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The Beach Boys: Sunflower/Surf's Up

5 Ratings: 2.4

2000 audio CD release

Although Sunflower contains at least one certifiable Brian Wilson classic -- "This Whole World," beautifully sung by his kid brother Carl -- the album is a true group effort that showcases the other Beach Boys' talents. Particularly notable is drummer … see full wiki

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The Beach Boys at their absolute creative peak!!!!

Dec 23, 2008

by drifter51
posted in Music Matters

Rating:

It took an awfully long time but Capitol finally released "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up" as a two-fer package back in 2000. While I always enjoyed the music of The Beach Boys I became much more interested in them in the early 1970's when they tossed aside the formula hits they had been so successful with and began experimenting with more daring and intricate harmonies. "Sunflower" was released in the fall of 1970 and was met with a collective yawn by the record buying public. The album peaked at #151 on the Billboard Top Pop Album chart and the two singles released from the LP "Add Some Music To Your Day" and "Tears In The Morning" did not fare much better. But you will find a number of other fabulous tunes on this LP including "Slip On Through", "Our Sweet Love" and two of my favorites "Deidre" and "Forever" . Make no mistake about it...this was a truly remarkable album for its time.

About a year later "Surf''s Up" was released with great fanfare and this time people paid a lot more attention. "Surf's Up" was one of my favorite LP's of the 1970's. The album featured a wide variety of styles including the lush and lovely "Disney Girls ", the hard driving "Student Demonstration Time" and other great tunes like "Long Promised Road", "Don't Go Near The Water" and of course the title cut "Surf's Up". While "Surf's Up" fared considerably better than "Sunflower" and the groups next LP "Holland" was reasonably well received it appeared that in commercial terms at least the groups most successful days might well be behind them. But The Beach Boys would prove to be a resilient bunch and would continue to have chart success to varying degrees for many years to come.

Now if you enjoy great harmonies like I do and you somehow missed these albums back in the seventies like many people did, it would certainly behoove you to give "The Beach Boys: Sunflower/Surf's Up" a try. Capitol has provided a marvelous 24 page booklet replete with lyrics, photos and other relevant information. You will not be disappointed!!! Highly recommended.