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Post by kds on Jan 15, 2019 6:46:40 GMT -5
I give 20/20 a 7. It's a pretty good album despite being a general mishmash of what they had lying around. It's a good blend of Friends' mellowness and Wild Honey's happy energy. Unfortunately, some of the tracks are obviously not related to the others. The singles stand out to me, and while it must have been exciting at the time, the SMiLE stuff does too. It's like Surf's Up, the appeal at the time was great, but now that we actually have SMiLE these tracks sound very out of place with this new material. Cabin Essence is one of my favorite Beach Boys tracks, but it's not a closer; when this album ended I found myself expecting something else to come after. My favorite tracks are Be With Me, All I Wanna Do and Nearest Faraway Place. I thought the last was a genuine Brian instrumental until I saw the credit on wikipedia. Why does no one mention this song when talking about Bruce? I really like NFP, and never understood why its not more liked.
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Post by filledeplage on Jan 15, 2019 8:53:36 GMT -5
Gave it a 10 for a couple of reasons. In real-time for the couple of years prior - they were shamed - for anything and everything. No release of Smile, or Surf's Up, crappy ratings for Smiley...poor press because of Carl's draft "dodger" status. With Do It Again - they confidently owned both their "roots" and their "wings" (all the stuff that showed demonstrable growth since Today) - and it stopped the bleeding from the shaming and their poor sales. I felt at that time that they had finally turned-the-corner, after great success in other locations (such as the UK) and the same depressing wartime era scene in the US. It was elating to see that bold red-based gatefold in the LP racks. They were back!
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20/20
Mar 19, 2019 12:12:40 GMT -5
Post by aquarius on Mar 19, 2019 12:12:40 GMT -5
Deducted a point for piecemeal nature. 9/10
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Post by Jason (The Real Beach Boy) on Mar 28, 2019 11:11:18 GMT -5
9. The 1968 - I Can Hear Music set also made me give this one some new, fresh listens and I find myself enjoying it even more than I did in the past. Sure, it's a mess of epic proportions and sounds like a bunch of disparate albums, but man, only the Beach Boys could hodgepodge and end up with these results.
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Hydra
Kahuna
Posts: 222
Likes: 157
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20/20
Apr 24, 2020 23:28:19 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Hydra on Apr 24, 2020 23:28:19 GMT -5
This album is a little sad but has some great moments. Big problem with the album is the average covers, this version of Cotton fields is so boring and flat and Bluebirds just does not sound good, disappointing that songs like We're Together Again and A Time To Live In Dreams did not make the album instead or even a more complete version of Well You Know I Knew which sounded like it could have been an interesting song if developed. Overall not a bad album, the highlights are I Can Hear Music which is an incredible recording and Do It Again which speaks for itself, a bug hit in the UK at the time, also you can't forget Cabinessence and Time To Get Alone. Gets a 7 for me
Track Ratings
1. Do It Again 10/10 2. I Can Hear Music 10/10 3. Bluebirds Over The Mountain 5/10 4. Be With Me 8/10 5. All I Want To Do 6/10 6. The Nearest Faraway Place 9/10 7. Cottonfields 4/10 8. I Went To Sleep 9/10 9. Time To Get Alone 10/10 10. Never Learn Not To Love 6/10 11. Our Prayer 10/10 12. Cabinessence 10/10
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20/20
Apr 17, 2021 20:04:26 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by nts1drums on Apr 17, 2021 20:04:26 GMT -5
Agree about We’re Together Again. Great track, a shame it went unreleased for so long.
I can’t really vote (EDIT: gave it a 7) these kinds of threads because my opinion on some of these tracks is always subject to change. If we’re talking about tracks individually, gladly. Album as a whole, I give up, can’t do it. 😂
I’ve always wondered about who played the acoustic guitar on Bluebirds. Ed Carter is on lead.
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Shawn
Dude/Dudette
Posts: 61
Likes: 58
Favorite Album: Friends
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Post by Shawn on Apr 22, 2021 20:06:19 GMT -5
I bought this 2-fer with Friends back in 2000 and is in my top 10 favorite BB albums. I like the variety of songs and I'm so used to the song order that I couldn't begin to change it. If I had to pick a favorite and least favorite song on it, "Cabinessence" would be my favorite and "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" would be my least favorite. Over all, I personally enjoy Friends slightly more but if I were taking a poll, I would give this album a 9 without hesitation. Friends would be a 10 because it's such an easy listen. By the way, is it just me or doesn't 20/20 sound way better sound quality wise than Friends? They were both recorded in the same year by the same engineer. Very puzzling. Pairing it with Friends was an inspired idea. I picked it up on CD in 1990 on that issue of the two-fer and that’s where I first came to really appreciate the album. I’ve been looking for a 1st pressing of the Capitol LP in decent shape which is surprisingly challenging.
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20/20
Nov 12, 2022 17:17:39 GMT -5
Post by Maci Eascra on Nov 12, 2022 17:17:39 GMT -5
9. The 1968 - I Can Hear Music set also made me give this one some new, fresh listens and I find myself enjoying it even more than I did in the past. Sure, it's a mess of epic proportions and sounds like a bunch of disparate albums, but man, only the Beach Boys could hodgepodge and end up with these results. Spot on. I'd go 7/10 for these reasons, but it's hodgepodge, lacks a coherent theme, but there are some damn good parts here. Do It Again is a fun connection to their earlier sound and appropriately revisited in 1969. I Can Hear Music, the first song they did without Brian's involvement, is a special vocal from Carl. It's a beautifully done version and says something about the band, and Carl, and their future. All I Want to Do rocks in an expected way, Time to Get Alone is a enjoyable 60's waltz, and Our Prayer and Cabinessence gives us a much appreciated glimpse into Smile. There are low-points, and the schmaltz that just permeates what Bruce brings needed to be checked here as Nearest Faraway Place is rather pointless and I just don't think Bluebirds Over the Mountain works as a cover. But for a "let's get out of our record contract obligations" collection of pieces, it's actually worthwhile despite not having a frame to connect them.
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20/20
Nov 14, 2022 7:50:55 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Awesoman on Nov 14, 2022 7:50:55 GMT -5
It's an uneven affair but there's nothing really wrong with the album. Lots of good tracks on here including "Do It Again", "I Can Hear Music", "Time To Get Alone", "I Went To Sleep", etc. Hell, even the song ghost-penned by Charles Manson is a pretty decent album cut. Perhaps the weakest song on here is the forgettable album version of "Cottonfields" but it would be rectified by the much peppier single version.
It was around this time that the band became less dependent on Brian's involvement and you could really start to see the group more as a collaborative effort than ever before previously. However I think they managed to improve on this dynamic even further with their next few subsequent albums until 𝐸𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟 eventually came along that began the band's gradual demotion into the oldies circuit.
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Moon Dawg Vol II
Grommet
Formerly known as "Moon Dawg"
Posts: 48
Likes: 56
Favorite Album: Surf's Up
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20/20
Jul 10, 2023 18:25:43 GMT -5
Post by Moon Dawg Vol II on Jul 10, 2023 18:25:43 GMT -5
Hindsight is indeed...20/20. Can "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" and replace with "Been Way too Long" and you've got a better LP. As it was and is, an agreeable 7. Hodge podge of generally good stuff.
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Post by Rick Bartlett on Jul 11, 2023 9:37:26 GMT -5
Most people always seem to say that about '20/20', being a 'hodge podge'. But! What a collection of great material for the most part, 'hodge podge' or not. I think the cover art is albums biggest flaw, but the songs man! So what if a few of the songs are a few years old at the time? In the scheme of things today, does that even matter or apply? I've always thought 'The Nearest Faraway Place' was a great instrumental, and if you told people it was written by Brian Wilson, people may think a lot different about it, but because it's a Bruce Johnston composition, well he seems to be delegated to an imposition by default. It's a solid record just the same, and why it's not rated at high as 'Friends', 'Honey' or even 'Smiley' these days, I guess I'll never understand. I hope in time it will get it's due diligence.
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Post by filledeplage on Jul 11, 2023 10:17:05 GMT -5
Most people always seem to say that about '20/20', being a 'hodge podge'. But! What a collection of great material for the most part, 'hodge podge' or not. I think the cover art is albums biggest flaw, but the songs man! So what if a few of the songs are a few years old at the time? In the scheme of things today, does that even matter or apply? I've always thought 'The Nearest Faraway Place' was a great instrumental, and if you told people it was written by Brian Wilson, people may think a lot different about it, but because it's a Bruce Johnston composition, well he seems to be delegated to an imposition by default. It's a solid record just the same, and why it's not rated at high as 'Friends', 'Honey' or even 'Smiley' these days, I guess I'll never understand. I hope in time it will get its due diligence. Hodge podge or not, I love the cover and that it actually grabbed your attention in the record racks. They put it at the front of the record stores. Red sells. It was the color red. Life was so insane in 1969 that this was a comfort zone LP. Do It Again was the BB mojo back-in-business. And it did get some TV promotion (even if one was Charlie's.) Maybe even twice?
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Post by jk on Jul 12, 2023 3:53:45 GMT -5
Most people always seem to say that about '20/20', being a 'hodge podge'. But! What a collection of great material for the most part, 'hodge podge' or not. I think the cover art is albums biggest flaw, but the songs man! So what if a few of the songs are a few years old at the time? In the scheme of things today, does that even matter or apply? I've always thought 'The Nearest Faraway Place' was a great instrumental, and if you told people it was written by Brian Wilson, people may think a lot different about it, but because it's a Bruce Johnston composition, well he seems to be delegated to an imposition by default. It's a solid record just the same, and why it's not rated at high as 'Friends', 'Honey' or even 'Smiley' these days, I guess I'll never understand. I hope in time it will get its due diligence. Hodge podge or not, I love the cover and that it actually grabbed your attention in the record racks. They put it at the front of the record stores. Red sells. It was the color red. Life was so insane in 1969 that this was a comfort zone LP. Do It Again was the BB mojo back-in-business. And it did get some TV promotion (even if one was Charlie's.) Maybe even twice? Hodge podge shmodge podge... I prefer to see it as a magnificent patchwork quilt -- an extreme version of SDSN, if you like. "All I Want To Do" is a bit embarrassing (and I don't mean just the tag) but like most other tracks it's over quickly and Bruce's sublime instrumental soon makes you forget it. A local lad was a big BB fan back in the late sixties and he once played this album for my brother and me. I recall we were both floored by the vocal gymnastics on "Cabinessence". This was music from another planet.
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Post by boogieboarder on Jul 12, 2023 11:12:19 GMT -5
1. This is an album I've only dove into recently in anticipation of the 1968 copyright sets, what's your history with it?
I loved it right from the start. It was better than Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, and Friends because of better production and fuller harmonies than those three simpler albums. And it has better songs than the fully produced albums that followed in the 70s. Any album with a fully produced unfinished previously unheard Smile song on it is a definite plus, and this had two. Plus three more excellent, fully realized Brian Wilson songs, for a total of five! Add a Brian produced folk song, three Dennis Wilson classics, and two pretty good cover songs, especially “I Can Hear Music,” and I can’t really see how anybody can complain. 2. Favorite and least favorite songs?Favorite is “Cabinessence,” and least favorite is “The Nearest Far Away Place,” which isn’t to say I don’t like it. Bruce didn’t even have lyrics, a plus. 3. It can (probably) be agreed on that this is an uneven album, or at the very least a poorly sequenced one. What would you change to make it better in your eyes?The “unevenness” is a plus. I wouldn’t change a thing, (maybe just remove that distorted guitar lead on “Bluebirds Over the Mountain”). I wouldn’t change the sequencing either. Of course, we now have access to the session tapes, we can second guess the band, and wish we could have forced them to finish “Been Way Too Long,” or something.
I voted this a ten, but that means Pet Sounds is an 11, though.
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20/20
Jul 13, 2023 8:31:53 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Awesoman on Jul 13, 2023 8:31:53 GMT -5
As far as the unevenness goes I'm not exactly sure what the key element is that contributes to this vibe. Perhaps it's that there is no central theme or idea that grounds this album. The last three previous albums all felt cohesive in execution: 𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 was a gentle, mellow affair, 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 was a heaping helping of R&B, and 𝑆𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑦 𝑆𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒 was a Beach Boys acid trip. 𝟐𝟎/𝟐𝟎 just feels like a bunch of (mostly good) "odds and ends" songs cobbled together to form an album. That's not necessarily a bad thing because it's still a decent album despite the lack of cohesion.
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