Beach Boy gives fans plenty to smile about

IN 1967, Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson shelved Smile, an ambitious concept album intended as the American group’s masterpiece.

Thirty-seven years later, Smile received its live premiere in London and most critics agreed it was worth the wait.

Wilson, 61 and performing again after years as a near recluse, received a five-minute standing ovation at the end of Friday's show at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Fans were rapturous.

The Guardian newspaper hailed the work's "groundbreaking complexity and sophistication," while The Daily Telegraph called it "a glorious, tangled symphony of celebration and sadness."

Smile was intended as a follow-up to The Beach Boys' groundbreaking 1966 album Pet Sounds, and its lush orchestration took advantage of advances in recording technology.

The perfectionist Wilson worked for months to build the album's multilayered sound, but shelved it shortly before its scheduled release, explaining that the songs were "not commercial."

Over the years, Smile gained a reputation among fans as the band's lost masterpiece.

Smile was described as "a 40-minute crazy-paving collage of song fragments and Looney Tunes jingles, all bookended by the lush glory of Heroes and Villains and the rapturous warble of Good Vibrations.