Send "Brian Wilson " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Villagevoice |
 There are many things I don't miss about the '60s, including long hair, LSD, revolutionary rhetoric, and folkies playing drums. But the affluent optimism that preceded and then secretly pervaded the decade's apocalyptic alienation is a lost treasure of a time when capitalism had so much slack in it that there was no pressing need to stop your mind from wandering. Brian Wilson grokked surfing because it embodied that optimism, and though I considered the legend of Smile hot air back then, this re-creation proves he had plenty more to make of it. The five titles played for minimalist whimsy on Smiley Smile mean even more orchestrated, and the newly released fragments are as strong as the whole songs they tie together. Smile's post-adolescent utopia isn't disfigured by Brian's thickened, soured 62-year-old voice. It's ennobled—the material limitations of its sunny artifice and pretentious tomfoolery acknowledged and joyfully engaged. This can only be tonic for Americans long since browbeaten into lowering their expectations by the rich men who are stealing their money. A PLUS...full text |
| Dustedmagazine |
| Let's face it – it’s an almost universal truth that when an artist attempts to revisit the past the results are doomed to, if not failure, at least disappointment. This holds true for musicians, filmmakers (George Lucas' Star Wars revisionism is a fine example), any creative person. The impulses, influences, inspirations and circumstances have changed since the original endeavor, and recreating those is not only impossible but foolhardy. Attempting to place yourself back where your head was at sometime in the past is simply unwise. Having the odds stacked so strongly against it, then, makes this "recreation" of the Beach Boys' legendary Smile album even more of a triumph than it might be. The fact is that, against all expectations, Brian Wilson has achieved what should have been impossible, and has produced what may be the year's most thrilling album. Originally conceived back in 1966, Smile was to be the Beach Boys' coup de grace in their polite rivalry with the Beatles. After the Fab Four's Revolver, the Boys had a challenge set. With drugs in the air, Wilson collaborated with lyricist Van Dyke Parks and went into the studio to create something that took the group's harmonies to someplace very new. And frankly, if the album had been completed and released, Sgt. Pepper's wouldn't have been nearly as startling as it was. Stories abound about what happened, but one way or another, Smile ended up unreleased, Wilson was never the same, and the Beach Boys slowly wandered into irrelevance. Various bits and pieces of the songs intended for Smile appeared here and there, offering tantalizing glimpses of what might have been, and innumerable bootleg versions with various songs in varying running orders have been out there for the past four decades. It is interesting to listen to some of those and compare them to this now-finished version – it’s true that the originals are somewhat more experimental and "out there." But ultimately that sort of second-guessing doesn't really matter. What we have here is an inarguably superb pop album that, given the way music has gone, doesn't sound particularly dated. Groups from Super Furry Animals to Grandaddy to Olivia Tremor Control have mined inspiration from this sound; now that the original has been remade, it sounds perfectly at home in 2004....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| For many, this week marks the end of very long wait. After nearly four decades of rumours, leaks, bootlegs and myths, Brian Wilson’s 'Smile'_ is now available to purchase from your local record store. To some this is the holy grail of popular music. Following Wilson’s descent into crazed isolation, the initial album sessions were shelved in 1966 and although tracks from the project popped on later Beach Boys records, a lusting public still desired to hear Wilson’s ‘teenage symphony to God’ in its full glowing glory. On Monday, some thirty seven years after its initial conception, the album that many thought was lost forever, appeared, re-recorded, newly packaged and shining brightly for all to see. It is with true excitement that DiS places disc onto tray, and presses play… It is not often that a pop record begins with the sound of a cathedral choir. ‘Our Prayer/Gee’ signifies the start. Lost and wallowing, the voices – complete with pitch-perfect Beach Boy harmony lines – are precise and caressing. It is a fittingly grand opening and provides the perfect layering for the kaleidoscopic whirlwind of ‘Heroes and Villains’. The circus tent motive still feels out of place, yet somehow you sense the whole song would collapse without this melody’s steadying repetition – and although it is a spruced up version of the track that is available on 'Smiley Smile', the invention is still outstanding. There’s so much going on in this song, that at times it's difficult to take it all in. Incidentally, the sound is wonderful. Perhaps the main worry surrounding this release, was whether Wilson would veer too far away from the original sound of the early tapes – ProTools anyone? It is this correspondent’s delight to report that alongside the brilliant direction of Darian Sahanaja, the man has been meticulous in his production. Some fanatics may suggest that the sacred, tinny bleed from the 60s sessions has been lost and subsequently replaced by a warm overglow - and they'd be right. Yet this is far from a negative facet. As the ’Smile’ horizon unfolds and we reach the gorgeous ’Cabin Essence’, the transition between the plucking ukulele led verse and the whirling harmonies of the chorus is glorious – those unmistakable Wilson arrangements flying around, escaping the speakers - free and uplifting....full text |
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