Surfer Girl/Shut Down Vol.2

"Surfer Girl" is the first classic Beach Boys record. It is a giant leap from their first two albums and contains numerous timeless songs. The title track is outstanding, as is "Little Deuce Coupe" and "In My Room". Even the poorer tracks ("Our Car Club" and "South Bay Sufer") don't detract from the overall quality of the album. Not a classic album by a long way, but full of youthful charm and well worth a listen - 4 stars.

"Shut Down Volume 2" is a true rock 'n' roll record. "Fun Fun Fun" and "Don't Worry Baby" represent the Beach Boys at their best. Unfortunately, "Pom Pom Play Girl" and "This Car of Mine" represent the Beach Boys at their worst. A great cover of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" saves face. 3 stars.

Surfer Girl was an astronomic leap forward from the simple three chord 'rock-outs' of their first two albums, SURFIN' SAFARI and SURFIN' USA. This is obvious from the start of the opening track, the beautiful, complex SURFER GIRL. This is one of the many Brian Wilson ballads on this album that show just how far the emotional strength of his records had grown (The thoughtful IN MY ROOM and the heartfelt YOUR SUMMER DREAM are two such highlights, containing stunningly emotive chord changes and lyrics). Despite the complexity of this new musical direction, SURFER GIRL is still peppered with the sort of classic surf-rock that made them famous (The storming CATCH A WAVE, the smooth, shuffling LITTLE DEUCE COUPE and the chiming HAWAII are good examples). Though most of the album is great, there are some real stinkers on there too (The instrumental THE ROCKIN' SURFER and the naff SOUTH BAY SURFERS are clunky and uninteresting) but overall the album is varied, fun, thoughtful and a definite leap forward for the group.

SHUT DOWN VOL. 2 doesn't fit together as well as SURFER GIRL but contains some absolute classics (The cruising anthem FUN FUN FUN and the superb cover version of WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE are two particular stand-out tracks). Brian's ballads on this album are also absolutely exceptional (The exquisite DON'T WORRY BABY and the poignant WARMTH OF THE SUN are real classics). There is some obvious filler tracks on the album, but even these don't pit the depths of the unlistenable instrumentals of SURFER GIRL (DENNY'S DRUMS and 'CASSIUS' LOVE... are complete non-entities
and the cover of LOUIE LOUIE is a bit of a disaster, but these don't seem to irritate as much as the filler on SURFER GIRL).

The bonus tracks are mostly pointless curios, but the glorious 'I DO' is a forgotten classic. This double album is worth getting, but it would be advisable to buy some of their later albums first.

Shut Down Vol. is not nearly as consistent. It has fine cuts with "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Don't Worry Baby," "Warmth of the Sun," and "Keep an Eye on Summer," and Carl's title track instrumental is a good rocker, but the rest is average at best, and, overall, this is the worse of the first four Beach Boys albums.