The real breakthrough, as Brian Wilson asserts himself in the studio as both songwriter and arranger on a set of material that was much stronger than Surfin' Safari. Besides the hit title track and its popular drag-racing flip side ("Shut Down"), this has a lovely, heartbreaking ballad ("Lonely Sea") and a couple of strong Brian Wilson originals ("The Noble Surfer" and "Farmer's Daughter"). There are also a surprisingly high quotient of instrumentals (five) that demonstrate that, before session musicians took over most of the parts, the Beach Boys could play respectably gutsy surf rock as a self-contained unit. Indeed, the album as a whole is the best they would make, prior to the late '60s, as a band that played most of their instruments, rather than as a vehicle for Brian Wilson's ideas. The LP was a huge hit, vital to launching surf music as a national craze, and one of the few truly strong records to be recorded by a self-contained American rock band prior to the British Invasion.
Surfin' U.S.A.
The Beach Boys
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Surfin' U.S.A. Review
by Richie Unterberger
Track Listing
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1 | The Beach Boys | 02:30 | Amazon | ||||
2 | The Beach Boys | 01:53 | Amazon | ||||
3 | The Beach Boys | 02:06 | Amazon | ||||
4 | The Beach Boys | 01:59 | Amazon | ||||
5 | The Beach Boys | 02:23 | Amazon | ||||
6 | The Beach Boys | 01:51 | Amazon | ||||
7 | The Beach Boys | 01:53 | Amazon | ||||
8 | The Beach Boys | 02:05 | Amazon | ||||
9 | The Beach Boys | 01:48 | Amazon | ||||
10 | The Beach Boys | 02:13 | Amazon | ||||
11 | The Beach Boys | 02:01 | Amazon | ||||
12 | The Beach Boys | 01:44 | Amazon | ||||
13 | The Beach Boys | 02:29 | Amazon | ||||
14 | The Beach Boys | 01:51 | Amazon | ||||
15 | The Beach Boys | 02:06 | Amazon | ||||
16 | The Beach Boys | 02:01 | Amazon | ||||
17 | The Beach Boys | 02:23 | Amazon | ||||
18 | The Beach Boys | 01:51 | Amazon | ||||
19 | The Beach Boys | 01:53 | Amazon | ||||
20 | The Beach Boys | 02:04 | Amazon | ||||
21 | The Beach Boys | 01:41 | Amazon | ||||
22 | The Beach Boys | 02:12 | Amazon | ||||
23 | The Beach Boys | 01:59 | Amazon | ||||
24 | The Beach Boys | 01:39 | Amazon |