The Synth Wash Wars: 'Love You' vs. 'Brian Wilson'

[The Heartical Don]

Strange. In 1988 I thought 'Brian Wilson' was the supreme achievement, and 'Love You' was a rather dated, but funny and quirky affair. Now my judgment is more or less reversed. I prefer Love You, the supreme toy-drones and the unselfconscious naivete are so touching. Brian Wilson the comeback sounds dated, and awash with that bland Jeff Lynne idea of sound. It has about 4 to 5 good songs for me, Love You has all the fine tunes except for Good Time.

Verdict:

Love You: 9/10
Brian Wilson: 6/10

And you?

[rogerlancelot]

I love "Love You" all the way through including "Good Time". I could live without "Ding Dang" but since it is so short I can deal with it. 9/10

"Brian Wilson" is too patchy for me to want to play all of the way through. Favorite songs: "Melt Away", "Rio Grande", "Let It Shine" (actually thanks to Jeff Lynne and his only contribution), "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long", "One For The Boys" and maybe one more. The rest doesn't excite me as much but the songs I mentioned are well worth owning this baby. Now I need to get the remastered version with all of the bonus tracks. 8/10

[The Heartical Don]

I love "Love You" all the way through including "Good Time". I could live without "Ding Dang" but since it is so short I can deal with it. 9/10

"Brian Wilson" is too patchy for me to want to play all of the way through. Favorite songs: "Melt Away", "Rio Grande", "Let It Shine" (actually thanks to Jeff Lynne and his only contribution), "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long", "One For The Boys" and maybe one more. The rest doesn't excite me as much but the songs I mentioned are well worth owning this baby. Now I need to get the remastered version with all of the bonus tracks. 8/10

Hmmm, interesting. I seemed to remember that Lynne was involved throughout. So Brains and Genius did the rest of the production?

[MBE]

Love You 4/10
Good Time I actually love, The Night Was So Young and I'll Bet He's Nice are both solid. The rest is ruined by the voices, lyrics, or production. Honkin and Ding Dang are ok I guess

Brian Wilson 7/10
The production isn't great at times but the voice I can handle better here. Walkin The Line and Night Time are very poor, One For The Boys so so, the rest I basically like. Much better then any Brian solo LP until BWPS which along with TLOS kicks this albums ass.

[mikeyj]

Hmmm, interesting. I seemed to remember that Lynne was involved throughout. So Brains and Genius did the rest of the production?

Well all the songs were produced or co-produced by Brian with the others listed in brackets:

Love and Mercy (Russ Titelman)
Walkin' the Line
Melt Away (Russ Titelman)
Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long (Russ Titelman)
Little Children (Russ Titelman)
One for the Boys
There's So Many (Russ Titelman)
Night Time (Russ Titelman)
Let It Shine (Jeff Lynne)
Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight (Andy Paley)
Rio Grande (Lenny Waronker and Andy Paley)

Eugene Landy was originally listed as Executive Producer.

[rogerlancelot]

I love "Love You" all the way through including "Good Time". I could live without "Ding Dang" but since it is so short I can deal with it. 9/10

"Brian Wilson" is too patchy for me to want to play all of the way through. Favorite songs: "Melt Away", "Rio Grande", "Let It Shine" (actually thanks to Jeff Lynne and his only contribution), "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long", "One For The Boys" and maybe one more. The rest doesn't excite me as much but the songs I mentioned are well worth owning this baby. Now I need to get the remastered version with all of the bonus tracks. 8/10

Hmmm, interesting. I seemed to remember that Lynne was involved throughout. So Brains and Genius did the rest of the production?

"Let It Shine" is the only Wilson/Lynne collaboration on there and it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I am not a huge ELO fan but I really do love Eldorado (1974). And his mid 90's Beatles productions are quite enjoyable.

[The Heartical Don]

Hmmm, interesting. I seemed to remember that Lynne was involved throughout. So Brains and Genius did the rest of the production?

Well all the songs were produced or co-produced by Brian with the others listed in brackets:

Love and Mercy (Russ Titelman)
Walkin' the Line
Melt Away (Russ Titelman)
Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long (Russ Titelman)
Little Children (Russ Titelman)
One for the Boys
There's So Many (Russ Titelman)
Night Time (Russ Titelman)
Let It Shine (Jeff Lynne)
Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight (Andy Paley)
Rio Grande (Lenny Waronker and Andy Paley)

Eugene Landy was originally listed as Executive Producer.

Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Quite odd to see Titelman here, since his style was always very clear, and the album here is a bit muddy (I think).

[Nicko]

Love You 6/10

Some songs I really like such as I'll Bet He's Nice, Airplane and particularly The Night Was so Young. But some truly abysmal numbers like Love is a Woman, I Wanna Pick you Up and Solar System. Some of the lyrics are shocking as are some of Brian's and Dennis's vocals.

Brian Wilson 6/10

Rio Grande sums up the album for me. It's a mixture of excellent sections (The river's deep...) and mediocre patches (Cherokee trail...) and a mixture of old and new. The lyrics again sometimes let it down as does the production.

[Loaf]

I agree with the Don, except that I love Good Time.

I'd love to hear Rio Grande without the 'muddiness'. Maybe it's time for BW to do it in concert...?

[phirnis]

Personally, I think that Love You is among its writer and producer's finest achievements ever and I really don't mind the "poor vocal performances" or any other purely superficial flaws (of which there are many, I have to admit). Despite the group's many great records throughout '70-'73 I have to say that this is perhaps my favorite seventies album of theirs. Absolutely love the synth-heavy production, it's so cool having a whole album of this uniquely quirky "We Gotta Groove"-type stuff.

BW88 I think is very underrated. The first side is full of brilliant tunes reminiscent of some of Brian's work on Today! and Sunflower, which really makes me wish these songs would've been part of a late-eighties BB comeback album. The second side is a different story. Though I like most of the songs I sure could do without both "Night Time" and "Let It Shine".

[BillA]

The songs on BW are much better than the Love You.

Imagine BW as a Beach Boys album with a more organic (e.g no synths) production.

[runnersdialzero]

The harmonies on "Ding Dang" are frigging mindblowingly awesome. Not sure how anyone can hate on it.

To me, Love You doesn't sound dated at all. Interesting production, sometimes I do feel that the heavy synth sort of takes away more than it enhances the songs, and it's obviously not quite up to par with the best albums before it, but overall I think Love You is a pretty solid album.

BW88, on the other hand, could not be more horribly dated in production and arrangement. The arrangements on the former are a billion times better and more fitting than on BW88, as well. He only got "Love and Mercy" and "Melt Away" right later on. The arrangements are positively dreadful - you can hear a good song in "Love and Mercy", but unfortunately its ruined. The more recent piano and vocal arrangement suits it perfectly.

I'd really, really love if Brian re-did this album with his current band in a live setting with some reworked arrangements and released it - there are some nice moments, but God, it's so appaulingly cheesy that it becomes too much for me.

[Mahalo]

Imagine BW as a Beach Boys album with a more organic (e.g no synths) production.

...imagining...and it is pure awesomeness...


Love You is better though....

[The Heartical Don]

  I suddenly realized that I should have let 'Sweet Insanity' enter this little contest... how would it have done?

[Jason]

Love You and Brian Wilson are two of my favorite albums in the Beach Boys' collective ouevre. Both are nearly perfect to me, proof that the man still had the goods. Despite the number of cooks in the kitchen on the solo album, it works well.

As far as making the solo album into a Beach Boys album it's certainly a fun idea, but due to the aforementioned number of cooks in the kitchen, I doubt Carl and Michael would have had patience with the idea. Then of course, the good Doctor would have had problems.

But for shits and giggles, a potential list of lead vocalists for the songs if it was a Beach Boys album -

Love and Mercy - Brian
Walkin' the Line - Al and Michael
Melt Away - Brian
Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long - Michael
Little Children - Brian and Michael
One For the Boys - Group (duh)
There's So Many - Carl
Night Time - Al and Carl
Let It Shine - Carl and Brian
Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight - Bruce
Rio Grande - Group

[buddhahat]

I love Love You but can't stand the dirgy Love Is A Woman. Johnny Carson is fantastic. Solar System through to Airplane is a perfect run and amongst my favourite BB sequence of songs.

Quite like BW88 too but find it a much patchier affair.

[TdHabib]

I know it'll be controversial but Love You has always been one of my faves. Love the production. More than that, it has to be one of the most consistant set of songs Brian's written post Sunflower. That, the Paley sessions and TLOS.

As far as BW88 goes, it's very good in my estimation. It was one of the earliest listens of my BB career and I love, love, loved it then. Now it's cooled off a bit but I really like "Melt Away," "Love and Mercy," "Rio Grande," "Meet Me in My Dreams," "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long" and "One from the Boys," which is imperfect and flawed but a very cool sound. I dislike the mixing (especially) and production (somewhat), the instrumentation is fine but the drums suck. Listening to the track only of "Love and Mercy," it's basically an update of Love You with BOOOOMMMING drums.

[adamghost]

I'm having to learn a bunch of current pop tunes for a covers gig this week and it hit me that weird, clunky bass sound and heavy handed style of LOVE YOU is all over pop records now.  Brian really was ahead of his time once again.  I also had a further thought that it could be a function of the laziness I perceive in pop music at the time (since Brian probably went all-synths mostly because it was the easiest means to an end for him).

[TdHabib]

There's So Many - Carl
Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight - Bruce

Just my opinion: Bruce or (unrealistically) a nice scratchy Dennis would've been perfect for "There's So Many," and Alan on the verses/group on the chorus for "Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight" would've been cool. The latter, by the way, is the great hit single that never was. A perfect pop song in tune for 1988.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I'm gonna piggyback on Dennis Moore's above post. I do, however, think the guys could've gotten around Landy's interference. Titleman was a pro, Lenny Waronker was around, and Jeff Lynne was also respected. I think by adding an additional good track, using a different sequence, and, most importantly, using the Beach Boys' voices, BW88 would've been a significantly better album. This is my dream album:

The Beach Boys - Let It Shine

Side A

1. He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body To Move (Brian)
2. Walkin' The Line (Al, group)
3. Melt Away (Carl)
4. Bay Let Your Hair Grow Long (Mike)
5. Little Children (Carl singing "On a Monday morning...", Brian singing "they're marching along singing a song, making rhythm and rhyme...")
6. One For The Boys (group)

Side B

7. Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight (Carl, group - with Mike singing "Good night my baby..." )
8. Night Time (Mike)
9. There's So Many (Bruce)
10. Love And Mercy (Brian or Carl - that's a tough one; I guess Brian)
11. Let It Shine (Al singing the verses, Carl singing the "there comes a burning fire.." part)  
12. Rio Grande (Al singing the first "cowboy" section and the last section, the rest I would leave the way it is)

[Jason]

Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight should have indeed been the ideal single in 1988, but as this IS Brian Wilson we're talking about, the best songs from his albums that were single material were never chosen. As good as Love and Mercy and Melt Away are, they're not the best idea for singles. Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight was the ideal choice, perhaps even Night Time or Let It Shine.

The promotional muscle behind Brian's solo albums before TLOS (I don't count BWPS because it had 37 years of promotion and couldn't possibly have failed) has been quite curious. The 1988 album is the best of them all and had a very weird promotional campaign that had Landy's fingerprints all over which naturally hurt it as well as the poor single choices. Imagination was promoted well and no one cared, and GIOMH suffered from being basically sh*t onto Warners' plate as a way for them to also get BWPS, not to mention that the album title turned out to be quite the self-fulfilling prophecy.

[TdHabib]

I don't know if I believe it, but apparantley Warner Brothers refused to make a proper music video for the BW88 album except for the cheap mock-up of "Love and Mercy" that aired on a few things (Brian playing a few bars on piano & vocal and some studio footage, dull as dishwater). Anyway this is true?

[The Heartical Don]

I'm gonna piggyback on Dennis Moore's above post. I do, however, think the guys could've gotten around Landy's interference. Titleman was a pro, Lenny Waronker was around, and Jeff Lynne was also respected. I think by adding an additional good track, using a different sequence, and, most importantly, using the Beach Boys' voices, BW88 would've been a significantly better album. This is my dream album:

The Beach Boys - Let It Shine

Side A

1. He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body To Move (Brian)
2. Walkin' The Line (Al, group)
3. Melt Away (Carl)
4. Bay Let Your Hair Grow Long (Mike)
5. Little Children (Carl singing "On a Monday morning...", Brian singing "they're marching along singing a song, making rhythm and rhyme...")
6. One For The Boys (group)

Side B

7. Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight (Carl, group - with Mike singing "Good night my baby..." )
8. Night Time (Mike)
9. There's So Many (Bruce)
10. Love And Mercy (Brian or Carl - that's a tough one; I guess Brian)
11. Let It Shine (Al singing the verses, Carl singing the "there comes a burning fire.." part)  
12. Rio Grande (Al singing the first "cowboy" section and the last section, the rest I would leave the way it is)

...is the perfect answer. Great line up.

[Mike's Beard]

I tend to find Love You runs from one extreme to the next in that it contains some of the best BBs songs post Holland era but also by far some of the worst. Love is a Woman and Solar System are my 2 least favourite Beach Boys songs of the 70's! Yet they are placed alongside The Night was so Young & I Bet he's Nice which to me are probs the last 2 truly great Brian Wilson songs.

Bw88 I have always considered patchy but I must admit it has grown considerably on me over time esp Night Time and Melt Away.  I just wish Landy had been locked out of the studio more often during the making of it!!

[Magic Transistor Radio]

The only 70s albums I like better then Love You are Surfs Up and Holland. In the 80s and 90s, I would rank BW88 behind KTSA but ahead of everything else either BW or the BBs did up until the 2000s.