It wasn't just the most eagerly awaited album by the Beach Boys, but the LP that was going to revolutionise pop music, full stop. Forget the Beatles' symphonic Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, back in 1967 the hype surrounding Smile was astonishing.
And no wonder: the song that was its starting point was no less than the peerless Good Vibrations. But such expectations weighed heavily on Wilson's shoulders. With his mental health spectacularly deteriorating and his bandmates unconvinced by the experimental style of the record – Wilson was working with the lyricist Van Dyke Parks on a continuous suite of songs – the entire project was shelved. Although Wilson's cousin in the band, Mike Love, called it "a whole album of Brian's madness", tracks such as Heroes and Villains and Surf's Up would, in the end, find their way on to subsequent records, and bootlegs of the demos became collectors' items. But the original album has never been heard in full – not least because Wilson has intermittently claimed that he burnt the master tapes. As we found out late last week, he was lying.
On Friday, EMI's spokesman Bill Gagnon confirmed something of an open secret: the Beach Boys are releasing Smile… 44 years late. "It's coming out," he said. "Everybody is on board."
Which, since the various members of the band have paid regular trips to the courtroom over the years, bickering over the use of the Beach Boys name and the authorship of the songs, is something of an achievement in itself. And so, later this year, the original versions will finally be released, in the order in which they were supposed to be heard, as The Smile Sessions. Apparently, there are gaps where vocal parts should be, but the co-producer Mark Linett promised: "The whole piece will be as close to as it was envisioned as possible."
Beach Boys completists may not actually find much new here beyond the usual 60-page booklet, lavish packaging and multitude of out-takes – de rigueur for such releases these days. But for everyone else, it's a great chance to hear Smile as originally intended.
Of course, any keen-eyed Beach Boys fan will know that this isn't the first opportunity to hear a version of Smile in its entirety. In 2004, Wilson and his touring backing band went into the studio and completely re-recorded the album, calling it Brian Wilson presents Smile to pre-empt any complaint from Love – although it still didn't prevent him from launching an ultimately unsuccessful legal challenge.
The album was a qualified success, every harmony and orchestral arrangement painstakingly recreated, but there was something faintly ridiculous about a fragile, 62-year-old man trying to improve on the pop music perfection of Good Vibrations. However, it did throw some light on what an important album Smile would have been in 1967. Its elaborate predecessor Pet Sounds – complete with Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows – is rightly regarded as one of the most influential albums in the rock music canon.
Wilson intended to build on that, crafting songs that were either beautiful in their quiet simplicity (the contemplative Surf's Up was originally intended to be the centrepiece of Smile) or quite startling in their inventiveness. In 2011, Heroes and Villains still seems as fresh and dizzyingly complex as it did four decades ago. It will be fascinating to hear it in the proper context of an album that Wilson and Parks intended to present as a musical journey across America's history.
In the end, such ambition was too much both for Wilson – who wrote most of these songs at a piano set in a sandbox to “recreate the feel of the ocean” – and for the other Beach Boys, who resented the input of Parks.
And, of course, we'll never know exactly how Smile would have sounded. Much as this is a fascinating insight into Wilson's creativity, the album was never finished to everyone's satisfaction. The Smile Sessions will simply be a document of how it was shaping up at the point where Wilson decided enough was enough.
As for Wilson, he’s “looking forward to this collection of the original recordings and having fans hear the beautiful angelic voices of the boys in a proper studio release”. Proof that he’s as much a fan, four decades on, as anyone.
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
Company%20profile
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
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The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre V6
Power: 295hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 355Nm at 5,200rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
Price: Dh179,999-plus
On sale: now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20Profile
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The biog
Name: Sarah Al Senaani
Age: 35
Martial status: Married with three children - aged 8, 6 and 2
Education: Masters of arts in cultural communication and tourism
Favourite movie: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Favourite hobbies: Art and horseback ridding
Occupation: Communication specialist at a government agency and the owner of Atelier
Favourite cuisine: Definitely Emirati - harees is my favourite dish
Scoreline
Saudi Arabia 1-0 Japan
Saudi Arabia Al Muwallad 63’
Pakistan T20 series squad
Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shahzad, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammed Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Amir Yamin, Mohammed Amir (subject to fitness clearance), Rumman Raees, Usman Shinwari, Umar Amin
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Results
Final: Iran beat Spain 6-3.
Play-off 3rd: UAE beat Russia 2-1 (in extra time).
Play-off 5th: Japan beat Egypt 7-2.
Play-off 7th: Italy beat Mexico 3-2.
RESULTS
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
7.05pm: Meydan Sprint – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (Turf) 1,000m
Winner: Equilateral, Andrea Atzeni, Charles Hills
7.40pm: Curlin Stakes – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (D) 2,200m
Winner: New Trails, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash
8.15pm: UAE Oaks – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Mnasek, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.50pm: Zabeel Mile – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: D’bai, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Summer Romance, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
10pm: Al Shindagha Sprint – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Al Tariq, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
Griselda
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
