what do you say about this? i think i would have found it a lot more interesting if i hadnt already heard the sketch of good vibrations on here, but as it stands..its obviously half-baked, good vibrations sounds completely tacked on, but it sounds at least like theyre actually having fun. the quality of the songs is..dubious at best, but again, fun. i like to think of brian and the boys in his basement just having a good ol time after the legendarily excruciating smile sessions. but yes, it does feel like a bit of soul or life has left them at this point, which brings me to wild honey.
starts off good, the first two tracks are just..good, but kind of meanders until they hit darlin, which, again like good vibrations, sounds waaaay too polished to be amongst these blueprints of songs. but again though, they sound like theyre just having fun.
this album is the afterglow of a lamp that got hit with a rock, almost painful with its inclusion of good vibrations, with what could have been. i was trying to listen to it standalone, but its impossible, you cant ignore history, and you cant ignore what happened to brian wilson. its just a sad possibility.
i’d say just listen to the original smile sessions, which you can find on some of the more extensive beach boys collections, and listen to the raw tracks and see if you can hear that bit of perfection that he was striving for, went insane for. its really not that hard to hear it. but i dont hear it on this album.