My Brian Wilson 88 review

[Magic Transistor Radio]

https://www.facebook.com/editnote.php?draft&note_id=10152419980624236&id=811303695

If anyone not signed to facebook is unable to read this, let me know and I will copy the whole thing.

My reviews on the future albums in the coming weeks! Hope you enjoy.

[bgas]

https://www.facebook.com/editnote.php?draft&note_id=10152419980624236&id=811303695

If anyone not signed to facebook is unable to read this, let me know and I will copy the whole thing.

My reviews on the future albums in the coming weeks! Hope you enjoy.

I'm signed to the Face and it didn't take me there.
But in any case, there's already a place here for your reviews:  http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/board,4.0.html

[Nicko1234]

https://www.facebook.com/editnote.php?draft&note_id=10152419980624236&id=811303695

If anyone not signed to facebook is unable to read this, let me know and I will copy the whole thing.

My reviews on the future albums in the coming weeks! Hope you enjoy.

Personally I would suggest posting your review here. I`m sure very few people read the album reviews threads and it will be nice to discuss the music.

[alf wiedersehen]

https://www.facebook.com/editnote.php?draft&note_id=10152419980624236&id=811303695

If anyone not signed to facebook is unable to read this, let me know and I will copy the whole thing.

My reviews on the future albums in the coming weeks! Hope you enjoy.

Personally I would suggest posting your review here. I`m sure very few people read the album reviews threads and it will be nice to discuss the music.

I would agree. I don't have Facebook, but I would really like to see what you wrote.
And, like Nicko said, it would be nice to discuss the music.

[Please delete my account]

https://www.facebook.com/editnote.php?draft&note_id=10152419980624236&id=811303695

If anyone not signed to facebook is unable to read this, let me know and I will copy the whole thing.

My reviews on the future albums in the coming weeks! Hope you enjoy.

Personally I would suggest posting your review here. I`m sure very few people read the album reviews threads and it will be nice to discuss the music.

If posted in the permanent review threads more people will read it in the long run. When I first found this board the first thing I did was read the review threads, and I check back frequently. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Whereas anything posted in the general forum is a little fish in a big pond.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Well, if the mods want this moved to the review thread they can. I will leave it here for now. Let me copy the whole deal since it's not letting you read it.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Not too long ago I was watching Brian Wilson's speech when the Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. What caught my attention is when Brian said that he just wanted to create music that brought joy and happiness to people for the last 27 years and would like to get inducted all over again in another 27 years! That would be 2015 which is right around the corner. So it got me to thinking about Brian's solo career. I believe it is under appreciated, even by Brian and his own band. Of course they got 50 years of songs, including all the hits from the 60s to choose from. But still, there is a warm place in my heart for his solo career, which also includes his longest period of consistently touring.
So I will review one album about every week or so. Each song from 1(bad) - 10(good) with the average being the album score.


BRIAN WILSON (released 7/88)
This was a bitter sweet period in Brian's life. On the one hand, he was in good physical condition and writing songs for his first solo album. On the other hand, he was being mind controlled by his psychologist Eugene Landy. The man that may have saved his life, then destroyed it all over again. He even collaborated with Brian and produced some of his songs. I'm not sure how much he 'helped' Brian on this album, but he was always with Brian during the process. Having said that, I really like this album. It has some magical 'Brian' moments. A lot of people are turned off by the 80s production, however, I think it is a pretty cool sound. Of course, I like a lot of new wave music. To me, this has a Beach Boys Love YOU album (1977) type charm to it with much better lyrics. Three of my favorite songs will include a link.

1. <a>Love And Mercy (B.Wilson)..... 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5CQygN_VCk
[/url]2. Walkin' The Line (B. Wilson/<a>Nick Laird-Clowes[/url])..... 5
3. Melt Away (B.Wilson)..... 6
4. Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long (B.Wilson)..... 7
5. Little Children (B.Wilson)..... 7
6. One For The Boys (B.Wilson)..... 8
7.There's So Many (B.Wilson)..... 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9fnaSLXtms
8. Night Time (B. Wilson/<a>Andy Paley[/url])..... 6
9. Let It Shine (B. Wilson/<a>Jeff Lynne[/url])..... 6
10.Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight (B. Wilson/A. Paley/Andy Dean)..... 7
11. <a>Rio Grande[/url] (B. Wilson/A. Paley)..... 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6N2EVifCEc

Album average: 7.2

[bgas]

Well, if the mods want this moved to the review thread they can. I will leave it here for now. Let me copy the whole deal since it's not letting you read it.

YEah, or you could just do the right thing and post each one, as you do them, in the correct place, instead of being a reprobate

[Smilin Ed H]

Six for Melt Away? So wrong.

[phirnis]

L&M, Melt Away, BLYHGL, Little Children and Rio Grande are all brilliant in my book. The rest is mostly good as well but nothing that's going to take one's breath away. Strong album! To me, better than TWGMTR and easily his most convincing solo effort by far.

[LostArt]

This is the album that got me into Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys (along with Smiley Smile).  I'm old enough to have heard their first hits on the radio when they were new, and I even owned the Barbara Ann 45 (it was a gift, okay? I was 10, and I played the flip side more anyway).  However, I was more into The Beatles and The Monkees at that age.  By the time I was in my teens, music had changed, my tastes had changed, and the Beach Boys were just not 'cool'.  Fast forward to 1988, when a co-worker gave me a cassette with Brian Wilson on one side, and Smiley Smile on the other.  I was floored!  I played that old tape for everyone I knew who would listen.  From then on I was hooked.  I bought everything I could find that had any snippet from the great lost Smile album, then Pet Sounds, and then the two-fers and the '93 box (and on and on she goes).

I still like Brian Wilson's 1988 debut.  Dr. Landy may have had his name all over the credits, but this is the most 'Brian Wilson' sounding album out of all of his solo efforts.  I know there was a ton of help from other producers, but it still sounds like a cohesive album to me.  Here are a few of my favorites:  

Love and Mercy...man, listen to those drums starting and stopping.  Who does that?  Listen to that middle eight.  I'm one of the minority who prefers this version to later versions.

Melt Away...the chord changes are fantastic, the harmonies are heavenly, the lyrics are strong and personal.  What's not to like.

Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long...Caroline, Yes.  Classic Brian Wilson bass part in the verses.  So weird, but so good.

I'm not as keen on Rio Grande as most folks are.  Parts of it are beautiful, no doubt.  The whole thing just seems so contrived...faux Smile, if you will.  Ah, but I never skip it.

You know what?  I still like every damned song on this album.  Love You synths, lots of Brian Wilson harmonies, strange stuff bubbling under the surface.  I must play this album this weekend.  It's been way too long.
  

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Well, if the mods want this moved to the review thread they can. I will leave it here for now. Let me copy the whole deal since it's not letting you read it.

YEah, or you could just do the right thing and post each one, as you do them, in the correct place, instead of being a reprobate

Like  Nicko, I hadn't ever gone over there. Maybe I should. Right now I'm limited to what I can do on my phone, but I will move it later.

[Steve Latshaw]

My favorite review of this album came from Rolling Stone, about a month before it was released.  Having been an avid fan since 1976,  through all the Brian's Back stuff and the harrowing aftermath,  this review had me chomping at the bit to get my hands on the record.  And it didn't disappoint.  The line from the reviewer, "...the best Beach Boys album since Sunflower..."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/brian-wilson-19880714

[CenturyDeprived]

Six for Melt Away? So wrong.

Agreed. I think it's BW's best solo song. By about several miles.
I cannot avoid getting chills during the fade.

[Steve Latshaw]

I agree about Melt Away.  May be the best song on the album.  At the time I remember thinking, have the other guys heard this?  What does Carl think?  Mike?  As with Lucky Old Sun, it could have been a perfect Beach Boys album if they'd just had their voices on it.

[CenturyDeprived]

I agree about Melt Away.  May be the best song on the album.  At the time I remember thinking, have the other guys heard this?  What does Carl think?  Mike?  As with Lucky Old Sun, it could have been a perfect Beach Boys album if they'd just had their voices on it.

Melt Away is amazing, and I had the interesting experience of falling in love with the wrong version (original 2000 reissue version) which I had for years, only to later discover the original 1988 issue had the extra high harmony vocal in the fade. When I picked up that 1988 version, a great song got even better, and it was like hearing the song new all over again - that part makes *that* significant a difference, IMO.

It's interesting how in that recently-posted Christopher Cross interview, how he talks about Carl recruiting Cross to sing on BW88 -which tells me Carl was in some fashion peripherally around some of the happenings of the album himself - if only very slightly so. I wonder if it was ever suggested/considered for Carl to do a vocal cameo or two, and if such thoughts were quashed by Landy in the desire to de-Beach-Boy-ify the album as much as possible.  I love Carl's cameo on Dennis' solo offering "It's Not Too Late", and it's too bad that politics were the likely reason that couldn't have happened again this time.

[alf wiedersehen]

I will also join the crowd for "Melt Away," I lovelovelove that song.
It is superb.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Not to be argumentative, that's for the other threads, but....

I think "Melt Away" is very overrated. The melody is nothing special, same with the lyrics, Brian shouts the entire song, and Dennis Wilson did the tag better with "Moonshine" and "Farewell My Friend".

[bluesno1fann]

Not to be argumentative, that's for the other threads, but....

I think "Melt Away" is very overrated. The melody is nothing special, same with the lyrics, Brian shouts the entire song, and Dennis Wilson did the tag better with "Moonshine" and "Farewell My Friend".

I agree. It's all-right, but it's overrated. There's definitely better songs off the 88 album.

[CenturyDeprived]

Not to be argumentative, that's for the other threads, but....

I think "Melt Away" is very overrated. The melody is nothing special, same with the lyrics, Brian shouts the entire song, and Dennis Wilson did the tag better with "Moonshine" and "Farewell My Friend".

While I always liked "Melt Away", I think that the song began to hit me more emotionally upon subsequent listens. I agree that it does have a pretty simplistic element about it, and frankly the demo version on the 2000 reissue does basically zero for me - so it's hard to say what element(s) about the final BW88 version (with proper original vocal tag intact) just makes it so perfect for me, even with whatever flaws it may be perceived as having.

Maybe it's just the heartfelt intention that I gleam from the song (as opposed to having anything approaching astonishing lyrics -though I think the lyrics are quite good for BW solo stuff). But yeah, that tag is a big part of it.

[Dudd]

I like it a good amount - pretty much all the songs would have been superb if their sound had been handled correctly - yet I just can't get past the production most of the time; those awful synths and that echoing percussion really ruin well-written songs like There's So Many and Rio Grande (although it works surprisingly well on Meet Me In My Dreams, a really solid and underrated song). In the end the Landy-isms are all too persistent on this record for me to enjoy it fully; I can't really help but notice the forced commercial-minded side of it all.

Also "Melt Away" is wonderful. 

[Nicko1234]

Like  Nicko, I hadn't ever gone over there. Maybe I should. Right now I'm limited to what I can do on my phone, but I will move it later.

If the mods have a problem with it then I could understand you moving it. But as it has only resulted in discussion of the music, I can`t see a problem with posting your reviews here tbh.

The production of this album does let it down but it is still my favourite Brian solo album. I haven`t listened to it in a long time but I used to play it pretty regularly. Love and Mercy, Melt Away and Let it Shine are probably the strongest songs and I find Rio Grande a little but overrated. `The river`s deep` section` is superb and elevates the song to another level but some of the other sections are much less impressive and it does feel a little forced as another poster has said. I agree that Walkin` the Line is the weakest song on the album.

I thought the reissue with the bonus tracks was excellent and it is a shame that all BB/BW albums have not been reissued in the same way. Being With the One you Love being the most impressive of the bonus tracks imo.

Brian`s `autobiography` implied that Brian had nothing to do with writing Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight. Has this ever been confirmed?

[Magic Transistor Radio]

A lot of high praise for 'Melt Away' I see. It's a nice song but doesn't pull me in for some reason. It has potential to grow on me though. I was listening to this album more intently then I have in a long time as I was grading it. Considering that a 9 is Pet Sounds/Smile territory, this one kind of surprised me. It was hard to call anything below average on this album except one. But even that one is not bad.

[CenturyDeprived]

A lot of high praise for 'Melt Away' I see. It's a nice song but doesn't pull me in for some reason. It has potential to grow on me though. I was listening to this album more intently then I have in a long time as I was grading it. Considering that a 9 is Pet Sounds/Smile territory, this one kind of surprised me. It was hard to call anything below average on this album except one. But even that one is not bad.

Make sure you listen to the mix from the original 1988 issue! Or the corrected 2000 reissue - but I don't know if it's possible to determine a correct one from just the packaging.

If you just have the original 2000 issue like I did for years with the wrong mix, you're missing out big time!  

[Magic Transistor Radio]

A lot of high praise for 'Melt Away' I see. It's a nice song but doesn't pull me in for some reason. It has potential to grow on me though. I was listening to this album more intently then I have in a long time as I was grading it. Considering that a 9 is Pet Sounds/Smile territory, this one kind of surprised me. It was hard to call anything below average on this album except one. But even that one is not bad.

Make sure you listen to the mix from the original 1988 issue! Or the corrected 2000 reissue - but I don't know if it's possible to determine a correct one from just the packaging.

If you just  the original 2000 issue like I did for years with the wrong mix, you're missing out big time! 

Yes I have the 2000 cd with bonus tracks, so I would like to hear the original.