The Beach Boys - Holland

7.5 - USA - 1973

Somewhat of a later period Beach Boys album after they had left the surf-rock behind and were deep into early 70s proto-yacht-rock. Although Brian Wilson is nominally present, this album is very much Carl Wilson’s record.

The first side has some decent, though slightly cheesy, songs, including a three-piece suite on California. The lyrics – mostly dealing with colonialism and environmental themes – are a bit heavy handed. Dennis Wilson’s “Steamboat” is an interesting augury of his Pacific Ocean Blue record, which was still several years away.

The main attraction here, though, is the lead song on side 2, Carl Wilson’s “The Trader”. The first half of the song starts off like the jaunty surf-rock-cum-super-sounds-of-the-seventies of the first side, but then midway through it stops, switches gears, and becomes impossibly beautiful, with some gorgeous layered vocals and an utterly haunting melody. (The Moog bass is also a nice, defamiliarizing touch).

The bonus EP – “Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale) – is missable, though.