1. Do You Wanna Dance
2. Good To My Baby
3. Don't Hurt My Little Sister
4. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
5. Help Me Ronda
6. Dance Dance Dance
7. Please Let Me Wonder
8. I'm So Young
9. Kiss Me Baby
10. She Knows Me Too Well
11. In The Back Of My Mind
12. Bull Session With Big Daddy
It's the tendency of people to write the Beach Boys off as a band that only sang about cars and surfing. In their early days, this was more or less true, with the addition of godawful filler tracks to boot. But once the band hit 1965, things began to change. The band's lyrics shifted towards more serious songs about teenage relationships and what have you, for one. They weren't exactly staggering works of pure poetry and maturity, but compared to 'Be True To Your School' and that song on their first album about chugging root beer, this shit was like Nietzsche.
Perhaps most importantly, at the end of 1964, Brian Wilson had an anxiety attack. The last year had seen the band release an astonishing 4 albums, not to mention all of the singles. Wilson knew that they had to keep up with the Beatles somehow or risk foundering like so many American acts were doing at the time, but another year like that could kill him. The solution was to stop touring. The band would tour without him, of course, since voices and musicians were expendable. Now Brian, with all of this sudden free time he had on his hands, could finally focus on writing stronger material and song arrangements. As a result, this album was by far the best Beach Boys album yet.
The album is split into two sides: one filled with happy pop/rock tunes, the other with melancholy ballads. It works surprisingly well actually, like the passing of a day in summer. It's a bit harder this time to decide which side I prefer, since they both compliment each other so well. I may have to give the edge to the A side, because it's so damn catchy that it's hard to resist. The tracks have a lot of neat production because Brian was trying to be the next Phil Spector, so as a result we've got some cool timpanis in 'Do You Wanna Dance?' and even a harpsichord in 'When I Grow Up'. 'Dance Dance Dance' is so upbeat and thrilling that you'll forget that it's pretty much a new version of 'I Get Around'. In fact, the only real downside is 'Help Me Ronda', which is a different version of the song (that's missing an h for some strange reason) that's nowhere near as good as the hit single version we know that was recorded a few months later. For one thing, there's no guitar solo even in the spot where there clearly should be an instrumental break of some kind, and the weird thing about this track is that it's got some weird volume shifts on the chorus at the end of the song, so it sounds like they're singing 'help me Rhonda help help me Rhonda HELP ME RHONDA HELP HELP ME RHONDA'. I thought it was a mistake on my copy of the album or something but further research has told me that this was intentional. Of all the neat production tricks that were emerging in that time, this is one that doesn't quite hold up as well over the years.
The ballad side points the Beach Boys in the direction of their future material in Pet Sounds, though it hasn't quite got that far yet. Instead of dancing, these songs are all about relationship problems, self doubt, all that fun stuff! This whole section almost seems like an excuse for Brian to show off how awesome his falsetto is. You certainly couldn't have Mike Love singing these emotional songs, could you? (Fuck Mike Love, just sayin')
There's only one big problem on this side as well, and it is 'Bull Session with Big Daddy'. The Beach Boys had a bit of a problem sticking extraordinarily shitty tracks to fill space on their early albums, but why they thought this recording of non-witty banter should suffice as an album track eludes me. They even had the nerve to make it the last track on this album, so you get by far the most fully realized and mature Beach Boys album yet, and then you get this. I'm not sure if it's his fault, but I'm gonna blame Mike Love anyway. Fuck Mike Love. 8/10
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