Smurfin' USA

Overall Album Score: 7.9 out of 10

The Beach Boys continued down their path of beach-rock glory with their second release, which obviously wasn't very long-awaited!!!! Back in the early 60s, "hot" bands would put out two or more albums per year! They even got away with these dang 24-minute albums. Thank goodness, to the modern CD buying public, that these are currently available as two-fers. I still say most people are better off just picking and choosing the tracks you want on these early Beach Boys albums on a digital music store.

Apart from "Surfin' USA" and their famous cover of the Greek instrumental "Misirlou," you could get away in life without ever owning any of the other songs on the album. But I cannot dismiss the other songs just like that! There's some really good ones on here. Notably, there's "Lonely Sea," which is the first true Beach Boys sounding ballad. There's not really a rhythm section; we're just left to bask in their rich harmonies! Unfortunately, its melody is pretty bland, which is why that's not a very well-remembered song today.

The biggest detrimental factor of this album is undoubtedly the extreme amount of instrumentals in here. Two would have been plenty, but they have FIVE. And they're all pretty much the same. There are other songs in here such as "Shut Down," which is a great fun song even though it's just a rewritten version of "409." Songs like "Farmer's Daughter" and "Lana" are interesting because they're rock songs that strongly utilize their famous harmonies ... but neither of these songs are so memorable.

You can argue with me until you're blue in the mouth, but I say this is quite an improvement over their first album. Overall, the material seems like the Boys were more solidly in the game. They still sound like wimpy white boys, but it's not so embarrassing this time.

Overall Album Score: 7.9 out of 10 (This is a marked improvement over their debut, but it still needs a lot of work. I like listening to the instrumentals well enough, but that was sacrificed for true substance.)

Average Song Score: 8.3 (This album is filled with a lot of fun songs and, surprisingly, not a whole lot of poorly conceived ones that kinda plagued their debut.)

Album Tilt: 7.5 (Too dang many instrumentals that sound the same!)

Artist Rating: 8.0 (They still have awhile to go before they start making their real contributions to the music world.)

Track Reviews

Surfin' U.S.A. 10/10

Didn't I tell you that the Beach Boys were going to get better? It's just been one album, and they've come up with a surfing song that manages to surpass "Surfin' Safari." OK, that's an arguable statement, but I think this song is generally better developed, and I like the melody better. One thing the Beach Boys fail to solve with this song, however, is that it's impossible to go surfing where I live in Kansas. They should get on that immediately. Come on, Mike Love is still alive. (This is set to a Chuck Berry song, which is why he gets cowriting credit, but I think this is a nice improvement.)

Farmer's Daughter 8.5/10

The Beach Boy's lovely harmonies are really beginning to materialize after hearing merely hints of that in their previous album. The melody of this song isn't anything to be proud about, which is why I'm only giving this song an 8.5. The song is set to a regular rock beat, which seems kind of odd in retrospect. Perhaps the record company wouldn't let them release an a cappella song, which this would undoubtedly be better suited as.

Misirlou 9.5/10

(Hey I'm doing research for this album review ... believe me, that won't happen often!) I recognized this song immediately, because this Beach Boys instrumental is so engrained in our pop culture. Recently, that's probably thanks to Pulp Fiction! This is a Greek song (the style of music happens to be song's title), yet it sounds so distinctly American. It's amazing how cultural programming can do something like that to music! If I were an academic, I might want to study that ... Oh, this is a cover by the way. But it's so obviously Beach Boys.

Stoked 8/10

Another instrumental, and this one was written by Brian Wilson. Some might consider this a throwaway song meant to fill up this album's meager 24 minute running length. But it's actually quite fun. I would probably have given this an 8.5 if it were on their first album, but ... it's throwaway and there was a lot more of that on their debut. (Ah screw it, I know my rating system is flawed!)

Lonely Sea 8.5/10

This is Brian Wilson's first real ballad, it seems. It was co-written by Gary Usher, but ... seriously nobody cares about Gary Usher. (Was that too mean? I'm sorry...) But anyways, this song features those heartmelting Beach Boys harmonies, and it's hard not to at least surrender this song your attention because of that. Otherwise, the song does come off as boring. Particularly when you compare it to their later songs in which they completely MASTER this type of hautingly beautiful music. Again, the melody doesn't seem to do much of anything.

Shut Down 9/10

This song sounds exactly like "409," but whatever. It's hard to come up with all these songs when you had to manufacture hit songs! This is a good party song, and it's really about as good as "409."

Noble Surfer 7.5/10

This is another party song, and it's silly! There's nothing particularly special about this song other than it features really stupid lyrics and, briefly, a xylophone-type instrument. This song is throwaway, but it's still kind of fun.

Honkey Tonk 8.5/10

This is an instrumental cover. It's played nicely using the Beach Boys' characteristic surf-rock instruments. It's a fun song. The guitar work is pretty nice, and for some reason I don't mind listening to this instead of their great vocal work!

Lana 8.5/10

Brian Wilson wrote this song all by himself! If the Beach Boys career would have ended right here, I could imagine that this song would be pretty well known today. The melody is pretty simple but it's catchy. The vocals are beautiful! The rhythm seems stuck in that '50s R&B mindset, which almost seems to detract from the whole experience. But I only say that because I have their later work to compare it to! (Oh, this is what happens when I review groups that I'm already very familiar with ...)

Surf Jam 7.5/10

This is yet another instrumental, and this one is written by 16-year-old Carl Wilson, his first songwriting credit. As expected, this song is derivative and sounds exactly like the other instrumentals in this album. It's a fun song to be sure, but the overabundance of instrumentals on this album is what makes me take away points in the "album tilt" rating. (Does the guitar seem a bit off to anyone else at the beginning of this song?)

Let's Go Trippin' 7.5/10

As if they really needed yet ANOTHER instrumental. This is was written by an outside composer called Dick Dale. It sounds a lot like that "Tequilla" song.

Finders Keepers 7/10

Finally, a non-instrumental!!! ... Hey, the final song on the album isn't supposed to be so sloppy! I guess it's interesting more along the lines of changing rhythms and development. It seemed like they wanted to do more with this song, but they didn't for whatever reason. Oh wait, I know the reason. THE RECORD COMPANY WERE NAZIS!!!!!

Farmer's daughters all want to e-mail me here.