Here goes:

Crazy guy

Everybody knows that Trent Reznor is one crazy guy, right? Thus it is no surprise that the Nine Inch Nails mastermind's magnum opus chronicles a perturbed man's fall from some sort of grace to the point of suicide. Conceptually, the idea was not anything particularly new... depression and death had been popular themes in music since god-knows-when, maybe beginning with Hank Williams' classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" or even earlier perhaps. What was so genius about this album, intentionally or otherwise, was that it was released at exactly the point when music like it could sell the most records.


In April of 1994, Kurt Cobain blew up his head with a shotgun, and a lot of depressed teenagers became a lot more depressed. However much it pains me to say this, Cobain had become some sort of unwilling poster child of "generation X", whatever that means, and his death carried a lot of weight, even more than his life did for most of those people. Well it just so happens that the very next month, Nothing Records dropped "The Downward Spiral", and hundreds of thousands of those very same people who so mourned Kurt Cobain's death rushed to buy it. It was absolutely perfect timing. The actual quality of the album is irrelevant. It just worked that well.

And that's just pretty interesting.

The link didn't go through. But this album is amazing. And so is the timing, I suppose.

For the picture? Yes it did, it works on my end.

The album itself I think is pretty good... better conceptually than it was executed. I like the overall feel though, and it's cliche but Hurt is such a song.

Not the picture, the video. But now it works, apparently.

Weird.

Nice homage to Francis Bacon. That's what I love about NIN, we feel it's Art. Usually, in music, visuals aren't really worked on, and vice versa. With NIN it's a complete work of art, it's nice.

Moving on.


Is it too much to say that this could have been the best album ever? Depends on who you ask. One can view this album in two distinct ways, so let's look at both. Looking at Smiley Smile in historical context, it is easy to hate it for being the "SMiLE" that never was... that is, Brian Wilson's magnum opus never to be released until 2004... nearly forty years after it was conceived. It is so easy to dismiss this album as studio dickery... citing things like the sped up tape in She's Going Bald as totally useless. It's even easier still to say that had the Beach Boys put less effort into experimentation and more effort into creating the perfect pop album that everyone knew "SMiLE" was going to be, it would have been released on time and crowned the greatest album ever. By the time the Beach Boys got around to releasing Smiley Smile, "SMiLE's" replacement, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had already been out for a few months, and had effectively taken the place that Brian Wilson sought to claim with "SMiLE". Had he given up hope? Had he cared so much about this that his last ditch effort was to release THIS? This under-produced, overly experimental, effectively unedited piece of ****? THIS wasn't the album that was going to come back and win the popular music war for America!

But is it that bad? Of course not. Viewed out of context, as just another album, Smiley Smile is nearly perfect. Yes, the production is awful. Someone was too lazy to edit out everybody laughing at the beginning of Little Pad. Someone else, probably Brian, says "good!" after they hit a good harmony on With Me Tonight. The drums everywhere sound absolutely terrible. But we don't criticize Bob Dylan for having crappy vocals (He does), because he writes great songs, just as we don't criticize Daft Punk for auto-tuning the hell out of singer Romanthony's voice on One More Time, yet as soon as we hear T Pain's voice raped by the same software on the radio we whine and complain to no end. It's justified, that's all. But even looking at this objectively it's not the best album ever. Even with better production it would probably only graze my top 100, far behind the 2004 SMiLE, which despite taking forty years, definitely paid off. Still, it's a great album. The Beach Boys harmonies are better on Heroes and Villains than anything ever, no kidding. I try not to view this album or the 2004 SMiLE in historical context, because while the production on the latter is top notch, Brian's voice isn't what it used to be. A mix of the two albums simply would be the best album ever, if that makes sense, but again, it's not really right to think like that.

So it goes. Since its release in 1967, despite initial confusion and critical negativity, Smiley Smile has risen to some sort of a cult album. I would recommend listening to this, but don't go in expecting what you've heard said of SMiLE.

Seems we agree on the same 'best Beach Boys' album and the same 'best Beatles' album. Nice review, keep it up.

Haven't heard Smiley Smile in an awfully long time, so I can't remember that much of it. I do remember Surf's Up being just about the coolest thing ever. As for the 2004 version of SMiLe, I loaned it out of a library soon after it came out but never really properly listened to it and kinda forgot about it since. I do love me some Beach Boys though, so I should probably give it a good go sometime soon, if it's anywhere near as good as I've heard it is.

I've got a feeling that I've got a NIN CD somewhere that's been gathering dust for a few years as well. Might be Downward Spiral, not too sure. Same kinda story - I burned it off a mate many years ago and never gave it a proper chance.

So, yeah, thanks for the reminders :D Great thread too - I like your style.

:love:

Oh Bulldog!

I agree about the vocals on Heroes & Villains - marvelous work.