“Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions, 1969-1971” explores a time of experimentation and reinvention for the band.
The quintessential American rock band of the ’60s, whose sun-kissed harmonies and string of girls-cars-and-surf hits
soundtracked the myth of California as paradise, had lost its lock on the charts. Brian Wilson, its leader, was
withdrawn and unstable after an attempt at a super-ambitious album, “Smile,” collapsed in 1967. Facing irrelevance,
the band even considered changing its name, to simply Beach.
“When you put out a record and it’s not successful like you’re used to, you start questioning yourself,” the vocalist Mike
Love said recently. “Are you doing things right? What do we need to change?”