Twofer polls #1: MIU vs LA

[rogerlancelot]

LA, no contest. The only thing salvageable from MIU is "My Diane" and the only absolute clunker for me on LA is "Sumahama" (serious dentist chair music).

[Paulos]

The rest are just awful, especially Kona Coast.

Oh come on, it's the song Hawaii could have been! Great drum sound and drumming, too.

See, I love Hawaii but Kona Coast just grates on me!

[The Shift]

LA .... Why are we even having this conversation?!?!

[seltaeb1012002]

Ooh man, that's a tough one.

"Love Surrounds Me" is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs period.. but then again so is "My Diane".

"Angel Come Home" is fantastic, but so is "Sweet Sunday Kind Of Love".

"Baby Blue" is genius, but I get just as much listening pleasure out of "Match Point Of Our Love".

Point being, there's stuff on MIU that can stand up to the best moments of LA. And MIU has the upbeat, fun element going for it.

I love em both, but I'm gonna have to lean towards MIU.

(dodges flying tomatoes)

[Eric Aniversario]

LA by far!  LA is actually my favorite studio LP right after Friends!

[hypehat]

I actually have quite a bit of time for MIU, but the lows are much, much lower than L.A.

I mean, She's Got Rhythm - surely candidate for worst vocals on a Beach Boys cut, never mind Bri's absolutely dreadful falsetto, but Mike's lead sounds like he's drunk and had the lyrics thrown in front of him as they rolled the tape. The backing vocals also suck.

Hey Little Tomboy. f*** that song. Same with Kona Coast. Both the products of absolute insanity.

Whilst Come Go With Me is a great cover (wish Al had left more of BW's ridiculous OTT arrangement in), Peggy Sue is limp as hell.

Really dig Wontcha Come Out Tonight. Whatever the hell they're doing in the intro with their voices - A+ Not much of a song, really. But it's charming.

Sweet Sunday Kinda Love - YES.

Belles of Paris - NO. Again, hate all the vocals. It's a pretty enough chord sequence, but POUNDING BW CHORDS don't do it justice. And the lyrics. Dear Jesus.

Pitter Patter - Even though it sounds like Mike and Al wrote this without consulting each other at all, this is great. Al lays it down. Dig the slide on the second verse. Would love to hear a 'big' sound on this. Maybe I'll cover it.

My Diane - Yeah, either this or PP are the best thing here. Dennis, man. He tears into that somewhat trite chorus and you FEEL THAT.

Match Point is kinda cool. If it wasn't about tennis. Great chords. Never want to listen to it, mind.

Winds Of Change. Yuck. Yuck Yuck. Mawkish f***ery.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

The rest are just awful, especially Kona Coast.

Oh come on, it's the song Hawaii could have been! Great drum sound and drumming, too.

See, I love Hawaii but Kona Coast just grates on me!

I'd assumed the 'it's the song Hawaii could have been!' comment was being ironic... Kona Coast has no redeeming features whatsoever. Garbage.

[Mr. Cohen]

I look at "Belles of Paris" as a latter day "Salt Lake City".

[KittyKat]

Did the do a promo video for "Matchpoint of Our Love," or did some fan assemble it with found footage from the era and set the song to it?  I found it on YouTube.  It's kind of cool to see all the band together including Dennis, and they all look pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qb9vV-H9ec

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

I like both, but prefer MIU.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Did the do a promo video for "Matchpoint of Our Love," or did some fan assemble it with found footage from the era and set the song to it?  I found it on YouTube.  It's kind of cool to see all the band together including Dennis, and they all look pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qb9vV-H9ec

Fan made. Song doesn't go with the clip.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

I talked about them in the other thread, but perhaps the best way to demonstrate how I feel about each album respectively is to rank all the songs. 

Good Timin'
Pitter Patter
Wontcha Come Out Tonight
Baby Blue
Kona Coast
She's Got Rhythm
Lady Lynda
Sweet Sunday Kinda Love
Belles of Paris
My Diane
Angel Come Home
Come Go With Me
Love Surrounds Me
Sumahama
Match Point of Our Love
Hey Little Tomboy
Peggy Sue
Winds of Change
Full Sail
Shortenin' Bread
Goin' South
Here Comes the Night

[Magic Transistor Radio]

If I were introducing the Beach Boys to a hipper then thou person, I would show them LA way before MIU. But I would have to say that MIU has more songs on it that I like. Much of LA is boring to me outside of Good Timin, Baby Blue, Angel Come Home and Shortnen Bread. Full Sail, Lady Lynda and Sumahama are pretty, but boring. MIU does have more corny songs though. So this was a hard decision to make. So I had to choose MIU.

[thatjacob]

I've gone into my reasons why I choose MIU over LA in the other thread, but I absolutely love Brian's shot falsetto on "She's Got Rhythm". Probably the most rock 'n' thing they did in that era. Then again, I've always been a fan of leaving in flaws in recordings.

[petsite]

I Love I Love I Love My Calendar Girl...........

[shelter]

LA.

I think MIU is a more enjoyable album as a whole. It's not unpleasant as background music and nothing's terrible. LA is a bit of a mess, stylistically all over the place and with some pretty extreme high and low points. I usually skip songs when I listen to LA but not when I listen to MIU. LA gets my vote though for several reasons. One: nothing on MIU comes even remotely close to Good Timin', Lady Lynda and Baby Blue, those are really good songs. Two: it at least tries to be creative and progressive. Three: much more involvement from Dennis and Carl.

[buddhahat]

I talked about them in the other thread, but perhaps the best way to demonstrate how I feel about each album respectively is to rank all the songs.  

Good Timin'
Pitter Patter
Wontcha Come Out Tonight
Baby Blue
Kona Coast
She's Got Rhythm
Lady Lynda
Sweet Sunday Kinda Love
Belles of Paris
My Diane
Angel Come Home
Come Go With Me
Love Surrounds Me
Sumahama
Match Point of Our Love
Hey Little Tomboy
Peggy Sue
Winds of Change
Full Sail
Shortenin' Bread
Goin' South
Here Comes the Night

My list is not a million miles from yours:

Matchpoint
Wontcha Come Out Tonight
Baby Blue
Sweet Sunday Kind Of Love
Pitter Patter
My Diane
Love Surrounds Me
Kona Coast
Good Timin
Belles Of Paris
Hey Little Tomboy
She's Got Rhythm
Angel Come Home
Come Go With Me
Shortenin Bread
Sumahama
Peggy Sue
Lady Lynda
Full Sail
Goin South
Winds Of Change
Here Comes The Night

LA.

I think MIU is a more enjoyable album as a whole. It's not unpleasant as background music and nothing's terrible. LA is a bit of a mess, stylistically all over the place and with some pretty extreme high and low points. I usually skip songs when I listen to LA but not when I listen to MIU. LA gets my vote though for several reasons. One: nothing on MIU comes even remotely close to Good Timin', Lady Lynda and Baby Blue, those are really good songs. Two: it at least tries to be creative and progressive. Three: much more involvement from Dennis and Carl.

Fair points - I never understand the love for Lady Lynda though. I just can't get past the cheesy use of Bach (is it?) at the beginning, and that melody dominates the song throughout. I can cope with a certain amount of cheese when it's fun cheese like Belles Of Paris, but Lady Lynda just seems hopelessly square to me, although it seems I'm in the minority! I actually really like a lot of Al's compositions, and rate him on a par with (or maybe prefer him to) Carl in terms of the good BB songs he's involved in, but LL just doesn't do it for me.

[shelter]

Fair points - I never understand the love for Lady Lynda though. I just can't get past the cheesy use of Bach (is it?) at the beginning, and that melody dominates the song throughout. I can cope with a certain amount of cheese when it's fun cheese like Belles Of Paris, but Lady Lynda just seems hopelessly square to me, although it seems I'm in the minority! I actually really like a lot of Al's compositions, and rate him on a par with (or maybe prefer him to) Carl in terms of the good BB songs he's involved in, but LL just doesn't do it for me.

It's not high art or anything, but I like it. Just a pretty song with a nice, peaceful mood and really gorgeous melodies (hey, if you're going to recycle a melody, why not just go for one of the best ever written?). And the fact that my girlfriend's name is Linda might help.

[Jukka]

Yep, LA is the only album where Al Jardine whips Dennis Wilson as a songwriter, with a little help from Mr. Bach. Way to go, Al!

...or actually, I do like Holland's California more than any of Denny's Holland songs, too. I admit, on that one Al drew from Brian's earlier work, but it still counts.

[buddhahat]

Yep, LA is the only album where Al Jardine whips Dennis Wilson as a songwriter, with a little help from Mr. Bach. Way to go, Al!

...or actually, I do like Holland's California more than any of Denny's Holland songs, too. I admit, on that one Al drew from Brian's earlier work, but it still counts.

Yeah California, Looking Down The Coast, Take A Load Off Your Feet, Lookin At Tomorrow, Out In The Country - Al wrote some pretty sweet songs in the 70s, although I'm not sure how involved Brian was in any of those. It strikes me Al is closest in songwriting style to the Brian Wilson of Good Time, I'd Love Just Once etc. i.e. light, playful BW.

[Jukka]

^ I'd say playfulness is a big part of Brian's Smile-era genius. Take a Load Off Your Feet is a straight continuation of Brian's Smile-era music. Loop de Loop, too.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Yep, LA is the only album where Al Jardine whips Dennis Wilson as a songwriter, with a little help from Mr. Bach. Way to go, Al!

...or actually, I do like Holland's California more than any of Denny's Holland songs, too. I admit, on that one Al drew from Brian's earlier work, but it still counts.

Yeah California, Looking Down The Coast, Take A Load Off Your Feet, Lookin At Tomorrow, Out In The Country - Al wrote some pretty sweet songs in the 70s, although I'm not sure how involved Brian was in any of those. It strikes me Al is closest in songwriting style to the Brian Wilson of Good Time, I'd Love Just Once etc. i.e. light, playful BW.

Good choice of words! It's a gigantic honor for Al to be compared with Brian! Even if with playful and light Brian, not Brian the master of Pet Sounds and SMiLE.

Dennis was a better songwriter than Al, and certainly a more interesting one. Al was very hit and miss indeed - and seemed utterly unable or unwilling to distinguish good songs from bad - whereas Dennis' songs were consistently brilliant from 1968 onwards... Even when he was disintergrating in the late '70's his songs were still always of a good quality. He had the Wilson gift.

[hypehat]

Al is also quite keen on plagiarism. Dennis is not.

Lady Lynda is nice enough. I really like the way it slows down towards the end, a neat touch.

[Jukka]

Al sure likes his influences unfiltered, but he's still a great songwriter. For most Denny's songs I need to be in a certain mood, but Al's songs work anytime, anywhere.

And hey, Surfin' USA is only one example of Brian taking "influences" from some other songwriter. Doesn't make the songs any less great.

[MarcellaHasDirtyFeet]

Confession time: I don't really care for My Diane. As far as late 70s Dennis leads on songs penned by his brothers, I'll take Angel Come Home any day. My Diane seems tossed off-- like Brian could've written it in his sleep-- and it drags. With that song out of the running, I will put on Pitter Patter on my two-fer (God I love that song! Really sounds like early 70s BBs) and skip through to Good Timin afterward.