Dismissed by Carl Wilson as “a bunt instead of a grand slam” following the collapse of Smile, Smiley Smile was salvaged from the wreckage of brother Brian’s ambitious attempt to top Pet Sounds. “Heroes And Villains” appears as initially recorded, as does “Good Vibrations,” yet the rest of the record was cut in just six weeks at Brian’s home studio using only the sparsest of instrumentation (a Baldwin Theatre organ, bass, melodica and objects found around Wilson’s house used for percussion), in stark contrast to the painstaking studio work that ultimately derailed its predecessor. Yet that’s precisely where much of Smiley Smile’s homespun charm lies. Lo-fi, DIY, bedroom pop before such things were even terms, it revives some of the off-the-cuff intimacy of 1965’s Beach Boys Party! and lives in its own, audibly stoned, little world. Though they may lack the ornate splendour of their fabled Smile session antecedents, the magic of songs such as “Wonderful” and “Wind Chimes” can shine though no matter how they were recorded (although the coda of the latter provided a heart-breaking glimpse of what could have been). At the end of the day, how disappointing can an album that contains “Good Vibrations” really be?