The Beach Boys
Album: Fifty Big Ones: Greatest Hits
Label: Capitol
Tracks: 50
Website: http://www.thebeachboys.com

Released to mark their 50th anniversary, there's nothing clever or particularly fancy about this two-disc, lift top box set. From the photo of a row of surfboards on the sand that appears on the front cover, to a tracklisting that pretty much picks itself (obviously it includes recent singles That's Why God Made the Radio and the reworked Isn't It Time, the first to feature all the surviving original members since 1989's Still Cruisin') this does exactly what it says on the box.

And now frontman Mike Love has decided Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks are no longer required for Beach Boys' service after their UK tour dates, you have to wonder whether there'll be any more new music from these septuagenarian surf sorts.

Inside you'll find a new essay by Rolling Stone contributor David Wild and a set of seven black and white art-print postcards of classic 1960s portraits - nothing to complain about there then.

And there's plenty to love in the music. Pop hits, studio indulgences, good times, bad times, high times, low down dirty times, it's all here. There are songs here that changed the way pop music is made, heard and consumed - Good Vibrations, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Caroline No, Heroes and Villains redefined what's possible in the realm of recorded music. But then, in their own way, so too did Surfin' USA, Little Deuce Coupe, In My Room and Help Me Rhonda. Almost routinely sophisticated, while it's true that some of it sounds arch and contrived rather than genuinely inspired, it's worth remembering that The Beach Boys lacked the cachet of The Beatles or Dylan - they just weren't very cool - and therefore arguably had to earn their plaudits even harder.

Received wisdom has it that ever since the creative highs of mid- to late-sixties they've endured a schizoid existence with Mike Love's touring parade and Brian Wilson's studio-bound explorations. Of course, it's not quite as simple as that, but so what?

Just for now, for these 50 tracks at least, it's fun fun fun, 'til Mike Love takes the Beach Boys away.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk