'Fess up - who here likes Sweet Insanity?

[Mike's Beard]

I had a proper listen to it for the first time in ages today and lots of it I really like. Much of it picks up exactly where BW88 left off. It seems to have such a bad rep because of Smart Girls which admittedly is cringeworthy but there is some great stuff on it. Love Ya, Rainbow Eyes and Someone to Love are my favourites. The GIOMH remakes can't hold a candle to the originals. Brian sings really well on much of the material (no shouty, robotic performances here) and I'll take the backing vocal stacks here over the Wondermints/Foskett any day. It seems despite the issues in Brian's life at the time, this seems to be a project he really had interest in. Am I alone in liking the most misunderstood album of Brian's career?

[Nicko1234]

You know, tragically I think your comment about the GIOMH remakes not holding a candle to the originals is true. Says a lot for that album...

As for Sweet Insanity, I think one of the magazine reviewers stated that it, 'sounds like an album made by a man who has just come out of a coma'.

Personally I think the production, vocals and lyrics are horrible (though the vocals and lyrics on GIOMH were no better). Thank You is painful to listen to as it is apparent just how much Brian had been brainwashed.

The cover of Rainbow Eyes on the Caroline Now! album was nice though.

[Mike's Beard]

I admit the lyrics to Thank You are creepy when you know the story behind this period in Brian's life but then it seems every solo album has to make a reference to his problems at some point. As for the reviewer's coma comment - Brian sounds totally alive and joyful on these songs.

[Steve Mayo]

when i first heard it back in 1990, i agreed with what brian said to people magazine  "here is a guy from the 60's who can still sing his ass off". i have always agreed with brian's statement. i liked it then and still do. so put me in the camp that likes/loves this lp.

[Dutchie]

I like it for 80%. Some very nice and catcy songs. I didnt like the remakes on GIOMH.

[guitarfool2002]

For reference purposes, my impressions come from the Vigotone 112 version of this album, which I bought on silverdisc when it turned up in the bins of a local record store sometime in the 90's.

The production, to my ears, is pretty poor, and it does manage to torpedo some songs that could have been much better overall. Pretty poor is actually kinder than what I would have said.

To me it sounds like the equivalent of putting a 45 year old guy who drives his family around town in a minivan into the driver's seat of a Formula One race car, and turning him loose on a competition track.

It was hard to get past the shock of hearing "Concert Tonight" which was the opener of the Vigotone disc. The harmonies are simply "off" at best. I could not, and still cannot, imagine a musician like Brian Wilson putting something like this as the intro or the convocation to any album project. Therein lies one of the biggest issues I have:

Landy seems to have held onto a fantasy of being a record producer, a hotshot producer at that, and if anything this album shows just how either delusional or misguided that fantasy really was. In comparison to BW88, where at least some outsiders who knew what the heck they were doing were brought into the proceedings, Sweet Insanity seems to have had no "off switch" or a voice to at least veto something in questionable quality or taste, or even add some musical weight to some of the production decisions.

Having said that, I can and do hear some neat purely musical moments in a few songs, specifically in the melodies and chord changes which are clearly coming from Brian. But the production and some rather poor musical decisions after the songwriting itself casts such a dark shadow over the music that it is still difficult for me to listen to or enjoy. And the fact that the album was rejected does not surprise me.

One thing that stands out with Brian's (and the Beach Boys') better releases over the past four decades or so is the way the lack of actively trying to make a song or album "sound like a hit" by using then-current production tricks, sounds, and gimmicks is what actually makes certain songs more memorable and worthy of repeat re-listening. One cannot just put the "Beach Boys sound" or the "Brian Sound" on top of whatever a top 10 hit record sounded like in 1990 and expect it to catch on with listeners. As I said in another thread, that overt chasing of a hit record is what may have crippled several good songs, or made lesser songs even worse, since the late 70's with this band and its members.

If anything, Sweet Insanity might show (or prove beyond doubt?)  that Landy's desire to produce records was as misguided as Brian's attempt to record a rap song.

Unfortunately some genuinely good musical moments, specifically melodies, got stuck in the mud.

[Smilin Ed H]

I dislike the sound, the singing, the over-instrumentation, the production and most of the songs - but Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel is good - he just needs to record a decent version of it.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I probably listen to Sweet Insanity (the second version) more than I do to any of Brian's other solo albums.  Though I really don't like "Thank You," which, in addition to being dull, takes potshots at Carl and Audree Wilson, and "Smart Girls" only works as a joke, it sounds like Brian committed more to this album vocally and musically than to any of his subsequent solo albums.  "Someone to Love," "Water Builds Up," "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel" and "Love Ya" are all terrific songs.  I didn't hear Sweet Insanity until after Getting In Over My Head, and as a result, was extremely surprised that there could possibly be a version of "Make A Wish" that I would like, but the Sweet Insanity version is so deliriously giddy that I find I have to either surrender myself entirely or retreat from it entirely (I go with the former option, incidentally).  The other songs "Hotter," "The Spirit of Rock and Roll," and "Rainbow Eyes" are also quite strong, and "I Do" isn't bad at all.  The great film critic Andrew Sarris once described a scene from John Stahl's The Immortal Sergeant as "the cinema of audacity to the point of madness," but added that it was "always preferable to the relative sanity of discretion."  That pretty much describes the way that I feel about Sweet Insanity, especially in relation to Brian's other solo albums.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I love Brian on the second version of Someone to Love

[EgoHanger1966]

I like "Thank You", that's about it though. Catchy melody and the lyrics are actually far better than most of the ones on that album.

Sometimes I'll be doing something and have the urge to sing "crazy beatings from my father ahhhhoooooooooo".

[Roger Ryan]

While I prefer the redone backing tracks on GIOMH, Brian's vocals are all stronger on the SWEET INSANITY versions of those songs. The original "Make A Wish" is quite a bit better and "Someone To Love" is a great song that deserves a spot on any upcoming Brian Wilson album/compilation. "Thank You" is pretty wretched, but "Smart Girls" has always struck me as just a fun goof in the manner of "I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man". However, I find the material on the first version of the album to be quite weak.

[Mendota Heights]

Sometimes I'll be doing something and have the urge to sing "crazy beatings from my father ahhhhoooooooooo".

When I saw this topic I started listening to Thank You and just when I read your post and "crazy beatings from my father ahhhhoooooooooo" Brian sang that very line! Talk about perfect timing!

[Lowbacca]

I've always liked it. Back in the days of my early BBs fandom it was one of the first BW solo pieces I heard and I immediately fell in love with its delicious weirdness.

[Rocky Raccoon]

I like Spirit of Rock and Roll, Thank You, and Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel.  Do You Have Any Regrets, Make a Wish, and Fairy Tale aren't bad either (though the re-recordings of the latter two are so much better).  All of the other songs are pretty bad in my opinion.  I agree that Smart Girls is worth listening to because of how ridiculous it is but when you consider how it was meant to be a legit rap song, it's kind of sad and either way it should never have been recorded.  The production overall is terrible and some of the lyrics are too awkward for my liking.  But, it's a lot better than some of the latter day Beach Boys albums.  I wouldn't say I like it necessarily but I think with some tweaking, less control from Gene Landy, and the right producer like Andy Paley, it wouldn't have been nearly as berated as it is.

[Jim V.]

Well...I think "Love Ya" is pretty awesome. A great up-tempo Brian tune. Kinda reminds me of Love You in a way. I also like "Water Builds Up" better than "Let's Go To Heaven In My Car", but honestly I think the verse is better than the chorus on both songs. "Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel" is good at certain times for me. I like the piano demo the best though. I'm pretty sure I don't care for the GIOMH version. I know it never hit me back when I had that album. Maybe I should try that version and the Sweet Insanity version again. "The Spirit Of Rock & Roll" pretty good too I guess, in a really cheesy way. The version with Bob Dylan is just cool because its Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan together, but beyond that it's pretty shitty. I guess I like the Songs From Here & There the best, but even that version isn't exactly amazing.

All the rest of the album is garbage to me though.

[Cabinessenceking]

haven't really listened to it, but I really dig Smart Girls. Such an interesting track.

[oldsurferdude]

I love Brian on the second version of Someone to Love

Now that is a good song. luHv everything about it. A tweak here and there and you might have a hit.

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

I do, I do...- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_GCh5pk-f0 

yep, I really do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ndMltIVTJc

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

yep, I really do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ndMltIVTJc

Wow, that's quite a good cover.  Did Darian cover any of the other Sweet Insanity songs?

[EgoHanger1966]

yep, I really do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ndMltIVTJc

Wow, that's quite a good cover.  Did Darian cover any of the other Sweet Insanity songs?

Not that I know of - but a Pet Sounds-y version of I Wanna Pick You Up graces the flipside.

[Al Jardine: Pick Up Artist]

I can't get through the day without hearing Smart Girls.

[RONDEMON]

I love it. It's like Love You 2. It's quirky, honest, and really catchy. I've always thought of SI as the "rock and roll album" he's been talking about making for years.
It's an uptempo and fun record and more importantly, his vocals are fantastic and he sounds happy and more excited than ever.

[Nicko1234]

It's an uptempo and fun record and more importantly, his vocals are fantastic and he sounds happy and more excited than ever.

I wonder which cocktail of drugs Landy had pumped into him to cause that. 

[Wirestone]

I think it's an album let down by ham-handed mixing and engineering. I suspect Brian actually arranged most of it -- it sounds a lot like some of his later gussied-up demos. The problems come how the instruments and vocals blend, and the fact that no one was willing to say "no" to clearly, blatantly bad ideas.

Most of the remade tracks on GIOMH are superior. The vocals on SI are nearly always better.

[Awesoman]

I had a proper listen to it for the first time in ages today and lots of it I really like. Much of it picks up exactly where BW88 left off. It seems to have such a bad rep because of Smart Girls which admittedly is cringeworthy but there is some great stuff on it. Love Ya, Rainbow Eyes and Someone to Love are my favourites. The GIOMH remakes can't hold a candle to the originals. Brian sings really well on much of the material (no shouty, robotic performances here) and I'll take the backing vocal stacks here over the Wondermints/Foskett any day. It seems despite the issues in Brian's life at the time, this seems to be a project he really had interest in. Am I alone in liking the most misunderstood album of Brian's career?

It's pretty cool that Bob Dylan shows up on a song.  Other than that, the production on this album is wretched.  It makes it hard to listen to any of it.  There are some decent songs on there but there is a good reason this album never got an official release...