8. The Beach Boys - Sunflower

So in lieu of making a new top 25 albums list this year, I am going to finish writeups for the top 8 albums on my old list that I never finished. Despite kind of hating the old list I still consider the top 8 entries to be my top 8 albums ever, so I might as well finish em up.

So Sunflower. I have always considered 1970’s Sunflower to be the Beach Boys’ equivalent to Abbey Road - a contented, consummate end-of-the-60s masterpiece that tidily sums up everything that makes them great. Compared to the slipshod records that led up to it and the strange, harrowing works that would follow it, Sunflower is a warm and inviting piece of work by a band that had improbably managed to pull themselves together after main bandman Brian Wilson lost his faculties after SMiLE.

I have to emphasize that this was no small feat. Up to only a couple of years prior to Sunflower, Brian pretty much WAS the Beach Boys, at least creatively. Y’know Pet Sounds? Guy pretty much wrote, produced, and arranged that entire goddamn thing by himself. Losing Brian as a primary creative force was akin to the Who losing Pete Townshend, or the Beatles losing… well, everybody except Ringo. 

But as luck may have it, the rest of the Beach Boys were (mostly) a bunch of excessively talented young men who had simply not been given the chance to shine before Brian’s absence. Sure, they couldn’t put together a Pet Sounds, but so what? Sunflower is an inspired piece of teamwork, a lovely and surprisingly varied record that Brian alone couldn’t put together. Sure, Brian’s presence is still felt here - he’s got a lot of co-writing credits and was mostly responsible for “This Whole World” and “Cool Cool Water,” among others - but Sunflower was highlighted by notable contributions from lesser-known Beach Boys songwriters. It was the first Beach Boys album to have truly great Dennis Wilson tracks (“Forever” being the most gorgeous love song they ever recorded, likely??) and even some winners from some guy named Bruce Johnston (the goofy Broadway shuffle “Deidre” is possibly my favorite track on the record). 

Man I love this album. “All I Wanna Do” is an excellent foray psychedelia that features possibly Mike Love’s finest, most understated lead vocal. “Add Some Music To Your Day” is so corny but so pretty, and all SIX of them trade off lead vocals (except for Dennis for some reason)!! Even the ridiculous schmaltz of “At My Window” is gosh-darned adorable. Sure, Pet Sounds is the big knockout winner, but Sunflower is more of an honest-to-goodness Beach Boys record to me. It is everything I love about this band summed up in 36 sweet minutes.

And it was their lowest charting record, ever. Wow! Wow.

Track I’m linking to is the mostly-Carl written “Our Sweet Love,” which sums up the record pretty well I think. Unpretentious, unaffected beauty. Enjoy!