Surfin’ USA – THE BEACH BOYS***

Surfin’ USA/Farmer’s Daughter/Misirlou/Stoked/Lonely Sea/Shut Down/Noble Surfer/Honky Tonk/Lana/Surf Jam/Let’s Go Trippin’/Finders Keepers

The Beach Boys follow up album Surfin' USA was a significant improvement on the group's first effort, and displays the first evidence of Brian Wilson's burgeoning songwriting skills. (US:2)

“Better than the debut. There are way more instrumentals here, but these songs just have a bit more depth than they did before and the harmonies are more developed. It's still not very good although there are a few highlights present. Misirlou is a surf rock must, I think every surf group recorded it. Their version isn't definitive but it's pretty good. Lonely Sea just might be Brian Wilson's first ballad and it's the highlight here.”

"This is quite an improvement from their previous shallow release, and what makes this better are the surf rock instrumentals. But this still doesn't mean that Surfin' USA can be taken seriously.”

“Surfin' USA is far from a perfect album, but it does have them going as far as they could go as primarily a surf rock band, with a myriad of surf instrumentals and a trademark smash hit of their own. The instrumentals make the flow somewhat uneven and the second side is admittedly weak, but the fuller production and vocals make this album a good step up from the slighter debut.”

“One interesting aspect of Surfin’ USA was the inclusion of five instrumental songs. Most surf groups at the time were basically instrumental artists. The Beach Boys took that California surf sound and built their vocals on top.”

"The album is really inconsistent, with just a few indicators of their genius for singing and crafting melodies. As you would expect, the singles are the best songs here."

"Surfin' USA both ensured the band's national appeal and testified to the rapid development of their harmonies on cuts such as Farmer's Daughter and Lana."

"Brian Wilson was learning fast, and though he was far from the peak of his abilities here, you could tell he was evolving quickly. This is a very fun record, with some very good material and nothing that is truly bad."