"Feel Flows" The Sunflower & Surfs Up Sessions 1969-1971

This is real treasure trove for Beach Boys fans. It's tempting to give this album five stars, but to be honest, not EVERYTHING here is great. There are a few mediocre songs that were unreleased for good reasons. But it's still nice to have the lesser material, for completeness sake.

Having purchased and loving The SMiLE Sessions when it was released, I'm going to commit heresy by saying "Feel Flows" is even better, and worth every penny. There's a good reason why fans of the Beach Boys (present company included) have been clamoring for a box set of the 1970/1971 sessions for years--they were never more inspired, creative and productive at any time in their career. By "they", I mean the entire group--EVERYONE composed, sang, and produced songs during this period (Dennis Wilson had enough material to put out an album of his own!) and almost all of them are excellent if not outstanding. The five disc set only tells part of the story; beside the releases of "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up", there were at a minimum two additional albums ("Add Some Music" and "Reverberation") that were compiled but not released at the time, each including finished tracks never legitimately released previously. Now you can compile your own versions! A number of live performances in this set also demonstrate that the group could, indeed perform some fairly complicated songs (e.g. "Surf's Up") outside of the studio in front of an audience and sound great. Big difference from their 1965 concert album. The remastering sounds superb--I heard certain details in the original albums that had never been obvious before either on vinyl or on multiple, previous CD releases. Another nice feature is the hard cover book including the five discs; a lot of information, rare photographs, track information, but packaged economically (about 1/2 inch thick) allowing for easy transport of both music and information. They did it right, and I hope that it not only satisfies the current fans, but attracts a few more.

This is an insightful pack, Amazon Uk advised they would not have this so ordered in from the USA. But it’s truly about the usual high quality music that comes from the band and it’s production team. Clearly Mike Love was not involved as it’s well thought out and of very high quality to read and listen too.As always with these box style sets were told tracks have never been released before but some have shown up as maybe a similar variant clone of the same track. But don’t get me wrong if like me your a fan of the sound, the Wilson’s work, Bruce Johnson’s and Al Jardines creations then is go to for fresh sounds on old known tracks. Of the afore mentioned band member I’ve never been a fan of the closed nasal sound he emits so this just makes the music itself stand out above the vocals.Brian Wilson is key to all of this as without his production that band would have disappeared still playing the much loved surf music, we all know that Brian and Dennis kicked the band into the start of the new decade of the 70s with sound production of an advanced style also pre emptying mans destruction of nature. Go buy and chill to something great.

Phenomenal.

The Beach Boys had fallen down in the charts in the late 60's. The albums in the "Feel Flows" set was the Beach Boys trying to make a comeback. As far as singles were concerned they did not make it, but the albums were two of their most acclaimed of their career. There are also several alternate versions in the book (they used a book for pictures and to store the CDs. This is not hard rock nor is it AOR. But it is well performed pop and has great harmonies (for the most part). The sound seems good to me, unlike most of their earlier releases which were in mono "Feel Flows" was in stereo. The set has a disc each for Sunflower and Surf's Up, and 3 discs for outtakes and unreleased versions. Most of the items on the 3 disc portion of the set have not been released. A good set if you like harmony.

Speaking as a long-time fan of both of the albums explored here, I can tell you that these 5 discs are STUFFED with tracks that reveal aspects that I never considered before. I thought I might be skipping through the 'sessions' discs, which feature backing tracks in various stages of completion, but man, these are interesting recordings. The a cappella tracks are, of course, just breathtaking. The out-takes and alternate takes are high quality, plenty worth hearing. And those who doubt the Beach Boys as a live unit would be taken aback at the great performances included here.I assumed I would listen to this set over the course of several days, a little at a time. But it's all I've been listening to since I got it yesterday. An absolutely wonderful, perfectly compiled labor of love. Now then, let's get going on a special edition of Holland.

There are some definite pros and cons here: on the plus side, it’s a physical release. I don’t necessarily have a problem with the digital only releases, but they’re usually available for only a short time… I’ve missed out on some of them before I even knew they existed.This collection rounds up a lot of stray tracks and curios that were previously only accessible through bootlegs. The completist in me wants even the most unworthy completed master - not that there are many of those here. And, as usual with the BBs, the backing track and vocals only selections reveal some fascinating hidden details.On the downside, does anyone who would want this really need yet another version of either of these albums? That didn’t stop me, it shouldn’t stop you either.

The five-disc set covers just about everything related to these two albums, from the original albums to alternate tracks, outtakes and song fragments (which are great as an insight to their creative process) and live tracks (which I can mostly do without). It is great also to have a few unissued tracks from these sessions, and though some of them were on prior issues, they seem to have been remastered or cleaned up on this set. For their most dedicated fans only. Others can get the remastered albums and the bonus tracks on the double set and save a lot of bucks. Judging by the track list, I would have rated that one five stars.

Fantastic remastered collection of songs from a great band. Heaps of interesting rarities not heard elsewhere.

Great value and wonderful music.

Great quality poduct at a reasonable price!

A sublime deep dive into one of the most interesting periods for The Beach Boys.And what really shines through is the blossoming talent of Wilson brothers Carl and Dennis. This set is almost worth having for the Dennis Wilson compositions alone.However, Sunflower and Surfs Up are possibly the best examples of the group flourishing as a team as Brian takes a back seat. Some of their best work ever is here with some of the session material being truly breathtaking!If I had to be critical I would say that some of the track sequencing seems a little odd, even random, to me. Additionally, not all the tracks are gems. While 'When Girls Get Together' is certainly a Sunflower era Love/B. Wilson track, it's easy to see why it is missing from the original album. Its presence here is essential for completeness, but it really does jarr against the brilliance of the other material. I could easily have done without it to make room for something else.Still, overall 5 Stars for an insight into how musically The Beach Boys became men.

Dieses grandiose Deluxe Set umfasst die Alben Sunflower und Surf‘s Up und ergänzt diese um eine Fülle von bisher unveröffentlichten Aufnahmen aus dieser Phase. Das Material ist hervorragend, in die Vielfalt der Songs, Outtakes, Demos, Liveversionen ist eine wahre Freude! Das Hardcoverbuch, das viele Seiten mit Informationen sowie die fünf CDs umhüllt, ist liebevoll und wertig gestaltet, das eigens für Feel Flows gestaltete Cover ist wunderschön anzuschauen. Die Beach Boys mit Feel Flows zu erleben ist ein faszinierendes Hörerlebnis! Absolute Kaufempfehlung!