Mike Love - Unleash the Love - Due November 17 - w/ 2nd Disc of BB Remakes

[guitarfool2002]

There it is, right? It's such a defined pattern you can recognize it as soon as you know what the pattern is. I guess giving Mike Love a positive review should include taking a shot at either Brian Wilson or his fanbase instead of judging anything Mike does on its own merit...according to the pattern. Because, obviously according to the pattern, any fans who don't see the genius and greatness in Mike Love are either blind BW worshipers or simply have not been properly educated on the real history of the band and Mike Love, and therefore are not real fans until they get their heads straight...courtesy the real fans and historians, I guess.

 

What a farce.

#MottLogic

[CenturyDeprived]

There it is, right? It's such a defined pattern you can recognize it as soon as you know what the pattern is. I guess giving Mike Love a positive review should include taking a shot at either Brian Wilson or his fanbase instead of judging anything Mike does on its own merit...according to the pattern. Because, obviously according to the pattern, any fans who don't see the genius and greatness in Mike Love are either blind BW worshipers or simply have not been properly educated on the real history of the band and Mike Love, and therefore are not real fans until they get their heads straight...courtesy the real fans and historians, I guess.

 

What a farce.

#MottLogic

Let's face it: pretty safe bet that some of these positive reviews are coming from inside his own organization. Plants. Team Mike has a history of that, such as the 2005 lawsuit where a planted guy on his legal team tried to pretend to be a "wronged" eBay purchaser, but got caught. You can't make this stuff up, it actually happened.

[KDS]

It took me a few months, but I finally listened to Unleash the Love.

I thought the first disc was surprisingly good.  Ram Raj, 10,000 Years, Crescent Moon, and All the Love in Paris were all pretty good.  Most surprising was the presence of some good guitar solos, not present on much BB related material.

The 2nd disc is pretty awful though. 

[NateRuvin]

Yeah, the first CD has some great songs and good arrangements. It could have been an amazing album, but its overall quality was lowered by the vocal production.

[KDS]

Yeah, the first CD has some great songs and good arrangements. It could have been an amazing album, but its overall quality was lowered by the vocal production.

To be honest, I didn't find the vocal production on the first disc to be too bad.   It's sort of like TWGMTR, where it's not bad enough to affect my enjoyment of the songs.  But, the autotune button is turned up to 11 for the second disc. 

[NateRuvin]

I can see that. The only song on disc one where the autotune really distracts me is Too Cruel, which is an otherwise great song. Hell, I would have really enjoyed disc two minus the autotune. I still listen to those recordings because I love how tight Mike's band is (largely thanks to Scott Totten and John Cowsill).

[KDS]

I can see that. The only song on disc one where the autotune really distracts me is Too Cruel, which is an otherwise great song. Hell, I would have really enjoyed disc two minus the autotune. I still listen to those recordings because I love how tight Mike's band is (largely thanks to Scott Totten and John Cowsill).

I agree Mike's got a great band, which is another reason I found the 2nd disc to be disappointing, as even some of the backing tracks sound a bit dull to me.  Oddly enough, one of the songs with a really good backing track is that dreadful take on Do It Again with Mark McGrath. 

But, even if the arrangements were better without autotune, I wouldn't view that disc as anything more than a curio.   

[guitarfool2002]

Thanks for reviving this thread, I wanted to ask if anyone had any sales figures or numbers from Mike's album and the single release(s) as of this week. As in, how is Mike's solo material selling?

[rab2591]

Yeah, the first CD has some great songs and good arrangements. It could have been an amazing album, but its overall quality was lowered by the vocal production.

To be honest, I didn't find the vocal production on the first disc to be too bad.   It's sort of like TWGMTR, where it's not bad enough to affect my enjoyment of the songs.  But, the autotune button is turned up to 11 for the second disc. 

The vocal production is terrible on Getcha Back (and a plethora of other songs on the new album first disc) and not even close to the sound of TWGMTR. Mike’s ‘Daybreak Over The Ocean’ is a sonic symphony of clarity comparatively, even that horribly autotuned section of ‘Isn’t It Time’ is an audiophiles dream compared to the unprofessional turd of autotune that Mike slathered on both discs.

Don’t get me wrong, disc one is so much more tasteful regarding the vocals compared to disc 2. But TWGMTR is leagues ahead of this very unprofessional solo venture.

[KDS]

Yeah, the first CD has some great songs and good arrangements. It could have been an amazing album, but its overall quality was lowered by the vocal production.

To be honest, I didn't find the vocal production on the first disc to be too bad.   It's sort of like TWGMTR, where it's not bad enough to affect my enjoyment of the songs.  But, the autotune button is turned up to 11 for the second disc. 

The vocal production is terrible on Getcha Back (and a plethora of other songs on the new album first disc) and not even close to the sound of TWGMTR. Mike’s ‘Daybreak Over The Ocean’ is a sonic symphony of clarity comparatively, even that horribly autotuned section of ‘Isn’t It Time’ is an audiophiles dream compared to the unprofessional turd of autotune that Mike slathered on both discs.

Don’t get me wrong, disc one is so much more tasteful regarding the vocals compared to disc 2. But TWGMTR is leagues ahead of this very unprofessional solo venture.

I think Mike should have put Getcha Back on Disc 2.  It really doesnt fit with the songs on the first disc.

I have to disagree that I dont find the vocals to be that bad on disc 1. 

[guitarfool2002]

How has the album and various singles been selling? Any numbers?

[KDS]

How has the album and various singles been selling? Any numbers?

Cant say I've looked at any numbers.  I cant imagine too well.

But, I think chart success is to be taken with a grain of salt.  After all, Iggy Azalea had her first three singles hit #1 in 2014, either breaking or tying a record by The Beatles. 

[guitarfool2002]

I'm just curious to see some sales figures, surely something has to be published as a reference, somewhere.

[HeyJude]

How has the album and various singles been selling? Any numbers?

Cant say I've looked at any numbers.  I cant imagine too well.

But, I think chart success is to be taken with a grain of salt.  After all, Iggy Azalea had her first three singles hit #1 in 2014, either breaking or tying a record by The Beatles. 

Across the board, albums can sell far *less* copies in 2017/2018 than hey had to even 10 or 20 years ago in order to get a high chart placement.

So Mike's album would need to sell far fewer copies in 2017 in order to chart than it would have 10 or 20 years ago.

[KDS]

How has the album and various singles been selling? Any numbers?

Cant say I've looked at any numbers.  I cant imagine too well.

But, I think chart success is to be taken with a grain of salt.  After all, Iggy Azalea had her first three singles hit #1 in 2014, either breaking or tying a record by The Beatles. 

Across the board, albums can sell far *less* copies in 2017/2018 than hey had to even 10 or 20 years ago in order to get a high chart placement.

So Mike's album would need to sell far fewer copies in 2017 in order to chart than it would have 10 or 20 years ago.

Right, and I think in his heart of hearts, Mike knows the album's not likely to sell a lot of copies.   Even if it was well produced and contained songs on par with All I Wanna Do or All This is That. 

[Nathan Snyder]

Like several other's sentiments, I can enjoy much of disc 1 and even some of disc 2.  I try to stay away from the politics of the band and just enjoy the music and overall heritage of the band. 

But, I am also equally confused over the use of autotune to the point of disc 2 sounding so friggin' weird and dreadful.  I mean, I've been left scratching my head numerous times in the past when artists many times allow certain albums to be mixed and mastered so poorly that they sound more fuzzy, distorted or more amateurish than their prior releases.  It's amazing how often it happens....  Sometimes, you really start to doubt today's technology versus the clean rock albums of the 70's and then you get a batch of albums with a quality studio engineer using today's tools and realize that clean production with all of the best qualities are still available no matter your taste of musical genres.  Weezer's latest album sounds good, Red Hot Chili Peppers latest is very musical, but they always compress too much.   I'm a fan of the early 90's Bruno Mars style and production on his latest album. 

Yeah, we know Mike Love's comments on the autotune in the past....but beyond that....who thinks this sounds okay?  Like I Get Around, for example....I would love to hear that track with the autotune removed and see how bad his natural vocal was.  It probably sound decent and very much like a 76 year old Mike Love which is to say much quieter and much more raspier, but still a vocal that knows how to sing that song time and time again.   Like the 2002-2003 version of Brian's Back.  I enjoyed it because it showed where he was vocally at that time and age.   We can all appreciate things in musical art when provided in a natural way to us.   But this autotune is really screwing things up to an alien/robotic like form and I just can't get over no one inside the crew commenting on it....   Take Jeffrey Foskett's Wouldn't It be nice vocal.  It's pretty good.  He sang the lead on the 1980's disc, California Project by Papa Do Run Run and while the production was meant to be very clean and sterile as a way to show how digital can sound, his vocal was very very nice.   I thought, hey, for 30 days older, his new vocal still sounds very similar.   Anyways, I was hoping to have Steve Desper weight in on the autotune of disc 2 and voice his sentiment on why why why!!

[KDS]

Like several other's sentiments, I can enjoy much of disc 1 and even some of disc 2.  I try to stay away from the politics of the band and just enjoy the music and overall heritage of the band. 

The music will always been more enjoyable than the politics. 

The whole autotune thing is a mystery to me.   I last saw Mike in concert about two years ago.  I thought he sounded decent for a guy in his 70s, far better than the robot Mike singing those BB classics on disc 2 of UTL. 

[HeyJude]

I always welcome and love to read Steve Desper's insights. But I don't think it takes an engineer or producer to figure out why Mike's album is drenched in autotune. It's because that's what people do now. Today, both young, fully capable vocalists as well as mediocre vocalists as well as aging struggling vocalists *all* use it.

Mike has given many interviews where he has expressed, both directly and indirectly, a lack of interest in the detailed nuts-and-bolts side of studio production/engineering/mixing, etc. I doubt he went into the studio and instructed Michael Lloyd to use autotune (especially considering how HUGE of an issue Mike makes the C50 "autotune incident" in his autobiography). I'm guessing Lloyd instigated its use, hopefully/presumably in collaboration with Mike.

The main thing that doesn't make sense is that I've heard/read that not only did Mike dislike the use of autotune during C50 live show rehearsals (described in his book), but he also supposedly/reportedly told an observer that he was *not* a fan of the autotune on the C50 live 2-CD album.

Yet, the autotune on BOTH discs of Mike's new album (the first disc is drenched in it too, with the apparent exception of "Cool Head, Warm Heart", one of the songs left relatively untouched from its 2004 incarnation helmed by Paul Fauerso) has *much more* prevalent use of autotune, top-to-bottom.

Either Mike has changed his mind (in which case he should maybe walk back some of his comments concerning the C50 live album), or, I think more likely, Mike's gripes about autotune during C50 in 2012 (as well as his backhanded comments concerning "The Right Time" by Brian and Al in 2015) had less to do with the autotune and more to with backbiting and sniping and politics.

[guitarfool2002]

I always welcome and love to read Steve Desper's insights. But I don't think it takes an engineer or producer to figure out why Mike's album is drenched in autotune. It's because that's what people do now. Today, both young, fully capable vocalists as well as mediocre vocalists as well as aging struggling vocalists *all* use it.

Mike has given many interviews where he has expressed, both directly and indirectly, a lack of interest in the detailed nuts-and-bolts side of studio production/engineering/mixing, etc. I doubt he went into the studio and instructed Michael Lloyd to use autotune (especially considering how HUGE of an issue Mike makes the C50 "autotune incident" in his autobiography). I'm guessing Lloyd instigated its use, hopefully/presumably in collaboration with Mike.

The main thing that doesn't make sense is that I've heard/read that not only did Mike dislike the use of autotune during C50 live show rehearsals (described in his book), but he also supposedly/reportedly told an observer that he was *not* a fan of the autotune on the C50 live 2-CD album.

Yet, the autotune on BOTH discs of Mike's new album (the first disc is drenched in it too, with the apparent exception of "Cool Head, Warm Heart", one of the songs left relatively untouched from its 2004 incarnation helmed by Paul Fauerso) has *much more* prevalent use of autotune, top-to-bottom.

Either Mike has changed his mind (in which case he should maybe walk back some of his comments concerning the C50 live album), or, I think more likely, Mike's gripes about autotune during C50 in 2012 (as well as his backhanded comments concerning "The Right Time" by Brian and Al in 2015) had less to do with the autotune and more to with backbiting and sniping and politics.

The last sentence, yes I think that's it. Autotune wasn't as much of an issue itself as it was a convenient arrow in Mike's quiver which he could set aflame and launch at whatever targets he had in sight. It was also "evidence" of the gripes he had. Whether it was an issue in and of itself, or just a convenient arrow to launch.

But I think the ultimate question I have is did anyone involved in the process step up and say anything about the way some (no, most) of this material sounds before it got the final master and went to press? We're told how Mike is in full control over his career, from financial decisions to the touring to exec producing the music he makes and releases...

So I wonder why there is any doubt about Mike's involvement in the decision to use that much of any effect on an album like this, when there has to be final approval given to such an album project, and that final approval would be squarely on Mike, unless he's really not the one calling the shots.

Unless it's a scenario where credit is given only if something is a success, and blame assigned to others when something falls short.

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Wonder will the vinyl release of this album ever happen? Date seems to move back all the time.

[guitarfool2002]

Wonder will the vinyl release of this album ever happen? Date seems to move back all the time.

Vinyl? What would be the point?

[guitarfool2002]

Those in the area, get the inside scoop on the album from Mike himself:

"Mike Love will autograph your new Robert Graham tribute shirt at The Mall at UTC in Sarasota this Monday from 5:30-7:00pm!
Get the behind the scenes scoop on his new album 'Unleash The Love' and experience the new collection."

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

legendary???   

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Wonder will the vinyl release of this album ever happen? Date seems to move back all the time.

Vinyl? What would be the point?

Dunno but it's been talked about from the start. 23rd Feb now on Amazon.com....2nd March in UK.

[guitarfool2002]

Come for the shirt, stay for the scoop on Mike's new album!

Will light refreshments be served?