The SMiLE Sessions - The Beach Boys
User Score
8.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 40
  3. Negative: 3 out of 40

Review this album

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Ed_Mac
    Nov 1, 2011
    10
    Hard to return to '67 but had this been released then, we could have heard The Beatles pushed beyond Sgt. Pepper. If only...
    Any negative reviews based on an excess of material, for example, the overload of extras on the box set, should be considered as a critique of a marketing effort and not a review of the music contained herein. There are some that just won't get it...aren't there always?
  2. brog
    Nov 18, 2011
    10
    As a serious fan of music I strongly recommend this album. If you have listened to Brian Wilson's 2004 SMiLE or Pet Sounds you are still in for a real treat. Having heard many of these songs previously on separate releases or on internet radio, hearing them all in one complete package as originally intended is extremely satisfying. We finally get to hear what the greatest all-American album that never was, really is (or as close as we will probably ever get). Many of the out-takes have some of the more memorable moments of the collection and serve to enrich the actual "album" of songs as intended. As an American in his 20's I am much too young to truly appreciate what the release of this album represents for American pop music and the Beach Boys catalog in general. Still, the music contained within stirs my emotions and inspires me more than any recent musical release possibly could. The Beach Boys, I feel, are under-appreciated in this day and age and are regarded more as a pop staple of the 60's than as a truly innovative musical group (IMO). If you are even a little bit impressed with the musical capabilities of these guys, then please listen to this album and absorb it. This is what music can be.… Expand
  3. tcmc
    Nov 1, 2011
    10
    My advice: Listen to this thrilling, exhilarating album. Yes, it is occasionally exasperating and challenging. But that is because it strays far from what band member Mike Love called the Beach Boys' "formula." Band leader and creative force Brian Wilson was not interested in following a formula. Rather, Wilson wanted to create something new, interesting and exciting. And "SMiLE" succeeds, resulting in a piece of work that perfectly captures what was best about Wilson's approach to music.… Expand
  4. Chrie
    Nov 1, 2011
    10
    If this box set proves anything, it is that Mike Love had a very valid point to be concerned when he and the rest of the Beach Boys first heard the tapes for SMiLE in 1966. The great quality of the music is of no question, however the accessibility of the music is what separates SMiLE from anything released in 1966/67. It is silly to even try to compare it to Sgt. Pepper's or any Bay Area acts because they're not even in the same league. In fact, with SMiLE it is a totally different ballgame with different rules. It is undoubtedly hard for the average person to listen to SMiLE and get it the first time around. Like classical music, the album requires concentrated listening (and it never hurts to have some knowledge about the material before listening in order to understand the many themes of SMiLE). It may seem extreme to ask the listener to do extensive research before listening, but for those who do some outside reading, the experience is so rewarding. Every track, session, and outtake is either insightful, hilarious, gorgeous, or awe-inspiring. We have no idea if this is how the album would have "truly" sounded in 1967, but this is a fantastic approximation nonetheless and definitely worth your money. If the mood of SMiLE's music reveals anything, it is that it's awfully lonely being so talented and out there. Thankfully, we live in a time where there are just enough audiophiles and completists to demand this amazing material be heard.… Expand
  5. BBFan
    Nov 1, 2011
    6
    Having listened to countless bootleg versions of SMiLE over the years, I am convinced that the love this album gets isn't due to the music itself, but is due to the fact that it was never released nor completed. A few things should be pointed out: First, in its now-official form, the album runs the length of an LP-and-a-half. Had it been released in 1967, it would have been cut by a third, or else the band would have had to press on and add even more material--highly unlikely, and which may have made it a better or worse album, but would have assuredly pushed the release date into 1968. Two LPs or one LP, the album would not have been released until the end of 1967 at the earliest, by which point there was a big backlash against the psychedelic scene (see: "Their Satanic Majesties Request"). If it had come out then, it almost inevitably would have been called overlong, pretentious, meandering, and a letdown compared to "Pet Sounds"--which, really, it is. There's some good tracks here and there--Heroes and Villains, Vega-tables, and, of course, Good Vibrations are all standouts. Surf's Up is a nice ballad, Wind Chimes is quite charming, and the opening prayer is a nice touch. But the rest is middling, tossed-off, and forgettable. Tracks like Child Is Father of the Man, Love To Say Dada, and Cabin Essence really don't hold up and, frankly, are kind of annoying. Unfinished(?) tracks like Holidays and Mrs. O'Leary's Cow are pointless filler that don't go anywhere. As much as many reviewers want it to be, SMiLE is no Sgt. Pepper, Are You Experienced, or Piper At The Gates of Dawn. Even Country Joe & The Fish's "Electric Music For The Mind and Body", as much of a period piece as it is, stands head and shoulders above SMiLE. Not to say SMiLE is a totally worthless album. Its highlights merit repeat listening, and the link tracks are weirdly endearing, although, as mentioned before, much of this material would have been cut had it come out as a single LP back in 1967. So, it is what it is. The official SMiLE isn't much different from all the bootlegs we've heard over the years, and like most of them, it's even mixed in mono. And, like those bootlegs, the official version is a lot more hype than it is substance. But it is weird, and I like weird pop music. As far as Beach Boys albums go, it's one of the best. But that's not saying much. Whatever your take on it, one thing is for sure: its unofficial status made this weird but underwhelming album into a legend. And after all these years, it's nice to have it on the shelves instead of behind the counter… Expand
  6. petsounds66
    Nov 5, 2011
    10
    Smile is easily one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, or assembled, by human beings. It was would would have changed popular music forever, and instead, serves as the greatest "what if" in music history. With Smile, no longer would the Beatles forever be the gods of modern rock, but a new era would have emerged with the release of such a beautiful, unique, and sometimes scary album. And simply for that background, these Smile Sessions deserve a ten.

    However, for one to properly review music, the actual music must be evaluated. And the music presented to us in the form of these sessions blows the imagination. Smile is music that will never be forgotten, engraved in the minds of those who hear it. It is truly a "teenage symphony to God", a masterpiece, and a perfect collection of music. From the gorgeous harmonies and church-like aura of "Our Prayer" to the mind bending twists and turns of "Heroes and Villains", and to the masterpiece, the majestic "Surf"s Up", Smile always keeps you wondering, what's next? Even for those who have heard countless bootlegs and versions prior to this release, like myself, Smile is something all together new and exciting. The actual "album", plus the sessions, provides the listener with everything anyone could possible want from the Smile era. It is perfect, and absolutely flawless, in every way shape or form. And best of all, Smile is still not finished. It never has been, and it never will be. But this is as close as we're ever going to get, and let's us wonder, even more now than ever, what would have really happened if Smile was released in January of 1967.    … Expand
  7. bangs
    Nov 12, 2011
    10
    A masterful recording! The beach boys lay out beautifully eerie vocal harmonies on a canvass of complex instrumental arrangements, providing listeners with a magnificent piece of pop-psychedelia, who's beauty and sophistication would leave fans of "Pet Sounds" open-mouthed and astonished. However, the real triumph of smile is the drastic mood swings reflected in the sadness of a young man aching over lost-innocence ("Wonderful") to the cheerful drug-induced frivolity of candy-wrapper consumption ("Vegetables"), culminating in a complex display of intensity, anxiety, and finally a subdued calmness that underlies the elements suite. Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys capture sadness and laughter, pain and joy, hardship and humanity, and all the remaining contradictions that sum up the American Experience, from the conquest of American Indians to the shores of Blue Hawaii. That said, this is still an unfinished album. While, engineers Mark Linnett and Alan Boyd do an incredibly job making a piece of music that stands as a full album, this collection contains snippets and half-tracks, some of which stand on their own ("Do You Like Worms"? "Child is the "Father of the Man"), but others that ring hollow in the absence of completion ("Holidays", "Look"). At other times, the engineers try to create the appearance of completion through the inclusion of ill-advised fly-ins and other snippets that were probably never intended for conclusion on the final album. Thus, the myth of "Smile" still remains. Fans looking for a semblance of resolution, a glimpse as to what "Smile" would have been if finished and released in 1967, will stand disappointed. What we have is an unfinished work, but one who's breadth and beauty, merits a listen or a thousand.… Collapse
  8. Dikkus
    Dec 21, 2011
    10
    Quite possibly one of the best albums I have ever heard in my entire life. And it's unfinished. If this had came out in '67 it would've drastically had changed music, no doubt.
  9. iconicshrubbery
    Nov 5, 2011
    10
    This is Beethoven's 10th or Schubert's Finished;-it is what we 60's survivors were missing when we were scandalously offered left-over scraps on Smiley Smile and Friends.Brian's 2004 version was the prelude. This is the Real Thing! With the youthful energy and the original sounds. An incredible labour of re-assembly of the atomised parts of that crashed and derided folly of Brian Wilson.This puts Cabinessence,Surf's Up and Good Vibrations up on their fallen pedestal,and re-unites them with the other lost jewels in the crown;-Wonderful,Child of Man,Wind Chimes.And all of this Symphony is now Complete.
    Ludwig van,Franz and now,Brian.    … Expand
  10. CECS
    Feb 11, 2013
    10
    PET SOUNS "THE BEACH BOYS" IS VERY GOOD, AHHHHHHHHH BUT SMILE SESSIONS "THE BEACH BOYS" IS EXCELENT, INFINITY GREAT, FOR MI ONLY 1 ALBUM IS A LITLE MUCH BETTER SGT. PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND "THE BEATLES" AND DEFENITIVE THE SECOND [SMILE]
  11. mekaindy
    Nov 1, 2011
    8
    The long awaited release of the Brian Wilson and Beach Boys masterpiece, SMiLE Sessions. First time, collected and compiled the band's legendary 1966-'67 sessions for the never-completed SMiLE album. In several sessions between the summer of 1966 and early 1967, The Beach Boys recorded a bounty of songs and drafts for an album, SMiLE, that was intended to follow the band's 1966 album, Pet Sounds. The master tapes were ultimately shelved, and The Beach Boys' SMiLE has never been released. Drawn from the original masters, SMiLE Sessions presents an in-depth overview of The Beach Boys' recording sessions for the enigmatic album, which has achieved legendary, mythical status for music fans around the world. Artwork for the SMiLE Sessions' has been created with and inspired by Beat-Pop artist Frank Holmes' original 1967 LP sleeve art and booklet designs intended for the SMiLE album.… Expand
  12. zmleslie
    Dec 30, 2011
    7
    The Beach Boys' SMiLE Sessions is an interesting collection of demos that gives us an insight into what could've been for the surf-rock band. Having said that, this collection is really only geared exclusively to their die-hard fans, not their casual listeners.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
96 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Mojo
    Jan 31, 2012
    100
    Even though it'll never be fully completed, Smile is a welcome time capsule from an unrepeatable moment in popular culture. [Dec 2011, p.106]
  2. PopMatters
    Dec 16, 2011
    100
    This release reorients us around familiar material, but outdoes all previously existing versions in the scope of its execution and comparative completeness.
    Read full review
  3. Q Magazine
    Dec 15, 2011
    60
    Ultimately Smile is a case of what might have been, and after all this time that's probably only to be expected. [Dec. 2011 p. 140]
See all critic reviews »