When was the last time Brian legitimately called the shots on the production of an album the way he did on Love You, do we know? The 2004 SMiLE doesn't count, cause that was just a copy of production he'd done 40 years earlier. From what I've seen on the TLOS dvd, sure, he's in the booth, but you get the sense that the band plays a really large role in determining how each song sounds, and then Brian sort of gives feedback. I'd love to be wrong, so please tell me if I am.

In some ways (and I'll tread lightly here), I feel like the last three BW releases have felt more like someone imitating the sound of Pet Sounds and SMiLE rather than pushing forward into new territory. ITKOD was basically "The Pet Sound Boys Play 'When You Wish Upon a Star' and Other Disney Favorites". Don't get me wrong, I love the last three albums, but I hate to think that Brian truly thinks bass harmonica and vibraphone are the most appropriate instruments for every song ever written. Say what you will about Love You, but it was a legitimately new sound for them.

On the one hand, I'd be fascinated to learn where his creative mind would take him production-wise if he had a room full of musicians who wouldn't play a note until he told them how he wanted it to sound. On the other, it's a huge gamble on the part of those around him, because you never know when he's going to bring you something so bizarre that it's unmarketable.

Sigh. Can't believe my first post here is going to be about "Smart Girls"...

The song is ridiculous, but somehow it's just totally Brian for me. To my mind, actually sitting down and dedicating time to recording that song is not terribly different from doing the same with "Shortenin' Bread" or "Ding Dang", or, God help us all, "Santa's Got an Airplane". It's the kind of song which works as an example no matter what your thesis about Brian's post-SMiLE work may be. If you think he lost it and that, say, Love You is absolute dreck, this song solidifies that opinion. If you think he has a very funny, very dry sense of humor, and that he was being funny all of the times when he's just sort of burst out with a non-sequitur in the middle of a concert or interview, this song works as a big put-on too. If you think Landy was responsible for every poor artistic decision he made during those years, it works for that, because his name is on there.

I do seem to remember him talking about it in that interview when he was on the cooking show. He was very animated in that interview IIRC, and he even delivered the first "My name is Brian and I'm the man" part, after which I seem to remember the crowd cheering. Which probably made Brian think "hey, yeah, they like it!" because he's Brian.

The whole set of Sweet Insanity tracks to me is pretty much required listening if you want to have a full picture of Brian as an artist. It sort of provides the context for something like TLOS being a small miracle, really.

As long as we're discussing Brian's weird outtakes, I say next up should be "Life is for the Living".  

Thank you! And welcome to the madness that is smileymsile.  

Hey don't knock Life Is For The Living - 'don't sit on your ass smoking grass' is such a great line that it just makes the entire song for me! As for Smart Girls, it's just so so breath-takingly dreadful that it's enjoyable, in much the same way as, say, a song by The Scatman or MC Hammer is. The bit when it goes 'God only knows - where I'd be without smart girls' makes me both simultaneously laugh out loud and cringe every time i hear it.

No disrespect meant for "Life is for the Living". I quite enjoy all of Adult/Child. But let's face it, those big band tracks are kind of an anomaly in their catalogue, unless you count the Mantovani-sounding Side 2 of their Christmas album. I can't help but picture Carl with top hat and tails, with a really skinny microphone, playing at the Copa or something.

Do people in general feel like "Smart Girls" is sort of a blight on an otherwise middling group of songs that make up Sweet Insanity? Or is the entire album a bust for people?

I'll use Spotify or Rdio to listen to it in the car and at work, then I'll get the vinyl when it comes out. Even if the mastering is identical, I just want to be able to line it up next to the vinyl copies of everything else Brian's done. Well, other than Imagination, which to my knowledge has never been pressed on vinyl.

One of the most glaring problems with the samples is that they're almost never in the same key as the rest of the song, so it sounds like an amateur remix found online or something. There are ways of musically quoting earlier hits in a song and making it work. Ringo's "Back Off Boogaloo" springs to mind.

Sigh. Can't believe my first post here is going to be about "Smart Girls"...

The song is ridiculous, but somehow it's just totally Brian for me. To my mind, actually sitting down and dedicating time to recording that song is not terribly different from doing the same with "Shortenin' Bread" or "Ding Dang", or, God help us all, "Santa's Got an Airplane". It's the kind of song which works as an example no matter what your thesis about Brian's post-SMiLE work may be. If you think he lost it and that, say, Love You is absolute dreck, this song solidifies that opinion. If you think he has a very funny, very dry sense of humor, and that he was being funny all of the times when he's just sort of burst out with a non-sequitur in the middle of a concert or interview, this song works as a big put-on too. If you think Landy was responsible for every poor artistic decision he made during those years, it works for that, because his name is on there.

I do seem to remember him talking about it in that interview when he was on the cooking show. He was very animated in that interview IIRC, and he even delivered the first "My name is Brian and I'm the man" part, after which I seem to remember the crowd cheering. Which probably made Brian think "hey, yeah, they like it!" because he's Brian.

The whole set of Sweet Insanity tracks to me is pretty much required listening if you want to have a full picture of Brian as an artist. It sort of provides the context for something like TLOS being a small miracle, really.

As long as we're discussing Brian's weird outtakes, I say next up should be "Life is for the Living".