Artist: The Beach Boys
Album: Today!
Year: 1965
The Beach Boys' Today! is one that's been in my collection for awhile. I've always preferred Pet Sounds which feels a bit more cohesive to me as an album but Today! is pretty fascinating in its own right.
Brian Wilson has that whole Wall-of-Sound thing going on here. It's a little more refined and pretty than the intentionally scuzzy sound of Phil Spector's Christmas album, but it's got that warm reverb that I totally appreciate.
This album is really two half-albums, in my opinion. The first half are all "daytime" songs, upbeat beachy tunes like "Do You Wanna Dance?" and "Help Me, Rhonda." The best song among the first half is easily "When I Grow Up," just a fantastic pop tune with great harmonies. The album's second half consists of "nighttime" songs, a set of downtempo love songs that would (in my estimation) set the template for Pet Sounds classics like "God Only Knows."
I prefer the tunes on the second half. They are just remarkably gorgeous pop songs. You can tell that Wilson was going for a very specific "angelic" sound on these songs and he just absolutely nails it. Where the hell does the melody on "She Knows Me Too Well" even come from? It's otherworldly. "Please Let Me Wonder" and "Kiss Me Baby" are equally great and among the best Beach Boys songs out there.
Today! as an album is a little disjointed but it does show off the band's upbeat side and downcast side in equal measure and features some of their best songs. Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear are still mining this terrain today.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
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