Beach

Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969–1971 is a compilation album and box set recorded by the American rock band the Beach Boys and released by Capitol/UME on August 27, 2021. It is largely dedicated to material that the group recorded during the making of the albums Sunflower (1970) and Surf's Up (1971). Produced by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, it is the band's first major archival release since Wake the World and I Can Hear Music in 2018, and the first issued on physical media since Sunshine Tomorrow in 2017. The title is taken from the Surf's Up track "Feel Flows". The compilation was released in four different formats: a five-CD box set, a two-CD set, a double vinyl set, and a quadruple vinyl set.

Emma Kirkby, doyenne of the Early Music scene, here shows that she's just as comfortable in music of a more recent vintage. Amy Beach was a woman ahead of her time, performing as solo pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the age of 18. The same year (1885), she married Henry Beach and, no longer able to perform publicly (it would have gone against her social status), she instead settled down to composing. And delightful stuff it is, too, as Kirkby and friends demonstrate in this charming recital. A number of the songs add violin, cello, or both to the piano and voice combination. "Ecstasy," for instance, has a most effective violin part that is an ideal foil to the purity of Kirkby's voice. Other highlights include the Schumannesque Browning Songs and the amiable Shakespeare Songs (the last of which, "Fairy Lullaby," is irresistible). The final item here, "Elle et moi," is an upbeat little number that suits Kirkby's lithe soprano to perfection. Occasionally, in some of the more lushly textured songs, such as "A Mirage" and "Stella Viatoris," perhaps a fuller voice would have been preferable, but then sample "Chanson d'amour" (written when Beach was only 21 and with a wonderful cello part in addition to the piano) and try to imagine it being better sung. The purely instrumental items are played with unfailing sensitivity and elegance. The Romance is straight out of the salon, while the much later Piano Trio (though actually based on early material) packs plenty of emotion and variety into its 14 minutes. The recording is exemplary, as are the concise notes and texts and translations.

Hits Of The Beach Boys is the compilation album released in 2002 by EMI Records. The collection featuring 10 big hits 1963-1966 by the US legends The Beach Boys.