Concept: Several songs dedicated to one of the Elizabeth islands in Massachussets.
Sound: Old-school choral and crooner harmonies with hip drumming and keyboards. The guitarwork switches off between bold acoustic riffing and glassy electric doublepicking binges. The first two thirds of the album are very, very impressive: absorbing bittersweet hookfests that remind you why the Beach Boys were such a big deal anyway. The last third, however, betrays a formula. The music seems choppy when there’s less melodic meat on all the motion and change in their structures, like they couldn’t decide what kind of song to write, and the magic exits stage left somewhere along the way.
Lyrics: Not gonna lie, the lyrics are lame. The music will make you think you like what they’re saying, since it all reaches the same Disneyfied sparkle and tension, but the pretty words they spout don’t cooperate with each other at all, and are vague to the point of laziness.
Quick And Dirty: Its first onslaught of tracks makes it more than worth the purchase, but this disc holds great songs, not a great album. Still, the kids are gonna love this. (♦♦♦♦½)