REVIEW: Surfin USA - The Beach Boys (1963)

I hope the formatting works lol

 Welcome back to the second installment in my Beach Boys album review series! Unfortunately I had to work on an essay yesterday but the essay is done and I am ready to let the brainworms take over! I can feel them wriggling. I can feel them.

This album is yet another stepping stone into the Beach Boys' development. David Marks is still on this one and Al isn't and that makes me sad! But in the positive category, this is where they started doubletracking their vocals, and everything sounds noticeably better. Brian Wilson has also figured out that he has a falsetto, which is a big boost. The only negative of this album compared to its predecessor is that we get more limp-wristed surf instrumentals because the Beach Boys think they're Dick Dale apparently. 

The title track is obviously great and definitely a leap forward for the band even if it was stolen from Chuck Berry. Farmer's Daughter actually has a falsetto lead and showcases that this weird Brian Wilson kid can actually write a pretty good melody if he wants to!

Misirlou is like, decent? My policy for covers deserving to exist is that they should either be better than the original OR do something the original doesn't, and Misirlou fails on both regards.

Stoked is funny because you get to hear Mike Love very unenthusiastically say "Stoked". That's the only positive thing I have to say about it. In terms of these weird late 50s early 60s instrumentals where the lyrics are just one word being shouted, Tequila is the only one I've ever wanted to actually hear, and that's because Tequila is the best song of all time and Stoked isn't. Hardly Brian Wilson's finest work, I have to be honest. I don't think there's even any key changes here, the hack fraud. I guess the guitar is sort of fun. If you're very bored.

Lonely Sea might not be the first ballad Brian wrote (that honor goes to Surfer Girl) but it's the first one that we hear on a Beach Boys album and it's a damn good one! The arrangement is more understated and minimal than you'd usually get from a Beach Boys ballad (mostly because Wilson hasn't quite narrowed in on his Phil Spector worship yet) and that really benefits the plaintive, minimal lyrics. There's also a dramatic spoken word bit which is incredibly early 60s and also very good. The fade out on this one has probably the prettiest harmonies featured on a Beach Boys album so far - you'd be forgiven for not noticing it yet but Brian absolutely already has a knack for counterpoint.

Shut Down is another car song. This is kind of sacrilege but I don't think this song is that great. They'd go on to do substantially more fun car songs and the melody is just not quite there for me. The harmonies are doing that weird early Beach Boys thing where nobody wants to sing falsetto so everything's just kind of stacked in the middle and it doesn't sound great. The sax solo is fun if admittedly kind of stupid! Shoutout to Roger Christian for knowing a lot about cars or something.

Noble Surfer is pretty filler-y but I can absolutely forgive it because it's fun and inoffensive. You have to admire a song that has "Ain't joshin" in the chorus. Also the title is a pun! Get it? "No bull surfer"? Like "No bullshit"? The Beatles could never. I'm actually not even sure what that twinkly keyboard (?) instrument is that does a solo but it's nice. Basically this song is like ten times better than Shut Down. Sue me.

Honky Tonk is another surf instrumental. I don't listen to the Beach Boys for guitars. I don't really even know what to say about this.

Lana is a nice attempt at an upbeat falsetto-y pop song but the melody is just not quite there yet compared to their future accomplishments. Once again, I am going to be murdered for this, but Brian sounds a little bit pitchy here. There's a fun solo though! I just kind of wish this song went more places. It's all a little bit one note, which is not a criticism you can make about about a lot of the upbeat falsetto-y songs that are going to come after this.

Surf Jam is ANOTHER surf instrumental. Please sing. I am begging you. It's also like fine. I don't know. My criticism isn't that they play instruments terribly or anything, and I get that they're a surf rock band so it's expected, but I want to hear your voices! Not to be controversial or anything, but the Beach Boys are good at singing! I also do not believe for a second this was actually a jam. Something about it feels sterile to me. (I am probably going to receive hate mail about how it actually was a jam and I'm doubting the genius of David Marks on the guitar or something, but I don't care.)

Let's Go Trippin is another instrumental. This one is at least moderately fun. The sax player kind of sounds like he's just there. I feel bad for him. I feel like he's not having fun, although I sorta am, listening to this. I'm sorry, sax player.

Finders Keepers has a weird structure so I like it. The song just kind of... stops with the "SHE SAID, SHE SAID" line? It feels like it's trying to go 3 different places and fails at all of them and I respect that a lot! In the future Brian would learn how to write songs that go 3 different places at once and succeed at all of them and then a bunch of hipsters would call him a genius. That day is not today. But it's okay. I still respect you, Brian. And Mike. You have a writing credit on this one too. Good for you, Mike.

Overall the actual song songs here are mostly endearing (Surfin USA and Lonely Sea are absolutely classics) but the surf instrumentals I just... don't care about. So I'm going to slap another 6/10 on this one. Probably slightly less generous than Surfin Safari? But also slightly more. I liked that Surfin Safari was mostly actual songs, but the actual songs on this one are better.

Well whatever. Come back next time for Surfer Girl, and we can finally be done with the "Surfin trilogy", which has to be my second favorite Beach Boys trilogy, along with the "Lo fi trilogy" that isn't even lo fi. More on that later. Not next time later, much later. Bye!