“Surf’s Up is the 17th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released August 30, 1971 on Brother/Reprise. It received largely favorable reviews and reached number 29 on the US record charts, becoming their highest-charting LP of new music in the US since 1967. In the UK, Surf’s Up peaked at number 15, continuing a string of top 40 records that had not abated since 1965. The album’s title and cover artwork (a painting based on the early 20th-century sculpture ‘End of the Trail‘) are an ironic, self-aware nod to the band’s early surfing image. Originally titled Landlocked, the album took its name from the closing track ‘Surf’s Up‘, a song originally intended for the group’s unfinished album Smile. … In contrast to the previous LP Sunflower, Brian Wilson was not especially active in the…