Historically, I have ignored most of the Beach Boys’ pre-Pet Sounds output, regarding it as juvenile and cheap pop. However, the Endless Summer compilation I recently picked up has opened my eyes a little to the genius in potentia resting in the group (read: Brian Wilson).
Today! is the first of two records (with some overlapping tracks…the record studios didn’t really understand albums as a single work yet, but neither did anyone, really) that would precede Pet Sounds’ giant leap, but hints of Wilson’s opus are littered all over. His love of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production was already in full swing, but Rubber Soul had yet to light a fire under him. What Today! offers then is a collection of tracks that are similar to their early singles in composition but with the same immaculate production and orchestration as Pet Sounds. And it works.
And obviously, the songs are great. Help Me Rhonda is obviously the standout, but only by virtue of its popularity. There’s a boundless youthfulness to Side A tracks like Do You Wanna Dance and When I Grow Up. Side B is filled with some of the most beautiful ballads Brian ever wrote, offering some of the most overlooked gems in the Beach Boys’ catalogue. Please Let Me Wonder with its mid-tempo rock shuffle and lush, melancholy harmonies. I’m So Young is a proto-Wouldn’t It Be Nice, meditating on wishing he was old enough to marry his girlfriend (which…wasn’t he married at this point? Yes, he was). She Knows Me comes to grips with his shortcomings and transgressions as a lover and his abused paramour’s unwarranted patience with him, all with a melody that echoes I Get Around. It’s certainly heavier fare than Fun Fun Fun and Surfing Safari, showcasing the musical and emotional turmoil bubbling beneath Wilson’s surface that would erupt the following year.
It ends with a few minutes of goofball chatter, where one of them says, “Brian, we’re still waiting for you to make a mistake,” which becomes bittersweet considering the breakdown he would suffer recording SMiLE two years later. But here, his genius isn’t tortured yet.