Dial in the Beach Boys
It’s probably best that the Beach Boys haven’t stuck together this entire time. Through 29 studio albums, the group has celebrated almost every aspect of summertime and American leisure. On That’s Why
God Made the Radio, they sing about realityTV stars and spring vacation. Had they done many more albums together, by now they’d be creating falsetto-filled odes to citronella candles.
There’s genuine magic, however nostalgic, to the blend of Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston’s voices. That combination hasn’t been heard on new recordings since 1996’s Stars and Stripes Vol
ume 1, a set of duets with country singers. Most of Radio, which coincides with the group’s 50th anniversary, elicits memories while adding little to the group’s body of work. But the elegiac three-song suite that ends the album ranks with exquisite album cuts of the past like She Knows Me Too Well and Please Let Me Wonder. Summer’s Gone, which Wilson wrote with Jon Bon Jovi, comes across like a poignant farewell: Sounding like a man content to watch the waves lap the shore as the reflection of the setting sun ripples over the Pacific, Wilson practically sighs, “We laugh, we cry, we live, then die/And dream about our yesterday.” Should it turn out to be the last song on the last Beach Boys album (and it kind of makes you hope it isn’t), it’d make a fine finish. — Brian Mansfield
>>Download: Think About the Days, From There to Back Again, Pacific Coast Highway, Summer’s Gone