Entertainment For Lively Minds
Smile
Posted by NigelT on 29 October 2011 - 11:14pm.
I got the Smile 2 cd set today, and I have to say it is rather fine. I was very sceptical about this - I do think they've rather overdone the 'legendary unreleased ' boloney, and I have blogged elsewhere about the flippin' 80 quid box sets - but this does hit the spot. It is now rather a shame that Brian did his own version in 2004 as that takes some of the surprise away, but I was blown away rather unexpectedly. The mastering is brilliant - Surf's Up is one of my all time faves, but it's never sounded better - really!
Is it better than Pet Sounds? No. Is it better than than the sum of it's parts? Oh yes!
It's rather marvellous to be surprised like this - anyone else got a view on this?
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Yeah
how come everyone seems to have it today? I foolishly decided to get mine from a record shop on the release date so won't hear it til Monday. Did yours arrive from Amazon or something?
Ah..
..sorry, friendly local record emporium!
Nice work!
I did contemplate going down to mine and seeing if they could get one out of the stock room. Bit daft that new releases come in on a Friday but shops area still not supposed to rack them til the Monday...
How much new recording has been done?
...or is it genuinely just the best bits from the original sessions?
Nothing new..
..I think. New mixes and mastering according to the booklet. Glad they haven't fannied around and added bits...
No "new paint" added
but the remix / new editing was necessary in quite a few cases because original mixes did not exist for much of it.
Say what you like about Brian Wilson's 2004 version
It's the only one that sounds like a finished album.
I don't think this makes any claims to being the
finished product. It's officially 'The Smile Sessions'. Brian Wilson's 2004 version is an artists impression of the finished LP with a great deal of the heavy lifting done by his keyboard player Darian Sahanaja. This new version is what they could cobble together from the original jigsaw pieces using Brian's remake as a template.
We're no closer to the real LP...SMiLE doesn't exist and never will..I kind of like that. It means the story never ends. If Brian wasn't such a simple soul he'd have applied a bit of praxis and tried to pass it off as a high concept thing and claim that's what they meant to do all along.
Interesting that the Smile release also clashes with the latest contract fulfilling item Team Wilson, "Brian Wilson sings Disney" where the old boy tackles the likes of Elton's 'Can You Hear the Love Tonight' off the Lion King....make of that what you will.
Might pick up the 1CD
edition to be going on with until my box set turns up. Via a friend in Canada. Saving me £40. Thanks a lot, Ian Amazon UK
and this just makes me so thrilled
Uh - I already started a thread on this?
(plus comments - scroll down!)
Oh - sorry Burt!
Obviously, I missed that! Apols...
*Folds arms,
looks grumpily off to one side as if it didn't matter.*
Got Smile today
I am totally underwhelmed by it to be honest. Take Heroes and Villains, Good Vibrations and Surf's Up away from it and the rest is a bit, for want of a better word, rubbish, as far as I am concerned. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I'm very disappointed with it.
In the spirit of 'Movember'.....
.....I've ditched all the rock 'n' roll (see all you at Christmas, Carl, Gene, Buddy, Eddie) and I'm having a Surfvember.
I bellied up and got the 2-CD set (for the poster and the badge really, 1-0 to 'The Man') after standing in HMV in Islington debating the merits of both for ten minutes, but have only played the 19 track LP.
It's absolutely fantastic. Fan-MONO-tastic!
Each to his/her own but I think the bonus tracks/5CD set stuff only muddies the water, and when the water has been muddy for 45 years, now is the time for clarity!
This 'is' SMiLE.
It should be on the school curriculum.
Talking of the 2-CD edition
it has 4 tracks not on the box set - in your face, completists!
2-0 to 'The Man'
I listened to Disc 1 of the box set on Spotify (mines coming from Canada via a friend £40 cheaper: 2-1 to 'The Man') and its was fabbo. The 67 solo demo of Surf's Up made me burst into tears but luckily I was in a corner of the office and no one could see.
Am gonna get the 2 CD set while I wait for the whole thing in all its multi format glory. Let the baby have his bottle.