Audio CD review:
The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony

The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony

Band: The Beach Boys Title: Endless Harmony Rating: Release Date: 28 March, 2000 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Soulful Old Man Sunshine 2: Soulful Old Man Sunshine 3: Radio Concert Promo 1 4: Medley: Surfin' Safari/Fun, Fun, Fun/Shut Down/Little Deuce Coupe/Surfin' U.S.A. 5: Surfer Girl 6: Help Me, Rhonda 7: Kiss Me, Baby 8: California Girls 9: Good Vibrations 10: Heroes And Villains 11: Heros And Villains 12: God Only Knows 13: Radio Concert Promo 2 14: Darlin' 15: Wonderful/Don't Worry Bill 16: Do It Again 17: Break Away 18: Sail Plane Song 19: Loop de Loop (Flip Flop Flyin' In An Aeroplane 20: Barbara 21: 'Til I Die 22: Long Promised Road 23: All Alone 24: Brain's Back 25: Endless Harmony

Editoral Review But this soundtrack from the band-sanctioned VH-1 television special wisely focuses on the band's undeniable vocal prowess and the vaunted composing/arranging/producing skills of its chief architect, Brian Wilson. Those familiar with the Beach Boys' decades of familial squabbles and personal discord will find the title Endless Harmony almost too ironic. It also manages a fresh take on one of the most over-exposed catalogs in pop, largely by raiding the vaults for some unexpected gems. Twenty-one of the 23 music tracks (two brief radio promos are also included) here are previously unreleased. Several Brian Wilson demos give insight in to his creative process. Worshippers of that grail of unreleased albums, Smile, will be excited to find that the piano demo of "Heroes and Villains" also includes snippets of "I'm in Great Shape" and "Barnyard," long-lost pieces of that legendary album/puzzle. Wilson's demo for "Breakaway" illustrates how he would arrange songs by recording each band member's vocal part himself--Wilson quite literally is the Beach Boys here. Also notable is "Surf's Up" engineer Steve Desper's radical (for 1970) remix of Wilson's fatalistic classic "Til I Die," early versions of "Do It Again," and "Help Me, Rhonda," and gorgeous (if heretical) stereo mixes of "California Girls" and "Kiss Me, Baby. " The other band members' creative instincts are succinctly documented, but as always, it is the sound and vision of Brian Wilson that overshadows them. "Genius" might just be too weak an adjective. --Jerry McCulley .. You can see a complete list of all The Beach Boys discography, or go back to the The Beach Boys tabs