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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
SMiLE
Universal acclaim
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 377 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Nonesuch
Release Date: 28 September 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Pop, Rock
Summary
Well, better 37 years late than never. Originally intended to be the Beach Boys' 1967 follow-up to their legendary 'Pet Sounds,' 'Smile' was finally recorded as originally intended in April 2004 by Wilson and his current band, including co-songwriter Van Dyke Parks.
Also By This Artist: Gettin' In Over My Head That Lucky Old Sun
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Tiny Mix Tapes
Smile is quite simply the greatest triumph in the history of pop music.
Read Full Review >Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
Smile's post-adolescent utopia isn't disfigured by Brian's thickened, soured 62-year-old voice. It's ennobled--the material limitations of its sunny artifice and pretentious tomfoolery acknowledged and joyfully engaged.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
"Smile" emerges as a beautiful and cohesive work, at times deeply moving, at others oddly whimsical, at still others eerily disturbing but celebratory. [27 Sep 2004]
Dusted Magazine
Against all expectations, Brian Wilson has achieved what should have been impossible, and has produced what may be the year's most thrilling album.
Read Full Review >The Wire
The music has an originality that sounds remarkable even now. [#248, p.52]
Uncut
A unique and unlikely moment of retrieval, restoration and renaissance. [Nov 2004, p.98]
Amazon.com
Turns out those hypothetical comparisons to Sgt. Pepper's weren't so far off the mark.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
It's looser and messier than Sgt. Pepper and, one suspects, always would have been. But its sui generis Americanism counterbalances its paucity of classic pop songs.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
It's a gorgeous trip back to a time when anything seemed possible. [1 Oct 2004, p.73]
Under The Radar
Other than the fact that it came out a little late, there isn't a single thing wrong with it. [#8, p.113]
cokemachineglow
SMiLE has arrived as incredible and ground-breaking a record as any of us could have hoped.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
While it may not be the ultimate symphonic confection nearly four decades of hyperbole have all but guaranteed, Smile is nonetheless an arresting, audacious, unabashedly whimsical slice of junk-drawer Americana and can-do pop craftsmanship.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
The magic of the album lies in the way Wilson's complex, challenging sonic vision can evoke the optimism, hope, and wonder that gave birth to this album decades ago.
Read Full Review >Filter
One of the most inspiring and triumphant projects of the year, and perhaps the last 30 years. [#13, p.89]
All Music Guide
Infectious and hummable, to be sure, and a remarkably unified, irresistible piece of pop music, but no musical watershed on par with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Wilson's masterpiece, Pet Sounds.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
The new Smile not only justifies its bearing, but also serves as a major triumph.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
Whatever it was supposed to achieve originally, right now SMiLE sounds like a beautifully modulated, funny, sometimes unintentional meditation on a failed United States and counterculture, and the lost paradise, real or imagined, of Southern California, and the collapse and reinvention of the male ego.
Read Full Review >Mojo
There is a remarkable consistency about Smile's complex tapestry of delights. [Oct 2004, p.98]
New Musical Express
'Smile' stands up with any of the great music of the 20th century. [25 Sep 2004, p.63]
Pitchfork
The end result is a great album, albeit one more lighthearted than its myth would suggest.
Read Full Review >E! Online
While undeniably ambitious and moving in parts--with sunny harmonies and layered production--it also happens to be a little kitschy.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Despite the hype, it is hard not to be impressed with the new Smile.... The music flows beautifully - no mean feat when it encompasses barbershop singing, acid rock, early pop, Hawaiian chanting and mock-religious plainsong.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
The real revelation of this new Smile is its melodic depth, even if lyricist Van Dyke Parks's oblique ruminations seem unnecessarily flowery. [Nov 2004, p.114]
PopMatters
The most obvious aspect that takes away from Smile's luster however, is an uncomfortable sense that the album has morphed into a quaint piece of nostalgia rather than the masterwork it was expected to be.
Read Full Review >Blender
Despite Wilson's wrecked voice, it's surprisingly grand and moving. [Nov 2004, p.146]
Austin Chronicle
Hearing the newly recorded album as a completed work instead of dismembered modules is a rollicking reassertion of Wilson's compositional genius.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 377 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Aaron S. gave it a2:
The most over hyped albums of all time. Brian Wilson took 30 years to cram as much harmony and instrumentation as he could into these songs. Unfortunately he apparently spent little if any time creating songs that were either memorable or even distinguishable from each other. It's a mess from start to finish. It is not even on the same page as Pet Sounds. Beyond the critics it will be forgotten on a grand scale.
Tiago A. gave it a10:
A great album, this have soul and it's brilliant.
Adam S gave it a7:
Sounds like a good album, but 97! I think this score may have been boosted by critics nostalgia trips.
Shiva M. gave it a10:
Well worth the wait. It is definitely one of the best albums of the decade. Anyone not affected by this piece of art is probably just a 20 year old idiot with no taste at all.
David H. gave it a10:
A perfect composition.
Joe S. gave it a10:
'Tis very good, yeah!
Seth G. gave it a10:
I've listened to this album so much. At least once a week, sometimes much more. It's so good!
