On Twitter, I started a monthly challenge where I listen to a group's entire discography within a month, keeping track of my progress and thoughts in a thread. After I finish, I present a long-form recap of my thoughts on the discography and tracing the patterns & developments through it.
The Beach Boys hold an almost mythic place in my life. They were the first band that I truly loved in a sense that pulled me to some better understanding of myself, and their music was a great comfort to me in some very trying times. As such, they are always just part of my soul and consciousness, whether or not I listen to them for a while. On a whim, I had the idea to listen to the entire discography of The Beach Boys in a month. After a surprising amount of interest from my wonderful community on Twitter, I embarked on this journey, starting with their 1962 debut Surfin’ Safari on June 1.
The Beach Boys have a discography that stretches over several decades, and it had been a long while since I listened to many of these albums. Something that surprised me upon starting this revisiting of the group’s discography was just how early on they hit their stride and began to show their talents for those impeccable harmonies that largely defined their sound. This was a real benefit of listening chronologically to their albums in a short period. It became clear just how much they improved and grew even within the course of the first three albums. From the relative immaturity of Surfin’ Safari to their second and third, Surfin’ USA and Surfer Girl, both from 1963, there is already a world of difference. Brian Wilson begins to hit his stride in the former, and they all rise to meet him by the latter. There are hits and misses between there (but mostly hits, these early albums, if not always terribly insightful, are well-made fun), but the first real stand-out is 1965’s The Beach Boys Today! As I wrote in my entry for this album on my Twitter thread, I find Brian Wilson’s work on the back half of this album to be very close if not on par with his work on Pet Sounds in terms of production, emotiveness, introspection, and any other identifiable metric.
After two more albums comes the crown jewel of The Beach Boys’ discography, 1966’s Pet Sounds. This is my favorite album of all time, a pick that is not terribly unique, which proves just how good it is. It often ranks among the greatest ever made, if not the single greatest. It is an album that one only grows to appreciate even more deeply with further listens. In the context of a broader journey through the discography of The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds is an exciting culmination of little pieces we see coming through in earlier albums. The melancholy of The Beach Boys Today! rears its head again here, as do the intricate harmonies of albums like Surfer Girl and tracks like “The Warmth of the Sun” and their cover of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” on 1964’s Shut Down, Vol. 2. In many ways, Pet Sounds comes out of the blue. It is on an entirely new level for The Beach Boys and one they would never quite reach again. Yet the road map is there, a unique insight gained by listening to their discography in this manner. It only further deepened my love for this exceptional record. This is their testament.
1967’s Smiley Smile, a poor replacement for Brian Wilson’s initially planned Smile (which would not receive a release until 2004), follows Pet Sounds. While the pre-Pet Sounds albums are all enjoyable and have a certain standard of quality, even if they are not all of note, the post-Pet Sounds albums are more of a mixed bag and continue to be fairly contentious for Beach Boys fans. However, some excellent records come in the years directly following Pet Sounds, some of which are personal favorites of mine.
1968’s Friends is my second favorite Beach Boys album. It is an underrated masterpiece. As I wrote on Twitter, Friends is their most cohesive and immersive record, feeling more like an experience and a 25-minute meditation than a mere album. 1970’s Sunflower is another gorgeous album. The other members of the group start to step up to the plate to compensate for Brian Wilson’s absence, and they really come together to create something special here. It features such beautiful tracks as “This Whole World” and “Tears in the Morning.” Still, the crowning achievement is “Forever,” featuring a profoundly raw sensitivity from drummer Dennis Wilson, known as the wild child of the bunch. 1971’s Surf’s Up is an album that can be controversial for the sometimes hamfisted social commentary, but the beauty of the title track alone makes this worth it. I am in the minority on this one, but I even think 1972’s Carl & The Passions – So Tough is an album that is far better than the reputation it receives. For the bad rap they sometimes get, the albums in the late 60s and early 70s are more good than bad.
This begins to change around 1976, with the release of 15 Big Ones, an album that is enjoyable and notable for Brian’s return as a producer, but that is not particularly revelatory or even as ambitious and experimental as the ones in recent memory, even if they were not popular. 1977’s Love You is polarizing, so it at least has its fans (though its detractors are probably more aggressive), but that cannot necessarily be said for many of the albums that follow. The M.I.U. Album (1978) and L.A. (Light Album) (1979) are not particularly good and lack any sort of heart. Keepin’ the Summer Alive (1980) and The Beach Boys (1985) are saved from being their worst only by directly preceding 1992’s Summer in Paradise, which I confidently call the worst album I have ever heard. They managed to do covers of their own songs in a way that felt disrespectful to themselves. As a huge Beach Boys fan, I say this with all the love in my heart, but it is objectively true.
However, there is one last Beach Boys studio album. On June 19, the eve of Brian Wilson’s birthday, I finished my speedrun of The Beach Boys’ discography with 2012’s That’s Why God Made the Radio. Put simply, it is an absolute triumph. It shows a maturity and reflectiveness that they lacked in many of their post-Pet Sounds albums. Here, they recognize they are older and turn that into a really lovely introspection that flows throughout the album. The title track is all of the best parts of The Beach Boys, and it is a beautiful note on which to end.
The Beach Boys have their fair share of low moments in their discography. However, at those shining moments like Pet Sounds and The Beach Boys Today! you have never heard anything better or more ethereal & spiritual. The Beach Boys endure because those crown jewels were good enough on their own to secure their place in the pantheon of music legends. It is life-affirming and live-saving in every note and harmony. Their music is just as enjoyable and affecting today, and it was a wonderful experience to revisit the discography of a group that has meant so much to me.
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