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Nonesuch to Release Brian Wilson's "SMiLE"

iconoplast

23:53 / 25.05.04

"Thirty-seven years after its anticipated release, an all-new studio recording of SMiLE - often referred to as the most famous unreleased album in history - will be made available worldwide by Nonesuch Records on September 28, 2004. SMiLE will be produced by Wilson and will feature the ten-member band that has supported him on tour over the past five years, augmented by The Stockholm Strings and Horns. More info to come."

(http://www.nonesuch.com/Hi_Band/news3.cfm)

...he played it in London live and while I haven't yet heard any of it, the reviews are phenomenal.
1. Do we think it's going to live up to it (otherworldly) hype, and
2. Have any of you found bootlegs of the concert floating around? Could you be persuaded to share?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:13 / 26.05.04

Whoah. This is gonna be fucking wicked.

rizla mission

09:29 / 26.05.04

Can it possibly live up to the hype?

You know, like the stories that when Brian was feeling relatively together back in the ol' days he'd occasionally play songs from it on the piano that would make everybody listening cry uncontrollably? That kinda thing.

Spatula Clarke

10:00 / 26.05.04

I just hope that the original recordings get an official release alongside it.

Opps!!

16:41 / 28.05.04

You may already know this but parts of Smile were released in some form or another (most were re-worked). Check this out:

http://inmyroom.omnihosts.net/beachboys.html

Spatula Clarke

19:11 / 10.06.04

I'm putting this link up considering the album and some of its tracks never got an official release, but if anyone's got worries about it let me know and I'll kill this post.

Smile tracks.

TeN

19:58 / 10.06.04

Just in case anyone wanted some more info...

Pitchfork: "Brian Wilson To Release Lost Classic SMiLE In Fall 2004"

Brian Wilson Re-Records Smile for Fall Release

The Smile Shop (tons of info on the album)

BrianWilson.com

Spatula Clarke

23:43 / 10.06.04

What's worrying me about this is the way it's being sold.

At long last, the lost Beach Boys classic is getting a release!

Except, it isn't. It's getting a tribute album, a reinterpretation. The live show may have been as fantastic as everyone's claiming, but trying to make out that it's the same thing is dishonest, and smells a little of desperation.

It's not going to have the otiginal vocals, for one thing, and seeing as that's the main selling point of any Beach Boys record, and one of the things that makes the Smile tracks as special as they are...

TeN

00:06 / 14.06.04

agreed.

still though, I wager that it's going to be pretty great. maybe not as good as it could have been, maybe not as good as pet sounds, maybe not even as good as the concert was, but still pretty great. the sad thing is that it's almost impossible for it to live up to the hype. even if it tops pet sounds, in a way, it's still destined to fail in the eyes of many a-fan.

doctorbeck

08:25 / 14.06.04

i saw one of the live *smile* shows and have to say it was 45 minutes of the most lovely and moving music i have ever seen playing, shoehorned between a cabaret best of the beach boys fiasco one step up from mike loves version,

however did not detract from the majesty of the smile suite itself, completely otherwordly and not even ahead of it's time, just from another time & another place altogether

however, i won't be getting the new lp, i'd rather listen to the bootlegs and outtake versions around that have pretty much the whole of the lp down as they were originally played, with all the warmth and innovation that analogue, valve driven kit has when played at and beyond it's sonic capabilities

FinderWolf

14:19 / 21.06.04

I saw a documentary on Brian Wilson (it's pretty well-known, you might have heard of it -- called "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"). Wilson sings his old hits on it - because of all the drugs, nervous breakdowns, etc., he seems like he's had a stroke or something - his speech is slurred and his singing voice is shot to hell. All the songs he did, he took the keys down much, much lower than their original keys, and they sounded kind of lame as a result. I don't think him singing the songs of SMILE today would be very good, I'm sorry to say.

Smoothly

00:27 / 28.09.04

Okay, so I've only listened to it 3 times, and I tend not to feel able to say what I think of an album until I've given it five good listens. (Too many records sound relatively shite to me on the first listen compared with how they do on the fifth, and vice versa.)
But to get this thread going again, the first impression on me is stunning.
On the first spin it began to sound a lot like a long (but gorgeous) prelude to Good Vibrations (which it ultimately seemed to rather stumble into). And there was a moment in the middle (I'm In Great Shape) that made me slightly anxious, but it resolves so beautifully that my doubts melted away.
I thought that there was just no way that it could live up to the hype, and my expectations were modified as a result. Could it have been better? Possibly. But it's just so completely cheering, it's hard judge it like that. Right now, it like my favourite vege-table.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:33 / 28.09.04

Likewise. I've only listened to it a couple of times so far, but it really is overwhelmingly nice. It's excellent. Not sure if it's 37 years' worth of excellent, but then I'm not sure if anything is.
I love it. Best feelgood album I've heard in a long while.

Smoothly

23:40 / 28.09.04

About eight listens in now and yet to tire of one bit of it. It seems to get better once you can stop hearing the other things it reminds you of, and it can just remind you of itself. If that makes sense.
It's my 4-year-old niece's birthday at the weekend, and I'm getting her this. It's okay to give a 4-year-old music, isn't it?

Seth

07:33 / 29.09.04

Only as a prelude to a first date.

Smoothly

09:13 / 29.09.04

Dude - I'm, like, *related* to her.

TeN

18:08 / 29.09.04

Hell yeah, buy it for your 4-year old niece. That's awesome. I'm sure she'll love it. Get 'em started early I say. (My five and three year old cousins are huge Liz Phair and Luna fans - it's great) Oh, and while you're at it, get her this too. (hehe, God that picture makes me giggle)

Topper

12:07 / 05.10.04

I cannot get enough of Smile. I'm so glad Brian was able to finish this amazing work. You could write a dissertation on the arrangements. It's gorgeous. And his voice is still strong! Smile cements his reputation as one of the great American composers.

.

Spatula Clarke

22:45 / 11.10.04

So how does it compare to the original tracks?

rizla mission

07:15 / 12.10.04

Pretty much all the reviews I've rad in a variety of publications have compared it favourably with the original recordings and been extremely positive.. which is nice.

I can't help wondering though; is it REALLY as good as all that, or is it just that nobody wants to be the one to get the knives out for the sacred cow...?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:22 / 12.10.04

I dunno... I wondered that too, reading the reviews before hearing it. I was actually quite looking forward to giving it something of an iconoclastic kicking myself.
But I don't have it in me. It's gorgeous.

rizla mission

09:53 / 12.10.04

Well ya can't say fairer than that.

Spatula Clarke

10:26 / 12.10.04

Main reason I ask is that I caught the TV ad for it last night - I will be buying it, but not for a couple of weeks - and the snatches played during it were largely indistinguishable from the originals, which made a bit of a mockery of the "37 years in the making" tag line.

The Natural Way

19:10 / 12.10.04

I've heard every track on the ad on a Smile CD owned by a friend. He's had it for aaaages.

What is the answer to whyfore?

Spatula Clarke

22:21 / 12.10.04

Originally recorded many, many moons ago. Never released because Wilson had his breakdown. Thought that their going into the studio and recording the song Fire was causing an actual outbreak of fires, that sort of thing.

Became 'lost' classic, spoken of in hushed tones, owned by many on crappy C90s bought from dodgy second-hand record shops.

That'll be what your friend's got - the bootlegs. I linked to the original tracks upthread if you want to check them out, Wedding. The just-released CD is Smile 2004, Wilson's re-recording of the tracks with a bunch of new people.

And yeah, the four-second clips on the ad sound exactly the same, hence my question in the last post.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:11 / 13.10.04

Thought that their going into the studio and recording the song Fire was causing an actual outbreak of fires, that sort of thing.

See, if he'd been a comics writer or a purveyor of occult industrial music, that wouldn't have been called a "breakdown", but an epiphany...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:59 / 13.10.04

Apparently schizophrenics just didn't "get" Surf's Up.

rizla mission

09:11 / 13.10.04

Well it's all in how the person in question chooses to take such signals isn't it - no doubt an occult nutter would find it pretty rad, but old Brian, being of a somewhat different mindset, got upset and freaked out.

It was him who decided on that reaction, not us.

rizla mission

13:41 / 15.10.04

Here's a good review of the new Smile that does a pretty detailed comparison with the original versions of the songs and takes a fairly questioning attitude toward the new one..

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