Brian Wilson

[ComicList]

Discuss, review and rate Brian Wilson, released August 1988.

[Luther]

I like apprioximately half of the songs. I hate approximately all of the production. Now that we've gotten better releases of L&M and of Melt Away, I'm caring less and less about this. Give me a better There's So Many and MAYBE Rio Grande (arguably BW's most overrated song ever) and I'm OK just leaving it on the shelf.

But it's still better than Imagination.

[Irwin M. Fletcher]

It's synthy, it's computerized, but it has more life than anything else Brian has released solo (bar BWPS). A very weird animal indeed, but isn't that why we love Brian? 4.

[I. Spaceman]

I agree totally, Jason.

[dogbreath]

I give it four stars. It shouldn't work, this album, but it does. Downsides are well-known, and obvious, but the upside is, it's a proper album, with some great songs. Maybe Rio Grande is fake-Brian-Smile-era, but nobody does fake-Brian better than he does.

[JRauch]

"Love And Mercy" is a real classic, in some way Brian´s "Imagine". "Rio Grande" tries to hard to be SMiLE part II. All in all, great songs, but bad production and singing. It´s amazing how far Brian came in these aspects.

[Morgan]

It's a good album, even with the synths drowning everything else out. I think 'Love and Mercy' is overrated. I'll take 'Melt Away' any day over any of the other tracks. Great way for Brian to start out though.

3 Stars.

[artie]

It is still a treat to play this album after almost 18 years. Brian's voice was good and powerful. Melt Away is absolutely gorgeous, and One For The Boys is a treat. I am not a fan of Rio Grande or Night Time, but I love the rest of the album. Landy's influence wsas the cause for all the additional bells and whistles, most of which detract from the overall sound. But after not hearing anything cohesive from Brian since 1977's "Love You", it really satisfied.

A 4 for sure.

[Susan]

It took me a while to get this one, but i've really come to enjoy it.  Solid to really good songs [Melt Away is a stunner, imho], and surprising cohesion in spite of the actual lack thereof in the making thereof.  Beats the hell out of GIOMH.  Solid 4.

[APPLEI]

i give this album 4 stars!
i still think its one of the better albums released by anybody in the late 1980s.
i agree with those who say that it is stronger than any album that the beach boys released since "beach boys love you"
i liked "rio grande" at the time it was released,it gave us an idea to what "heroes & villians" was originally supposed to sound like!
however i agree who people who say that "little children" sounds alot like "mountain of love"

[Old Rake]

Love, love, love, love.

Part of that straight line that goes: Pet Sounds and Party --> Smile and Smiley Smile --> Friends --> Love You --> Adult Child --> This one.

Even though I know Dr. Landy picked through this album ridiculously, and the record company tampered within an inch of its life, this still sounds like a purer expression of Brian's songwriting than almost anything he's ever done.

[JoeP]

3 for me, with the obvious stand out opening song, which sounds great in spite of the production, Melt Away, and yes Let it Shine as well.  Portions of of Rio Grand are excellent.  I can do without the unlistenable opeing 50 seconds and the long transition between the first river segment and the second one.  But there are products out there that can crop such annoying parts of songs there days, which allows me to really an enjoy those excellent portions, which would otherwise be on a track that I would rarely listen to, if I had to put up with the rest of the song.

[Chris Brown]

A 4 for me...with time, I learned to live with the production and just listen to the songs, and this has led to my increased enjoyment of this album.  L&M is classic Brian, simple yet poignant.  Melt Away, One For the Boys, There's So Many, Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight are my other favorites, and even the worst of the cuts are still listenable.  Rio Grande, while definitely overrated, is still more inventive than most other artists could ever dream (though I still wish they had let Brian keep his "Child, Adult, Parent suite).  Wonderful album, high replay value for me. 

[Billgoodman]

if this album was produced like GIOMH
with the same songs and Brian's 80's voice
it would have been 5 stars (in this poll)
Still like it the way it is now though

[donald]

I couldn't find an existing thread on this al hough I know I read one somewhere recently.

Anyhow.

I bought the CD of this in December but did not listen until today.  I've had the LP since its first release and had it on tape for a while as well.  I merely bought it to "have it" on disc. 

What a surprise when I brought it to work this morning and listened to this album for the first time on cd with headphones.   I had written it off as flawed, with poor vocal quality,  ruined by too many producers and  co-writers, although a good effort on Brians part in terms of getting back in the business of making records.

Wow!!!I couldn't believe how  good it sounded, especially Brians voice.  I had listened to OCA the day before and thought once again that the vocals were a little weird, words slurred and such.

So I was surprised when listening to BW88 again that he sounded so good.

Anybody else think his vocals are better here than on OCA or IJWMFTT?

[Swamp Pirate]

Lead vocals are fine.  I don't care for the backgrounds-especially on One for the Boys.   Musically- way too much synth.

But songwise, BW88 is his post non-Smile related solo CD.

[Adrian]

I love this album! It's one of my favourite Brian albums, and by far the best album of his solo career (except for SMiLE), in my opinion. His vocals are great, much better than his current vocals, and the tone of his vocals is much more like 60's Brian than anything following this album. The songs are amazing, and I think that's exactly what's lacking from his more recent efforts (I guess the only more recent efforts of new songs are Imagination and Getting In Over My Head, but the song selection is much better than either of those). Every song on the entire album is a gem! And the album rocks almost as much as Love You. I'm actually a fan of the productoin for the most part. It's really got that Love You vibe to it, and I would bet Brian was more involved in the production of this album than any of his more recent efforts. I don't mind the synths at all, but the only complaint I've got about this entire album (literally the ONLY complaint) is the electronic drums. That sound just doesn't go with this music. So if he used real drums throughout the album, I would say this is practically a perfect album.

[Smilin Ed H]

I'm with the Pirate on this one.  I think there are many fine non-BW 88 songs around, but this is the best overall collection; while I, too, hate the synthy production values, I prefer it to the sound of Imagination and the too busy mess of GIOMH.

[smackdaddy]

I think people make too much of the synth/80's production.  I don't find it half as annoying as the last 10 years tendency to, say, mix voices all the way in the front (the last Cure album, anyone?)

[SurferGirl7]

It's really nice on vinyl. I have the CD w/o the bonus tracks though. I have the tape, vinyl and CD. The only thing I have more of in the whole catalog