THE BEACH BOYS/SUNFLOWER SSLA 8251 (-70) UK

Gonna stick my neck out here and claim this is one of the best they made. I'm not a surf fan and although I can appreciate Brian Wilsons genious on "Pet Sounds" I never liked the sound of it - the duophonic stereo or the messy mono. "Smiley Smile" was a wreck with two fantastic songs and nine fillers. "Wild Honey" is really good and "20/20" OK. There's a lot of talk about the Smile-project and what could have been, but this is and it's a killer. No mishmash here, it sticks together as a whole with all great melodies and lyrics. The vocals are as good as ever and backing perfect. There's some variation in style between tracks, but the production is unruffled and keeps it cool and collected. It's doesn't have that sudden impact that knock you off your feet at first listen, but given time it reveals and grows. Didn't do well in US at arrival and only spent four weeks at Billboard, peaking at #151. World sales were a little better with top 30 in UK. It was the first US release on Brother/Reprise label (RS 6382). Their last single on Captiol - the re-make of "Cottonfields" - was at this time a big hit in Europe and EMI/Stateside added that to the premiere UK edition making it a 13-track album (using a re-channeled version of the '45 mono tapes), later issues had same tracking as US. 1:st UK with label as shown here and laminated f/o cover. (BÅB*)