The Beach Boys - The Lonely Return (2018)

CLASSIC BROADCAST RECORDINGS FROM 1967 1967 was a difficult year for The Beach Boys. The Smile sessions were not released as an album for a variety of reasons, and although some cuts were re-recorded and, along with the single version of Good Vibrations , released on the September 1967 album Smiley Smile - which despite eliciting positive critical and commercial responses abroad, was the first real commercial failure for the group in the US. The problems the band were experiencing at this time were largely due to the ill-health and drug problems of main composer Brian, who, despite never again reverting to his pre-66 levels of potency, would continue to write many quite superb songs, as indeed would other members of The Beach Boys. And while shows the group played in the latter months of 1967 were not exactly replete with new material, Wild Honey and the aforementioned Smiley Smile both provided numbers which were performed at this time and were received with enthusiasm. This CD, the perfect partner to the recent Sunshine Tomorrow compilation, featuring as it does a plethora of broadcast recordings from November 1967 (none of which replicate the tracks on the aforementioned collection) goes some way to illustrating that even during their toughest era, The Beach Boys remained a dynamic live attraction.