SMiLE
by Brian Wilson
  • Record Label: Nonesuch
  • Release Date: Sep 28, 2004
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 522 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 398 out of 522
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 522
  3. Negative: 85 out of 522

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  1. kaylix
    Aug 9, 2008
    2
    What is going on here? This wasn't as great as the reviewers claim. I could barely listen to the whole album. Based on the reviews I kept hoping there was something better in the next track. I gave up and deleted it from my music library.
  2. chipdIII
    Oct 13, 2004
    2
    Why did it take 37 years before it came out Brian? "Because it's mostly utter cock and it took me to completely lose my mind before I gave in to my money loving bastard label. ha ha ha wibble." This should have a really remained a myth.
  3. David
    Dec 16, 2004
    2
    No No No No!
  4. Bruce
    Oct 27, 2004
    2
    You can take a pile of horse manure, mould it into the shape of the Statue of David and people will call it art, simply because that's what they are supposed to say. Of course in reality, it's really just a pile of shit. I'm sure Brian Wilson is "smiling" all the way to the bank !
  5. Dave
    Apr 12, 2005
    2
    I kepy checking the date of these reviews, in case it was April 1st. Then I thought it might like the Hasselhof reviews on Amazon, just a whole lot of effusive hilarious praise for a total turkey. Right now, I am bewildered because this album is so .. banal, uninteresting, lame, mediocre. Utter shite. Brian Wilson's voice is aweful and the soprano chorus thing in the back is I kepy checking the date of these reviews, in case it was April 1st. Then I thought it might like the Hasselhof reviews on Amazon, just a whole lot of effusive hilarious praise for a total turkey. Right now, I am bewildered because this album is so .. banal, uninteresting, lame, mediocre. Utter shite. Brian Wilson's voice is aweful and the soprano chorus thing in the back is irritating. Can I trust any other reviews on this site now??… Expand
  6. TboneM
    Jun 29, 2005
    2
    Most. Overrated. Ever.
  7. BrianS
    Apr 9, 2006
    2
    Bought this album based on Metacritic review - deeply dissapointed
  8. AncaM
    May 10, 2006
    2
    big disappointment! it's not the 60's or the 2000's, it's a very weird mixture that personally i don't understand and can't relate to it!
  9. JPublius
    Apr 15, 2007
    2
    Horrid. The updated lounge band production of this album is so far from the mid-60s Beach Boys magic as to be unrecognizable. The great myth of "Smile" is that it was somehow unfinished, as if Wilson were on the cusp of writing great new material that would link everything together when pressure from his bandmates and label forced him to stop working on the record. This is ridiculous: Horrid. The updated lounge band production of this album is so far from the mid-60s Beach Boys magic as to be unrecognizable. The great myth of "Smile" is that it was somehow unfinished, as if Wilson were on the cusp of writing great new material that would link everything together when pressure from his bandmates and label forced him to stop working on the record. This is ridiculous: Smile was as finished as it was ever going to be, mostly due to its principal songwriter/producer having reduced himself to drug-addled mush. The Smile sessions were a story of diminishing returns, capped by endless studio tweakery at the end to produce the recording Wilson himself had promised Capitol by Jan 1967. The music was there--as numerous bootlegs and "rough mixes" conclusively prove. It wasn't the best pop album in history, and it was never going to be. But it was certainly far superior in every aspect to the mess the group released in its place, the career-killing disaster known as "Smiley Smile." It was also far superior to this slicked-up recording, with its mind-bogglingly awful version of Good Vibrations featuring lyrics not by Mike Love, which,given almost endless lawsuits that have marred the group's existence since the 60s, is probably the real reason why the original Smile never saw the light of day then, nor in the 80s, nor now. Sorry, Brian-worshippers. I just cannot get into a shallow re-recording of a famous lost album by a composer/singer long past his prime backed by studio musicians who just don't get it. The real Smile exists out there--it always has. You just have to look for it...… Expand
  10. GavinF
    May 21, 2008
    2
    I downloaded this purely because of the high ranking it received on this site and I have to say I though it was dreadful. It's all bee-boop-a-doo-daa non sense. Good Vibrations being the only exception.
  11. MIkeY
    Nov 20, 2009
    2
    I give it a 2 because there are only two real songs on the album. The two are excellent (Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains). The rest does not make any sense.
  12. danielb
    May 3, 2007
    1
    What a disappointment! All time highest score in Metacritic? Now I get it, Rock "critics" only give value to their own nostalgia and deep in their hearts they despise any music created after 1969. This album is not bad in the same way that some elevator songs are acceptable and even catchy. I don't care about the lyrics, the music in Smile is plain boring and no grandstanding about What a disappointment! All time highest score in Metacritic? Now I get it, Rock "critics" only give value to their own nostalgia and deep in their hearts they despise any music created after 1969. This album is not bad in the same way that some elevator songs are acceptable and even catchy. I don't care about the lyrics, the music in Smile is plain boring and no grandstanding about now genius Pet Sounds was will convince me of the contrary. Let me say it again: the music is utterly boring. It is the same annoying high pitched whining for 40 minutes. Can Rock critics talk about the music of the albums they review for once? If I wanted … Expand
  13. DanD
    Feb 13, 2010
    1
    It sounded like Brian Wilson threw mud at the wall while high on drugs through this entire album until "Good Vibrations" magically appeared. Frankly it was the only track where the mad combination of his doo-wops and strings and novelty sounds worked together. I'm sorry, but even a monkey could type the Iliad if he tried enough times.
  14. brianwilson
    Oct 2, 2004
    1
    It sucks, overrated piece of trash.
  15. harrypotter
    Oct 9, 2005
    1
    Opt for the Beach Boys originals instead. This is the sound of some demented old geezer trying to relive his glory days while equally demented old critics and musos oddly lap it all up. The emperors new clothes springs to mind. Waste of time. Complete and utter.
  16. ScottY
    Jul 9, 2005
    1
    I don't get the high ratings this one receives. The music just seems like a slightly updated version of the stuff the Beach Boys were doing in the 1960s. What's so great about this album these days?
  17. WilliamT
    Sep 23, 2005
    1
    first they told me Revenge Of The Sith had redeemed George Lucas. Heck many critics said it was even better than Star Wars. Then I hear Smile scores 97 on the metatcritic score so I goes out and buy it. "It's impossible for words to describe what is necesassary, for those who do not know what... horror...means"
  18. [Anonymous]
    Mar 6, 2006
    1
    pretty poor stuff if we're honest with ourselves
  19. NathanG
    May 6, 2006
    1
    The Emporer Has No Clothes
  20. JasonF
    Jan 10, 2007
    1
    Complicated? Yes. Good? Helllll no. One of the worst albums I've ever heard. I really wanted to like it too.
  21. ClifC.
    Jun 22, 2008
    1
    Is this a joke?! It's not because he's from The Beach Boys band and that he produces music that were good for 60's and 70's that this album deserves 97 of 100 in average of all music critics. It's a shame! This album has nothing to do in the 2000's (I really love 60's and 70's music too, but keep in mind that this album is old-fashioned and with no Is this a joke?! It's not because he's from The Beach Boys band and that he produces music that were good for 60's and 70's that this album deserves 97 of 100 in average of all music critics. It's a shame! This album has nothing to do in the 2000's (I really love 60's and 70's music too, but keep in mind that this album is old-fashioned and with no interest! It's an "already heard". No originality, N-O-T-H-I-N-G!).… Expand
  22. Keith
    Oct 28, 2005
    1
    Utter sonic drivel, bought this for a friend, feelin' a tad guilty....must think i hate em.
  23. Rev.Rikard
    Oct 5, 2005
    1
    I tried! I really did! This may be the most overrated album ever. No song touched or moved me; and it has become one of the few albums in my collections that is probably permanently shelved. Sorry Brian, but the years of sabbatical did little to make this work inspiring.
  24. PeterFrampton
    Sep 11, 2005
    1
    Sounds rather like a lost, misguided composition clobbered together by the Moody Blues, George Michael, and a drunken aardvark. The drunken aardvark is the best, too. Save your money.
  25. KenS.
    Mar 1, 2008
    1
    Were it not for "Good Vibrations", I would have given it a ZERO. What a disappointment. Pitiful.
  26. NoobyF
    Jan 22, 2006
    1
    Brian Wilson is ancient OKAY! Get it through your head. I thought the album was so thoroughly boring, as his other stuff was. So I'm one hundred percent behind you, Dan S. It's terrible.
  27. DenisL
    Mar 17, 2009
    1
    Absolutely useless.
  28. JakeM
    Nov 21, 2004
    1
    These songs are stupid and I cannot comprehend this albums critical acclaim. This guys brain is obviously fried. His songs aren't about anything at all and they all sound the same. The choruses are terrible. I HATE it. Come back Beach Boys!! How could this even be compared to Pet Sounds!!!!!!!!
  29. MackG.
    Nov 26, 2004
    1
    In the befuddled audio universe of Smile, there?s not a lot of fun fun fun to be had. The parking lot is empty, the beach is deserted, and despite what Brian Wilson tells you, the surf is definitely not up. Listening to Smile, the most famous unreleased album of all time, it?s clear that the tide is out, which would explain why the songs smell a bit like dead fish. For the uninitiated, a In the befuddled audio universe of Smile, there?s not a lot of fun fun fun to be had. The parking lot is empty, the beach is deserted, and despite what Brian Wilson tells you, the surf is definitely not up. Listening to Smile, the most famous unreleased album of all time, it?s clear that the tide is out, which would explain why the songs smell a bit like dead fish. For the uninitiated, a little history. In 1966, Brian Wilson, creative core of the Beach Boys, decided that he was going to record the greatest rock record of all time, outdoing not only the Boys? previous album and psychedelic pop cornerstone Pet Sounds, but The Beatles themselves. Brian Wilson was on a mission from god. But after 85 recording sessions and almost as many nervous breakdowns, Smile turned to Frown, and Wilson called it quits. The record was never officially released, although bootlegs have appeared over the years, and numerous songs have seeped out on other Beach Boys albums. Now, after years of referring to the incomplete creation as if it deserved the dread-filling, unspoken reverence of Lord Voldemort, Wilson?s gone off and rerecorded the whole shebang. Released last September, Smile received the kind of hyperbolic critical praise usually reserved for Sgt. Pepper and tinny British hip hop. After a few months of listening, I can conclusively say that Smile, in the words of Beavis and Butthead, sucks. Think of it this way. The Beach Boys song ?Shut Down? chronicled the street-racing antics of two high school hoodlums. Yes, they might have been burning rubber on some nameless Orange County street, but at least they were going somewhere. The biggest issue with Smile is that it goes nowhere. It sputters and coughs and makes a lot of noise, but it?s just spinning its wheels. Wilson?s songwriting is mostly to blame. There?s a pervading classical influence in the form of songs consisting of loosely glued-together snippets that Wilson called ?feels.? Rock and roll this ain?t. These ?feels? signal a basic misunderstanding of classical structure, but hey, it?s Brian Wilson ? who?s going to argue with him? This self-consciously ?innovative? compositional technique would work if all of the bits and pieces added up to a cohesive whole. But they don?t. What we get are transitions to transitions to transitions, without much variety in musical texture, until closing track ?Good Vibrations,? which is by far the most traditional number on here. The cut and paste songwriting works exactly twice on Smile, and both times it?s on songs that have already been officially released. ?Heroes and Villains? is well-crafted and works in the way that ?Bohemian Rhapsody? worked. ?Surf?s Up,? meanwhile, sounds as if it?s supposed to be some kind of grand musical statement, what with misty-eyed sighs of ?bygone, bygone? and lots of chime-sounding things. Apparently this musical statement involves inanimate objects playing chess, but that can be pardoned as the music works fairly well. In reality, it?s not too far off from ?Rose?s Turn? from Gypsy. Like I said, this isn?t rock and roll. I might be able to excuse Wilson?s frequent musical plummets down the staircase and listen to Smile as a failed experiment, but help me Rhonda, the lyrics, written by Van Dyke Parks, are unforgivable. To call them incoherent would be an insult to sufferers of Tourette?s syndrome. I?m not kidding around. The chorus of ?Surf?s Up? is ?Columnated ruins domino.? I rest my case. And I haven?t even mentioned the embarrassing rewrite of ?Good Vibrations.? I?m not saying that an artist shouldn?t be allowed to evolve. Quite the contrary. ?Pet Sounds? was 180 degrees removed from the classic Beach Boys sound, and it?s one of the best artifacts of the 60s, although it hasn?t aged especially well. What I?m saying is that an artist shouldn?t be allowed to release a musical roll of toilet paper (albeit, in this case, very fancy, possibly silken toilet paper) and get the best reviews of the year. That would do more to kill art, and more importantly, rock and roll, than Smile alone ever could. Had the record been released in the 60s, it would have been remembered as Pet Sounds? overly hyped, kitschy sister-album on which Wilson, in an attempt to create ?a teenage symphony to god,? took his self-indulgence to idiotic extremes. If that doesn?t convince you, then hear this. Which do you like better, Smile?s ?Cabin Essence? or the old time ?Surfin? Safari?? I guess you?ll always have your Smile people and your ?Fun Fun Fun? people, but let?s face it ? over-serious, over-orchestrated vanity-pop will never have the same musical impact or the same teenage truths of a song as gloriously moronic as ?Little Deuce Coupe.? That, and the people who think Smile is a modern rock cornerstone are probably the kind of folks who say that The Beatles started out as a boy band and that Jim Morrison was a great poet. In Brian Wilson?s own words, buddy, I just shut you down. … Expand
  30. engelbertcockswallower
    Oct 10, 2004
    0
    gee this suxx!! get sum papa roach doodes!!
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best Album of 2004
3
#3 Most Discussed Album of 2004
15
#15 Most Shared Album of 2004

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
97

Universal acclaim - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. Tiny Mix Tapes
    100
    Smile is quite simply the greatest triumph in the history of pop music.
    Read full review
  2. Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
    100
    Smile's post-adolescent utopia isn't disfigured by Brian's thickened, soured 62-year-old voice. It's ennobled--the material limitations of its sunny artifice and pretentious tomfoolery acknowledged and joyfully engaged.
    Read full review
  3. Los Angeles Times
    100
    "Smile" emerges as a beautiful and cohesive work, at times deeply moving, at others oddly whimsical, at still others eerily disturbing but celebratory. [27 Sep 2004]
See all critic reviews »