The Beach Boys occupy a pretty important niche within the lexicon of American pop music. For the majority of the band’s career they cranked out campy lively surf rock anthems which captured the essence of the early 1960s Southern California surf culture, celebrating the carefree spirit of beach life and surfing. It’s basically the audio accompaniment of the 2023 Barbie movie with Ryan Gosling starring as Ken (“My job… it’s just beach”) and while those infectious melodies and jangly guitars can be somewhat grating on the ears now, they formed a blend that become the signature sound of the band and that era of early rock music.
Surfin’ Safari was the band’s debut album and features all the things that would send The Beach Boys into commercial juggernauts. It would be a few years later until they would deliver a true timeless album like with 1966’s Pet Sounds, or go off on their separate solo careers and give us a cult classic like Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue, but this is the album that kicked off that sun-soaked pop song format they would be forever known for.
Standout Songs: “Surfin’ Safari”, “409”, “Heads You Win, Tails I Lose”
