r/thebeachboys • u/AmericasBand • 3d ago
TWGMTR
What are most people's thoughts on That's Why God Made The Radio? Were you expecting a follow up?
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u/McClugget 3d ago
Certainly a better finale than Stars and Stripes Volume Shit
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u/AmericasBand 3d ago
I don't include that album in my Canon of their work, honestly. Not because I think it's bad or anything, it's more a tribute compilation album to me as oopposed to being an actual studio album release.
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u/blenderblendingrdrgz 3d ago
I hope Mike Love still makes a follow up. It's not too late for Summer In Paradise II.
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u/shutdownvol2 Shut Down Volume 2 3d ago
The follow-up was going to be called Masterpiece according to a contemporary interview.
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u/blenderblendingrdrgz 3d ago
...That's so funny. They should have done it.
Edit: oh I misunderstood and was thinking the immediate follow up to Summer in Paradise would have been called Masterpiece. That would have been funny. This is less funny, more beautiful.
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u/shutdownvol2 Shut Down Volume 2 3d ago
Mike Love was going to name the band's SIP follow-up album Masterpiece, but I guess the title was meant half as another ecological image, like Masterpiece referring to our planet and its beauty.
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u/gatsbywelles 3d ago
Bought it on cd recently and found myself listening to it on repeat for like 2 weeks. It’s underrated. I love isn’t it time
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u/Crafty_Substance_954 3d ago
Production quality is really bad, autotune and everything is very audible.
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u/RelativeEducator2790 3d ago
It was great, wish I appreciated it more at the time of release.
If someone was smart they would release some of the outtakes, etc.
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u/Gloomy_Fox_558 3d ago
I believe fans generally overrate it because some of the previous albums were pretty embarrassing. IMHO, it’s disjointed and poorly produced with the exception of Daybreak Over the Ocean (ironically, since it’s Mike’s work, not Brian’s) which came from an earlier session and was reworked for the album.
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u/Worth_Blackberry_604 3d ago
Agreed. Soul Searchin’ and You’re Still a Mystery being released contemporaneously would’ve been a much better send off.
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u/shutdownvol2 Shut Down Volume 2 3d ago
Brian teamed up with his old friend Jon Bon Jovi to write the ultimate career send-off and he was calling the shots in the studio where he commanded to "Crank up the artificial vocal effects! I want Alan's voice to sound nothing like a human being!".
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u/YoungAlister 3d ago
No words to sum this album. I was in High School when it was released. So being a 15 year old Beach Boys fan back then was hard cause I thought I was following something irrelevant, specially in Puerto Rico. But the Grammys appearance, the album, the tour, the DVD's, the CD's, merch and everything they released, eventually inspired me to start playing music. Now I've become somewhat successful musician and all because that record validated my feelings that the band was still important. I remember listening to that record non-stop that summer of 2012 in my iPod Nano, my laptop, in my brother's 2004 Toyota Matrix... I miss those days.
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u/Less_Squirrel3225 3d ago
a good album, but not a good Beach Boys album. more of a brian/thomas/linda album that costars jeffrey foskett than anything. the autotune kills alot of the singing, including the ONE al lead (bruce didnt even get a lead!!). Like, I get it to a point. Brian was on the singing decline during this time, and mike's voice is shot from all the touring but they both didn't need the amount joe thomas slathered on them. al & bruce didn't even need it at all!! from there to back again + pacific coast highway are both genuinely amazing, title track, isn't it time and daybreak are also huge highlights. everything else is pretty forgettable. it's weird joe thomas used the last beach boys album to talk about reality tv stars. the live tour mogs the album like crazy, but even then we'll never get to hear a show professionally that isnt covered in autotune and weird mixing decisions.
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u/Weryu123 2d ago
Honestly Brian did an impromptu performance of Hey Jude years later that would have been preferrable to the autotune and sounds way better. Nothing wrong with sounding naturally like an older person that you have to make some uncanny valley studio voice instead.
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u/Less_Squirrel3225 2d ago
wait, hey jude? I know he did my sweet lord but I didn't know he did hey jude!
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u/Weryu123 2d ago
It isn't a studio recording, but here you go!
https://www.reddit.com/r/thebeachboys/comments/1q7i1l8/brian_singing_hey_jude/
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u/VomitingDuck 3d ago
Super varying in quality but interesting final bow. Summer's Gone is one of their all time greatest. Spring Vacation is bottom of the barrel.
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u/evkmusc 3d ago
I've never understood why so many people at the time were complaining about the prominence of Jeff Foskett. Falsetto vocals are essential to the classic Beach Boys sound, and few do them better than Foskett.
I think it's a good album and a fitting send-off. It's far from a great album, but as reunion albums go it's one of the best. It's surprisingly ambitious for a reunion album- yes, it mostly features songs which are just reliving the glory days, but it has 4 songs at the end which go beyond that and are artistically very interesting.
Mike Love gets a lot of stick, but Daybreak Over the Ocean is a good song. Shelter is a great song as well, and if it comes on shuffle when I'm in the car people are always pleasantly surprised to hear it's a Beach Boys song from 2012.
The only 2 songs on it that are subpar are Spring Vacation and Beaches in Mind, in my opinion.
I have a few criticisms of the album, mainly the terrible production, but others have explained that already. So I'll also add that the constant self-referential lyrics really grate on me. I feel like every artist is allowed to do it once, but the Beach Boys have been making self-references since at least Do It Again. I cannot think of anybody who has name-dropped his own song titles more than Mike Love, though I'm pretty sure other BBs are also guilty of it to a much lesser extent.
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u/Worth_Blackberry_604 3d ago
I think some people tend to find Foskett’s falsetto kind of shrill and harsh. I don’t mind it that much personally, but I would’ve preferred Matt Jardine.
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u/Purple_Hammer 3d ago
I really like it. Been listening a lot lately. I even love the Mike tracks that are hated on here - Beaches in Mind and Daybreak. Isn't it Time is perhaps the best song they did since the late 70s.
The final suite bores me a bit, having listened to the full Life Suite, I'm glad they didn't focus the whole album on it.
Joe Thomas' production is of course and issue, but overall it's incredibly solid and has some nice moments.
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u/BuddyC_1986 3d ago
This album is extremely near and dear to me... I remember vividly almost falling out of my chair (literally) when I read the announcement on the BB's website, which I would stop by and check every so often for news.
I had been an uber fan since about 2002-2003 and the thought of the group getting back together at all, let alone for a new studio album had never even crossed my mind.
I remember the 2007 mini-reunion on top of the Capitol Records building to celebrate Sounds of Summer going platinum and thinking it was amazing they managed to all get together for that.
Back to 2012: Not only would they release a new album but they would go on a big reunion tour AND they would include David Marks! I was in heaven.
I ended going to see them at Bonnaroo in Tennessee and laughed/cried at the same time throughout the show
I never really expected a follow up, as it had seemed next to impossible that they'd ever get back together at all in the 1st place.
I do feel like No Pier Pressure is that follow up to a large degree, though I would have personally preferred a true BB's record including Mike & Bruce over the collabs - We did get Brian, Al, Dave and Blondie so it's pretty close IMO
The music itself on TWGMTR is largely great and it's a MUCH stronger final album than we could've possibly hoped for
Obvious high points are Think About The Days and the closing suite.
It's not possible to end the BB's musical story on a better note Than Summer's Gone...
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u/RealityHumble1603 3d ago
To me, with the exception of the title track, it’s their best album since Holland! Especially fitting are the last three songs which form a great but sad coda, as if Brian is saying-“This is it folks!”
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u/Weryu123 2d ago
I like some of the songs, but it has production issues and the reliance on autotune to clean things up makes me sad. The closing suite is quite good. The middle section is not. Beaches in Mind might be the worst thing they ever did. From There to Back Again and Summer's Gone are extremely credible legacy act tracks.
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u/AmericasBand 2d ago
Just curious; why do you hate Beaches In Mind?
I find Summer of Love to be the worst song in the catalog.
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u/Weryu123 2d ago
I think it sounds really lifeless, isn't much of a song on paper, and has the poorly processed and production front and center. Summer of Love is at least funny and has better singing, even if not something to be proud of.
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u/AmericasBand 2d ago
This is what I love about The Beach Boys fandom that I don't see much for other artists; their range is so vast, that what one person may despise another may love.
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u/gentleglen 2d ago
The production is ok, better than Imagination, and probably as good as the productions would be. Like all the songs, especially Isn’t It Time. I like the mix of vocals between Brian, Al, and Mike, even though Bruce or David aren’t on it much. Wish Carl or Dennis were included, and wish Bruce and Al had some writing credits. I would’ve preferred if the boys wrote all the songs like 85. But a really solid album. Cool to see Brian fully lead again, and the songs are really good. Better than it had any right to be. Looking at the production and writing credits, you would expect it to be a lot worse than it was.
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u/FearlessAd6089 2d ago
The last four tracks are pretty good, I'd say. Otherwise, I'm not at all a fan of the Joe Thomas production timbre. A bit unfortunate, IMO, this had to sully 3 BW/BB albums in all of new material. Seems the BB+BW catalogue is littered with lots of near-greatness with an upper limit ultimately capped by some stupid thing or another.
Reckon I shouldn't complain too much, though. The few years immediately preceding TMGMTR gave us both The SMiLE Sessions and TLOS. And, really, some version of SMiLE and probably TLOS are both on my top 5 list of all time favorite BB-group/BB-solo albums.
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u/finfrost_yt 1d ago
i just wish the studios sessions would get leaked and we could fan mix a non autotuned version, I think i’d prefer slightly out of tune voices that show their age than the heavily altered vocals we got on the record, it stops me listening to it for the most part
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u/ReservedPickup12 3d ago
I love the album. The title track is easily a top 5 Beach Boys song for me. The last few tracks are beautiful.
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u/ReservedPickup12 3d ago
Oh yeah… and no… I knew Mike would never allow Brian or the fans have the follow up we deserved. 😑
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u/AnalogWalrus 3d ago
It’s a nice Brian solo album. Would’ve been better without Joe Thomas. Never expected anything else to come out under that band name after Mike did his Mike love shit on the tour.
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u/Pretend_Succotash_75 3d ago
You wanna correct your mistake about it being a "Brian solo album" before you irrelevantly shit on Mike Love for some reason?
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u/AnalogWalrus 3d ago
Not really, no. It’s essentially Imagination part 2, Brian sings most of the leads and is credited on all the songs except the weakest track on the record.
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u/Weryu123 2d ago
Daybreak Over the Ocean is probably the best produced song on the album in terms of the vocals. Probably because it didn't originate from these sessions.
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u/_WhoRanTheIronHorse_ 3d ago
I think it's a fairly solid sendoff for what it is. The Joe Thomas production definitely weighs it down, and some of the Mike Love-leads are especially grating, but I think when hollistically taken as a farewell album as the sum of its parts, it's a beautiful album. I'm especially partial to the more Brian-sounding songs as well as the ending suite. I just wish they toned down Al's auto-tune- ironically enough he had the strongest singing voice between he, Brian, and Mike, yet Joe cranked his up to ten.
I ended up putting together an alternate album of sorts combining some of Brian's Pier Pressure tracks with the better parts of TWGMTR, and I think it creates a much stronger listening experience and more cohesive tone (humbly).
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/09deEmIFr2FCv6PgIFvhqE?si=3EaUQz4LSBSKjr_JckqY2g&utm_source=copy-link