The Beach Boys, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) (side A)

Beach Boys albums before Pet Sounds tend to be critically dismissed, mostly accurately, for their lightheartedness and inconsistencies.  Today! and Summer Days, which were the transitional records to Pet Sounds, sometimes get lost in the shuffle.  Even at its lightest moments, 1965's Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) features great craftsmanship and an interesting self-awareness.  Highlights range from the obvious ("California Girls", with its majestic intro) to the obscure (Brian Wilson's impressive falsetto on "Let Him Run Wild").  The record also has odd moments: the instrumental "Summer Means New Love" and the fairly ironic lyrical turns of "Salt Lake City".  The lighthearted sailing cover image de-emphasizes the album's mature aspects.  The sound quality, especially in the vocals, is impressively rich and warm, but my copy loses high and low frequencies.