Surf Girl

Sonic Surf City is a Swedish bubblegum surf punk band, formed in 1988. With a fun-is-first attitude and their influences on their sleeve (most notably 60's vocal surf, bubblegum and the Ramones), SSC neverthless succeded in writing enthusiastic, infectious music that today sounds as fresh as when it was released. This is their fourth full-length album that has been released after band's ressurection in 2009.

California may be the largest state in the Union, but it's only one state nuzzling one ocean, with only so many people living near the coastline, and a small minority of them have attempted to navigate waves on a board, much less possess the fetching physique to do so in public. Obviously, then, surf music isn't for surfers. If it were, Rhino would put out a greatest-hits EP instead of a four-disc box set. Cowabunga! is all the permanent-wave stuff most people will ever need.

This is a totally traditional surf instrumental cd. If you like trad-surf, this is a must for your collection. There's not a dud tune on the whole disc. Nineteen songs, all original, all cool, all instrumental…what more could you want? ~ R.Davey

The Beach Boys' third and fifth albums make a good pairing on one CD, different as they are in content and origins. Surfer Girl was the album on which the group's and Brian Wilson's sound blossomed, and it did so on several levels. The title track was the first song that Brian ever wrote, and it's lucky that he saved it for this stage in their history, for it features surprising elegant and lush harmonies. The usual assumption is that, because of Wilson's hearing loss in one ear, the group's records work best in mono, but on this, their second album in stereo, the mixing makes inventive use of the two-channel separation, even on "Surfer Girl" (which, as a single in those days, would have been conceived in mono from the get-go).