record reviews

November 6, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

THE BEACH BOYS

Album: “The SMiLE Sessions” (Capitol)

Grade: A

Maybe hell has frozen over.

Here, finally, is a version of the Beach Boys’ 1967 magnum opus, “SMiLE.”

“SMiLE” is both one of rock music’s greatest lost albums and one of its seminal texts, thanks to songs that appeared on subsequent Beach Boys albums and to myriad bootlegs. The follow-up to 1966’s “Pet Sounds” was never completed. Brian Wilson had a lofty plan to construct the album out of modular sections, and although hours and hours of material was recorded, the project was abandoned before it was ever put together officially. In 2004, Wilson released a newly recorded version of it, “Brian Wilson Presents Smile,” but here we have the original tapes assembled into a full- album sequence.

From “Heroes and Villains” to “Surf’s Up” and “Good Vibrations,” these are some of rock’s greatest songs, and they sound glorious in newly remastered clarity and more meaningful in the context of “SMiLE’s” impressionistic narrative.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

MIRANDA LAMBERT

Album: “Four the Record”

Grade: B

Miranda Lambert refuses to get boxed in. After her breakthrough success with the Grammy-winning “Revolution,” a country careerist would have consolidated her “wild child with a heart of gold” persona with more of the same. Not Miss Miranda, er, Mrs. Blake Shelton.

On “Four the Record” (RCA), Lambert forges a whole new plan of attack, putting aside the rock leanings of “Revolution” for a more serious alt-country vibe.

Though the single “Baggage Claim” may showcase some of that “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” sass, the bulk of “Four the Record” is far more experimental.

Her pick of alt-country chestnuts — Gillian Welch’s “Look at Miss Ohio” and Allison Moorer’s “Oklahoma Sky” — not only shows off Lambert’s great taste, but her great voice as well.

However, it’s her simple love songs — “Easy Living” and “Over You” — where her voice is most potent. It’s where “Four the Record” declares Lambert a superstar.

— Glenn Gamboa, Newsday