Angel Beach

Goodbye surfing, hello God! The title of Jules Siegel's 1967 magazine feature on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys sums up how well the group was outliving the early-'60s beach fad – and revolutionizing pop music in the process. During 1966, the twin shots of Pet Sounds in May and "Good Vibrations" in October announced first that the group had entered the vanguard of pop music and then, not content with mere critical praise, seized control of the singles charts with a chart-topper as catchy as it was complex and costly to record. Early on, though, "Good Vibrations" had actually been slated to appear on Pet Sounds, which reveals the long odds on whether Wilson could ever finish an entire album of his pocket symphonies (at least, in the time frame of a label circa 1966)…

Goodbye surfing, hello God! The title of Jules Siegel's 1967 magazine feature on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys sums up how well the group was outliving the early-'60s beach fad – and revolutionizing pop music in the process. During 1966, the twin shots of Pet Sounds in May and "Good Vibrations" in October announced first that the group had entered the vanguard of pop music and then, not content with mere critical praise, seized control of the singles charts with a chart-topper as catchy as it was complex and costly to record. Early on, though, "Good Vibrations" had actually been slated to appear on Pet Sounds, which reveals the long odds on whether Wilson could ever finish an entire album of his pocket symphonies (at least, in the time frame of a label circa 1966)…

Digitally remastered and expanded deluxe two CD edition of fifth album by the Norwegian trio. The second CD includes demos and live tracks. The album was recorded primarily at Prince's Paisley Park studios outside Minneapolis in the U.S. Featured among the tracks is "Angel in the Snow", a song Paul wrote for his bride, Lauren Savoy, as a wedding gift, and the eight-minute epic "Cold as Stone". Memorial Beach featured three more top 50 singles for the band in the UK, "Move to Memphis", "Dark is the Night" and "Angel in the Snow". While the album did not chart on the Billboard 200 and would be the band's last to be released in the U.S., the single "Dark Is the Night" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

Télépopmusik's sophomore effort is filled with beautiful backing tracks. Pillows of soft synth slowly emerge while pianos, harps, brass instruments, electronic ticks, and glitches stroll in and out of the picture as they please. This subdued electronica landscape is something to get lost in, and while it's nothing you haven't heard before, it's exactly what headphones crave on rainy days and almost enough to excuse the hackneyed lyrics and overindulgence.

Memorial Beach is the fifth album by the Norwegian band A-ha, released in 1993. The album was recorded primarily at Prince's Paisley Park studios outside Minneapolis in the U.S. Memorial Beach featured three UK Top 50 singles for the band, "Move to Memphis" (released as a single in 1991, almost two years before the album), "Dark is the Night" and "Angel in the Snow". While the album did not chart on the U.S. Billboard 200 and would be the band's last to be released there, the single "Dark Is the Night" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, their last U.S. charting to date. Q magazine listed the album as one of the 50 best albums of 1993: "If ever a band deserved reappraisal on the back of an album then it was a-ha!"