The Beach Boys - Surfer Girl + Shut Down Volume 2 (HDCD, Upgrade 2001)

SURFER GIRL was the first Beach Boys album to credit Brian Wilson as producer, and it propelled the band away from their simple surf band origins into the realm of classic pop. The opening, "Surfer Girl", remains a transcendent moment in '60s pop, while the stunningly beautiful "In My Room" is an obvious forerunner to the later classic song cycle of PET SOUNDS. It's an anomaly here, however; the majority of the album hews pretty close to the Beach Boys' surfer roots, albeit with more sophisticated arrangements and more confident performances than their previous efforts. SHUT DOWN VOLUME 2 contains at least three classics: the breezy "Fun Fun Fun", the achingly pretty "Don't Worry Baby" and "The Warmth of the Sun", which was penned the day after the Kennedy assassination, and which, though it's ostensibly a love ballad, has a strong sense of loss, sadness, and resolve. This set also contains an alternate version of "Fun, Fun, Fun" and, improbably, a German version of "In My Room" that definitively answers the question: "Why are there no German surf bands?".

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The Beach Boys' third and fifth albums make a good pairing on one CD, different as they are in content and origins. Surfer Girl was the album on which the group's and Brian Wilson's sound blossomed, and it did so on several levels. The title track was the first song that Brian ever wrote, and it's lucky that he saved it for this stage in their history, for it features surprising elegant and lush harmonies. The usual assumption is that, because of Wilson's hearing loss in one ear, the group's records work best in mono, but on this, their second album in stereo, the mixing makes inventive use of the two-channel separation, even on "Surfer Girl" (which, as a single in those days, would have been conceived in mono from the get-go). The voices mix in a more subtle and complex fashion than ever before, and the range of instruments used by the group (who were still playing on their own records at this point) includes Hammond organ, as well as some light orchestral embellishment. The songwriting also shows advancement, including "Your Summer Dream", another ethereal ballad by Wilson (featuring his double-tracked lead vocal) that was the distant predecessor to pieces like "The Nearest Faraway Place"; even the seeming throwaway numbers like "Boogie Woodie", a piano-driven instrumental, were above average on the original LP and hold lots of interest here. Shut Down, Vol. 2 was the group's second album built around car songs and the material shows a surprising range of sounds and textures. The requisite rock & roll songs are present, displaying gorgeous harmonies — the hit "Fun, Fun, Fun" and fine album tracks like "In the Parkin' Lot" — but so are elegant ballads like "Don't Worry Baby" and "The Warmth of the Sun"; in between are some humorous musical digressions, and two very fine covers, "Louie, Louie" and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". The bonus cuts, rounding out the CD, are the punchier single mix of "Fun, Fun, Fun," the German-language rendition of "In My Room", and one previously lost cut, "I Do", which shows Brian moving in the direction of Phil Spector's grander productions... ~ Bruce Eder, all media guide

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Tracklist:

01. Surfer Girl
02. Catch A Wave
03. The Surfer Moon
04. South Bay Surfer
05. The Rocking Surfer
06. Little Deuce Coupe
07. In My Room
08. Hawaii
09. Surfer's Rule
10. Our Car Club
11. Your Summer Dream
12. Boogie Woodie
13. Fun, Fun, Fun
14. Don't Worry Baby
15. In The Parkin' Lot
16. 'Cassius' Love Vs. 'Sonny' Wilson
17. The Warmth of the Sun
18. This Car of Mine
19. Why Do Fools Fall In Love
20. Pom Pom Play Girl
21. Keep An Eye On Summer
22. Shut Down, Part II
23. Louie Louie
24. Denny's Drums
25. Fun, Fun, Fun [Mono, Single version, Bonus track]
26. In My Room [Bonus track, German version]
27. I Do [Bonus track]

Reissue produced & coordinated by Mark Linett
Originally Recorded at Western Studios & RCA Studios, Hollywood, CA between June 12, 1963 & February 20, 1964
Digitally Remastered by Joe Gastwirt at Oceanview Digital Mastering, Los Angeles, CA (2000)

Original Release Date: September 1963 | March 1964
Re-Release Date: March 13, 2001 (1990)
Format: Digitally remastered using HDCD technology
Label: Capitol Records
Catalog No.: 31515-2