Fiends

Overall Album Score: 8.8 out of 10

I guess this is the beginning of The Beach Boys' quaint period. Compared to Wild Honey, this album has a much more laid-back and easily palatable quality that I completely adore. This doesn't come off as such a weird and irrational album, and I can much more easily wrap my poor little mind around this one. I enjoy listening to this immensely! Very much, this is a nice album to hear when you want to sit back and try to enjoy life.

This is a very simple album. It only runs 25 minutes and the instrumentation is startlingly sparse. This quality makes it similar to Smiley Smile, except this sounds MUCH more deliberate and I'm more comfortable using the term "minimalist" for this. There's not much excess to be found at all in this album, which is a mentality that really goes against the trends of 1968 a period when bands were starting to experiment with excess. That meant that Friends didn't sell well whatsoever, but that's OK. We can appreciate this album today without the rest of the '60s to confuse us! As always, The Beach Boys triumph songwriting, and that's the one quality that makes this album shine so well.

The other Beach Boys are making more significant contributions and Brian Wilson is even more quietly fading out of the group. Interestingly Dennis Wilson contributes a minor gem called "Little Bird" and a less interesting "Be Still." All four Beach Boys (minus Love) write the entirely pleasant title track, and the memorable "When a Man Needs a Woman." Certainly, this songwriting involvement from the other Beach Boys wasn't so stark! Mike Love, however, was absent for much of this because he spent some time in India for a religious experience or something.

The best song of the album is solely credited to Brian Wilson, though, which sort of puts his band mates in their place. "Passing By" is a real gem, and features some mightily addictive textures. Also, Brian's "Busy Doin' Nothing" is another one of the major highlights. These two tracks are suggesting to me that Wilson did have some sanity after all...

Overall Album Score: 8.8 out of 10 (This is their most laid-back and easily digestable album to date. It's 100 percent pleasant.)

Average Song Score: 9.0 (No real bomb here. The songwriting is uniformly excellent.)

Album Tilt: 9.0 (There's not a single weak spot here. It's remarkably consistent and laid-back without interruption.)

Artist Rating: 8.5 (They're more creative than they're letting on, and they're refusing to be outlandish. At the same time, I kind of wish they did a bit more sometimes.)

Track Reviews

Meant For You 8.5/10

Wow! Thirty-eight seconds long! If this little snippet wasn't so danged beautiful I'd say these guys only included such a short track to extend the tracklisting and make it seem like the album is longer than 25 minutes. It features such a pretty peaceful melody with a mere organ and piano accompaniment. There's some really brief choral interplay at the end and then a fade out.

Friends 9/10

Looking at the songwriting credits, this was written by four Beach Boys (without Mike Love). So, I guess that means we have all the good guys working together! (Look at me cater to the Love bashers.) Anyway, this track has a very nice melody and a great chord progression. The instrumentation isn't so much stripped-down, but they don't waste anything unnecessarily, and that definitely has value.

Wake the World 9.5/10

Listen to this wonderful songwriting! This a wonderfully varied song especially for one that's not even a minute and a half long. I just sat through a house/techno Madonna album full of 5+ minute songs, which didn't even remotely have this many ideas. It's such a relief that I'm listening to real songwriting for a change. The hooks are meaningful, the chord progressions are unpredictable but glorious and the instrumental embellishements are entertaining. You can't go wrong with a song that incorporates a semi-creepy string build-up and a bouncy tuba section (not at the same time).

Be Here in the Morning 8.5/10

This is an interesting song, and I love listening to it. Some of the chord progressions are unusual and jump out at me! The melody is nice, and it captures the unusual somewhat alien atmosphere of this song. It's less earthly, and somehow that's a nice thing. The instrumentation is pretty bare here. You just have an ukulele, harmonium and a handful of other minor sounds.

When a Man Needs a Woman 9.5/10

This is entirely good natured with a bouncy melody and instrumentation. The guitars keep the texture alive. Who knows why they had to include such a laid-back organ for the instrumental interlude? I suppose that's part of the charm...

Passing By 10/10

This is an instrumental except it features the Boys singing "aahs." For some reason this is one of the most instantly memorable tracks of the album thanks to some of the textures that they deliver with that bouncy organ and Dennis Wilson's drums. I must say, this is a very well composed track with some of the nicest textures they created in their post-Pet Sounds era.

Anna Lee the Healer 9/10

More of that simple, laid-back pop music! They're reverting back to the old timey R&B grooves except delivered from a one-fingered piano player. This is rather interesting, but most importantly it features these guys' always excellent layered vocals.

Little Bird 9.5/10

Wow! Dennis Wilson wrote this, and it's pretty freaking good! I like its cool groove and laid-back feeling. There's a funny section involving some of the guys singing obnoxious "Na-nas" and playing single notes on the banjo. Another section involving a simple cello sound is very quaint. This one is easy for me to take to heart.

Be Still 8/10

This song is so minimalist that's just Dennis Wilson singing along with some very simple organ chords. Automatically, this is one of the least compelling tracks of the album, but that's almost by default. There's value to minimalist production, but ... this is pushing it, my friends. This is more minimal than Philip Glass usually gets during his heyday...

Busy Doin' Nothin' 9.5/10

Taking a bit of a cue from the bossa nova styles gushing out of Brazil at the time, Brian Wilson delivers this entirely pleasant ballad. This three-minute running length is getting excessive for them, isn't it??? The production is laid-back simple and likable with acoustic guitar strumming and lite-percussion, and I wouldn't change a single thing about it.

Diamond Head 8.5/10

This is about as experimental as the Beach Boys were willing to get at this point. It begins with some funny sound effects (sounds like someone dropped a ball in a chamber under water ... or something). Then some ocean wave sound effects pop up along with some ukulele and Hawaiian slide guitar. A crazy bit in the middle becomes almost avant-garde but in a non-intrusive way. The very end continues with the Hawaiian theme and the ocean sound effects. At three and a half minutes, this absolutely shatters the previously held length record here. Ooo...

Transcendental Meditation 8.5/10

And what's this? Apparently Mike Love came back from his little pilgrimmage to India and helped Brian Wilson and Al Jardine write this unusual tune. This is one of the more unusual tracks of the album with a chord progression so primitive that it's nearly brilliant. This has an almost droning effect that's appealing. The one thing that's missing is hooks, which is inexplicably absent here. But at least they had the idea to just take this on for a minute and a half...

He's going to read everything you have to say about this album here.