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BEACH BOYS
Good Vibrations — 30 year boxed set compilation

as reviewed by Jack Crompton at Amazon.com, April 30, 2008

30 Years of the Endless Summer.

We’re all familiar with the Beach Boys classic hits with their swirling, youthful vocal harmonies. The musical heritage they’ve left us with is rich and prolific. But not everyone is familiar with the extent of quality and creativity that encompass their non-hit radio material. This boxed set gives this legacy justice with close to a hundred tracks of diverse songs that reveal an extraordinary portrait of this much loved American band.

The songs here span the very early years of the Beach Boys through to their last hits in the eighties with ‘Kokomo’. Included is all their familiar popular and critical hits (sans one of my favorites, ‘Wendy’), almost all of ‘Pet Sounds’ and a great deal of material from Brian Wilson’s visionary ‘Smile’ period.

As with the Beatles, its fascinating to observe the changes and maturity of the band as the years went on. Brian’s story is of course well known as he went into a deep mental illness and withdrew after 1967, and although he still contributed creatively in songwriting after that time, his withdrawal from reality was continual for many years. But this gave his two brothers and the rest of the band room to expand their own talents. It’s plainly evident with Carl and also with Dennis too. There are lots of little known songs from the obscure albums that come out after 1967 that are just beautiful. Great music!

I particularly liked the material from ‘Friends’, ‘Surf’s Up’ and ‘Holland’. As a total collection, this leaves little to be desired. We all can think of a tune or two we wish was included but they did a good job selecting these and its an excellent package. It also comes with a booklet with great art and photos.

‘Good Vibrations’ is worth owning for any serious music lover.

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