http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005 by the authors Mon, 30 Jun 2003 07:28:11 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/29/115242.php#comment-12041 Phew! You pack quite a lot in this appreciation (goin' for a bit of Griel Marcus-ianism yourself, eh?) Only thing I'd take critical issue with re: the band itself is your assertion that the seventies was a fallow period for 'em. That may've been so in terms of radio hits, but I'd stack <I>Sunflower</I> or <I>Surf's Up</I>, maybe even <I>Holland</I>, up against a disc like <I>Summer Days and Summer Nights</I> for some gorgeous sounds. (I've long felt that <I>Love You</I> was more than a bit overrated - cartoonist Peter Bagge once called it the Beach Boys album for people who don't really like the Beach Boys and he may be right.) The albums as albums may not be perfect - the only solid monument that band produced was arguably the great <I>Pet Sounds</I> - but as celebrations of California life in the early seventies they're unsurpassed. 12041@blogcritics.org Mon, 30 Jun 2003 07:28:11 EDT