Title: Friends
Artist: The Beach Boys
Label: Capitol
Year: 1968
Songs: Meant For You*/Friends**/Wake The World***/Be Here In The Morning#/When A Man Needs A Woman##/Passing By###/Anna Lee, The Healer*/Little Bird^/Be Still^/Busy Doin' Nothin'###/Diamond Head^^/Transcendental Meditation^^^
Written by: *Brian & Mike, **Brian, Dennis, Carl & Al, ***Brian & Al, #Brian, Carl, Al, Dennis & Mike, ##Brian, Al, Dennis, Steve Kartoff & Jon Parks, ###Brian, ^Dennis & Steve Kalinich, ^^Brian, Al Vescovo, Lyle Ritz & Jim Ackley and ^^^Brian, Mike & Al
Produced by: The Beach Boys
Thoughts: One of the greatest hidden corners of Beach Boy history seems to be the 1968-1970 artistic explosion that was poorly timed to happen when their popularity was an all-time low. It kicked off with Friends, a short, relatively quiet LP that proved to be their lowest charting studio album, until the unforgettable terror of Summer in Paradise completely missed the charts in 1992. Unlike that album, this one is great and one that, even if you aren't a huge Beach Boy nut, you should have. All the songs feature magnificent vocals and harmonies, which make it easy to forget the overly-simplistic instrumentation. "Diamond Head", though, is ground-breaking. Although it isn't a snippet from SMiLE, it certainly feels like it, as it is such a beautiful ode to classic Hawaiian music, that it could easily have been a part of that.
Rating: 8/10
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