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The Beach Boys: That’s Why God Made The Radio

EMI

The song titles are right out of The Beach Boys’ ‘60s catalog: “Beaches In Mind,” “Spring Vacation,” “Daybreak over the Ocean.” The production is right out of the ‘70s/‘80s: a little too slick and polished. But the voices are unmistakably theirs, the sunny sentiments are familiar and when it comes right down to it, no one else could have made this record. Timed to coincide with the Californians’ 50th anniversary tour, and previewed with a single of the schmaltzy title track, That’s Why God Made the Radio won’t replace definitive works like Pet Sounds or Surf’s Up but it’s not the disaster that it could have been either. As in the recent tour, each of the core members—Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks—contributes to the whole substantially, while none dominates. Wilson, especially, could have phoned it in and saved his good stuff for his solo recordings, but he rises to the occasion and makes new Beach Boys music that’s worthy of the legacy. Undeniably some tracks are toss-aways, but a couple of experimental tunes at the end—“Pacific Coast Highway” and “Summer’s Gone”—and the quirky “The Private Life of Bill and Sue” suggest that there was at least some willingness in the studio to deliver more than what people expected of them.