The Beach Boys' catalog is littered with forgotten 1970s LPs that barely scraped the charts upon release but matured into solid fan favorites despite — and occasionally, because of — their many and varied eccentricities. Surf's Up could well be the most definitive, beginning with the cloying "Don't Go Near the Water" and ending a bare half-hour later with the baroque majesty of the title track (originally written in 1966). The LP is a virtual laundry list of each uncommon intricacy that made the Beach Boys' forgotten decade such a bittersweet thrill — the fluffy yet endearing pop (od)ditties of Brian Wilson, quasi-mystical white-boy soul from brother Carl, and the downright laughable songwriting on tracks charting Mike Love's devotion to Buddhism and Al Jardine's social/environmental concerns. Wrapped up in a mess of contradictions, Surf's Up defined the Beach Boys' tumultuous career better than any other album.

Track Listing
1 Don't Go Near the Water
2 Long Promised Road
3 Take a Load off Your Feet
4 Disney Girls (1957)
5 Student Demonstration Time
6 Feel Flows
7 Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)
8 A Day in the Life of a Tree
9 'Til I Die
10 Surf's Up