Thursday, August 14, 2008

Album Of The Day #26: 20/20 - The Beach Boys

Title: 20/20

Artist: The Beach Boys
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
Songs: Do It Again*/I Can Hear Music**/Bluebirds Over The Mountain***/Be With Me#/All I Want To Do#/The Nearest Faraway Place##/Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)###/I Went To Sleep^/Time To Get Alone^^/Never Learn Not To Love#/Our Prayer^^/Cabin Essence^^^
Written by: *Brian & Mike, **Jeff Barry, Phil Spector & Ellie Greenwhich, ***Ersel Hickey, #Dennis, ##Bruce, ###Huddie Leadbetter, ^Brian & Carl, ^^Brian, ^^^Brian & Van Dyke Parks
Produced by: The Beach Boys
Thoughts: I love this album, but it's very much akin to Still Crusin', except where that one was filled with horrid leftovers, these are spectacular. Things like "I Went To Sleep", "Time To Get Alone" and "Be With Me" make you wonder how anyone in 1969 could not take The Boys seriously. The album starts with a marathon of singles, three in a row, in fact, and it would seem that the rest of it was filler, but you'd be gravely mistaken. Like Friends, this is a must for even a slight Beach Boy fan, so it is convenient that the two are packed together on a single disc as a two-fer. By the way, "The Nearest Faraway Place" is a beautiful piece of music, no matter what anyone says to me.
Rating: 8/10

Note: tomorrow starts a week of random albums of the day!

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