REVIEW: Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys (1963)

This is the album cover or something

 I was very, very sad when I looked up "Surfer Girl" to find the album cover and got like 500 stock images of ladies in bikinis and then had to specify "Beach Boys". I don't even know what I expected.

This is probably the most summery album the Boys have released so far, which is very funny, because it came out in September, only a few months after the last one! I would be remiss if I didn't mention how ridiculous the Boys' release schedule was at this point, pumping out album after album within months of each other. Which in hindsight explains a lot of the filler. I really wish someone would've sat the execs at Capitol Records down and forced them to give their artists a little bit of time to breathe, because like, they were doing this AND touring at the same time. I don't understand how they didn't all drop dead honestly.

This album is definitely yet another leap forward compared to the first two, with more actual songs than Surfin USA and far stronger harmonies and songwriting than Surfin Safari. I feel like the rest of my thoughts are pretty self evident by just going through the tracks, so I'm going to do that.

Surfer Girl, the song, is obviously a classic. The harmonies are absolutely on point here and you can really hear the beginnings of Brian's whole philosophy of arranging vocals like a church organ - Lonely Sea might have been a nice teaser of the potential of Brian Wilson to write a ballad, but Surfer Girl is such a perfect early 60s "boy meets girl" song layered with perfect vocals.

Catch A Wave is probably also the best upbeat track so far in their discography. The Beach Boys have finally seemed to figure out that falsetto is not their enemy even on the upbeat tracks, and the melody here is more lively than any of the similar tracks on the past two albums. I also really enjoy the lines about surf music TOTALLY NOT BEING A FAD, GUYS - and the vaguely carnival-sounding, dinky keyboard solo. This is just perfect 60s camp. 

Surfer Moon's arrangement feels very 50s and is (thankfully) not characteristic of where their overall sound would be heading but it's still good. It's a sweet song with a nice melody buoyed by some characteristically warm and fluffy harmonies. Is it cheesy? Yes. Does it feel a bit like a warm hug? Yes.

South Bay Surfer begins with a bunch of vaguely jump scare-y drum hits and then ends up being a moderately stupid but still charming surf song. I feel like I've talked about enough moderately stupid but still charming surf songs that you can kind of get my opinion on this one. It's fun and I like it but if this was someone's favorite Beach Boys song I think I'd cry a little bit. I do really, really doubt anyone aside from the Beach Boys ever called Miami "Ol' Miam". That just feels bullshit. No one ever did that.

Rocking Surfer is so goofy I kind of have to adore it. This is literally just carnival music and it kinda goes. This is probably the first time anyone has ever said Rocking Surfer "kinda goes". 

Little Deuce Coupe is another fun surf song except instead of being a fun surf song it's a fun car song! So that's nice! I don't have a ton original to say about this because I don't feel like it's a song that's hiding any secrets or anything. Aside from the obvious one - what the fuck is a "Pink Slip daddy"? I'm beginning to suspect when Roger Christian was helping Brian write all of these car songs he just started making shit up. But anyways yeah it's really fun and the falsetto is great and it's an obvious leap forward from the first two albums just by virtue of being catchier and having better harmonies.

In My Room is every hipster's favorite early Beach Boys song partially because most hipsters don't have the intelligence required to appreciate the DEPTH of Rocking Surfer and partially because it's really, really good. I really want to be contrarian and say that Catch a Wave is my favorite song or something stupid but yeah this is the best song on the record and if you somehow haven't heard it... firstly, why are you reading this, secondly please go do that. I don't really have anything original to say about this one because 50 billion people have already written essays about how this song reflects Brian's abuse at the hands of his father and his desire to find a safe place in his life, and I am not going to make that point any more eloquently than them.

Hawaii will end up reappearing much later on and my thoughts on it are strongly colored by its reappearance. If you're not a massive Beach Boys nerd you probably won't understand what I'm saying and that's okay! God Mike really sounds like Kermit on this one. It is a really fun song. I just keep expecting Mike to say "In Captain Cook fashion, you can't deny it" and it keeps not happening and I don't know what to feel. Shout out to the Beach Boys for ruining the Beach Boys for me.

Surfer's Rule is basically a Four Seasons diss track and I find that really really funny. Literally just going up to a bunch of Italian dudes and being like "We're cooler than you because we SURF!". That's great. I love that. I support that. I also love the line where they say "It's just as common as the Golden Rule now" because in its own way it's a much stupider version of John Lennon's whole "bigger than Jesus" thing. It's a fun song and everything I just find the concept of the Beach Boys making a Four Seasons diss track in 1963 really really funny.

Our Car Club is also fun! I really like how the melody lifts up with "You can bet we'll have our jackets on whenever we cruise" and I also really like the guitar here. Congratulations, Beach Boys! You've made like 5 good songs in a row!

Your Summer Dream seems to get a bit forgotten about compared to the other songs on this record and I guess I can see why? It's a pretty ballad but compared to In My Room or Surfer Girl it's a bit lacking. I will take any excuse I can get to hear Brian Wilson sing over a sleepy surf ballad instrumental, though. It's just so wistful and pretty, even if it's a bit under-cooked.

And of course because we can't have nice things instead of the album ending on a nice pretty note with the fade out of Your Summer Dream we go right into Boogie Woodie, another fucking surf instrumental. It's not even bad in and of itself I just hate the placement of it SO much. If they put this one in between Surfer's Rule and Our Car Club or something I wouldn't care about it but Your Summer Dream would've made such a good ending and this track absolutely does not need to exist. So basically I hate the Beach Boys.

I am giving this album a 7/10. It is clearly better than the first two, and honestly I am tempted to raise it up to an 8, but I hate the ending so much and it's still clearly a bit goofy and camp and cough juvenile compared to what they'd later do. I don't really think being goofy, camp, or juvenile are bad things, but a lot of people do, and I understand why those people wouldn't enjoy this record. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone as a first Beach Boys album to listen through, but there's definitely some gems here for the fans.