"Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learnin' how..."

Hello, Callisto here! As you may know, I'm a HUGE Beach Boys fan. This is the first in a long series, in which I'll cover every single Beach Boys studio album, from this one, 1962's Surfin' Safari, to 2012's That's Why God Made The Radio.

History:

Surfin' Safari was released in 1962, to capitalize on the success of the title track. The originals were all written by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Gary Usher, and fellow Beach Boys and cousin of Brian, Mike Love.

General overview:

This album was very much a rush job made by a bunch of teenagers. The songs are amateurish, bizarre, novelty songs for the most part. It's very weird and rather poor, but that's understandable. After all, this was a rush job.

Track-by-track breakdown:

Surfin' Safari - A fun song, but nothing really special. 3/5

County Fair - A fairly enjoyable song, ruined by strange voice overs. 2.5/5

Ten Little Indians - Yes, this is on the album, and, yes, it's stupid. Decent vocals, though. Believe it or not, this was chosen as the follow up single to Surfin' Safari. Wonder who's bright idea that was...1/5

Chug-A-Lug - This is a song about root beer. That's it. It's not bad, but...it's a song about root beer. 2.5/5

Little Girl (You're My Miss America) - A pretty good tune, and probably my favorite on this album. It says something that my favorite song on this album is a cover...4/5

409 - A hot rod song, and a pretty good one. Nothing else to it. 3/5

Surfin' - The Boys' first single, recorded in a garage, and it shows. It's a very amateurish song, but it's charming. 3/5

Heads You Win, Tails I Lose - An oddly pessimistic song about flipping coins. Not very memorable. 2/5

Summertime Blues - A cover of the Eddie Cochran classic, and it sounds exactly how you think a cover of it sung by two young teenagers would sound. 2/5

Cuckoo Clock - One of the better songs here. It sounds strangely melancholy, and I like that. 3.5/5

Moon Dawg - A generic cover of a generic surf instrumental. 2/5

The Shift - A song about getting a girl a "shift" which will, supposedly, make her "look real fine". Yeah, I don't know either, dude. 2.5/5

So, overall, a pretty mediocre album. Trust me; we'll be getting into better material (and longer, better reviews) soon.

RATING: 2.5/5