Beach Boys: That's Why God Made the Radio

Beach Boys: That's Why God Made the Radio

2012

Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Think About the Days  2. That's Why God Made the Radio  3. Isn't It Time  4. Spring Vacation  5. The Private Life of Bill and Sue  6. Shelter  7. Daybreak Over the Ocean  8. Beaches in Mind  9. Strange World  10. From There to Back Again  11. Pacific Coast Highway  12. Summer's Gone

Hey! It's actual Friday! I will celebrate this by drinking a few talls and listening to "That's Why God Made the Radio" by the Beach Boys!

Do I know how to party or what?!

Anyway, this was a pretty surprising release...After years of acrimony and bitter legal battles I don't think anyone was expecting to see Brian Wilson and Mike Love working on a new Beach Boys album again, but last year it happened...



When you first put this on it takes a little bit of time to get acclimated to such an anachronistic sound, but that's pretty standard for any album involving Brian Wilson...I hear people trying to emulate Brian all the time, but usually there's something modern about it...whether its the production, or the lyrics,  but this is just completely old school...

Some of these songs are fantastic...I really love "Isn't it Time?" The chorus is so damn catchy  (and the verses aren't' so bad either!) The title track is classic Beach Boys ...Nostalgic 50's doo-wop with tons of cool harmonies...It turns out Brian wrote the song back in the late 90's and has just never recorded it until now...Hard to believe he's been sitting on it for that long, but who knows...I guess it's totally possible considering that he sat on "Smile" for 40 years...

As everyone else has mentioned the last three songs are the heart of the album...A cool throwback suite that reminds me of the haunted soft rock of their 70's albums..."Summer's Gone" is particularly great...This song also dates back to the 90's. Apparently he wrote it after the death of Carl Wilson and intended it to be the final Beach Boys song...Which it just may be...And this will be the only time on the Friday Night Record Party blog where you'll see any sort of praise for anything with a Jon Bon Jovi writing credit on it...

(huh. I wonder which Kerrang cover star was accused of murder...)

 Apparently, this 3 song "Life Suite" was originally supposed to be 6 songs and take up a much bigger chunk of the album...God, that information bums me out...This record could have really been something  if that was the case...Oh well...

On the other end of the spectrum we have the completely-awful-beyond-anything-you-can-imagine "Spring Vacation." Ohhh, Lord...This was everything I was fearing this album would be...a dumb melody and corny performance with horrible "Look at us! We're BACK!" lyrics that endlessly references past Beach Boys hits...Avoid this at all cost! Other than that it's pretty smooth sailing...

I thought I was really going to hate "The Private Life of Bill and Sue" when I first read the lyrics, (which tackles the topic of...gulp...reality shows) but it's actually got a very nice island melody...I'd probably hate it more if the fake newscast at the end outlining the plot was more audible...but thankfully it's hard to hear unless you're wearing headphones...

...Remind me not to listen to this on headphones again...

After Mike Love's recent revelation that he was tossing Brian Wilson and Al Jardine out of the Beach Boys (!)  another album is probably unlikely...If that's the case it's fine with me...At least the Beach Boys got to end their recording career with "That's Why God Made the Radio" and not "Summer in Paradise."



Which features a relaxing Windows 95 screen saver for a cover...

Watch...Mike Love will reunite with John Stamos and put out "Summer in Paradise II: Back to Paradise."

  "That's Why God Made the Radio" isn't a good place to start if you're just getting into the Beach Boys but it sure is a nice place to end....So let's listen to "It's About Time" by the Bizzity Beach Boys...