Track Listing

1. Slip On Through
2. This Whole World
3. Add Some Music To Your Day
4. Got To Know The Woman
5. Deirdre
6. It's About Time
7. Tears In The Morning
8. All I Wanna Do
9. Forever
10. Our Sweet Love
11. At My Window
12. Cool Cool Water
13. Don't Go Near The Water
14. Long Promised Road
15. Take A Load Off Your Feet
16. Disney Girls
17. Student Demonstration Time
18. Feel Flows
19. Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)
20. Day In The Life Of A Tree
21. Till I Die
22. Surf's Up

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2574 in Music
• Released on: 2000-08-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Many reckon 1970's Sunflower to be amongst the Beach Boys' finest moments. Certainly, it has a maturity and consistency which belies the turmoil the Wilson brothers must have been feeling at the time--a bitter split with their label coincided with creative lynch-pin Brian Wilson's withdrawal from the spotlight. This is no Pet Sounds, however. Tracks such as "At My Window" and "Slip on Through" display an unseemly fondness for pop schmaltz, while "It's About Time" is Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" diluted. Dennis Wilson's rather beautiful "Forever" and the timeless "Tears In The Morning" go some way to rectifying the balance, though. 1971's Surf's Up, meanwhile, is a decidedly patchy affair. Dennis had mostly succumbed to his elder brother's demons, and tracks such as Mike Love's pseudo-political "Student Demonstration Time" are plain embarrassing. Meanwhile, proto-green politics take over in places. Fortunately, the album is saved by two incredible Brian Wilson songs: the brass-textured title track (one of the highlights of shelved Smile), and the morbid introspection of "Till I Die". This joint reissue included new liner notes by Wilson biographer Timothy White. --Jerry Thackray

CD Description
Mike Love has worn down the Beach Boys' cars-and-surf soundinto empty exercises in nostalgia while Brian Wilson based his reputation among the rock intelligentsia almost entirelyupon PET SOUNDS and the unreleased SMILE. Nevertheless, there are many Beach Boys cultists who feel that SUNFLOWER and SURF'S UP are the band's finest work.
Released in 1970 and '71 as the first products of their new Brother Records deal with Warner Brothers, whose commercial and artistic expectations were much different than the group had experienced atCapitol, these are relaxed, confident records with a progressive, experimental edge. While there's some missteps--Love's "Student Demonstration Time" is possibly the band's worst song ever--the high points are exquisite. Bruce Johnston's "Disney Girls", Carl Wilson's "Don't Go Near the Water", and Brian's "Til I Die", "Cool Cool Water" and the astonishing SMILE outtake "Surf's Up" are among the band's very finest songs.

Customer Reviews

the best two album CD ever?
After pet sounds not many beach boys CD's gain the critical acclaim or commercial success they deserve. However on this bargain CD two of the Beach Boys finest albums ever are gathered. First to Sunflower, which some reckon even better than Pet Sounds. What it is better than Pet Sounds for sure concerning this album is that it's a group effort. Dennis Wilson decisively shows himself as the second most talented Beach Boy with the funky Slip on Through and one of the most beautiful songs of all time , Forever. Brian however still hangs on as the main man with classics such as This Whole World, Add some Music and All I wanna do.
Surfs Up is nearly as brilliant as Sunflower and only has one bad track. The truly awful Mike Love song Student Demonstration Time. Brian steals the show, even though he's now a peripheral figure in the band on the verge of mental illness.Until I die and surfs up are wonderful. Although the extended version of the former found on the Endless Harmony compilation and performed by brian at his solo shows is that much more awe inspiring. Please take a chance on these two beautiful albums.

Great songs and real shockers on one CD
Sunflower and Surfs Up seem a strange back to back in many ways, whilst they may have been released consecutively they represent quite different musical themes from the Beach Boys. Sunflower feels quite 60s and sits comfortably next to Friends and 20/20 whilst Surfs Up presages an alternative furrow that the band ploughed through the 70s. Despite being a big Beach Boys fan it has to be said that they were always a better singles than albums band. Each and every album upto the death of Dennis Wilson had great tracks on but there were always some shockers to make the parts greater than the whole. Sunflower probably hangs together better as an album than anything else apart from Pet Sounds and starts with some classic tracks in This Whole World, Add Some Music and Tears in the Morning and you cant review this album without paying homage to Forever, Dennis Wilson at his very best. All in all a great Beach Boys album. Surfs Up is however the epitomy of the great tracks and shockers album. On the great side there is Surfs Up, Long Promised Road, Feels Flows and arguably one of the best Beach Boys tracks ever in Till I Die. This however is negated by A day in the Life of a Tree and Student Demonstration Time. Thankfully with the advent of CDs these can be skipped and you can appreciate the brilliance of the best without wading through the bad to get there. All in all though this is a good CD and the best is very very good. Sunflower on its own merits 5 five stars but the mixed bag of Surfs Up pulls it back.

My introdution to the Beach Boys
As I write this review I am listening to 'Sunflower/Surf's up' for about the zillienth time since I perchased it at Reading festival 3 years ago. 2 years prior to that perchase I was still under the illusion that there wasn't much depth to the Beach Boys music and that they were just an irritating 60's american pop band that churned out hit after annoying hit (i.e. 'Help me Rhonda', 'Fun Fun Fun', 'Surfin USA' ect) Being raised on The Beatles from an early age didn't help as no other 60's outfit was gonna take prefference over them! Then I heard these 2 albums. My friend from school was determined to change my mind about the Beach Boys and played me some of their more experimental/less commercial offerings in the form of Friends/20/20. An experimental Beach Boys!?! At the time the idea seemed obsurd but I listened and eventualy liked them ('Cabinessence' in particular) then after 'getting used to' Sunflower/Surf's up, LOVED the band! Immesureabley!
Both albums filled me with the same emotions as hearing the Beatles for the first time as a little boy. Although an entirly different band, the level of geniouse and origionality expressed on these records equals and sometimes surpasses that of The Beatles. For example on tracks like 'Surf's Up' 'This Whole World' (the sweetest 2 mins of pop your ever likly to hear!) the dark, sad 'Till I Die' and the odd but very beautifull 'Day in the Life of a Tree', the songs (after you look under the suface) churn your emotions till you can't take it anymore. I actualy had nights where I used to stay awake wondering how a record could be so deeply moving. If you don't beleve me, keep listening!! I still find hidden treasure in the songs that I wasn't sure about at first. For example the song "At my Window" seems twee and a bit pointless on the surface, but let it wash over you and it soon reveals itself as a beatifully subtle, dreamy piece of music. I love the highly sung etherial "fly aways" at the end of song. Magic. The rest you'll have to hear for yourself.

My next perchase was 'Pet Sounds' which, although more consistant (and still a masterpiece!) has only one track that 'moves' me in the same way as most of the stuff on these albums, 'Don't talk put your head on my shoulder'.

Just a few more things. For those of you who think you've got the band sussed cause you've heard stuff like 'I get around', 'Do you wanna dance' or even the masterfull 'Good Vibrations', THINK AGAIN. There is a whole other side to this amazing group (the less commercial side in fact) and in Dennis Wilson, a songwriter as brillient and as heartfelt as brother Brian. Enjoy!