The Beach Boys - Summer Love Songs Review
Posted by Aaron Mayagoitia on 05.31.2009
Yet another Beach Boys compilation has hit the shelves. Does this compilation offer anything new? Does this compilation trump other Beach Boys compilations out there? Read the review and you’ll find out.
Oh how I pity the bands from the ‘60s and ‘70s that have to go through a constant rehash of their greatest hits. You know the scenario: bargain bins full of dirt-cheap compilations with crummy packaging and below-average song selection; the obscure record labels that put these things out pay very little attention to how the product is brought to the consumer. I’m sure that bands think that this is not the most dignified way to sell your music to fans, both old and new. However, as we have forgettable compilations out there, we also have compilations that do a very good job in bringing together a band’s most known work in pretty packaging and, as is Summer Love Songs’ case, with improved sound quality, unreleased material being the saving grace of only a few compilations out there, which is the main problem with this new Beach Boys compilation.
Summer Love Songs offers twenty tracks that showcase The Beach Boys’ more tender side, don’t expect to find twangy, rocking songs such as “Surfin’ U.S.A.” and “Surfin’ Safari” aplenty in this compilation, although some peppy moments are sprinkled here and there. The tracks are culled from the following albums: Shut Down, Vol. 2, Pet Sounds, Surfer Girl, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), Today!, All Summer Long, 20/20 and Sunflower. There’s only one unreleased track in the whole compilation called “Fallin’ in Love” written by Dennis Wilson. There are also new stereo mixes of six songs which will only appeal to the serious fan and to audiophiles.
“Fallin’ in Love” stands out from the rest of the tracks on the album because of two reasons: it’s the only new song on the album, and it breaks the sunny, warm mood that dominates the album with a gloom that’s more characteristic of winter than summer. The song is driven by a powerful, wonderful orchestral arrangement and Dennis Wilson’s fragile voice. Is this song worth buying the compilation even if you already have the rest of the songs that are in it? Not really. Even if you’re a Dennis Wilson fan you’ll probably think that “Fallin’ in Love” is not one of his strongest songs. Casual fans will take the song as one more Beach Boys track on another Beach Boys compilation. Pacific Ocean Blue is where it’s at if you’re a Dennis Wilson fan.
As for the stereo mixes: why bother having the mono mixes around anymore? I understand that maybe they’re still around because of nostalgic value but you don’t have to be an engineer to know that stereo is better than mono (unless you’re Paul Gilbert), so why release stereo mixes in bursts when you can release complete Beach Boys albums in stereo? They already did that with Pet Sounds, so why release stereo mixes in a compilation album? Anyway, all the tracks in Summer Love Songs sound great, much better than any version that’s out there, but this still won’t budge the casual listener towards buying the album since a lot of the band’s hits are missing. Audiophiles however are advised to check out this compilation’s sound quality.
So is Summer Love Songs the new best Beach Boys compilation out there? No it isn’t. Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys is still king among Beach Boys compilations because of its spread; Summer Love Songs has a lot of free space that could’ve been used to include more music or digital content. Summer Love Songs feels more like a superb-sounding playlist made by a fan who’s tired of the same old songs being played on the radio over and over again. It could be said that Summer Love Songs doesn’t pretend to be a definitive collection of Beach Boys hits but a theme-based collection of Beach Boys music. And if we judge the album by that premise, it scores.
One observation though: Capitol really needs to be more creative with how they name Beach Boys material. It’s easy to get confused when you have albums called Summer Love Songs, Sounds of Summer, Endless Summer, summer this, summer that… I know The Beach Boys are immediately associated with sun, surf, summer and sand, but come on!
Track listing:
1. Don’t Worry Baby.
2. Why Do Fools Fall in Love.
3. Wouldn’t It Be Nice.
4. God Only Knows.
5. Surfer Girl.
6. California Girls.
7. Please Let Me Wonder.
8. In the Parkin’ Lot.
9. Your Summer Dream.
10. Kiss Me, Baby.
11. Hushabye.
12. I’m So Young.
13. Good to My Baby.
14. Fallin’ in Love.
15. Time to Get Alone.
16. Our Sweet Love.
17. Help Me, Rhonda.
18. Keep an Eye on Summer.
19. Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder).
20. Girls on the Beach.
The 411: Summer Love Songs is not a compilation album that will give you a good glance at the band’s career, it’s a theme-based playlist that sounds fantastic. Get this if you want a collection of exquisite love songs. If you want to get into The Beach Boys’ music, get Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys or dig into their full albums.
Not every compilation needs to be a "definitive" career retrospective. This mix is a relief from the "Endless" summer hits cd's you're rightfully complaining about. It even has about 5 Top Ten hits. The casual listener can get any hits package, or be blown away by these songs. We're talking about America's first supergroup here--the only band to seriously challenge the Beatles, partly because of lesser-known songs like these. It's criminal how little people know about anything other than Surfin USA. Thank Capitol Records and the Beach Boys themselves for that.
Also, Dennis Wilson's "Fallin in Love" is not at all gloomy! It's just slow and soft. "Please Let Me Wonder" is the song that stands out for sadness, not that that's bad. It's a balance.
The stereo mixes are great, but we will always need mono mixes. That's the way Brian Wilson intended his art to sound. Should we throw away the Mona Lisa because now we can make a 3-D version of it?
Overall I'd give this mix a 7. Too many hits, too close together at the beginning keep the score down for me. And a few songs from after 1970 should be on there. But it's a step in the right direction.
Posted By: Mark (Guest) on June 03, 2009 at 12:54 PM
