It's probably uncool to like a Beach Boys album past 1979's L.A. (Light Album). Even that's pushing it. By then, mental illness, plus drug, alcohol and food addictions, had set in. The band was in chaos, both professionally and personally. Brian and Dennis's voices were feeling the strain. The cut-off point of cool is more like Holland (1973).
That was until 2012's That's Why God Made the Radio. You'd be hard-pressed to find a band or artist that's recorded 20+ studio albums without some turkeys. Radio was the Beach Boys' twenty-ninth offering.
Brian Wilson takes credit as sole producer for the first time since 1977's Love You.
Radio is also the first album:
And, the first album since Carl Wilson’s death in 1998.
Radio's opener, Think About the Days, could be the intro to a Beach Boys album with Brian at the peak of his powers.
The album flips between sunny and dark. It holds some of the band's happiest and saddest songs. The title track, Isn't It Time, and Spring Vacation reminisce. The lyrics claim happy times are here again after all the lawsuits, deaths, family physical and mental abuse the band has endured. Plus, self-abuse. They could be sister songs to 1968's Do It Again.
You can't help but smile at the thought of 71-year-old Mike Love driving around the beachfront with his hood down. He's "drivin' around, livin' the dream, cruisin' the town and diggin' the scene" of the youngsters. It sounds like a letter from Mike, who was into meditation, not drugs or booze, to Brian.
Only Brian Wilson could write a song about chores and errands. The Private Life of Bill and Sue harks back to I'd Love Just Once To See You on 1968's Wild Honey album. This time, queuing at the grocery store replaces washing the dishes and rinsing up the sink.
The album's four-song closing suite is its crowning moment. Remarkably, Al Jardine's voice is as good as it was in his youth as he takes the lead for From Here and Back Again. This four-song section is Abbey Road B-side-esque. A bold claim, maybe.
The lyrics to Pacific Coast Highway and Summer's Gone seem like Brian predicting his fate. The songs are now more poignant and sadder, as Brian is living with dementia and is a wheelchair user.
So that's it. The Beach Boys have gone, summer's gone, and we fear this is the beginning of the end for Brian Wilson. That's Why God Made the Radio is a fine farewell for the band.
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