Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Brian Wilson??SMiLE? ?Nonesuch Records

Guns N? Roses fans have been complaining for almost ten years for ?Chinese Democracy.? Compared to Beach Boys fans, they have absolutely no right to complain.

?SMiLE,? the patron saint of incomplete and eternally delayed albums, has been completed. It seems like it would be impossible to live up to 37 years of hype, but against all odds, ?SMiLE? delivers.

?SMiLE? was supposed to be America?s answer to the Beatles? ?Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely Hearts Club Band,? and since we Americans are pretty lazy, taking nearly four decades to respond doesn?t seem like too much.

The album, released as a Brian Wilson solo record, picks up where the Beach Boys left off, chock full of harmonies and jingly instruments, but still manages to sound modern. The time passes quickly, as individual songs flip by as fast as photos in a scrapbook.

The way that the fantastic bounce of the fully-orchestrated ?Song for Children? flows into the vocal-heavy ?Child is the Father of Man? makes it hard to believe that such a beautiful record could drive a man as insane as it drove Wilson.

One of the album?s many high points is when the swirling, ominous ?Mrs. O?Leary?s Cow??which sounds like missing music from the tornado scene in ?The Wizard of Oz??drops off into the echoed wash of ?In Blue Hawaii,? which features some of the album?s strongest vocals.

The idea of such fun, bouncy music being made by a man whose youth is so far past him is a bit odd, but all one needs to do is close his or her eyes and just listen, and the album?s young spirit and exuberance is enough to bridge the gap.

As the album closes with the classic ?Good Vibrations,? one of the only songs from the original ?SMiLE? sessions to be released, a tremendous sense of conclusion washes over the listener. There is no ?Is that it?? type of let-down, and it truly feels like one small thing is now finally right in the world. ?SMiLE? has been completed.

A+ ?Chris Steffen


ahhh hope axl don?t read this

Well, I've been looking forward to Wilson's Smile for a long time, so at least I have something new to be excited about.  : ok:

37 years...... Why doesn't that seem so far fetched anymore? lol
Please God no!! lol

Well, the difference between Guns N' Roses fans and Beach Boys fans is that at least the Beach Boys kept making records during those 37 years.  They never put out Smile, but they put out lots of other good stuff.  GN'R fans, on the other hand, have had NO new material at all.  All we have are stop-gap compilations (Greatest Hits) and a live album.

Also, I think Brian Wilson worked intensely on Smile for a couple years, had his nervous breakdown, and then it was shelved until they started work on it again recently.  Axl, on the other hand, has been tweaking Chinese Democracy for years, is spending more time on one album (although I get the feeling not as intensely as Brian worked on Smile).

i was going to post something today about how wilson finally released this thing and that it came out before chinese democracy. but yeah, as i was discussing this with a friend, as mentioned above, the big differance is that the beach boys and brian wilson both have written and released stuff in the meantime consistantly. not the case with w. axl. regardless, it is kind of sad that this historically delayed album came out before chinese democracy.....only a matter of time though right guys?? ?::)

I hope this is what we read in the CD reviews...no so much the jingles but the main pint of that comment that the album pick soff where GNR left off and its modern

What a friggrin great album. Just got it, and it's very complex. I hope Axl experiments a little on CD

Yeh definatly man.  I expect it to be a massive album.  And i'm not implying sales or MTV but more importantly musically i hope it really fucks with peoples heads (mine included) i think it will be a monster of an album. 

But the longer it's delayed.  I must be honest the less enthusiastic i find myself.  If we are all still here this time next year still anticipating it - i won't be happy lol 

But i know when it's released i'm booking a week off work lol

welll in 37 years Axl will be 79 years old. so...imagine a 79 years old running (well trying) on stage with a biker short screaming "do you know where you are!! you're in the jungle bab...euhh grandmumy!" :hihi:
Chinese democracy starts now! (in 2041) :rofl:

It just goes to show you that we will hear the material, pretty much no matter what. It's just a matter of when...

Honestly, I think the best chance we have to hear CD sooner than later would be for something to happen to Axl and the album to be released posthumously.  Not that I would want anything like that to happen, but despite the rumors, we really have no real reason to believe the album has any better chance of coming out soon than it did a few years ago.  The only thing that would speed up the process is if Axl was no longer in charge of the project.

This is true....

SMiLE got 6/6 in Svenska Dagbladet

cool, think I'll get it when my next paycheck arrives, already bought like 5 albums this month, it's enough for now! :yes: : ok:

thats cool i just hope i dont have to wait that long for CD, I hope Cd is a masterpeice and i expect it will be from what ive heard of the new songs mainly maddy and the blues but i do want it to be commercially succesful if onlyso that gnr is the biggest rock band on the earth again

'Smile' is amazing.

AA

This was mentioned in a press release / review or inside the album????the way this the subject is worded I am let to believe it is inside the album?!?!?!?!?