The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

Nee Lewman said:
3/6/25
View attachment 228479
The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up



www.allmusic.com

Surf's Up - The Beach Boys | Album | AllMusic

Surf's Up by The Beach Boys released in 1971. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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The Beach Boys are one of my favorite bands so I am always for their inclusion on a list of this nature. This is an exceptional album (sans “Student Demonstration Time”). Nothing they did post-Pet Sounds measures up to that masterpiece but thanks primarily to Mike Love “leadership” following Brian’s mental deterioration the band decided spent a sizable amount of their existence embracing the idea that they were an “oldies/nostalgia” act which undoubtedly helped them sell their music but also made anything new they were producing seem like an afterthought by comparison.

Imagine If The Beatles, after Revolver decided to continue touring while Paul McCartney stayed in London to work on new music and the band decided to focus mostly on the British Invasion era music and instead of releasing Sgt. Pepper, they instead shelved it only to break out bits of it over the next few albums, we would have a much different view of The Beatles.

All this to say that most music obsessives are able to appreciate The Beach Boys, Post-Pet Sounds music for what it is but that doesn’t mean that pop culture hasn’t mostly overlooked many amazing albums as a result.

Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower and Surfs Up are all wonderful albums in their own right but for one reason or another we’re never embraced by your average music fan at the time and if we are being honest, America never really embraced Pet Sounds in the way that it should. The only reason it’s held in proper esteem today is that the UK “got it” in a way Americans at the time did not.

Surf’s Up is filled with stand out tracks, particularly “Long Promised Road”, “Til I Die”, and”Surf’s Up” and especially “Feel Flows” which is one of the most psychedelic songs every created it sounds like an LSD trip feels. I also want give props to basically the only contribution of note that Bruce Johnston ever provided the band in “Disney Girl (1957)” which is probably a bit too on the nose with its nostalgic revery but is also kinda perfect in that regard.

Overall Surfs Ups is probably contains more of their best songs than any non-Pet Sounds album but I would say that there were a few albums that worked better as albums overall. Namely Wild Honey and Sunflower both have a better flow than Surfs Up overall though none of the individual tracks top the best moments presented on Surfs Up.
 
That scenario does kind of require the world to just kind of shrug its shoulders at Revolver. It wasn’t necessarily that Pet Sounds sold better in the U.K. just that artists loved it. I’ve never really tried to figure out if it had the same artistic impact here. I think regardless it was always going to be overshadowed by Sgt Pepper and its esteem grew because of the esteem by and influence of the Beatles.
 
Z
Nee Lewman said:
That scenario does kind of require the world to just kind of shrug its shoulders at Revolver. It wasn’t necessarily that Pet Sounds sold better in the U.K. just that artists loved it. I’ve never really tried to figure out if it had the same artistic impact here. I think regardless it was always going to be overshadowed by Sgt Pepper and its esteem grew because of the esteem by and influence of the Beatles.
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it did sell better in the UK. Pet Sound was quite popular in The UK upon its release.

Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical response in the United States, although it peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. In the United Kingdom, however, the album was lauded by critics and reached number 2 on the Record Retailer chart, remaining in the top ten for six months. Promoted there as "the most progressive pop album ever", Pet Sounds was recognized for its ambitious production, sophisticated music, and emotional lyrics. It is now considered to be among the greatest and most influential albums in music history.<a href="Pet Sounds - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a>
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Z

it did sell better in the UK. Pet Sound was quite popular in The UK upon its release.

Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical response in the United States, although it peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. In the United Kingdom, however, the album was lauded by critics and reached number 2 on the Record Retailer chart, remaining in the top ten for six months. Promoted there as "the most progressive pop album ever", Pet Sounds was recognized for its ambitious production, sophisticated music, and emotional lyrics. It is now considered to be among the greatest and most influential albums in music history.<a href="Pet Sounds - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a>
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I don’t really feel like digging into it but I bet #10 US is more units than #2 UK.
 
dbarila said:
I'm only a few songs in but so far I can say this is definitely not what I was expecting. I was expecting a typical Beach Boys, poppy sounding, fun in the sun album. So far it's just....weird.
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I imagine it would be very jarring for someone that never really heard anything after Pet Sounds.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Duh. There are way more people in the US than UK.
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I’m just saying, it sold okay here. Problem was that wasn’t good enough for the label, band, or Brian. It’s a shame really. The perception (much like Paul’s Boutique later - another album Capital had no fucking clue what to do with) is that it was a dud. There are a million bands that would love to land a #10 album today which would be a teeny tiny percentage of that #2 UK sales number.
 
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