Over the past decade or so, The Beach Boys have steadily revisited the band’s extensive catalog, focusing recently on the albums of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in particular, and reissuing them as part of expansive multi-disc sets.  Beyond adding to the variety- with both alternate versions and previously unreleased material- from the Hall of Fame group, the new collections have served as motivation also to apply new tech to the old mixes.  Few artists used the studio as an instrument itself quite like The Beach Boys and the band’s creative genius, Brian Wilson.  Finally, it seems that the technology has caught up to the initial vision, and the vast layers of sonic bliss Wilson originally imparted, just waiting to be discovered.

There will be grumbles, of course: of unnecessary meddling with something that clearly was not broken.  After all, the 2003 edition of this career-spanning greatest hits collection was already a leap forward from four decades earlier when so many of those hits were first recorded.  In that form, the comprehensive album has since sold nearly four-and-a-half million copies.  The latest three-disc set expands on that original 30-track best, increasing it by 50; totaling 80 tracks, with 26 new mixes, including two first-time stereo mixes, plus 24 new-and-improved stereo mixes.

Diehard fans may not want their memories messed with, no matter how lovingly, (and it is lovingly), the newly remastered previous and new mixes were prepared.  Candidly, they’re a marvelous improvement; as those unparalleled Beach Boys harmonies and symphonic pop instrumentation never felt as present, thoughtful, and full-bodied as they do here.  Further, by sequencing all 80 cuts by choice rather than by chronology, the musical contrast between the eras- from the early ‘60s to the mid ‘80s- blends into a fuller portrait of the group as a whole; less evolutionary in its unfolding; more an album that soundtracks the entire beauty and fun of the season.  As a representative for the 60th anniversary of The Beach Boys, it’s a terrific collection.  As a companion piece to summer, itself, it’s unsurpassed.