Caroline Now!: The Songs of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys

1	Lady / Eugene Kelly 3:33
2	I Wanna Pick You Up / Alex Chilton 2:56
3	All I Wanna Do / June & The Exit Wounds 3:13
4	Wind Chimes / Katrina Mitchell 2:27
5	Anna Lee, the Healer / The High Llamas 3:28
6	Ne Dis Pas (Girl Don't Tell Me) / Souvenir French Version 2:34
7	Lines / Duglas T.Stewart 3:20
8	Busy Doin' Nothin' / Camping 3:54
9	Good Time / Stevie Jackson 3:48
10	Endless Harmony / The Free Design 3:18
11	Go Away Boy / Pearlfishers 3:28
12	Stevie / Saint Etienne 3:05
13	Honkin' Down the Highway / Radio Sweethearts 3:15
14	Lonely Sea / Eric Matthews 3:51
15	Rainbow Eyes / Kle 4:00
16	Let's Put Our Hearts Together / Chip Taylor 2:21
17	Pet Sounds / Peter Thomas 3:30
18	Heroes and Villains / Malcolm Ross 4:08
19	Only With You / Norman Blake 2:46
20	Caroline, No / Aluminum Group 3:42
21	Do Ya / Jad Fair 2:30
22	Big Sur / Secret Goldfish 2:56
23	Good Timin' / David Ritchie Coalition 2:55
24	Almost Summer / Kim Fowley 2:56

Barnes & Noble

Tribute albums are always a tricky business, but this all-over-the-place 24-track collection is a surprisingly cohesive listen. The motley assortment of artists paying tribute to Brian and his band here are generally from the world of alternative/indie rock, so it's not surprising that they largely mine the more shadowy margins of the Beach Boys' catalogue for material. The distinguished cast includes such Wilsonophile indie-pop darlings as the High Llamas, Saint Etienne, Eric Matthews, Teenage Fanclub singer Norman Blake, BMX Bandits leader Douglas T. Stewart, Vaselines/Eugenius mainman Eugene Kelly, and Belle and Sebastian member Stevie Jackson, as well as a handful of veterans whose iconoclasm has made them indie icons -- Alex Chilton, Kim Fowley, and Half Japanese mastermind Jad Fair. Oddest of all, the obscure late-'60s MOR pop group-turned-current-underground-darlings the Free Design have even reformed for the occasion. Many of the songs included here will be obscure even to serious fans, but they're delivered with a playful sense of respect that makes Caroline Now! a consistently winsome effort. Scott Schinder

All Music Guide

Some three years in the making, Caroline Now! The Songs of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys is more than just a much deserved tribute to arguably the greatest of all American pop bands; it's also a lovely and engaging introduction to some of the finest talent the contemporary pop world has to offer, highlighted by such newsworthy developments as the reemergence of ex-Vaselines frontman Eugene Kelly (the Spector-esque opener "Lady"), the solo debut of Belle and Sebastian's Stevie Jackson (the wistful "Good Time"), and, most remarkably, the first new Free Design recording in some three decades (the rapturous "Endless Harmony"). Wisely, the set focuses on the Beach Boys' more obscure material (much of it dating from the 1970s), a decision that allows the performers far more latitude in imprinting their personal stamps on the songs; at the same time, with so many of the acts featured on Caroline Now! making their admiration for Brian Wilson's work thoroughly evident in their own records, there's nothing too radical either; the High Llamas' "Anna Lee, the Healer," for example, sounds exactly like you'd expect it would. Still, by and large, the disc boasts an artistry and consistency most tributes lack, thanks as much to the brilliance of its subject as to the torch-carrying affections of its contributors; with Mike Love beating a dead horse leading an ad-hoc Beach Boys lineup on the state fair circuit and with Wilson himself touring in what often seems like a musical adaptation of Flowers for Algernon, god only knows it's reassuring that at least someone's keeping their musical spirit truly alive. Jason Ankeny