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I was sitting in study hall today (I know, I'm young guys.) and I had filled my iPod with all the Beach Boys music I own (basically, all of it haha)

So I was listening to Getcha Back, and I let the album play, I'd never really listened to it before, I know the story with The production and all that jazz (thanks 50 sides!)
and I was very surprised with the quality of the songs! I mean, with the exception of California Calling, Just A Matter of Time, and maybe Crack at Your Love, the songs are very well written.
Sure, the production is, well, cheese nowadays, but I kinda like it in some cases (Maybe I Don't Know is a great example!)
Carl's voice was, IMO, at one of it's best stages here. The voice is smooth as wine, and very heartfelt, I love it!

So, for the most part I really enjoyed it! Much more then some of the earlier albums from the period! If this had had Dennis on it, maybe 2-3 tracks, it'd be a favorite!

Absolutely underrated.  I used to hate all things 80s, so I never gave this album a fair shake.  A year or two ago, for whatever reason, it clicked for me.  There is some fantastic material on there, and I love all the synths and drum machines.  Where I Belong has become one of my favorite Beach Boys songs of all time, and the album itself is in my BB top 10...maybe even top 5.

Agreed! Synths used to be a real killer for me, but after I began to like Brian Wilson (the album) synths really started to work for me, after that a lot of great songs
started to "click", like this album.

I'd say it's slowly becoming a favorite, certainly my 2nd favorite of the post Holland Era (after Love You!)

I used to resist cheesy 80s synths, but being born in the 80s, resistance was futile.  It's like it's in my blood or something.  Beach Boys + 80s production = awesomeness for me.  I know I'm in the minority.

It's not underrated, but I love the hell out of it. I like the songs and the production, but it's no hidden masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. A guilty pleasure record. One of my top five BB albums, I think - it has a cohesiveness about it that LA and KTSA are missing.

The synths pretty much kill it for me. I can't stand listening to "It's Getting Late" or "Male Ego" for example. That said, there's still some decent songs in there, "Getcha Back" isn't bad live, and I actually enjoy "I Do Love You".

YES!  It does sound like it is from the mid 1980s because  IT IS from the mid 1980s.  I think the songwriting is strong.  The vocals are great.  Carl especially sings his butt off.  Plus, it is the last LP to feature active contributions from more than one Wilson Brother!  I used to never listen to it, but I find myself enjoying it these days!

Overrated. Even those who admit it is crap are overrating it.

Any specific reason why?

I absolutely love that album...well most if it.

Same thoughts on KTSA, Both underrated IMO

I don't mind about half of it, I'm undecided on a few tracks and a couple here well and truly sound like a band who've reached their nadir.

I'd say It's Gettin' Late is one of the best songs the band ever did. Carl's lead is absolutely phenomenal, the harmonies are solid and it's genuinely catchy. Not high art, but a great piece of eighties pop.

Getcha Back is a nice enough throwback though Mike could've certainly given a better lead than this, a bit of a missed opportunity.

She Believes in Love Again teeters on the edge of "okay" and "bad" for me, it's very cheesy, but in the context of the album, it kinda works. The melody is very nursery-rhyme esque like some of the bands most memorable melodies, but dialled to a self-parodying 11 which can either be grating or endearing depending on my mood.

Where I Belong is in all a pretty okay song marred a little from the "don't need to search no more exotic islands" lyric. I'm not one to have lyrics ruin my listening experience too often (if you haven't noticed, I'm a Beach Boys fan  :P) but I really think it's one of the worst lyrics in the band's catalogue which definitely says a lot about how I feel about it.

Every single thing about it, besides Getcha Back. The songs are terrible and badly chosen, the production and instrumentation are disgusting, the vocals are Fairlighted to death, the cover is an awful budget-album looking eyesore.

+!
I loath it and doubt I will ever play it again.  There's too much other good music by The Beach Boys and 100 other artists to waste my time with it.

noooooooooooo ...

it's a bad record. the voices sound like angel hair.

There's a danger for the obsessive fan in BB85--not especially different from the danger of the solo or peripheral material. There is greater capacity to hear than to create, and the listener's expectations don't change proportionate to the creators' inspirations. The resulting vacuum fills up one way or the other. One wants more great Beach Boys music, one finds it. Alternate takes, live shows, unreleased tracks, or the inevitable "underrated gems."

"This part of that song sounds like it might actually be Brian!" "Carl's voice sounds amazing [on that terrible song]." "Ringo!"

I've had my moments flirting with the likes of BB85. Bad news. Spend precious time on great Beach Boys music or on great non-Beach Boys music.

LOVE 80's production + I love BB's '85. Such a positive uplifting sounding record. Contains some of Carl's best work for sure.

I had such great hopes for the album after reading the Beach Boys interview in Musician Magazine. (any scans of that available btw?)

After picking it up back in the day, sure - Carl was a powerhouse on his tunes, but I got the feeling of a band still unsure of its studio bearings. You get that smooth Beckley, Lamm & Wilson sound juxtaposed with the obvious retro stuff like California Calling. Overall, it's a meh to me, although it has its moments. Can't say I reach for it very often, although I do like Getcha Back.

Funny how TWGMTR managed to walk that tight rope successfully without tipping over - Yacht Rock and Art Rock. Nothin' wrong with dat.

I think it's a bit underrated. Mostly, I look at it as a learning experience for Brian, a chance to learn how to record with this new technology; especially, an experiment whose outcome wasn't great but it taught him the ropes and allowed him to make his first solo album.

LOVE IT!!!!
Especially "I'm So Lonely"

Like It's Getting Late, Maybe I Don't Know, She Believes In Love Again and why California Calling wasn't released as a single is beyond me...the presence of Ringo and the obvious vintage-style verging on pastiche Beach Boys sound would surely have had Mr Love foaming at the mouth to make it a hit !

Don't understand the love for Getcha Back, though, and the rest of the album sounds like filler...

I lived through the 80's, listened to CHR at the time, so I had no problem with the synths and all. Songs are not quite as good as what turned up on BW88 three years later, but it feels like an album, not just a random collection of tracks, and It's Gettin' Late, Getcha Back and Where I Belong are outstanding. Carl was at his best here; Brian was on his way back. The worst thing about this album is that it turned out to be the last real BB's album - Still Cruisin' being a comp, and SIP being a Mike Love solo album with the BB's name on it. Edit: okay, TWGMTR is a real BB's album, and it appears will be the last. At least they ended strong.

Half of the album is crap. Half of the album is FANTASTIC! Therefore, yes under-rated indeed.

Most of it has not aged well.  Getcha Back is a latter-day classic, though.  And I do enjoy some songs, like I Do Love You (great Carl vocal), It's Just A Matter Of Time, I'm So Lonely (vintage Brian), and Male Ego...other than that, the rest I don't really care to listen to more than once or twice a year...

For me, if I approach it as a Beach Boys album, i.e. a follow-up album by the band who made Pet Sounds, Friends, Sunflower, Holland, then it suffers.

But if I listen in the context of Prince, Phil Collins, Heart, Cyndi Lauper, it makes sense and sounds pretty good. The Beach Boys did 80s music pretty well, considering that McCartney and Dylan and many others suuuucked for most of it.

Whoah, that sounds bitter!

I used to like the album more when the 80s weren't as far away yet as they are now and the sound had a bit more current feel to it. To judge it fairly, one really would have to listen to a Cyndi Lauper and a Joan Armatrading album first. I still like Getcha Back even though some of the lyrics are pretty bad and Mike's vocal could use some ProTools denasalator on it.

is bb'85 underrated?? hell, no.

I was really disappointed with "It's Just A Matter Of Time" after having heard a live version of it a couple of years earlier that our very-much-missed friend Les Chan gave me.  Brian sang it and it just rocked. The album version was like "huh"?  What the heck happened? What is this?"

It's among the worst they ever did. Getcha Back even sounds bad because Mike was in the peak of his bad whiney voice.  California Calling sounds like Beach Boys impersonators. The whole thing reminds me of the real downward spiral they took, and the self parody they became that turned a lot of people off. After '85 flopped, even they must have feared they would never have a decent album again. That's why the great parts of TWGMTR are even better than we think they are. Beaches in mind is one of the weaker tracks and it blows California Calling to smithereens. This whole last year from the boys has been a gift beyond belief. A great album, the tour, Mike sounding good again, David Marks  being back...............wow.

The Beach Boys 1985 is a lot like every Beach Boys' album before or since. It's overall merit is based on Brian Wilson's contributions, or lack of. When the dust settled after Dennis' death,  the focus (again) was on Brian returning to the fold. He lost a lot of weight, looked great, had Landy advocating for him, and, unfortunately to me anyway, came up with this new singing style.

What we got were boring songs, the first of his shouty vocals, and, extreme disappointment because we waited so long (5 years, which was long in those days) for songs like "It's Just A matter Of Time", "I'm So Lonely", "Male Ego", and whatever. To me, this was the biggest drop in Brian's quality of output. The magic was gone. Maybe it was taken away...

   

If by "underrated", you are implying that The Beach Boys has undertones of greatness, then no, this is not an underrated album.  The problem is the band has produced material that *is* great, and this album is nowhere near that level.

I suppose the best case you could make for it is by taking it for what it is: an ok guilty pleasure of 80's pop cheese.  I actually don't mind the album; Carl in particular shines nicely, and "Getcha Back" is a decent minor hit for them.  But considering this is the same band that released Pet Sounds, Today, Sunflower, etc., there is nothing "great" about this album.

The songwriting wasn't up to par, the production style didn't fit the band although the producer himself had done some excellent productions for groups like Culture Club (some of those are 80's classics, no doubt), and it is a shame because the song Getcha Back was a good single and a good song for the band. That single has actually stood the test of time, at least to my ears. It's too bad the other cuts on the album weren't as strong.

Can others hear the band sounding forced on vocals throughout this album? Their working methods didn't jell with the way hits were being recorded in the early 80's.

i liked it when it came out. still like to listen to it's getting late. but those damn videos!!!! what were they thinking? i am still haunted by them every time i listen to this lp.

I can totally dig this. It's the point when it's like 4pm on a nice Saturday afternoon and you're at home listening to Keepin' The Summer Alive or the '85 album. You realize you're in way too far. Or when you've scoured the internet looking for a mid '80s Wilson/Usher sessions outtake you remember where Brian sounding okay. You gotta step back, and realize there are probably better things to be doing with your life.


I understand what are you are saying about the "magic was gone" as far as Brian seemed with that album. And putting 2 and 2 together, one could hazard a guess that it was Landy's treatment that did it. I don't think that's it however, because I think the first signs of magical BW touch disintegrating were on Keepin' The Summer Alive. Where having a Brian song on an album no longer felt truly 'special' in any way. Songs like "Oh Darlin'" and "Some Of Your Love" strike me in the same way that "I'm So Lonely" or "It's Just Matter Of Time" do. However, for the '85 album I do think there is a lack of "magic" because he was saving his better material for his solo album.. I'm pretty sure he had stuff like "Melt Away", "There's So Many", "Water Builds Up", and others he could have contributed. So that's my take.

Well, Getcha Back, It's Getting late, Male Ego, Maybe I Don't Know, I'm so lonely and Where I belong are all pretty good to me, I'd say that's worth more then the 1-2 stars this album normally gets...

I don't think it's true that Brian was gone, at least I don't look at it that way. I think the truth is he had had writer's block and he was coming out of that and so his songs were naturally going to be less than stellar for a while...I think that a similar thing happened with 15 Big Ones, he was rusty and working that out. Same with BB88 only this time the rest of them let Carl put his songs in, which are professional and well-crafted if a bit on the adult contemporary side. And then rounded it all out with Stevie Wonder and Boy George, but I think both of those songs are ok 'lite' 80s style songs.

If this weren't a Beach Boys album I wouldn't go anywhere near it.

I love the production (yes, I said it), but the songwriting is just dull. Getcha Back is the only hit song on here, everything else is just 'meh'.

Aside from Male Ego (which is great), Brian's songs are dreadful throughout. However, just because Brian wasn't on form doesn't mean anyone should overlook his brother's excellent contributions. As i've said several times before, 'Where I Belong' is arguably the greatest BB track of the decade: gorgeous melody, stunning harmonies, terrific lead vocal. It's one of the most cruelly under-rated songs in their entire catalogue, and it deserves to be remembered and praised far more than it ever is. The same is almost true of 'It's Gettin' Late', another great song - whereas many of the BB'85 material now sounds woefully dated, Carl knew exactly how to put Levine's production techniques to good use, and his songs - though clearly still very much '80's tracks - have dated far better than the rest of the album. 'Maybe I Know' isn't as good, but 'I Do Love You' is brilliant, and again this is almost entirely down to Carl. It's a very good Stevie Wonder song, but Carl's heartfelt vocal really takes it to a whole other level. These three songs alone - I Do love You, It's Gettin' Late, and (especially) Where I Belong - make BB'85 for me, and they're certainly far better than anything, say, Keepin' The Summer Alive has to offer. 

Oh, and Getcha Back is crap.

Isn't that like saying "Pabst is the best out of all the cheap beers" ?   ;D

If I want yacht rock, I'll listen to Christopher Cross.

I think it's nowhere near as bad as Keepin' the Summer Alive and probably only half as good as the Light Album. In terms of overall sound and production I prefer Still Cruisin' over BB85, though the former could've used some more Brian songs of course. The use of synthesizers on BB85 strikes me as tepid and uninspired. Some of the songs are very, very good, though - Getcha Back, Male Ego, Where I Belong, It's Gettin' Late. The rest I think is either nice or downright throwaway. For some reason I have a bit of a soft spot for California Calling.

By the way, Bruce Johnston said at the time it's their best one since Sunflower!

Passing Friend is cool. No one mentions Passing Friend, and if they do, it's to say that Passing Friend is terrible.

I Do Love You could be about a minute shorter, but that's a pretty good imitation of the Stevie Wonder sound.

It's hard to admit it, because he didn't have the material that he deserved, but The Beach Boys 1985 might be Carl's best album vocally. I really think he was peaking vocally between 1979-1989, and he was also spectacular on Summer In Paradise, too.

Agreed, also, 2:21 at "It's Getting Late" is officially one of my favorite beach boys moments, the brass, the vocals... Awesome!

I enjoy listening to BB85, but I feel Where I Belong is the only song from it that could stand up to the Smiley Smile through Holland era.

"Passing Friend" is odd, because half of the time I can't stand the production and the vocals, but then I'll start getting into it, and then start hating it again. And that's not everytime I listen to the song, it happens about every thirty seconds in the song.

Maybe "Passing Friend" is about a minute too long. :police:

Like them both, probably my faves with Getcha Back.

Just to balance things out, I think 'Where I Belong' is bad and 'Male Ego' is the greatest BB song of the decade.

What I think might be interesting (enlightening, even) would be for '85 to receive a more modern-sounding remix, simliar to that of John Lennon / Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy (Stripped Down).

Now, you won't find a bigger Beatles / Lennon fan alive than I and though the original Double Fantasy sounds of its time, I was never one to find fault with its production.  That said, 'Stripped' was, in its own way, a revelation and I'm quite certain a similar treatment given to '85 could yield a bounty.  I think it's a darn shame it won't ever happen.

I hate reading threads like this, people tearing apart my favorite band.

Well, it was started to appreciate a less-then-loved chapter for the band... so....

What's even more frustrating is not knowing how THEY - The Beach Boys - felt about these recordings. There is just so little out there of them discussing, in depth, their past recordings.

Do the 'multi-tracks' even exist in playable format? It was recorded on junky early digital. In fact, I think it was one of the first (if not the first) all-digital recordings released (Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms' being the other).

Ry Cooder's Bop Til You Drop was the first, I believe.

yeh youre probably right ... i meant fully digital - D/D/D, i.e. released in digital form as well. This would be around '85.

You have got a very interesting taste in music

so.. youre right!!

Take the best of KTSA,and 85, add Somewhere near Japan, and you have a very fine album.  Very much BB and very listenable.

Gosh, Aegir, I really hope it wasn't my post directly before yours responsible for inspiring your hatred.  I simply think that a lot of value could be unearthed by presenting the album in a new light (similar, for example, to how reimagining 'heavy' songs in an acoustic format sometimes allows for the beauty of a composition to shine through more readily).  Personally, I'm not one to ever try to 'tear apart' any artist or their works, particularly an act I'm as fond of as I am with the Beach Boys.

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Goin' On
Endless Harmony
Getcha Back
Passing Friend (shortened version)
I Do Love You
California Dreamin'
Happy Endings
Kokomo
Somewhere Near Japan

Wow, this just makes me want an official best-of-the-eighties comp.

I didn't know you were the kind of person that wasn't able to judge the fact that sometimes his favorite band put out stuff that sucks. Sorry, but the '85 album is nowhere near Pet Sounds. Shoot it's nowhere near L.A.


Honestly, I don't even remember what "Where I Belong" sounds like, but I'd probably have to agree with ol' Donny and say "Male Ego" is the best Beach Boys song of the '80s. At least the best Brian written Beach Boys song of the '80s. I suppose "Goin' On" is up there, and maybe there is something on the box set that will prove me wrong, but yeah I agree with Donny.

Stevie.

No, it's actually just a coincidence that you were the last post in this thread... I was responding to the thread as a whole, your post was one of the nicer ones.

Perhaps it can objectively be said Pet Sounds is a better album. Sure, why not. But just because Pet Sounds is great doesn't mean BB'85 is bad. What does one have to do with the other? Why is it so strange to like a band's entire discography?

Why is it so strange to not like a band's entire discography, particularly when the styles, sounds, producers, eras, vary so greatly? Especially considering how few Beach Boys fans highly rate certain albums?
Value being in the minority, man! I wish I liked BB85. I honestly think it is awful. But most mainstream music from that decade was.

This works well for me. I like it.

It's sad, even when cutting and pasting the best tracks from this era together, it's still the kind of "worst case scenario" album you'd imagine the band who gave us all of those great '60s and '70s records would give us. That being said, it was the '80s and the Beach Boys were definitely not the only band to fall victim to the pitfalls of that decade. Lahaina Aloha, while not an '80s song, is perhaps the only redeemable part of SIP so I've chucked it on this list so it has a home.

Getcha Back
Somewhere Near Japan (single version)
It's Gettin' Late
Calirfonia Dreamin'
Lahaina Aloha
Goin' On

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Kokomo
Some of Your Love
She Believes in Love Again
Where I Belong
Endless Harmony

If the success of Kokomo was backed with an album of this quality, I could imagine it being a huge hit actually.

Again, you're all leaving out Where I Belong which to me is utter lunacy. It is just a tremendous Carl song - in terms of melody, vocals, everything - and it's by far the best produced and least dated track on BB'85. What am I hearing that you people aren't?

*Ahem*  ;D

Stevie might just be the best thing the Beach Boys did in the 80s, and it's not even technically The Beach Boys. Go figure!