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What is your favourite Beach Boys album from the 70s?

My favourite is Sunflower. All of it is great.

1.Sunflower
2.Holland
3.Carl and The Passions- "So Tough"
4.Surf's Up
5.Love You/15 Big Ones tied

Post what your favourite is.

1. Love You
2. Holland
3. Surfs Up
4. Sunflower
5. So Tough

Love You
Sunflower
Surf's Up
Holland
CATP

At the moment Surf's Up is my favourite, but that could change anytime.

From my Least Favourite to My Favourite:

08. 15 Big Ones.
07. M.I.U. Album.
06. Holland.
05. L.A. Light Album.
04. Love You.
03. Carl And The Passions: "So Tough!"
02. Sunflower.
01. Surf's Up.

Though really the top 6 are excellent IMHO

‍

You know what would make great threads similar to this?

Favourite Pre-Pet Sounds Album
Favourite Post-SMiLE 60's Album
Pet Sounds vs Pacific Ocean Blue
Favourite 1980-onwards BB's Album

Wonder if someone will be interested enough to make them?

I'd do them

1.) Sunflower
2.) Love You
3.) Surf's Up
4.) Holland
5.) So Tough
6.) LA
7.) MIU
8.) 15 Big Ones

Sunflower, with Holland and Surf's Up just slightly behind it.

Sunflower and Love You by miles.

Only 1!

1. L.A.light album
2. Carl and the passions: so tough
3. Love you
4. Surf's up
5. Sunflower
6. MIU
7. Holland
8. 15 big ones

1. Surf's Up
2. Holland
3. Love You
4. Sunflower
5. Carl and the Passions
6. In Concert
7. L.A. Light Album
8. M.I.U.
9. 15 Big Ones

You sir, are very brave.

You sir, are very honest. Appreciated.

1. Sunflower
2. Surf's up
3. Carl and the passions: so tough
4. Holland
5. 15 big ones
6. L.A.light album
7. Love you
8. MIU

No you made a mistake. L.A comes after MIU. LA was 1979, MIU was 78.   ;D

1. Sunflower
2. Love You
3. MIU
4. Surfs Up
5. Passions
6. Holland
7. Big Ones
8. L.A

Probably the toughest call out of these three polls.  I went with Sunflower first mainly because it has excellent top-tier songs as well as quality control.  Surf's Up might even have a better top-tier but offers fewer songs and more inconsistency.  With the track changes that were possible at the time, it could have actually won this.  Love You is actually relatively consistent, and while I love the imperfect vocals for what they are I can't help but think how some of these might have fared in earlier times.  Then there's Holland, which is probably one of their most consistent albums but only a few songs go above good/great.  Any of these four would get consideration in a top 5 Beach Boys album poll for me, so it was very tough.  Everything else after that is pretty straight-forward in my opinion.

1. Sunflower (1970)
2. Love You (1977)
3. Surf's Up (1971)
4. Holland (1973)
5. Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972)
6. 15 Big Ones (1976)
7. M.I.U. Album (1978)
8. L.A. (Light Album) (1979)

1. Sunflower (by far....their last cohesive album in my book)
2. Surf's Up (half good, the other half tolerable to wtf?)
3. The rest are dead to me

Sunflower.

1.Sunflower
2.Surf's Up
3.Holland
4.Carl and the Passions
5.Love You
6.15 Big Ones

I'm not very familiar with LA and MIU.  :-[

1. Love You
2. Surf's Up
3. Sunflower

Those are the only ones I like.

Top 5 in order..  1} Sunflower   2} Surfs Up   3} Holland   4} Love you   5} LA

08. 15 Big Ones - shame this is what was released when the US was ready to embrace them again
07. M.I.U. - kinda have to agree with what Dennis Wilson said about this album and Mike's karma
06. Carl and The Passions "So Tough!" - nice album but doesn't sound like the BB - shows them clearly as 2 fragmented subgroups
05. L.A. Light Album - Dennis tracks alone get it to #5, the others are dreck (hello Sumahama & disco Here Comes the Night)
04. Holland - I personally like the flow of this album and the homesick Al/Mike California tributes, but overall a mixed back of good with bad tracks
03. Surf's Up - I actually think this is an overrated album (makes its way on the 500 albums you must listen to before you die, etc--not in their 10 best overall, but 3rd best here)
02. The Beach Boys Love You - gem of an album that creates a great vibe all its own with Brian and the Moog
01. Sunflower - great balanced album with equal contributions by all band members

1. Sunflower - One of the albums I listen to most by the band. I really love the way this album sounds - a million thanks to Mr. Desper. Also, all the tracks are great and this is a very consistent album (besides those pesky GtKtW and IAT tracks). My favorites are probably "All I Wanna Do," "Deirdre," "This Whole World," and "Cool, Cool Water."

2. Love You - This album was the essence of Brian - quirky, yet intriguing. The music is pretty interesting, the lyrics are earnest, and the voices are insane - they all sound like they've gone through some stuff. A wonderful, hidden gem unlike anything else from the mid-70s. My favorites are "I'll Bet He's Nice," "Solar System," "Let Us Go On This Way," and "Mona." Oh, and "Good Time."

3. Surf's Up - Probably the highest highs of any Beach Boy album in the 70s (that last, three-song run is fantastic). I like all the songs here: DGNtW has an awesome chorus melody "toothpaste and soap will make the oceans a bubble bath" and, of course, that coda is awesome; TaLOYF is a silly track - sure - but it's fun, and that's good enough for me; SDT has awesome guitar playing and one of Mike's best lines, "The pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for a gun" (which he promptly ruins with the "bachelor of bullets"-thing). This is also Carl's finest hour as a songwriter and tunesmith. My favorites would be "'Til I Die," "Feel Flows," "Disney Girl (1957)," and "A Day in the Life of a Tree."

This is where quality falls off.

4. Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" - A fine album in it's own right, but certainly a step down from its immediate predecessor. Nothing is downright terrible, but few tracks stand out for me. The Ricky and Blondie stuff is decent, but nothing too unique. One of the odder moments on a Beach Boy records is a gospel song, but, hey, they have the vocal abilities to pull it off - and they do. Dennis's stuff is fine, with "Make It Good" being the more interesting of the two ("Cuddle Up" sounds like stereotypical Dennis to me). Brian's rockers are nice stuff, too, but nothing too exceptional, although they are interesting, considering how different they were than Brian's typical thoroughfare. The best track on this album, surprisingly, has no Brian involvement: "All This is That" - a wonderfully produced song. My favorites are "All This Is That," both of Brian's tunes, and "He Come Down."

5. 15 Big Ones - One of the more maligned/forgotten albums in the canon. I think it deserves some critical re-evaluation. I would love to be able to hear more of those backing tracks, they sound quite interesting and different. There are some good songs here and this album definitely has a certain charm to it. My favorite tracks are "Had to Phone Ya," "Just Once in My Life," and "Back Home."

6. Holland - Quite boring. They sound tired here - unimaginative, even. It sounds like your standard 70s rock band: earthy. I hardly ever listen to this album and for the life of me, I can never remember what "Leaving This Town" is. Dennis' tracks are fine enough, and I like that he was getting a bit more experimental with "Steamboat" and moving away from what you would normally expect from him. "Sail On, Sailor" is nice, too, but I can't help but wish that a Wilson brother had put down a lead (and that it was released) for this song. Anyway, it's just an unexceptionable album to my ears. My favorite tracks are "Funky Pretty," "The Trader," "California Saga: California," and "Sail On, Sailor."

I can't rate either MIU or L.A. (Light Album) because I haven't listened to either.

Sunflower.

I hope Capitol's taking note of Sunflower's runaway popularity and readying the Deluxe package for release already…

Big Sur 4/4 bonus track

Yeah, I'd love to see that officially released. But why stop there?

If the powers above do decide to release a deluxe package, I'd love to see them add most if not all the stuff still unreleased from that period! (Such as I'm Going Your Way). Plus songs that have already been released from that era but are available elsewhere (Like Loop De Loop, Shunshine, etc.). Not to mention outtakes, alternate versions (Great example being Tears In The Morning), live performances, etc.

So much potential...

I'm going to shock you:

1. Love You (1977)               
2. Holland (1973)
3. 15 Big Ones (1976)                   
4. Sunflower (1970)
5. Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972)
6. Surf's Up (1971)
7. M.I.U. Album (1978)
8. L.A. (Light Album) (1979)

I find Sunflower hard to place anywhere. It's a masterpiece, in it's own way. But I don't find it that cohesive of an album. And sorry, but 15 Big Ones just kills!

1. Sunflower - Saccharine and concise, I love it
2. Holland - Earthy and rambling, I love it.
3. Love You - I love it.
4. Surf's Up - Some great songs and some good songs. Just doesn't grab me as an album that much in spite of the top-notch material.
5. Carl and the Passions - Some say scattershot, I say eclectic.
6. MIU - My first non-Pet Sounds Beach Boys album and I'm afraid I'll never be impartial; I love it.
7. LA - Like CATP it's disjointed and feels like none of the members are working together. That's irrelevant though really, good songs.
8. 15 Big Ones - Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure there's more to it than I can hear, it just requires work.

1. The Beach Boys in Concert

If it weren't for Tears in Mourning and Got to Got to Got to Got to Got to Know A Woman, my pick would hands-down be Sunflower. The production on Sunflower is immaculate, it's full of some of their best songs...but the flow of that album is, to me, ruined by a couple songs that shouldn't be on there.

Gotta go with Holland - flows perfectly, not one offensive song on it, and it has one of the best tag songs of any Beach Boys album.

It's funny that some people love Sunflower for the exact same reason they dislike 20/20.  Also, I'm sure some of the "odd" votes to some of the less popular albums were picked with the same bizarre "logic" that had people vote for something other than their "FAVORITE TRACK" in the Survivor threads.   ::)

Love You is my fave of the 70's.

Holland. By far.

For me, Sunflower, CATP, Surf' Up and Holland are closer to the late 60s output than the late 70s stuff. LA nearly makes it, but that's based more on the songs it could have included rather than MOST of what was actually on there. Then again, we could have had a version that included Calendar Girl... The only post Holland albums to touch this era in terms of quality are POB and to a lesser extent, BW88.

1. Surf's Up
2. Sunflower
3. Holland
4. Love You

Haven't heard any of the others, save for a few select tracks.

Carl and the Passions and M.I.U. are definitely worth checking out. CATP is one of the best sounding Beach Boys albums, and as much as people trash MIU it's actually a pretty good selection of songs.

I'll check 'em out. Thanks for recommending them.

1) Sunflower   
2) Surf's Up
3) M.I.U.  (Yes, this one is a legitimate option.)
4) Love You
5) Carl and the Passions- So Tough
6) Holland
7) 15 Big Ones
8) L.A.

Love You, followed by Holland and then Sunflower.

Sunflower

For me, Dennis' rockers easily give Sunflower the edge over Surf's Up,

It's either Love You or Sunflower for me (voted for the former). Two totally different albums and I love them both. They did some great stuff in between but on some albums they were probably trying a little hard to be hippies/rockers. Worked amazingly well most of the time but occasionally it doesn't seem all that genuine to me from today's perspective. Anyway, it's not a complaint, I even love most of CATP. 15BO and Light Album are totally underrated as far as I'm concerned, while M.I.U. never really clicked with me.

Surf's Up!----IMO their best album, period.

that pretty much says it/ altho I always liked holland ,its beyond known that the BBs output in the 70s peaked with sunflower; surfs up was decent, holland was decent and love you is a brian wilson album with the BBs name on it...

true. Sunflower marked an end of an era. Miu, light album and keepin the summer were albums made up of older sessions, remakes and various misc/ holland was the last solid group effort

No, that's wrong.

Also, 1970 does not belong to the 60's - at all.
The 60's is 1960-1969, which is a length of ten years and therefore constitutes a decade.

You're at 999 posts.

What, no, it's not a Wiki source.
How you think nineteen-seventy belongs to the nineteen-sixties and not the nineteen-seventies is baffling to me.

Funniest sh*t I've read in a long time.

Sunflower definitly the strongest album of the 70s... Surfs Up was good cuz of Til I Die, I always liked Holland/// isnt it fair to say Holland was the end of an era? When they came back with 15 big Ones and Love You it was the new reniassance of rockNroll- the Ramones Rocket to Russia had BBs homage all over it right£€£€£

I think In Concert and Child Of Winter marked the end of an era. And Surf's Up was good because of 'Til I Die.... and the title track, Long Promised Road, Feel Flows, A Day In The Life Of A Tree.... pretty much everything except Take A Load Off Your Feet

1. Sunflower
2. Holland
3. Love You

The last truly great Beach Boys albums (much as I like TWGMTR...).

This.

Sunflower is my favorite Beach Boys album, so I have to vote for it. 

Surf's Up and Holland and close. 

Love You is the one I listen to most, went out of my way to buy on vinyl, and consider the "best" album of the lot. But in my mind its really a Brian Wilson solo album featuring the Beach Boys. Holland is their best album as a collective band, the last time they really moved forward as a studio entity, and what I would most imagine a 70s BB album should/would sound like. So I begrudgingly gave it my vote.

So far it's Sunflower, like almost everybody else, but I'm not really 'up' to that yet.  I'm trying to take it all in chronologically, and properly.  I'm currently up to The Beach Boys Party, which is damn good  (except for one really annoying chick in the background).

Yeah!

Surf's Up, LY, M.I.U. Some big favorites in these.

I love Love You, but I also really enjoy M.I.U., 15 Big Ones, and Sunflower/Surf's Up/Holland era rank after those only because those albums contain tracks that I don't listen to very much (such as Sunny CA, Steamboat, Demonstration Time, Deidre, Got to Know the Woman, among others.  I don't really have a reason why I don't like them as much as the later period that's just how I feel right now.   8)

Sunflower
Holland
So Tough
Surf's Up
Love You
MIU
15 Big ones

large gap

LA Light.