The Smile Sessions

the take

My Favorite Albums of All Time #47: I personally find Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys album that is often cited as one of the best albums of all time, a bit flat. Undoubtedly the band is very talented, but I just don't find the project as a whole plays to their strengths super well, despite the larger songs being quite excellent. The Smile Sessions, though, does exactly that. Had the album been released the way Brian Wilson intended it, it undoubtedly would be the band's unanimous magnum opus. In its current form, a compilation album with the best pieces of various studio sessions blended together, it's still a masterpiece, and, in my eyes, a much better pick for the definitive Beach Boys album experience. The harmonies are on-point the entire time, and the world building present here is incredible. It's not a perfect execution of Brian's vision, mostly because there isn't an album-length version of Heroes and Villains and all four of The Elements, but it's as close as you can get, and is the best preserved representation of Brian Wilson's genius. Rest in Peace. Must-Hear Tracks- Our Prayer: A short introduction to the album that has some of the most impressive vocal harmonizing I have ever heard. Heroes and Villains: Originally intended to take up a good majority of the runtime or even the entire album, the song as it exists on this version of the album is still a masterfully written and built track that continues to move but feels cohesive and purposeful the entire time. It bleeds into pretty much the entirety of this tracklist, too, so it's not unreasonable to say that this is the entire point of this album's existence in the first place. The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow): The only surviving song of the Elements series, it's a really weird and haunting track that feels almost ambient in parts and noise in others. The album's most experimental song and a really cool one at that.