Crazy thought: Best Beach Boys album after Pet Sounds is...

[schiaffino]

...Love You.

So, first of all, 'Pet Sounds' is a masterpiece from the first to the last note. It's the best album ever (trust Mojo mag) and hence it is THE BEST album ever by The Beach Boys. Point final.

Now, after 'Pet Sounds', what's the next best thing? I've never been able to answer that question completely, but I'm more and more leaning towards 'Love You'. Let me give you my reasons, we can take the thread from there:

• First and foremost, its not boring! Its an immensely amusing album, with songs that never remain unnoticed (yes, all of them).
• Second, it is the most personal Brian Wilson album after 'Pet Sounds'. Its the continuation of the life story of the kid who found/lost love in his early 20s and got screwed by life in his 30s. Brilliant sequel.
• Third, its revolutionary. 'Pet Sounds' amazed everyone by its complex arrangements and intensive orchestation, 'Love You' amazed everyone by its rawness and the intense use of synths. Brian being again a pioneer!
• Fourth, both albums came at their commercial height and then got them into commercial trouble. 'Pet Sounds' was released after the #1 single 'Help Me Rhonda' and the likes of 'California Girls' and such -  the top of commercial success for the band; likewise, 'Love You' came out in the shadow of 'Endless Summer' & '15 Big Ones', the bands most successful albums since the mid 60s. And in both cases, the follow up work was marred with complications (in commercial terms).
• Fifth, both albums were misunderstood by everyone when released. And both are now highly regarded, not only by us (crazy fans) but by critics.

I want to add more reasons to this list. So if you agree with me, please add them; if you dont, create another list for the 'why nots'.

Sounds like a cool exercise? Maybe this band/board/Brian are driving me nuts  [/list]

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Man, I'm hoping I can get into this album someday. It's 21st out of 29th place for me. I really like Airplane a lot though!

[schiaffino]

Man, I'm hoping I can get into this album someday. It's 21st out of 29th place for me. I really like Airplane a lot though!

It really, really grows into you, but I can't explain it myself. First time I heard it I thought it was a piece of crap! But after a while you discover an amazing hidden layer of beauty in it - kind of like peeling a rotten apple, just to find its pitch perfect in the inside  

Something like that.

Anyways, 'Airplane' is in my top-5 BBs songs, that's how good I think it is. Listen to 'Honkin' down the highway', listen to Al's rising harmonies during the bridge and how a high-pitched synth harmony follows. Its pure perfection.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Love You is all about a mood, if you're feeling EXTREMELY down, or EXTREMELY up, then the songs click.

For example...
Break up? Listen to "The Night Was So Young" - that is just amazing for that
Kiss the girl? - Listen to "Let Us Go On This Way"

It's very quirky, you need to be in certain moods, but when you are.... DAMN this is an amazing album (Except Mona, sorry!)

[Phoenix]

I've been trying to get into this album since 1977.  I guess it's just not meant for me. 

[sockittome]

At least there's honesty in the thread title....

[Quzi]

I've subscribed to the OP's opinion since around the third time I listened to it. My first listens were very much getting acquainted with this weird, weird sonic world Brian had built, and by the third listen, each arrangement just clicked for me, I not only understood the record, but had a complete and utter blast of enjoyment when doing so.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Man, I'm hoping I can get into this album someday. It's 21st out of 29th place for me. I really like Airplane a lot though!

It really, really grows into you, but I can't explain it myself. First time I heard it I thought it was a piece of crap! But after a while you discover an amazing hidden layer of beauty in it - kind of like peeling a rotten apple, just to find its pitch perfect in the inside  

Something like that.

Anyways, 'Airplane' is in my top-5 BBs songs, that's how good I think it is. Listen to 'Honkin' down the highway', listen to Al's rising harmonies during the bridge and how a high-pitched synth harmony follows. Its pure perfection.

I'll definitely check that out, and keep listening. I must admit, I've never been a big fan of the farty synths though.

[ArtVandalay]

No kidding? Mona is far and away my favorite song on Love You.

Love You is all about a mood, if you're feeling EXTREMELY down, or EXTREMELY up, then the songs click.

For example...
Break up? Listen to "The Night Was So Young" - that is just amazing for that
Kiss the girl? - Listen to "Let Us Go On This Way"

It's very quirky, you need to be in certain moods, but when you are.... DAMN this is an amazing album (Except Mona, sorry!)

[rn57]

Well...I'd say putting Love You right after PS is going out on a limb. Lemme see. What would I say are the best albums, not factoring in whether or not they're my personal faves? I'd start with:

Pet Sounds
Sunflower
Today
Friends
Wild Honey
Smile (2011 configuration)
Surf's Up
All Summer Long

Love You would come in probably at around #11, maybe close to a tie with TWGMTR.  

There's no doubt that there are times when it really hits the right spot. Like right now, just after my second listen to Scott Walker's new album Bish Bosch (a record which, the way I'm thinking about it, sort of sits in a no man's land halfway between Jan & Dean Meet Batman and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music).

Back to Love You, though. Definitely some classic tracks.  If Brian had written "Good Time" in the Sixties, for example, and given it the classic treatment with the Wrecking Crew, it would probably routinely make top-fifteen or top-twenty BB song lists. Same thing with "The Night Was So Young."  "Honkin' Down The Highway" is a true winner - and Al's remake on Postcard was one of the standout tracks on that CD.  And vocally speaking - once you get used to Brian's voice having changed, you notice that he really puts in some interesting stylings that make it evident he's been listening to Sinatra a bit, like on "Let's Put Our Hearts Together."

(One thing that appeals to me about the record - it may be that RRA1 has spotted this too - is that in terms of sound and production, Love You seems to have had a substantial influence on NRBQ's records after 1977. The Q, incidentally, had their own song called "Mona" - but it was recorded well before the BBs' one, and it's got more of a Lovin' Spoonful than a BBs sound anyway.)

But some of the songs are pretty puzzling to listen to if you don't know the context.  If it weren't for Wikipedia and YouTube, for instance, how many BBs fans outside the US could make head or tail out of "Johnny Carson"?  (Though musically it is one of Brian's most impressive and subtle compositions from the '70s.)

Jeff Foskett, I remember reading someplace, has acknowledged that some of Love You's songs are pretty strong, but as we all know he has a big problem with the overall production - moog bass,  dated-sounding synthesizers substituting for most of what constituted Brian's instumental palette in the PS/Smile era. But the thing is, I wonder if Jeff has given much thought to the fact that a pretty direct line can be drawn from the compositional and production concepts in "Marcella" - to "Mount Vernon and Fairway" - to Love You.  What Brian was doing was a natural progression.

 And indeed, had Love You been as successful as 15BO, Brian might have been given the chance to continue this line of development.  But instead, the next step was retreat and regression in Iowa. (Speaking of which, I was in that state for the very first time last week.  Just saw Des Moines and the area around Iowa City, though - was pretty far from Fairfield.)

[Alex]

Salute to Nascar and Summer in Paradise, of course! 

[MBE]

Listening to it for 23 years and still don't like it. I really like Good Time because that's from The Beach Boys in their Sunflower prime, and I'll Be He's Nice, and The Night Was So Young are also fine songs. The rest....well Ding Dang is sorta fun. Funny thing is I think Adult Child is uneven, but that Brian had progressed by writting better songs and singing a bit better. As it didn't come out I suppose it isn't the cult album Love You is. but I much perfer playing that LP boot than the Love You LP.

For me it isn't at the bottom, but only the 5 from KTSA to S&S is worse.

[Micha]

Interesting, a thread to praise the Love You album, and most of the posts are from people who don't like it. Neither do I. The instrumentation, arrangement and vocals ruin each and every song on it. (Good Time excluded.) And the songs ARE good. If I imagine "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" on Today, "The Night Was So Young" on Pet Sounds, "Love Is A Woman" on Sunflower... all instant classics. But like this... no enjoyment for me, just regret.

[I. Spaceman]

Love You isn't the best Beach Boys album after Pet Sounds. It is the best.

[Cabinessenceking]

I can agree with OP in this. If not Love You, then which album would be best? Today? Sunflower? Friends? All those albums contain crappy songs, Love You on the other hand has such a mood that there is not crappy song on it. It is all so personal and the emotions flow on that record. How could you ever say that about Anna Lee The Healer, Deirdre, Don't Hurt My Little Sister (wtf?) or the other couple of inferior tracks on all those albums which hold them down from being complete masterpieces? Love You may not be any masterpiece in any conventional sense of the word. Perhaps  we can only grant masterpiece status to PS and the Smile myth (not TSS).

[Jukka]

I agree. And to tell you the thruth, I've listened Love You more than Pet Sounds. I'm not saying it's necessarily better, but it speaks to me more.

[SufferingFools]

I can agree with OP in this. If not Love You, then which album would be best? Today? Sunflower? Friends? All those albums contain crappy songs, Love You on the other hand has such a mood that there is not crappy song on it. It is all so personal and the emotions flow on that record. How could you ever say that about Anna Lee The Healer, Deirdre, Don't Hurt My Little Sister (wtf?) or the other couple of inferior tracks on all those albums which hold them down from being complete masterpieces? Love You may not be any masterpiece in any conventional sense of the word. Perhaps  we can only grant masterpiece status to PS and the Smile myth (not TSS).

Deirdre is pure bliss.  Don't Hurt My Little Sister is pure Spector and great fun to play on piano.

[EgoHanger1966]

"Best" isn't as subjective as "Favorite".

Love You is a wickedly cool album, and I totally get why so many people love and cherish it....but it is not their second best, by far.
I would go with Friends, because as an album, it gives off a vibe that I don't get from any other album. It's cohesive. It has light and delicate instrumentation. The songs, for the most part, are great.

I could see Sunflower and Today in the running for 2nd best also.

[phirnis]

Love You isn't the best Beach Boys album after Pet Sounds. It is the best.

Couldn't agree more!

[mr_oleary]

From a production standpoint, I'd say it's right after Pet Sounds.  But as a whole (composition, lyrics, etc.) I think it may rank below perhaps Sunflower or Today!

[SufferingFools]

"Best" isn't as subjective as "Favorite".

I could see Sunflower and Today in the running for 2nd best also.

I agree with this.  And Sunflower got them some renewed attention and respect in the UK (although it was a slightly altered and augmented track sequence).

[schiaffino]

Love You isn't the best Beach Boys album after Pet Sounds. It is the best.

I know how much you love this album - actually it was your comments in 'Love You's thread (70s albums review section) that got me into listening it carefully.

I still believe its second best to 'Pet Sounds' if we take the 'Beach Boys' as the band behind the album. Meaning, the production of PS leveraged completely the vocal capabilities of the band and although being a very personal BW work, it sounds as a group effort.

'Love You' its all about Brian. The band's main assets (voices) were at a low at that time - except for Al's who forever will be my fav singer. Anyways, the sound of this album is Brian's! He actually found a way to pour down whatever weird melodies/composition/arrangements he heard in his head, filtered them w/ those fat synths and just wrote lyrics about his personal madness.

To be honest, LY is more personal than PS. Hence its the 'best' expression of Brian's inner self; but as a band, PS was the prime of them being the instruments of Brian's genius.

Thanks for commenting in this thread, really appreciate it 

[schiaffino]

I can agree with OP in this. If not Love You, then which album would be best? Today? Sunflower? Friends? All those albums contain crappy songs, Love You on the other hand has such a mood that there is not crappy song on it. It is all so personal and the emotions flow on that record. How could you ever say that about Anna Lee The Healer, Deirdre, Don't Hurt My Little Sister (wtf?) or the other couple of inferior tracks on all those albums which hold them down from being complete masterpieces? Love You may not be any masterpiece in any conventional sense of the word. Perhaps  we can only grant masterpiece status to PS and the Smile myth (not TSS).

You understood my thinking, thanks dude 

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

I won't argue. Somedays I feel the same way. Just as easily could say All Summer Long, Summer Days, Smiley Smile....it's all good in the 'hood.

[phirnis]

Interesting, a thread to praise the Love You album, and most of the posts are from people who don't like it. Neither do I. The instrumentation, arrangement and vocals ruin each and every song on it. (Good Time excluded.) And the songs ARE good. If I imagine "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" on Today, "The Night Was So Young" on Pet Sounds, "Love Is A Woman" on Sunflower... all instant classics. But like this... no enjoyment for me, just regret.

An interesting perspective. Do you dislike the heavy use of 1970s synthesizers per se or is it just the sound of these particular arrangements you don't enjoy?