SMiLE

It's long been one of the most legendary unreleased albums in popular music.

While Beatlemania was sweeping the nation, the Beach Boys were carrying the torch for American rock and roll. The musical mad hatter, Brian Wilson, was in an arms race with the juggernaut duo of Lennon and McCartney. The Beatles released Rubber Soul, and the Beach Boys answered with the masterpiece that was Pet Sounds. The Beatles went to work trying to one up the Beach Boys, while Wilson started on what was to be his grand opus. But only one of those albums saw the light of day. Just weeks before the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper, the Beach Boys announced they had shelved Smile. Brian Wilson had a nervous breakdown, his already strained relationship with Mike Love fell apart and the Beach Boys were never the same.

Wilson returned to finish the project as a solo album in 2004, but it just wasn't the same with his voice showing signs of age and the rest of the group absent. Taken on its own, it's a strong album from an aging artist, but it couldn't help but leave fans wondering what might have been.

Now, after a 45 year wait that makes Axl Rose look like a piker, Wilson's "teenage symphony to God" is finally available with the release of The Smile Sessions.

With all that time for the album to be hyped, bootlegged and speculated about, is it as good as expected? Yes and no. The first disc is set up to be more or less what the album was going to be, with a sequence that mirror's Wilson's solo version. These are far from finished products, with some songs missing vocals - notably "Love to Say Dada" which appears with lyrics as "In Blue Hawaii" on the 2004 release - and a few absent altogether.

As for what is there, I've never been much for really avant-garde, psychedelic type pieces, so tracks like "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow"just sound like a series of random noises to me. On the other hand, there are some genuinely great moments here. "Good Vibrations" of course speaks for itself and "Heroes and Villians", which serves as the base that much of the album is built around is pretty well-known. Songs like "Wind Chimes" are strong and the first two tracks, "Our Prayer" and "Gee" give the group a chance to open by showing off their fantastic harmonies.

Overall, this is indeed a great album, but I personally think even if Smile had been finished, Pet Sounds would still be the better of the two.

What makes this collection special for hardcore Beach Boys fans, is the other discs in the set, which feature studio outtakes. It's an interesting behind the scenes look at the mad genius at work. Songs that didn't make the cut, a beautiful solo version of Surf's Up and an entire disc of various takes and outtakes from "Good Vibrations". There are a few jarring moments, such as an angelic vocal take of Wilson followed by him asking his bandmates if the acid has hit them yet. There are even a few spots that make you wish there was video to go with it - how did Brian get stuck in that piano anyway?

This is an absolute must have for Beach Boys fans.