The last Beach Boys album with Brian as a steady member until 15 Big Ones in 1976
1. Dont Go Near The Water - 38 years later, people still like to sing about how we are killing the planet, this must have been one of the first. Although not the strongest effort on the album, it is intresting to listen to. Mike provides the lead vocal.
2. Long Promised Road - This track was Carl's debut as a composer (he was credited for a few solo's on earlier albums, but this was the first full song), co-written by Jack Rieley. A couple of mixes of this track exist, however the album version is my favourite, all thanks to the synth solo, pretty memerable chorus ("hit hard at the battle that's confronting me..."). A promo exists for this track, and at the time of writing is avalable on Youtube.
3. Take A Load Off Your Feet - Anyone expectine some great music/composing can lift up their respective stylus and go to the next track (unless you are on CD, in which case, that is NOT advisable, just skip to the next track), OK, so, it features some intresting stereo effects, but that's about it, nothing fantastic....atleast "Loop-de-loop" was fun..
4. Disney Girls (1957) - Composed by Bruce, who is still not often recognised as a propper Beach Boy, however, he was, and although this song is not about surfing, cars, summer or girls, it is still a beach boys tune and neither does hardly any Beach Boys tune since Summer Days. OK, it's pretty soppy, but, the chords are intresting, and it's nice to listen to, one of the better tracks on the album for sure.
5. Student Demonstration Time - OK, well, it's a good tune, however, it's not a Beach Boys tune, it's a Leiber-Stoller track, with new lyrics courtesy of Mr. Mike Love, the backing track is pretty good, not too sure about the Synth effects, but it rocks along nicely, and the harmonies are as good as we have come to expect.
6. Feel Flows - Another colabration between Carl Wilson and Jack Rieley, good track, and very intresting lyrics, this could be one of the deepest tracks on the album. Also worth mentioning is the use of reverse echo on Carl's voice, this was one of the first uses, it works pretty well, this is a good track, however, i feel it looses sight at about 2:01 and dosen't pick up until about 3:09
7. Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) - A colabration between Al Jardine and Gary Winfrey, this could be one of the best songs with the former's credit on, altho the phasing dates the track horribly, without that, it stands up pretty well (A mix is avalable on bootlegs without the phasing)
8. A Day In The Life Of A Tree - A colab between Brian and Jack Rieley, with the latter on vocals (maybe the 1st Boys Song without a Beach Boy on lead vocal ?), pretty nice use of organ on this track, and despite what other people say about it, i happen to really like this song, one of the standouts on the album for sure.
9. 'Til I Die - Commonly regarded as the last great song that Brian composed, and the reason is clear, the instrumentation is spot on, as are the harmonies, it sounds as great today as it did when they put it to tape, another song that underwent numerous changes, the others said the lyrics were too depressing, he changed them, and they then said they preferred the originals, an alternate mix is avalable on "Endless Harmony", however this is the best mix
10. Surf's Up - Not only is the track a SMiLE outtake, but so is part of the recording, part 1 is from the original piano demo with dubs over the top, and the end contains a snippet from the unreleased Child Is The Father Of The Man, lyrics composed by Van Dyke Parks, in Brian Wilson's sandbox
A few tracks were left off this album, they are mostly pretty decent tracks, they are as follows
4th of July - one of Dennis' first deep songs, sung by Carl, maybe a tad too political for the Beach Boys, and i can see this track being banned in the sensitive time of 1971.
H.E.L.P Is On The Way - More an ad for a heath store than a greatly composed masterpeice, hoever, it's pretty catchy, with a decent piano part, ironically written shortly before Brian's decent into obecity
Barbara - Another good Dennis track, in a more sombre Pacific Ocean Blue vein than his other tracks of this era
My Soulution - Brian Would later rewrite this to Happy Days on 1998's Imagination, however, i think i prefer this, it's fun, and full of synths, recorded on the hallo'ween between the recordings of Sunflower and Surf's Up
It's A New Day - another pretty upbeat tune, that would have made a pretty strong single
Child Of Winter - A christmassy tune that is borderline intollerable.
Also recorded in these sessions were Susie Cincinnati and Good Time
