The M.I.U. Album

[Jeff]

Take out Rhythm and Belles of Paris, and replace them with Lookin' Down The Coast, and Country Pie, and you've got a solid three star album. Add Everybody Wants To Live, and you've got a cult classic. Tomboy is still somewhat creepy, but Brian and Carl save it. Thank God they took out the "shave your legs" lyric. Anyway, as it stands the album is a somewhat doubvious two and a half stars.

Take out everything besides My Diane, and you've got a decent B-side.  If they'd added 11 more like that, MIU could have been a decent album!

[sleeptalk]

a couple months ago, i would've given this record a 1 or a 2. in relistening now, i'd give it around a 3.5. must be a sign that i'm starting to become a helpless little fanboy...

[Mr. Cohen]

This album is interesting. I think "Pitter Patter" could've been a late 70s Brian Wilson classic with the clearer production. On the final mix, all you you can really hear clearly instrumentally is the drums and bass. It actually seems like some cool stuff is going on with the guitars and keyboards, but I'll be damned if I can hear it. The whole album needed better production, honestly. The "Hey Little Tomboy" Adult Child demo, for example, sounds a lot better to me than this version even if it's rougher around the edges and creepier.  At the same time, a lot of the songs sound like Mike Love compositions where he had Brian rearrange the chords and maybe change the rhythm. Not that great, really, but inoffensive with some catchy moments.

[Amanda Hart]

This album is interesting. I think "Pitter Patter" could've been a late 70s Brian Wilson classic with the clearer production. On the final mix, all you you can really hear clearly instrumentally is the drums and bass. It actually seems like some cool stuff is going on with the guitars and keyboards, but I'll be damned if I can hear it. The whole album needed better production, honestly. The "Hey Little Tomboy" Adult Child demo, for example, sounds a lot better to me than this version even if it's rougher around the edges and creepier.  At the same time, a lot of the songs sound like Mike Love compositions where he had Brian rearrange the chords and maybe change the rhythm. Not that great, really, but inoffensive with some catchy moments.

I totally agree with you.  Pitter Patter, and the album in general, has so much potential in places that it just never realizes, and it is because of the production.  The demo of Hey Little Tomboy is much better, as is the demo of My Diane.  I love My Diane and I don't think I would like it as much if I only had ever heard the album version

[hypehat]

The first half of Pitter Patter is great. I couldn't believe it... until Al's verse came up.... oh dear

[Jason]

There's an alternate mix of Pitter Patter that circulates from an acetate copy, which is basically night and day compared to the album version. Lots of clarity in the instrumentation.

[Jay]

Take out Rhythm

No. That song is amazing.

To each their own. Personally, I hate it.  Brian's screetchy and loud "falsetto" hurts the ears.

[Jay]

There's an alternate mix of Pitter Patter that circulates from an acetate copy, which is basically night and day compared to the album version. Lots of clarity in the instrumentation.

Does that version by chance have thunder and rain sound effects? The version on the Our Team video does, but not the album. I could never figure that out.

[MBE]

Well as always I must state that I like every pre 1976 group album better then any from 1976 or after. There are some better songs on 15 Big Ones, Love You, and LA but some cringeworthy ones as well. This is an album I can play all the way through and not get too distresed. Belles Of Paris may be the only one I'm really hesitant to play. I know some hate this record but I always felt it was ok due to the voices being on pitch and the harmonies sounding pretty full. Again this isn''t close to anything they did from 1961-74 but it's hardly one for the trash bin.

[RONDEMON]

No way! I love most of this album. Some is god awful but it definitely has more in common with the early albums which also have a few filler tracks. It's just a simple, fun, summer album - but pretty great.
Highlights for me are

She's Got Rhythm
Hey Little Tomboy
Wontcha Come Out Tonight
Sweet Sunday
Pitter Patter (i love the chorus and the call and response harmonies)
My Diane
Matchpoint...

[rogerlancelot]

I've had this on the 2-fer since 2001 and after the first time of listening to it I would always skip it for LA (except for "My Diane"). I tried it again about a month ago and lasted through the entire cd. It sounds a little bit better to me now but once "Good Timing" comes on I quickly forget about the album before it. I will say I was surprised to finally realize that Bri sang "Matchpoint Of Your Love" because his voice sounds pre-'76. I do not like his vocal on "She's Got Rhythm" at all but the song is kind of catchy. Too much Mike & Al here. Nothing personal against them but I'm more of a Wilson brothers kind of guy. And after listening to Love You which is just so nakedly beautiful this is kind of a let down. Too "sweet". But then so is LA but in a much more sophisticated way. Feel free to berate me on this if your opinion differs. I'll be drinking my beer.

[rogerlancelot]

By the way, I gave it a 2. Mostly forgettable but not as offensive as 15 Big Ones or BB '85 or Summer In Paradise or Looking Back With Love or etc. I don't terribly mind it playing in the background but it doesn't "move" me if you know what I mean. And "My Diane" really is a heart-breakingly great song with a cool Denny vocal.

[axl wills]

The alternate version of "Wind of change"is ten times better than the original one.
With the little vocal intro added and no vocal interjection(by Alan I guess)during the "won't last forever"ending tag.
It's works  better than the final one.I fell it pretty sensitive for a song without Brian, Dennis or Carl contributions.
And sad concerning the " future"of the band at the time.Just listen  it!

[LetHimRun]

Oh boy. A 2. Come Go with Me is good. My Diane and Wontcha Come Out Tonight are okay and I do like listening to them. I actually don't mind Matchpoint of Our Love (ducks). The concept of the lyrics is ridiculous, but the vocals and beat are pretty good. The rest? Ugh, a really low point here.

[Wirestone]

Finally found my copy of this after missing it for a year or so. Surprisingly not bad!

Some lyrics are dire, but Brian has so much of a hand in things, and sounds so decent, that it's hard to write it off. It's actually a continuation of 15BO and LY in a way -- covers, back to high school originals, Brian and Mike vocals.

[jtaylor-22]

Hey Guys,
             I've been reading this board for quite some time and have kept pretty quiet. As a musician and composer myself (www.justin-taylor.ca), I realize how hard it is to please everyone and to make that perfect piece of music everytime.
I've been listening to MIU alot the past week or so after not listening to it seriously in about 10 years. I remember when I first got this album, the unwillingness of Brian was apparent in just reading the album credits before playing it (I originally bought a used LP back in the early 90s). Despite Al running the show here along with Mike, we get more of Al Jardine's singing than ever on this album and thats not necessarily a bad thing. I myself am a huge fan of Al's voice.

People have commented how this album has rough production. If you look at the credits, the instruments seem to be handled mostly by Brian and Al with some individual contributions from the BB touring band, so it is very much a "band" album vs. LA and KTSA which were mostly performed by session men. We're missing Carl on here though (Sweet Sunday i'm not too keen on and it seems like something he was forced to sing). Dennis gets the great "My Diane". I actually like "Matchpoint" and "Winds of Change". "Kona Coast" is slightly embarrasing, but the ending is nice. "Peggy Sue" is solid. "Why Doncha Come out Tonight" shouldve had the backgrounds rerecorded. Speaking of the vocals on this album it seems someone (Al? Ron Altbach?) has convinced Brian to sing in a smoother tone comparable to his 60's work on this album. Brian stated around '76 or so that some of his vocals on the 60's recordings embarrased him and that was why the sound in his voice changed around this period but on MIU he sounds great (except for Rhythm).


Overall, not as bad as what some fans make this out to be and lets face it, without albums like this one, collecting Beach Boys recordings wouldn't be as fun!

[Curtis Leon]

Hmm... To be honest, I don't mind this album nearly as much as most. Sure, the Beach Boys sold out. Sure, they're doing surf rock again. Sure, Brian was pretty much forced to write these songs. But, after taking a few serious listens, it doesn't sound as bad to me as most say it is. Well, at least on the first side. The second side is some of the worst music the Boys ever put down. At least, it would've been if the 80s and 90s never happened... This record is pretty much saved by the vocals, though. The melodies and the general production are horrid, though. Wish Carl and Dennis had some songs on this hunk of plastic, though... Maybe it would've etched out shitte like "Belles of Paris" and "Winds of Change"

She's Got Rhythm: Cute lil' falsetto by Brian. Nothing nearing his early voice, but it's still a fun song. Cheesy as hell, yes, but I somehow like this a bit more than I should... Vocal hooks, maybe? The melody is pretty damn catchy, too. 8/10

Come Go With Me: Insanely catchy, to be honest. Awesome vocal hooks, nice harmonies. Quite a catchy melody, too, if not particularly memorable. 9/10

Hey, Little Tomboy: I prefer the Adult/Child version by far, for the melody, but this one isn't too bad on its own right. 7/10

Kona Coast: A horrible rip off of Hawaii, to be sure, but it's got some nice falsetto by Brian, anyway. Prefer the original by a couple hundred times, though. Mainly cause Brian hadn't gone though 1975 yet. 7/10

Peggy Sue: A cover of Peggy Sue. Nothing more to say. It's not as bad as people claim, yes. But it's nothing special, either. Peggy Sue is still great, and the Beach Boys do, do it justice. 7/10

Wontcha Come Out Tonight: I hate the intro with a passion, but this song is saved, again, by the vocals and the harmonies. The harmonies sound a bit... weak on this song, though. Brian sounds quite a bit clearer on this album than Love You, for some reason. Quit smoking, perhaps? 7/10

Sweet Sunday: Here is where the problems start. Apparently, the Boys had thought it would've been a good idea to group all the ballads on the second side. By this point, however, I don't they could've made a good ballad to save their lives. Sweet Sunday is... okay, I guess. The harmonies sound buried in the mix, but at least you're treated to a nice Carl vocal. 5/10

Belles of Paris: Horrible, horrible song. The lyrics, which have NEVER been the Beach Boys strongest suit, are completely horrible. Mike singin' about romance in Paris in a completely toneless voice. Even the harmonies sound weak and whiny.

Pitter Patter: Huh. Apparently they decided to put a rocker among the sea of generic ballads. Nice, interesting harmonies, imitating rain, make this fairly decent. Even good, a little. 7/10

My Diane: This gets my vote for the best song on the album. About Diane Rovell, apparently. Maybe Brian wasn't so happy with Marilyn? A bad time in the marriage, perhaps? If memory serves, then they did divorce not too long ago. The lyrics also aren't trite, mainly because of the inspiration. 10/10

Match Point of Our Love: It's decent, yes. Coming after "My Diane" though, this sounds like dreck to my ears. The only redeeming quality is the resounding level of the vocals. Brian apparently had a good day, the day he laid down the vocals. 6/10

Winds of Change: This sounds like an awful, awful parody of the old halcyon days. Complete with a banal strings arrangement. The lyrics are bloody terrible, too. I deleted this and Belles of Paris off my listing, and you should too. 1/10

I suppose this is the real moniker that the Beach Boys were finally losing it, though. Finally, the musical transition unveiled in 15 Big Ones has finally broken though. Damn that Mike Love and all. The only saving grace is that Brian Wilson is still Brian Wilson, and his flair for melodies and harmonies shows through even on the worst. Sure, they would sink to worse depths. But, at least the genius of the band wasn't involved in those. A 3, and a fairly strong 3. Not strong enough to even make me consider giving it a 4, though. I think the real problems are the fact that people are judging it by the standards of Love You. I enjoyed it fine, with no expectations in, though.

Also, this is my first post on this here forums. Funny that it was a review of MIU, too.

[the captain]

Two people found MIU to be their inspiration to post their first posts? Love it. I note that the first never posted again these past four months or so. Hope it's not an omen for you, Curtis.

[Curtis Leon]

Two people found MIU to be their inspiration to post their first posts? Love it. I note that the first never posted again these past four months or so. Hope it's not an omen for you, Curtis.

Nah, don't worry about that. I might be variable in my posting, but I'll be as active as I can be. Right now my only struggle is finding the right avatar to use. 

[the captain]

Well welcome to the board. And remember when you see me posting things that make you think I'm an a-hole, I was nice and said hello in the beginning! 

[Dunderhead]

got up the courage to listen to this whole album all the way through right now!

1. She's Got Rhythm
Alright, I'm actually surprised at how good this is. You know, it's not great or anything, but it's far from the worst thing the band ever did. I actually don't really care for Brian's vocal. Over the years people have always really scratched their heads at Brian's use of different vocalists, Jasper Daily, Marilyn Rovell, Jack Rieley, Fred Vail. Fans act like these vocalists are really questionable, and some have pointed out that Jack Rieley on A Day In The Life of a Tree was proof of Brian's contempt for the project. This just isn't the case for me, I think Brian appreciated certain qualities in all these vocalists. Same is true with his "new voice" on Love You. Brian has always talked about how he was self conscious of his falsetto, and I think a big reason he got up the interest to record again during this era was that his voice was finally closer to how he actually wanted it to sound. So yeah, Brian's falsetto is great, but I'm not one of those fans that think his more matured voice was "sad" or anyway a representation of how far he'd fallen, so I'm not going to go out of my way to praise his "improved" vocals on this album. C+

2. Come Go With Me
Boring. The guys should have saved this stuff for 15 Big Ones honestly. You can't fault the song, only the band's production which is cheese all the way. C-

3. Hey Little Tomboy
Hmmm...this is one of those songs I'm torn on. This would have worked on Love You, but it just feels weird here. It's really a lesser song with bad lyrics, bad concept, and mediocre writing. C-

4. Kona Coast
Ugh. F

5. Peggy Sue.
This starts off very Spectorish. I dunno why the band felt they needed to dip into all these covers all the time. Were they so low on ideas? This song feels really processed to me. Very artificial. Not really a fan. D-

6. Come Out To Tonight
Oh this thing starts out pretty horribly right off the bat. This song is so boring I really just have nothing to say about it. D

7. Sweet Sunday Kind Of Love
Sounds like something off of River Deep Mountain High. There's no bite here at all. MIU is way more a 50s nostalgia type album than I guess I originally thought, which really knocks it down a few pegs in my book. This song just, well, just isn't good or bad enough to really even talk about. D

8. Belles of Paris
Sucks. F-

9. Pitter Patter
Alright, this isn't so miserable. The chorus feels a little phoned in, the melody on the verses is actually pretty nice I think. The mixing feels really suffocating, I'm having a hard time telling what instruments are on this track but it sounds like there are some cool keyboards and guitars going on in the mix. C-

10. My Diane
This could use better production, it feels kind of flat. But it's not an awful song but it's far from great. C

11. Matchpoint
What is this? The Beach Boys do smooth jazz? D

12. Winds Of Change
For all this song's delusions of grandeur it has an awful melody. It's really plodding and monotonous, and just doesn't go anywhere. Hate the two-bit string arrangements. Totally phony. D-

This album just doesn't have any stand out tracks that I would really want to go back and listen to again and again. There isn't a strong track in the bunch. The production sucks, the mixing sucks, there's nothing original going on here at all. That all comes out to a D average. If I was the band's teacher I'd tell them they need to apply themselves.

They could have probably turned in a much better album:

Santa Ana Winds
Still I Dream Of It
Everybody Wants to Live
Looking Down The Coast
California Feeling
Winter Symphony
+ all the material from Bambuu

It feels like the band had a lot of great material floating around during this period that could have made a better album than MIU, LA, or KTSA. Lots of fans point to these albums as being decent, or being the last times the band put in a good effort, and I've heard each of them defended. But I just don't see any merit to any of them, they're wastes of talent and time for everyone involved. They represent the aimless ramblings of a leaderless, directionless band that had mostly lost interest in working together. They are commercial obligations, turds farted out in order to satisfy a record contract. The band had no idea what it wanted to do, so it just second and third and fourth guessed itself and created these sterilized deodorized lifeless albums in hopes that they might be so inoffensive that they slip under the radar. I think the original Santa Ana Winds is Al's best song and is would be worthy of the quality we got to hear on Holland. Between 78-80 I get the sense the boys could have turned in a breeze laid back country tinged album of quality material, but they didn't. They blew it. Real shame.

[drbeachboy]

Just remember that the band was splintered during this time. There was very little input from Carl and virtually none from Dennis, save My Diane. Come Go With Me was a Top 20 hit in the early 80's when it was released off of Ten Years Of Harmony. Peggy Sue was a minor hit in 78. I think it had a terrific refrain, but it could have had an edgier arrangement. Both of these tunes were started in the 15 Big Ones era. Remakes of 50's & 60's music was prevalent during this time period. It seemed most major acts were releasing them from 1974 onward. Also, the band had signed a deal with CBS, so I think they probably tried to save many of their better tunes for the next project. Lastly, the Boys' tried handing this in as a Christmas album, which after being rejected was programmed to what was released. Under better circumstances, this could have been a much better album had all the members participated fully.

[southisland]

1, because "my diane" is a 5 and the rest of the tracks are 0s. just listen to the very first note on this album. how could they have possibly listened to that and thought it was fit for release? just soul-crushing and exploitative of brian.

"my diane," on the other hand, is just stunning and also depressing as hell, for different reasons. for BW at this point in his life to just nakedly write, record, and release to the general public such an aching love song about his wife's sister... jesus. you're not fooling anyone having dennis take the vocal, man. the plodding tempo, just slightly wallpaper-y melody, plaintive lyrics, and the context of the song betray a completely broken human being. one of the most singularly emotional recordings i've ever heard.

[punkinhead]

I really enjoy the production value of this album, it's the most clean since Holland and makes me think this aspect of producing shoulda been used for KTSA, I think it woulda helped it out. But I do feel this is a lost opportunity for Al, in which he had some really good songs with other collaborators and with Al at the helm, he shoulda produced and released that work on here....material like Santa Ana Winds, Looking down the Coast, and the early cut of Lady Lynda; besides all that, I think Our Team shoulda been included, it shows the guys actually having a good time. Almost Summer, California Feeling, She's just Out to Get Ya, How's about a Little Bit of Your Sweet Lovin', and Country Pie would also help the album, in my opinion.

[Amazing Larry]

1. She's Got Rhythm 7/10
2. Come Go With Me 7.5/10
3. Hey Little Tomboy 6.5/10
4. Kona Coast 4.5/10
5. Peggy Sue 5.5/10
6. Wontcha' Come Out Tonight 7/10
7. Sweet Sunday Kind Of Love 5.5/10
8. Belles Of Paris 1/10
9. Pitter Patter 8/10
10. My Diane 10/10
11. Matchpiont Of Our Love 6.5/10
12. Winds Of Change 3/10

Album Rating: 6/10