Summer in Paradise by The Beach Boys

Pros: Some great surf ballads and harmonies
Cons: A number of the songs are contrived or suffer from weak material

This 1993 release finds the Beach Boys still chasing the sounds of summer and surf some thirty years after “Surfing USA” hit the charts. Brian Wilson is noticeably missing but there is still evidence of the classic rock harmonies that made the Beach...

Pros: Beautiful album packaging, including a mini-poster.
Cons: The horror. The HORROR. I mean, the "MUSIC."

The Beach Boys -- by the 1990s, that term became synonymous with sinister lead singer Mike Love -- must have decided to capitalize on the success of their 1988 smash "Kokomo" by releasing this schlock.

What makes me so sure? Almost every song...

Pros: A light, poppy, happy time.
Cons: Kind of sad that the Beach Boys have sunk so low.

At a 1992 concert in Bayfront Park, Mike Love said that the Beach Boys were releasing a new album soon, joking that it was something they tried to do every decade or so. To me, it made perfect sense: they were a band, and they released albums. Who knew...