Shut Down Volume 2

Old low and away (February 27, 2012)

While I admit that the album is a little addled, this album is one of my early favorites. You have one of the best set of ballads penned by B. Wilson and also some of the funniest. With "Pom pom playgirl" sounding like something from the Mothers of Invention "Freak out". Two of the ballads "The warmth of the sun" and "Keep an eye on summer" are amoung his best.

The slag tracks for the most part accenuate the 8 great ones. While on "All summer long", tracks like "Do you remember?" and "Drive in" seem like rushed add on's coming off of "Wendy" and "The girls on the beach". I felt the same way about "Surfin' U.S.A." as compared to "Sufer girl"; the addlepate lets way down on the latter. While on the former the band zips up and lets loose with some instrumentals.

Bruce Beatlefan (February 23, 2008)

Three superlative Beach Boys songs ("Fun Fun Fun", "Don't Worry Baby", and "The Warmth of the Sun") and a lot of dreck. This is the clunker album out of the Beach Boy's first ten, where you can draw a steady line tracking their progress from novices (Surfin' Safari) to the top of the pop world (Pet Sounds).

The album succeeded the excellent Little Deuce Coupe album by five months, and was made under a certain amount of duress, as Capitol Records had released a multi-artist compilation of car songs called Shut Down, featuring some Beach Boys material without their consent or knowledge (hence, the name of this album).

Examining the wreckage of the nine songs, you will be able to find a few smiles amidst the many cringes: "In the Parking Lot" and "Keep an Eye on Summer" are competently written recycles. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is a strong cover of the old Frankie Lymon song. "Cassius Love vs. Sonny Liston" is a hilarious mock-battle involving some studio bloopers (they are to repeat tracks like this in their next two albums as well). "Louie Louie" is another competent cover, which only serves to demonstrate how dumb a song this really was (and if you care to know the lyrics, this is the version to listen to!). "Pom Pom Play Girl", underneath the trademark harmonies and fun sound, actually contains some uncharacteristically vicious lyrics (and some startling Freddie Cannon-esque whoops from Mike Love as the song fades). The album closes somewhat anticlimactically, with a two-minute Dennis Wilson drum solo given its own track--a true indicator of the material on this album. But even the drum solo is less embarrassing than Dennis's moment on side one, his lead vocal on one of Brian Wilson's worst songs ever, "This Car of Mine".

If you have a Beach Boys compilation containing the three super songs, there is no need to get this album, you've already got 99.9% of Shut Down Volume Two's value.