Fifty years later and those California boys still have it in them. And we have one for you.
On the wave of their 50th anniversary tour, The Beach Boys have released their 29th studio album That’s Why God Made the Radio, which the LA Times noted last month, “…resides in a world where guys and gals on spring break still spend hours ‘cruisin’ the town, diggin’ the scene,’ a nostalgic place where, as the quintet sings in beautiful harmony on ‘Isn’t It Time,’ they ‘can’t forget the feeling of the magic of that summer in love.’”
They added, “They sing these songs within music that fits more in with the Boys’ obvious debt to Dion and the Belmonts than to Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ production technique that drove their classic albums Pet Sounds and the recently completed The Smile Sessions into the stratosphere. Which is to say, much of Radio relies on smaller arrangements and the group’s trademark vocal group harmonies…”
Standout songs are the three closers: “From There and Back Again,” “Pacific Coast Highway,” and “Summer’s Gone.” The “Summer’s Gone” finale is melancholy with subdued harmonies and swelling strings, which suggests a finale beyond the LP.
To enter our summery, July 4th giveaway, towel off and give us your beachy tune of choice in the comments below—and a brief memory of summers past couldn’t hurt either.
I can’t help but picture a beach barbecue whenever I hear Spoon’s “The Way We Get By,” but that just might be the O.C. connection.
We’ll choose one winner with a North American mailing address a week from today, on Tuesday, July 10th! Happy 4th!
