like a leftover from ‘Wild Honey’, where it probably would have sat nicely, but it jars here. Side one finishes with ‘The Nearest Far Away Place’, an instrumental by touring-band-extra-turned-full-member-in-an-emergency, Bruce Johnston. It’s nice enough, but a bit cloying, a description which aptly fits pretty much all his writing contributions to the Beach Boys catalogue.
‘Cotton Fields’ starts the second half. It’s an attempt by Al Jardine to follow ‘Sloop John B’ in putting a Beach Boys stamp on an old American folk song. It’s moderately successful, but lacks the Wilson-touch production of ‘Sloop John B’. ‘I Went To Sleep’ and ‘Time To Get Alone’ follow, and would have both fitted nicely onto ‘Friends’, the band’s previous album. ‘Never Learn Not To Love’ is another Dennis track. Any musical interest it provides is hugely overshadowed by the fact that Charles Manson co-wrote the songs lyrics – in retrospect, probably not a career high point.
The album finishes with two tracks from the aborted ‘Smile’ sessions. ‘Our Prayer’ is a brief but utterly glorious blend of acapella harmony, and ‘Cabinessence’ is a fascinating, if bewildering piece of music. It must have been a bittersweet moment for fans at the time – the chance to hear these tracks must have been very exciting, but the realisation that nothing recorded since could quite match them must have put a bit of a downer on it.So on the whole? Very patchy, but plenty to enjoy if your expectations aren’t too high. Let’s face it, the Beach Boys back catalogue contains far greater horrors than this.
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