The Beach Boys "That's Why God Made The Radio" Reviewed

After listening to the new Beach Boys album, “That’s Why God Made the Radio” a few times, one starts to wonder if this isn’t all some kind of happy accident. During these past 50 years, the band has taken on many personas, from fun, surfing, and cars, to deep introspection, to the happy and sad emotions of growing up. Through it all, the melancholy of Brian Wilson juxtaposed against the positivism of Mike Love has endured as two of the driving forces behind the group. Original members Carl and Dennis Wilson also provided key elements, but they are sadly no longer with us.

Most fans will concede that 1977’s “Love You” was their last great record.  Since then, there have been some seven other albums scattered across approximately 35 years. These efforts were mostly uneven, and some can even be classified as outright stinkers. Which makes the arrival of this new one so perplexing. The slick production sheen that envelopes the entire contents was expected. One can’t really fault a bunch of guys over 70 years old for using every modern day studio tool available to them, especially when younger artists who arguably don’t need the help are doing exactly the same thing. So there is a fair amount of auto-tune utilized, and  the overall sound can sometimes drift in the direction of too much polish. This however, is where the complaining ends.

Love and Wilson are joined here by long time members Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston, who round out the vocal blend of harmonies that are the hallmark of the band’s sound. On this front, the album is a major success. The sweet soulful vocal of Carl and lower register thrust from Dennis is of course missing, but the performances here are so distinctively blended, you can hear where they would have been, feel a little sad, but understand that life goes on and feel grateful that the remaining members sound so good.

 This is where it gets perplexing, where life imitates the art and vice versa. The reoccurring theme behind the record is one of nostalgia. Not musical nostalgia, but  the nostalgia of our own lives. On “Isn’t It Time” they want to “turn back the pages” and do “all the things we used to do.” The percussion on this track, consisting of mostly handclaps and wood blocks exhibits a decidedly “Wild Honey” era feel, or even the homespun comfort of “Friends”. This dynamic alone makes it the best Beach Boys song in many a moon.

Not every tune is a winner. But any track which one could arguably place into a lower tier still exhibits the trademark vocal blend. More often than not, this makes up for anything else that might otherwise be lacking.

The final three tracks, “From There to Back Again”, “Pacific Coast Highway”, and “Summer’s Gone” conclude the record with an unexpected dark tone. All of the enthusiasm and camaraderie demonstrated up until now gets tempered with the sadness and melancholy of reality. And you realize that while this is as big a part of the sound of the band as any of their “happier” tunes, we have very rarely been given the full palette of this legendary bands many colors within the scope of a single album. This is when the greatness of “That’s Why God Made the Radio” emerges. When you hear what we still have, remember what we lost, try to get it back, feel a little sad, but understand that life goes on.