Album Of The Day #23: HOLLAND - The Beach Boys

Title: Holland

Artist: The Beach Boys

Label: Warner Bros./Brother

Year: 1973

Songs: Sail On, Sailor*/Steamboat**/California Saga (Big Sur***/The Beaks Of Eagles+/California++)/The Trader+++/Leaving This Town#/Only With You##/Funky Pretty^

Written by: *Brian Wilson, Jack Rieley, Van Dyke Parks, Tandyn Almer & Ray Kennedy, **Dennis Wilson & Jack Rieley, ***Mike Love, +Robinson Jeffers, Alan Jardine & Lynda Jardine, ++Al Jardine, +++Carl Wilson & Jack Rieley, #Ricky Fataar, Blondie Chaplin, Carl Wilson & Mike Love, ##Dennis Wilson & Mike Love and ^Brian Wilson, Mike Love & Jack Rieley
Mt. Vernon & Fairway (A Fairy Tale): Mt. Vernon And Fairway - Theme/I'm Pied Piper - Instrumental/Better Get Back In Bed/Magic Transistor Radio/I'm The Pied Piper/Radio King Dom

Produced by: The Beach Boys

Mt. Vernon And Fairway Written & Produced by: Brian Wilson. Additional materials by Jack Rieley and Carl Wilson

Thoughts: If you've ever wondered what an album would sound like if you took original, first-generation master tapes, dropped them in mud and decided to listen to them, they would sound like Holland. The seven separate songs on the album proper are incredible (particularly "The Trader"), but the technical process that brought them from The Beach Boys' mouths to your ears makes it sound like they came off a bootleg. The remastered 2000 edition by Capitol fixes it up a bit, but it still sounds like terrible. Of all the songs here, "Funky Pretty" might be the weakest and it continues to prove that the Boys have a hard time coming up with a great album closer. Brian's fairy tale is cute, but I'm not really sure what child would hear it, considering how far out of the public eye the Boys were in 1973. By the way, thank you Warner Brothers. Thanks for giving us the masterful "Sail On, Sailor" instead of the mediocre "We Got Love".

Rating: 8/10