An all new recording of the lost Beach Boys masterpiece! Brian notoriously sabotaged the original album by refusing to complete some sessions, and literally destroying the masters for others. Needless to say, an official release of the unearthed Beach Boys/
Van Dyke Parks epic Smile – the most famous "lost" album in the history of recorded media – is sadly impossible. Of course many of the original Smile tracks filtered out onto subsequent underrated Beach Boys albums, mostly in unfinished (but still mindblowingly great) versions, due to Brian's meltdown.
Nonesuch Records, Brian Wilson and his great 10 piece band have taken their best shot at a completed vision – and it works quite well! The old Smile tracks have the unassailable beauty brought about by Brian's painstaking, tortured efforts, and they were unquestionably influenced by his heavy intake of psychedelic chemicals. Now they have ProTools. Still, the cleared psyches and enhanced technical capabilities cannot hamper the bruised beauty these tunes had from conception, and it's been adapted very, very well even it doesn't quite carry the doomed genius of Brian's late 60s work. Comes in a great deluxe package with a thick booklet. Tracks include "Our Prayer/
Gee", "Heroes & Villains", "Good Vibrations", "Roll Plymouth Rock", "Barnyard", "Old Cabin Essence", "Wonderful", "Surf's Up" and more. UK-only exclusive to Amazon.co.uk, comprises a white box with 3D shadowbox embedded in the lid containing a standard edition CD. This shadowbox is a recreation of the artwork from the centre pages of the album booklet and contains moving cardboard figures.
(Out of print, outer box has some very light shelf wear.)