The delay of MIU's release...

[Gabo]

Masterpieces take time.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Had the Beatles released something like that as a comeback album, it would have damaged their image permanently.

IMHO: Had they rerecorded the whole Love You album at MIU in that recording style, it would have been a great album.

I think Love You did damage The Beach Boys severely; at the very least it stopped the momentum of the Endless Summer/Spirit Of America releases, and that was huge. 15 Big Ones hurt them badly, despite the good sales of the album and "Rock And Roll Music". There were no hit singles on Love You, and the album didn't hang around on the charts for very long. 15 Big Ones left many fans scratching their heads, but Love You just had too many WTF moments. The "Brian Is Back" era was basically over.

l can't tell you how many times I wish Brian would've sung on Love You the way he did on M.I.U., but just the singing. The production style on Love You is fine...I love it. Also, I don't think it was the quirkiness of Love You that did it in. The subject matter on Love You was right up The Beach Boys' alley. It's just that Brian and Dennis' vocals were hard to stomach (even though we diehards still embrace them! ).

[Nicko1234]

I think M.I.U. did damage The Beach Boys severely; at the very least it stopped the momentum of the Endless Summer/Spirit Of America releases, and that was huge. 15 Big Ones hurt them badly, despite the good sales of the album and "Rock And Roll Music". There were no hit singles on Love You, and the album didn't hang around on the charts for very long. 15 Big Ones left many fans scratching their heads, but Love You just had too many WTF moments. The "Brian Is Back" era was basically over.

l can't tell you how many times I wish Brian would've sung on Love You the way he did on M.I.U., but just the singing. The production style on Love You is fine...I love it. Also, I don't think it was the quirkiness of Love You that did it in. The subject matter on Love You was right up The Beach Boys' alley. It's just that Brian and Dennis' vocals were hard to stomach (even though we diehards still embrace them! ).

Honkin Down the Highway certainly.

Not sure about some of the rest...

[Sheriff John Stone]

I think M.I.U. did damage The Beach Boys severely; at the very least it stopped the momentum of the Endless Summer/Spirit Of America releases, and that was huge. 15 Big Ones hurt them badly, despite the good sales of the album and "Rock And Roll Music". There were no hit singles on Love You, and the album didn't hang around on the charts for very long. 15 Big Ones left many fans scratching their heads, but Love You just had too many WTF moments. The "Brian Is Back" era was basically over.

l can't tell you how many times I wish Brian would've sung on Love You the way he did on M.I.U., but just the singing. The production style on Love You is fine...I love it. Also, I don't think it was the quirkiness of Love You that did it in. The subject matter on Love You was right up The Beach Boys' alley. It's just that Brian and Dennis' vocals were hard to stomach (even though we diehards still embrace them! ).

Honkin Down the Highway certainly.

Not sure about some of the rest...

All of the songs on Side 1 would've fit on an early period Beach Boys' album. Side 2 is where it begins to get "out there", but you still have the fairly "normal" 'The Night Was So Young", "I'll Bet He's Nice", "Let's Put Our Hearts Together", and "Airplane".

[Mike's Beard]

It's not the production that bothers me about Love You - I love rough, whacked out music and when it works it's great, farty sythns an' all. It's just that some of the song writing is absolutely atrocious. Solar System, Let's Put Our Hearts Together, Love is a Woman and I Wanna Pick You Up to me, are worse than anything off SIP. No amount of turd polishing could have saved them. I also think Good Time should have had a contempary re-recording.

[SMiLE Brian]

Even at its worst moments, love you is as strangely catchy as BW's glory years work.

[Micha]

IMHO: Had they rerecorded the whole Love You album at MIU in that recording style, it would have been a great album.

Aside from personal preference with regards to singing style and arrangements, this wouldn't have fit the Love You material at all I think.

IMHO, no song should ever get the treatment the Love You songs got... The style is certainly unique, and nobody did anything like that before or after - for a good reason.

The M.I.U. production style is perfect for meh stuff like Sweet Sunday (which I do enjoy, to a certain extent),

This is not that good an example, as Sweet Sunday Kind Of Love suffers from an extremely 70s-cliché arrangement, as does Matchpoint, even more so. Both are songs that I skip when listening to MIU. A much less "typical 70s" sound have She's Got Rhythm, Woncha Come Out Tonight, and Pitter Patter, for example. I'd appreciate the Love You album much more would it sound like those three songs.

Of course, the songs would be even better had they been recorded years before. I could imagine Love Is A Woman with a Sunflower like arrangement, The Night Was So Young on Pet Sounds, or Let Us Go On This Way with a neat driving Wrecking Crew backing track on Today!

It's not the production that bothers me about Love You - I love rough, whacked out music and when it works it's great, farty sythns an' all. It's just that some of the song writing is absolutely atrocious.

Ha, my opinion is the exact opposite of yours!

[adamghost]

LIGHT ALBUM was actually the album that won me over to the Beach Boys.  I needed to hear them in a contemporary, dignified, non-surf light to appreciate what was cool about them.  The first Beach Boys albums I was exposed to were L.A., SURF'S UP and PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE.  Which should make a little sense of where my aesthetic is at.  I "got" Carl and Dennis way before I got Brian.  They were just more in tune with the times that I grew up in.

So yeah, LOVE YOU is a genius album compositionally, but I remember hearing it at the time and going WTF is this?  In the context of 1981 (when I heard it), it just sounded sloppy and amateurish.  The Human League were only just happening.

[alf wiedersehen]

I'd appreciate the Love You album much more would it sound like those three songs.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Then it wouldn't be Love You anymore, and Love You is a wonderful thing.

Of course we both see it differently, but I wouldn't change a thing about that album.

[joshferrell]

what was the difference, in track listing, between MIU and the original "California Feeling" album?

[Micha]

I'd appreciate the Love You album much more would it sound like those three songs.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Then it wouldn't be Love You anymore,

Hehe, yes, that's the plan.

In a perfect world they had two versions of the material out: "Brian Loves You" (for you) and "The Beach Boys Love You", rerecorded sounding like the MIU tracks I mentioned (for me).

[Andrew G. Doe]

what was the difference, in track listing, between MIU and the original "California Feeling" album?

unreleased albums

That's the second master, prepared 12/29/77, five days after the first one, which also included "Shortenin' Bread" and "It's Over Now".

[Micha]

I was about to ask that too yesterday, but then I remembered what is always written below your posts... and went there.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Let you into a secret: don't tell anyone, but Carol Kaye's right - I make most of this sh*t up on the fly.  

[Autotune]

It's not the production that bothers me about Love You - I love rough, whacked out music and when it works it's great, farty sythns an' all. It's just that some of the song writing is absolutely atrocious. Solar System, Let's Put Our Hearts Together, Love is a Woman and I Wanna Pick You Up to me, are worse than anything off SIP. No amount of turd polishing could have saved them. I also think Good Time should have had a contempary re-recording.

Solar System is a masterfully-crafted song. As simple as it may sound, as naif as its subject matter may seem.

LIGHT ALBUM was actually the album that won me over to the Beach Boys.  I needed to hear them in a contemporary, dignified, non-surf light to appreciate what was cool about them.  The first Beach Boys albums I was exposed to were L.A., SURF'S UP and PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE.  Which should make a little sense of where my aesthetic is at.  I "got" Carl and Dennis way before I got Brian.  They were just more in tune with the times that I grew up in.

So yeah, LOVE YOU is a genius album compositionally, but I remember hearing it at the time and going WTF is this?  In the context of 1981 (when I heard it), it just sounded sloppy and amateurish.  The Human League were only just happening.

Funny. LA Album is one of the few I only listen to because it has the BBs name on it. Would have never cared for it hadn't it fit into the band's saga and catalogue. Most of their albums, I would dig if they had been recorded by any other artist. But LA, and a couple others, I can only relate to because I'm familiar with the artist . I think LA lacks most traits that I keep looking for on BB recordings.

[joshferrell]

what was the difference, in track listing, between MIU and the original "California Feeling" album?

unreleased albums

That's the second master, prepared 12/29/77, five days after the first one, which also included "Shortenin' Bread" and "It's Over Now".

cool thanks 

[bgas]

Let you into a secret: don't tell anyone, but Carol Kaye's right - I make most of this sh*t up on the fly.  

If only!

[VanDykeParksAndRec]

The only part of Love You I cringe at is the guitar bends on TNWSY.

over and over and over and over

Whenever I play it, it leaves my friends (who really dig the BB's) so confused. Not a group listening album for most people.

[Mike's Beard]

Talking about this inspired me to listen to Love You today and I still stand by what's good is great and what's bad is unbelievably bad. They never made another album with such a wide divide in the quality of the material.

[kookadams]

When someone undermines MIU they mean in comparison to older BBs albums/ as far as albums go in 1977/8 its a pretty solid one. And considering how awful mainstream rock was at that time with the exception of the Ramones and very few others like the Dickies etc.