The Beach Boys Love You

[TimeToGetAlone]

What a great album.  What astounds me is how there is basically nothing else like it.  I love how there is still a great range in the songs even though almost all of them seem to be connected in sheer quirkiness.  Lyrics never bother me, and in this case the unpretentiousness of them actually enhances the experience for me.

Let Us Go On This Way - 5/5
Roller Skating Child - 5/5
Mona - 4.5/5
Johnny Carson - 5/5
Good Time - 5/5
Honkin' Down The Highway - 5/5
Ding Dang - 3.5/5
Solar System - 4.5/5
The Night Was So Young - 5/5
I'll Bet He's Nice - 5/5
Let's Put Our Hearts Together - 4.5/5
I Wanna Pick You Up - 5/5
Airplane - 4.5/5
Love Is A Woman - 4/5

Rounds to a 5, which I would have given regardless of my usual statistic-based decision.

[urbanite]

Solar System - 1.0; Let's Put Our Together - 0.0; Love is A Woman, 1.0 and Airplane - 2.0.  I dare say that if those songs had been left off the album and maybe some of the cuts from Adult Child put on it, the album would have had a very different reception.   

[Luther]

I'd give Solar System a 10 out of 5.

[lance]

Why? I'm not arguing with you--I like the song too, but for me it's nothing special. Why do you like it so much?

[Marty77]

Tried to get a friend who was just getting into the beach boys to get into this album.  He took it away and then later called me to say that he'd snapped the record over his knee and threw it out the window!! Apparently he thought that it was some sort of practical joke and I had put a fake beach boys label on some complete piece of crap record I had found. !!

Then, after taking a closer look at the record realised he had been hasty and went looking for a replacement A couple of weeks later he came round to my flat with an apology and said that he had listened to it "a few dozen times" and thought it was his favourite BBs album.

[Alex]

The first new wave album. That's good enough for me.

Did Love You predate Elvis Costello's first album?

[Alex]

I just mentioned this in the 15 Big Ones thread, but I'll mention it here too... 15 Big Ones and Love You taken together make an awesome foda you to pretty much everyone expecting another masterpiece from Brian, and to "serious" rock music in general. Punker than most punk rock records!!!

[DSamore]

I dunno how "punk" "love you" is but...damn is it good. The lyrics are awful. But in a charming way. I dunno, perhaps in a way that people see Hugh Grant. But the oppressed and doubted Brian makes his stand here. It is a feeble stand, but great nonetheless. a solid 4!


"I Bet He's Nice" takes the cake for me. Wow. Killer ideas. Great falsetto line- simple and choice.  Carl's line is great too. Love the "farty" bass synth as people have described it. again- awkwardly nice. Only track I don't love is "Let's Put Our Hearts Together."

God, I love Brian Wilson.

[phirnis]

"I'll Bet He's Nice" is indeed full of great ideas. Love Mike's "You my darling" part near the end.

[SmileySam]

"I don't wanna tell you that I care for you and have you just ignore me"......That lyric seems like something you'd hear someone say to someone else in a regular conversation.

[Irwin M. Fletcher]

"I don't wanna tell you that I care for you and have you just ignore me"......That lyric seems like something you'd hear someone say to someone else in a regular conversation.

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THAT.

I don't know why people don't seem to get the conversational aspect of the lyrics on this album. These songs sound literally like Brian is across from you, in conversation. THAT'S the brutal honesty of this record. Maybe that's why people don't like it.

[SmileySam]

your welcome

[Alex]

I dunno how "punk" "love you" is but...damn is it good.

I don't really mean punk in sound (except for the drums on Let Us Go On This Way and Honkin' Down The Highway), but more like punk in spirit...like Brian didn't really give a merda, and said "foda what everyone else thinks, I'm gonna make the record the way I want to!!".

[Irwin M. Fletcher]

Wasn't Brian that way back in 1965?

[SmileySam]

THIS ALBUM SUCKS
                    SUCKS
                    SUCKS

[SmileySam]

Joking

[Irwin M. Fletcher]

Yeah, in theory, this record is "punk". Brian was in "foda everybody and everything" mode in 1976. This was the prevailing thought. 1976 brought the world a Summer Of Hate in the UK and elsewhere. The Beach Boys Love You, along with Smiley Smile, is one of the Beach Boys' great "foda yous" to their legacy, fans, and public perception. And for that alone, we should respect them both.

[Luther]

I don't think there is anything to respect in a foda you, just for a foda you's sake.

[sleeptalk]

i like the idea of this record and it's pretty fun, but man, 5s and 4s? c'mon son...

"the night was so young" is great, sounds like some Wild Honey material. i really like "mona" too. "solar system" and "carson" are cute/weird/enjoyable, but way overrated.

[carl r]

Anyone else here really like "Good Time"? Whether or not it should be on this particular album is a moot point, but to my ears it kind of sounds like a joke, a pastiche of something unusual which makes it weirder still. Yet obviously simple and direct as you'd expect. And a great intro with the tapping percussion. I do like a "Good Time."