If Vulture — and, we suspect, most of the music-listening public — is being honest, our excitement surrounding a Beach Boys reunion was focused more on the fact that the whole beloved band (Brian Wilson included) would be back together than that they’d be dropping new music. It was a very obvious nostalgia thing: living legends, golden anniversaries, telling everyone in the room about the first time you heard Pet Sounds with your cool uncle or whoever. (Also, maybe, lying about the first time that you heard the Beach Boys so that you didn’t have to utter the words “Full House.â€) So it is in that warm-and-fuzzy spirit that we now present you with “That’s Why God Made the Radio,†the new, slightly syrupy lead single off the band’s upcoming album, due this June. Yeah, the song has a Xeroxed sound to it, and we’re not so sure that the line “he waved his hand, gave us rock and roll†is particularly current. But Uncle Jesse could totally nail that bridge. And aw, come on, it’s the Beach Boys.
