Review of Beach Boys, The: Nashville Sounds

Introduction

It was probably as much of a surprise to the Beach Boys to discover that their sound appealed to Country and Western aficionadoes. Nashville Sounds is the result of the band`s collaboration with some of the great names of Country and Western including Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette and Junior Brown.

Made in 1996, this filmed documentary follows the making of the Beach Boys` Nashville Sounds album, and includes the studio performances of the band and their guests. There are interviews with all of the participants, and each guest`s song can be accessed individually - although curiously the disc has been authored in such a way that navigation using the "skip" function is locked out when playing the disc this way.

Video

Presented in 1.33:1, the picture is slightly grainy (indicating that it may have been shot on 16mm). The grain of the image could have been a problem for compressing the movie, but happily there are no digital artefacts to cause any picture problems.

Audio

The sound has been mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1, which makes for a wonderfully presence-y reproduction. There are no whiz-bang effects for the back speakers, instead they balance the sound from the front speakers and pull the music forwards into the room from the screen. The sound is rich and full, and honestly the band has never sounded better.

Features

There are no extras apart from a commentary track and a "review" by Silvie Simmons a journalist in a terrible hat. There are no subtitles.

Conclusion

For fans of the Beach Boys this is a must-buy. For anybody else, the music of the Beach Boys is cheery, summery stuff (not what you associate with Country and Western which many people associate with death and depression). The mix of the Beach Boy sound and Country singers is refreshingly different and could be your introduction to another genre of music.