I Just Wasn't Made For These Times

[matt-zeus]

I think he would play in your living room if you cooked him dinner...!

I like this one too, I like his mid 90s vocals, not as robotic as the Landy era.

[lance]

It's an organic album but I'm not nuts about the arrangements. Not that they're bad, in fact they are very tasteful and understated.
 
In other words, they don't sound like Brian Wilson to me.

Great that it's organic sounding and all, but not something that I need to hear. I burned a few songs of this one but that's about all I need. I think Still I Dream of iIt murders the GV box set version, though.I heard the demo before the polished version and the first time I heard Still I Dream of It I remember fleetingly thinking, damn, that writer is brilliant.
The finished version...in my opinion...has had the life squeezed out of it.

[Lonely Summer]

Yep, this album and Imagination have those bland A/C arrangements, BW88 is swamped with those %@*! synths, and GIOMH has those offkey vocals. BW's solo catalog is pretty weak, except for the unreleased stuff.

[lance]

I'm warming to the first album and beginning to look past the sound. It's got what I consider to be real "Brian Wilson" arrangements(whatever that really means!) and within those arrangements really are flashes of absolute brilliance. I'm trying to look at the album without any "I hate Eighties production" prejudices. When I manage to do it, it's pretty good and definitely the work of the same man who did Pet Sounds and Love You, if also of inferior quality. It may be in twenty years or ten years that sound will not sound so bad to people's ears as they do now. (?)

Haven't heard Imagination yet, though I will buy it eventually. At least some of the songs on that one will be new(to me).

[The Heartical Don]

I really like this album. It has some of that Johnny-Cash-american-recordings-smiley-smile-feel. There is still so much soul in Brian's voice, though technically it was not that good around this time.
BTW why doesn't get Van Dyke any credit for "Wonderful"?

Wonderful review. I adored it and the accompanying film. Brian's vocals on 'Wonderful' are extremely touching. And yes: 'American Recordings'. A 4.

[Dada]

How did they afford a real harpsichord for this but not BWPS? Weird.

[Luther]

How did they afford a real harpsichord for this but not BWPS? Weird.

Cost wasn't the issue on BWPS. As I recall from an interview--and I apologize, but I forget which one, but either with Darian or Mark L--they had originally planned to do the synth ones as placeholders, then replace with real ones (this goes for tack piano, as well). But they simply decided those sounded good enough, and that it wasn't worth the trouble.

[runnersdialzero]

Yep, this album and Imagination have those bland A/C arrangements, BW88 is swamped with those %@*! synths, and GIOMH has those offkey vocals. BW's solo catalog is pretty weak, except for the unreleased stuff.

It's not so much that the songs or even his solo catalogue are weak, the production and arrangement choices just haven't been that great. I felt like TLOS, barring a few elements, was the first solo album of his that really seemed like it was pulled off well (aside from BWPS, but that borrows a lot from the 60s arrangements and production).