> Before "Smile" hits the streets can someone, who considers themself well versed on 
> what this new release contains, clear the air as far as what is it that we can expect?

I've heard the actual CD (as opposed to the 32kps MP3s that are
floating around - a friend has a promo copy) and seen Brian perform it
twice live, as well as owning numerous bootlegs of the live
performances.
What it boils down to is that Smile is a three-movement work - the
first two are proper movements, with beginnings, middles and ends and
recurring themes, while the last one is more like side two of Abbey
Road - throw whatever's left in and try to give it some sort of order.
It is an album that repays repeated listening, but it's not something
you need to listen to several times before you get it. If you're a
WIlson fan you will probably already know most of the material.
Each movement is made up of songs, most of which have been released
before, with some new linking material, and all of the instrumental
tracks that had been released now have vocal parts. You can rest
assured that even the most casual fan will know some of the songs
(H&V, Good Vibrations, You Are My Sunshine), but the structure throws
new light on all of them.
It's a masterpiece. The second movement especially (
Wonderful/Look/Child Is Father Of The Man/Surf's Up) is as good as
anything in popular music. The first, Wild West, movement is
consistently good throughout, and while I think the third movement a
partial failure, it's a magnificent one with some of the highpoints of
the album (Brian's sprechstime vocal on 'is it hot as hell in here or
is it me?', Nick Walusko's pirate vocals).
It's fun, it's moving, it's everything all the people who spent 37
years raving about it said it was. I was never a huge fan of the
bootlegs - I loved the more compoleted songs, but felt the
instrumental stuff dull and pointless. With the new vocal parts and
string arrangements it works as a whole. Maybe not the best album ever
made, but maybe it is.
The albums I would use as comparisons are Abbey Road, Zappa's
Absolutely Free (but without the cynicism), Van Dyke Parks' Song
Cycle, Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, Pet Sounds, Ram, The Beach Boys
Love You. But it can turn on a pin from heartwrenching beauty to stuff
that sounds like Carl Stalling and back. It's not really a rock album
- there are hardly any drums - it comes from a pre-rock tradition and,
apart from a couple of moments (notably Fire), it could have been
written at any time in the last 80 years. There's elements of old
doo-wop songs, and Tony Bennet songs, in there, along with pastiches
of Bach, cowboy songs, and Kurt Weill-sounding strings.
Buy it. You'll like it.

-- 
Andrew Hickey and Trevor DeMont headline 
International Pop Overthrow, the Cavern, Liverpool
Monday October 25