Those latter, abandoned sessions formed part of a mythical follow-up to Pet Sounds, known as Smile, which Brian Wilson eventually finished and released as a solo album in 2004. The 1971 version is essential but there's a refined beauty to the 2004 rendition.

Frelon said he created The Velvet Sundown tracks using the generative-AI tool Suno before posting them on Spotify, where the band now has more than a million monthly listeners. Case settled, then. But apparently not.

In an update to their Spotify bio, viral AI "band" the Velvet Sundown call themselves an "ongoing artistic provocation."