The cliché about the Beach Boys sound is that it’s Four Freshmen melodies matched with Chuck Berry riffs. That’s certainly descriptive of their early hits, but Brian Wilson gradually spent more time in the studio, taking on the characteristics of Phil Spector, and made increasingly complex productions.
You think of amazing songs like “God Only Knows” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” both among the greatest pop songs of all time. Very lush and rich. After Pet Sounds (1966), source of both those songs, they then came out with the “Good Vibrations” single, another masterpiece, built from many studio sessions.
But then Brian fell apart and the album he was working on, SMiLE, didn’t come out quite the way it was planned. Instead, the album that did result, Smiley Smile, gave birth to the lo-fi movement.
The same band that gave us complex symphonies of pop, then delivered incredibly stripped-down songs that sounded more like demos. But in a world of Daniel Johnston and Guided by Voices, it sounds pretty good.
From Smiley Smile, here is “Vegetables,” and from its follow-up Wild Honey, here’s “Country Air” (both albums released in 1967). They still have more craft to them than most songs you’ll hear on the radio.
The Beach Boys – Vegetables — BUY
The Beach Boys – Country Air — BUY
Tags: Beach Boys, MP3s