At 5/24/14 11:49 AM, Jackho wrote: Got listening to Surf's Up. I kind of find it hard to put my thoughts into words when it comes to music. I don't feel like it's suitable to give music a numeric rating either which makes things harder.
When I give something a numerical score it isn't a score on its "objective quality", but a scale of how much I enjoyed it as a whole. I can definitely understand what you mean, though. Sometimes feelings just don't translate well into numbers.
Liked it although it's no surprise I still prefer Pet Sounds, at least as of right now. It seems to go even farther from the old cheery surf-centered stuff which makes the title seem a bit odd, though I assume that's intentional and not some bullshit move by a marketing campaign or something. Toward the end it doesn't sound much like Beach Boys at all, in like Lookin' At Tomorrow and A Day in the Life of a Tree, the latter being fairly bizarre all round even if it fits with the environmental theme. Even the title track sounds more like Pet Sounds than a callback to their real beachy stuff, which I assume it's supposed to be.
I guess the title is a double entendre of sorts, and it's saying that the surf-related tunes that they're known for are "up", as in finished. The track Surf's Up is also a track that was intended to be on Smile and got reworked to be put on this record, so who knows how long that idea existed or if it was even the intention.
I'd been wanting to try more of the later Beach Boys albums for a long time since I love Pet Sounds, it's just that they've released like 30+ albums and I can't imagine it's all this good, couldn't be arsed wading through all of it when I've got other shit to listen to.
Yeah, that's one of the biggest problems with the Beach Boys. While they released some absolutely fantastic records, they didn't really seem to have any quality filter and majority of their releases are pretty lackluster because of it.
While we're sort of on the topic, where do you guys stand in the eternal Pet Sounds vs. Sgt. Pepper's debate?
Pet Sounds all the way, but I'm one of those guys that has an irrational disdain for The Beatles so whatever.