Discuss & Rate Beach Boys Songs Day by Day

I ike the Waltz all right. 3/5

 

I'll give The Waltz a 3. The lyrics are pretty ridiculous, but it's got a decent melody.

 

"The Waltz" doesn't work for me at all. While I can always appreciate how Brian sings and arranges vocal harmonies (and there's some of that here to keep me interested) -- this song, in this incarnation, is absolute bottom of the barrel Brian Wilson to me. The melody is simply not there -- no where, no how. Zero melody. Zero muse. Zero inspiration. The "tune" just follows along with the chords -- there is no soul or spirit -- the melody appears to be nothing more than a lifeless vehicle for the lyrics. And those lyrics... They are bottom of the barrel. Just dreadful.

I remember this is being a Wilson/Parks creation -- and it certainly has some of the Wilson/Parks hallmarks. Often they create some over-ambitious oddness. Imagine a bizarre, hard-rocking version of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" with some freestyle beat poet jumbling up some Stephen Foster passages. Too much. It either works or it doesn't. Occasionally their collaborations can be brilliant and inspired -- clearly. Or they just sound odd, corny and forced. And this is the latter. It's either hit-or-miss with these two. Just my opinion. And this is a miss.

I don't know if "The Waltz" was another microwaved leftover -- or if it was created specifically for this album. I suspect it was created new for this album. And if so, I'm not sure a rush-production is the right time to try to get creative and ambitious. If "off-the-cuff" and low-fi is the approach being taken on a project, I wouldn't reach too far. Not that this song is "reachy." Conceptually it feels like it is reaching... but everything about it feels like it was written and performed in a dentist office waiting room.

I could give it a 0/5, but I'll be generous with a 1.

 

Kind of cute in a VDP Orange Crate Art sort of way,

 

Meant to say: 3 - though it doesn't belong on this album!

 

The Waltz is woeful.

The lyrics are embarrassing, the tune is old (and dire) and Brian obviously couldn't have cared less with his vocals. "Be bop mnmnjnmnmnmnmbhjg..."

A low 1/5.

 

This one I just do not like. A bad lyric, bad production and a bad vocal. Other than that pretty good. 1/5

 

In the right hands, this could have been another “Caroline, No”. I doubt that was possible during the eighties when the original version was recorded.

Brian’s vocals couldn’t tackle that song in 2004, and even with Darian at the helm, the track lacked depth.

 

The Waltz: I don't know what to do about this one. I'm a sucker for the waltz meter but the lead vocals on this are pretty dire.

Like most of the songs on this album, this is getting a 2 from me. Not terrible enough to warrant a 1 but not passable enough to warrant a 3.

 

Yes it does. Brian was in love, so, sentimental. Like "Fairytale", "The Waltz" presents a time of the past in a picture frame
Brian wanted to be reminded of. Van Dyke painted with broad strokes, as some of the lyrics are a stretch to reach around.

I love it anyway. 4/5 8/10. Brian and Van Dyke are one of the very best writing and performing partnerships I've ever known.
more was to come...

 

Your ratings for The Waltz:
1-4 votes
2-1 vote
3-4 votes
4-1 vote
5-0 vote

 

Today we'll discuss and rate the album Gettin' In Over My Head.

 

2/5
Overall this album has some decent moments but I have no respect for it and, while I listen to two thirds of the album, there's a third that I've put in my TOXIC WASTE playlist. I'd


The newer ones here I can deal with, and I can also deal with Fairy Tale, only because the original's sound is so abysmal on every version I've heard that I prefer this one; and there are other late 90s/00s stuff that is all right that sounds good together with this. I prefer my playlists -- My Joe Thomas Playlist, my Paley Playlist and my "miscellaneous" playlist.

I leave the Sweet Insanity covers in my toxic waste playlist. I prefer Sweet Insanity, for better or worse it was where Brian was at as an expressive artist. This, by contrast, is Brian barely phoning it in at times.

 

This album is really disappointing. I think the Paley, and Sweet Insanity songs are actually pretty decent. Unfortunately though, these are the worst versions of those songs, which really is a shame. As i've said before, the whole thing just reeks of lack of care and effort. It's a 2/5 from me.

 

At a push - and it's a real effort: 2
1 for Peter Blake's cover.

 

Yeah, the cover is an eyesore. Amazing how so many legendary people were involved with an album that is a stinker.

I can only judge this within the context of when it was released. Brian and his band had been getting good reviews on the road and needed a strong album to show that this wasn't just hype. Instead we got this bunch of old songs with lazy lead vocals, random guest stars (Sting and Robbie Williams both declined to be involved) and embarrassing lyrics. The record companies were right to all turn it down and it should have been left unreleased.

Thankfully the band took over the running of things for Smile...

1/5.

 

I can't think of two people I would less like to hear on any album!!

 

A very weak album in my opinion. It feels like it was cobbled together just to produce product. A handful of decent songs, but not a single one that I would consider essential to the Brian Wilson story. A generous 2/5

 

In my graded list of BB and related albums, this is somewhere between Carl's second (and weakest imho) and LBWL, which would have been better had he not been singing in that nasal tinny voice. I don't think there's a real BB album as bad as this; even SIP sounds better - though granted Brian's album has several better songs buried underneath the arrangement/production and it doesn't have Summer of Love, of course.

 

On paper the album looked good I think, it's just that it's executed so lazily and is so uncohesive that it falls apart. I do think that if the Beach Boys had sang on it then it might well be a different story.

 

GIOMH - hollow product. 2

 

Oh there are some interesting moments but that's as far as I go with it. The disc would have been recycled if not for the title track. Of all Brian's solo output this one has to occupy the basement hanging out with the likes of SIP and the rest of the lovester's awful entries.

 

This was quite the comedown from Imagination, where the singing, the production, and the songs (for the most part) were better. The title track is the highlight, but the selection of the other songs, all mostly older or recycled tunes, is mystifying when so many better unreleased songs were available. 1/5. At least Brian was able to rebound and write and produce an album better than Imagination later on in his career - and I’m not talking about BWPS.

 

Horrible album...absolutely horrible.

 

I agree with this. I remember looking forward to the album and maybe I got suckered by the guest stars but after a couple of listens it was filed away until we started revisiting this songs earlier in the year.

The title track and Soul Searchin' are worthy additions to Brian's cannon, though better versions exist. A couple of other songs are passable but, on a whole, the albums lacks cohesion.