Recorded June 3–October 9, 1972 Producer The Beach Boys Release date 8 January 1973 | Length 36:28 Artist The Beach Boys Label Reprise Records | |
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Released January 8, 1973 (1973-01-08) Studio BBC 2 Studio, Baambrugge, Utrecht, Netherlands
Village Recorders, California Holland
(1973) The Beach Boys in Concert
(1973) Genres Rock music, Pop rock, Progressive rock Similar The Beach Boys albums, Rock music albums | ||
Holland is the 19th studio album by the American rock group The Beach Boys, released on January 8, 1973. Self-produced by the band, the album peaked at number 36 in the US and number 20 in the UK. The album is the last to feature Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, who joined the band the previous year to record Carl and the Passions - So Tough (1972).
Contents
Holland was mostly recorded in Baambrugge, Netherlands over the summer of 1972 using a reconstructed studio sent from California, and with two Brian Wilson tracks rush-recorded in Los Angeles and added to the album at the last minute. The photograph on the album's front cover is an upside down image of the Kromme Waal, a canal that runs through the centre of Amsterdam.
Holland included a bonus EP, Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale), a musical fairy tale written by Brian Wilson about a magical transistor radio who appears to a young prince. Narration was provided by the group's manager: Jack Rieley.
Recording
To record the album, the band members and their families moved to Baambrugge, in the Netherlands, in an attempt to focus their efforts in recording a new studio album. Regarding this time, vocalist and guitarist Al Jardine later noted, "It was rough being in Holland. We were working 24/7 in a small homemade rebuilt piece meal little studio in a garage next to a cow pasture. Yeah, it was rough. We didn’t even have the correct electricity [...] so that kind of affected the sound of our equipment. It was a mixed blessing."
Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale)
Holland's bonus EP, entitled Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale), was based on the intersection where the Love family lived in Los Angeles, and was primarily composed by Brian Wilson. Wilson originally intended it to be the centerpiece of a new Beach Boys album, consisting of the tracks from the EP and "Funky Pretty".
Brian Wilson has said that he listened to Randy Newman's 1972 album Sail Away "over and over" while physically writing down the lyrics which became the Mount Vernon and Fairway suite.
The instrumental tracks for the album were later released on Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys as "Fairy Tale Music", with Jack Rieley's vocal narration removed.
Reception
At the end of the 1973, Rolling Stone named Holland as one of their picks for "album of the year". Critic Robert Christgau praised the production qualities of the album, but believed the album had strayed too far from what the Beach Boys did best, stating "I suppose that in time their tongue-tied travelogue of Big Sur may seem no more escapist than "Fun Fun Fun," but who'll ever believe it's equally simple, direct, or innocent?"
In 2000, Elvis Costello ranked the album as one of his favorite records of all time. Camper Van Beethoven have disclosed that when recording their album La Costa Perdida, Holland was an enormous inspiration to them.
Accolades
(*) denotes an unordered list
Track listing
All narration by Jack Rieley, except "Magic Transistor Radio", narrated by Brian Wilson.
Charts
Chart information courtesy of Allmusic and other music databases.
Songs
1Sail On Sailor3:21
2Steamboat
3California Saga: Big Sur2:56