Surf's Up

Part of that run of albums from Sunflower to Holland in the early seventies that was the Beach Boys prime. Yes there were better albums earlier and many great singles but I don’t think there’s a four lp run in their discography as brilliant.

So nearly a masterpiece. The production is slightly ramshackle, to my ears. A couple of the songs aren't quite as good as the others. But when it's good, this album is really good. I love Long Promised Road.

This is absolutely fantastic. The Beach Boys are a STAPLE of music history and I’m a HUGE fan of the album cover too

Despite what the title may suggest, this is far from the "cars and girls" early-60s sound of the Beach Boys. Instead, it's thematically very dark by Beach Boys standards, despite musically sounding fairly light. "Student Demonstration Time" isn't that bad, it's just far heavier and louder than everything else on the album. I won't say this is a bad album, but it's not the best thing I've ever heard, either.

Good but not great. Overrated because they are beloved.

loved the sound - especially Feel flows

The Beach Boys making a "Can we talk about the political and economic state of the world, right now?" album was something I never knew expected and it wasn't too bad.

I had never listened to The Beach Boys until I generated Pet Sounds earlier this year and it blew me away. This one doesn’t hit those highs but it is still really good and at times brilliant. Only two tracks let it down for me, Take A Load Of Your Feet and Student Demonstration Time. On the flip side it ends with two absolutely belting songs in Til I Die and Surf’s Up.

Top Track - Surf’s Up

Good music, but BOY do those lyrics ever lack subtlety.

The Beach Boys? Creators of my first 5, "Pet Sounds"? This is a pretty dark album cover for those guys, based on what we've heard so far. I didn't know they took a detour into activism. It starts off with a bop, though ('Don't Go Near the Water'), even though there's an unpleasant lil interlude. 'Long Promised Road' is basically a proto-'Tubthumping' (mixed with 'The Heart of the Matter' - which I like). Then comes an 'I Can't Help Myself' style boppin' PSA about feet*. Sure, OK! You haven't lost me yet! 'Disney Girls (1957)' was covered by Eurovision superstar Alexander Rybak! I found it a little boring otherwise, though. Not sure what to make of 'Student Demonstration Time' lyrically, but musically I don't love it. Bring back the songs about feet! 'Feel flows' is pretty good. ('Feet flows'?) I like the alliteration, but I could do without the flute interlude. 'Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)' is no good - the instruments overpower the vocals. But that guitar part is definitely in System of Down's 'Aerials', right??! Strong ending because I like System of a Down's Aerials. 'A Day in the Life of a Tree' is a delight. Very Magnetic Fieldsy. 'Til I Die' is OK, a little depressing. 'Surf's Up' is good; it's almost like a parody of a Beach Boys song, possibly somewhat intentionally. More good sounding lyrics, which is always of value. I had heard exactly none of these songs before, and it's no Pet Sounds, but it was a pretty good album. I didn't know they had it in 'em!

Highlights: 'Long Promised Road', 'Surf's Up'

*Wiki says:: Jardine explained, "It's cute, but come on ... for some reason Jack Rieley liked it too and said, 'It's got to be on the album. That's definitely an ecology song.' 'Ecology? A song about your feet?' It's personal ecology."

Sterkt album fra Beach Boys. Både "Feel Flows", "Till I Die", tittelsporet og "Welfare Song" er blant mine favoritter i BB-katalogen. "Student Demonstration Time" er cringe, selv om teksten kanskje kan føles litt dagsaktuell om dagen.

Brian Wilson gjør en sterk retur på slutten, som de andre har nevnt her. Skulle gjerne hørt hvordan denne skiva hadde hørtes ut om Brian var mer delaktig i produksjonen.

Surf’s Up would get 5 stars for the cover alone, but the music is fantastic too. After Smile failed to coalesce into an actual release, the Beach Boys would include an occasional song from those sessions on their next few albums. Surf’s Up was the last song to appear from Smile until the release of the full Smile sessions in 2011. It feels fitting as the last song from that era to come out. This whole album feels like the true end of the Beach Boys. They’ve moved on from surfing and girls to larger concerns about the environment and death itself. A progression the band was always working towards and became fully realized here. Bittersweet but a wonderful listen nonetheless

Really great album of top-notch early 70s psychedelia on top of its iconic cover. Blah blah blah Student Demonstration Time sucks.

'Toothpaste and soap will make / Our oceans a bubble bath / So let's avoid an ecological aftermath.' The Beach Boys weren't the only artists in '71 to bemoan ecological catastrophe: Marvin Gaye in fact did it more classically on 'Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).' But no one did it as romantically or as heavenly as the grown-up and fed-up group once inclined to preach an all-is-good ethos on tracks like 'Surfin' U.S.A.' It's now Surf's Up and all is not good: 'But now my branches suffer / And my leaves don't offer / Poetry to men of song.' In good faith, I can't say this is on par w/ Pet Sounds, which in its own way is just as dark and daring as this one, but I applaud it for its originality and for its moments of unusual beauty, especially tracks 6-10.

Very good and cozy music

This was severely disappointing. I can't listen to this without comparing it to other albums by the Beach Boys, and by comparison, this sucked. Perhaps, taken on its own without a comparison to their other music, I could like it. Unfortunately, my brain just doesn't work that way. This was not the version of the Beach Boys I like.

Ugh...⭐⭐?

This is another album that over the course of time has somehow inexplicably built steam in the critics eyes. Its easy to see how this influenced other groups and blended genres of music later on, it doesnt mean this is A. good or B. something someone NEEDS to hear before they die. I suppose you NEED to hear this if you want to hear the last gasp of a once great pop group.

Є щось таке у музиці біч бойз, що важко артикулювати. Мені цікаво до них повертатись інколи, хоча не зовсім прям мій стиль.

Preferred the movie adaptation

Never thought going to the beach with some boys would be such a snooze fest.