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Originally Posted by tynan88
I got Brian Wilson's Smile for Xmas, and was thinking, is it an album you could compare in the same experimental category as Tusk, or is it a totally different category? BTW: Smile is a masterpiece.
Tynan
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I got that recently also and I LOVE it. I had heard 'early versions' of a few songs, since they appeared on the box set or other albums etc, but it's great to see all the pieces put together into this long epic.
I suppose Smile and Tusk could be compared in the sense that the music is 'unexpected' when heard in the context of knowing the previous hits of the artist. Like after hearing the 'accessibility' of Go Your Own Way or Surfin USA, you would be sort of thrown by the relative lunacy of The Ledge or Vegetables.
I could ramble on for a bit about Smile. First of all, Brian sounds *incredible*-- I heard him on some special doing some of the tunes live and he really does hit some of the high notes that I had figured were someone else. I love Wind Chimes, and the way Wonderful slips into Song for Children-- and the line "Where is the wonderful me....wonderful you" is so simple, the way it goes up and then down-- but it stays in my head and I hum it all the time. And of course Surf's Up is stunning (even my daughter heard the end and said, "Who
is that?") I have to say I preferred the way he ended it on the box set, w/ the chorus drifting off gradually, rather than the more abrupt way he does it on Smile. But it's still just so beautiful.
I love Brian Wilson.
I'm so glad he got himself together and overcame his mental illness and the awful abuse his father Murray inflicted on him. Strange that of the 3 brothers, he'd be the only one still with us.... but anyway yes, it's a great album.
--Lis