Looking Back With Love (Mike Love)

[JB Wilojarston]

I kind of like "Paradise Found", and Mike's covers of "On & On & On"...

Friend and interviewer of Curt Boettcher, Ray McCarthy gave Curt the idea for On & On & On (Ray used to sing Do It Again over the chorus of the ABBA tune). I feel Curt didn't have any clear ideas about that production and its direction. He was trying to get other projects off the ground (mostly disco/dance), and mostly "on spec" and he seemed to be generally in need of money ( he was bartending to make ends meet).

[Paulos]

So I finally heard this album and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't want to kill myself afterwards! This album, whilst admittedly very poor, is nowhere near the trainwreck it's been made out to be by some and is clearly better than real dross like Summer In Paradise and probably on the same level with Carls first album (sorry Carl). A lot of the songs just sounded like early to mid 80's Beach Boys songs but without the boys voices of course.

Oh and the album artwork is quite stunning in it's awfulness, what was he thinking?? ' Hey, if I sit on a boat showing off my hairy chest with a constipated look on my face people are sure to buy my album! Right?'.

[Destroyer]

I kind of like "Paradise Found", and Mike's covers of "On & On & On"...

He was trying to get other projects off the ground (mostly disco/dance), and mostly "on spec" and he seemed to be generally in need of money ( he was bartending to make ends meet).

Wow, I didn't know that about Boettcher.  That's sad.

[summerinparadise.flac]

Terrible lyrics and arrangements.
Its a fucking fantastic album.

[ukulelejesus]

Was considering listening to this just for shits and giggles. Then I read the lyrics to Rocking The Man In the Boat.

There is no way I ever want to be near anything that has Mike Love singing those words.

[lance]

While it does not reach the heights of say, Youngblood or Carl Wilson(self-titled), there's something about it that I sort of like.

[punkinhead]

Despite what one may think, I like this album a little bit but kinda alot....not the album as a whole, because half of the songs bug me but the songs I do like, they're really good and kinda wished Mike woulda just forgot the whole solo thing and submitted a couple to what could have been an album in between Keepin the SUmmer Alive & BB85. I like the tune to the title song but the lyrics make one vomit in the mouth. I really don't like any of the covers at all except One Good Reason, Teach Me Tonight, and Calendar Girl (the BB version is a little better). Paradise Found is alright, coulda been better with BB harmonies and being that it's the only song Mike wrote for his own and only damn solo, it would have been alright on a BB album.   

I would put this up there is MIU...I like MIU better but this puts me in the same kinda mood that MIU has on me....nothing I'd listen to with others around!

Now on my IPOD, my album of LBWL has It's OK, Almost Summer, Sad Sad Summer, and Cruisin'....I can't remember if I just added those to the album or it was released that way or maybe that's how someone formated it when they uploaded it.

[chris.metcalfe]

I like this album - it really reminds me of the early 80s! Much nicer record than MIU, an album where the total is significantly less than the sum of its parts.
I know this site is a Brian Wilson shrine to a large extent, ergo ML Is the antichrist, ergo LBWL his Satanic Verses, but it's not really that bad. Any record that can make Abba sound as if they understand English has got to be worth it. I also like the fact that he's 'looking back' from the plateau of the early 80s (!) - now 30 years ago!!!!

[EgoHanger1966]

The only place this can be found is the original vinyl, right? Interested in hearing it - heard the title track on Youtube and didn't hate it! I think I've seen it for a buck or two in a used shop, never bought it though.

[hypehat]

Be My Baby (again, don't like original by The Ronettes - Ronnie's singing didn't impress me at all. Still doesn't.);

I refuse to believe that human beings are capable of hating Be My Baby, and I'm not just speaking as a BW fan.

[Jason]

The only place this can be found is the original vinyl, right? Interested in hearing it - heard the title track on Youtube and didn't hate it! I think I've seen it for a buck or two in a used shop, never bought it though.

As it was only released on vinyl, yes. Copies usually pop up on eBay...I got mine mint and unopened for $7.

[mjforever]

Could someone help me out in finding this album? I would really, really appeciate it.

THANKS!

[SBonilla]

Could someone help me out in finding this album? I would really, really appeciate it.

THANKS!

I recently listed it on eBay and got no bids.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Could someone help me out in finding this album? I would really, really appeciate it.

THANKS!

Not when you hear it you wont!

[mjforever]

Could someone help me out in finding this album? I would really, really appeciate it.

THANKS!

I recently listed it on eBay and got no bids.

I checked eBay and only found the record version ... don't know what the heck I could do with that.

I found it online, though. Yep ... pretty lousy so far. 

[Nicko1234]

It seems the majority of this enjoyable covers album has now been posted on Youtube. I like quite a few of these numbers. One Good Reason, Teach Me Tonight and Paradise Found are all nice slow songs, it is easy to see why some considered Running Around the World to be a potential hit at the time and Calendar Girl has some energy to it.

Running Around the World, Be My Baby and Teach Me Tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O11LaFQmhgs&list=UU4AE29-WEVtrMkRKw0sPltg&index=14

One Good Reason

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i3U1FCoHLU

Paradise Found

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzy-DgihFy8

Calendar Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srpB2s2c29U

On and On and On

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4xvFVYqJGo

Looking Back with Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEzVbm1uAqw

[SIP Mike]

This album is music to my ears. 5 stars *****

[Juice Bronston]

This album is music to my ears. 5 stars *****

Music it is indeed. Finally free of the burden known as "The Beach Boys," Mike was finally able to fully express himself on record, and, might I say, what a record it is. Starting off with probably the greatest song this side of "Do It Again," Mike sweetly sings about vibrations and assassinations in what has left me agape and wondering what this mans career could have been.

Make no mistake, what you're getting is solely Mike, and not the pesky Carl or Dennis, who have always brought Mike's artistic vision down with their slip-shod work. When listening, you're realize who the real "genius" is and that Mike is here for you and he always will be.

Seven stars: *******

[bluesno1fann]

Admittedly, i'm a little scared to try listening to the whole album, having been convinced by virtually everyone that LBWL is just as bad as SIP, if not worse.
I've only really listened to the title track. The music, while isin't the best, i greatly enjoy. But like Match Point Of Our Love, the song is virtually destroyed by embarrasingly horrible lyrics. Ultimately, the song is cringeworthy. Seriously, "Good Vibrations, Assasinations" WHAT THE f*** WAS HE THINKING!!!"
I just watched the video of Mike Love performing that song on TV. As usual his dress style was ugly and the worst kind of lame. But what surprised me was at the end of the song, the audience cheered wildly, when in fact it is a pathetically horrible excuse of a song.
I might be a bit biased, but still...
0 out of 5.

P.S. Despite how awful the record is, if I do find it at a record fair, and it is fairly cheap, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it!

[Mr. Wilson]

WELL..  If you take the best cuts from the 1st 2 Celebration LP'S  you have a nice record..  If you take the best cuts from 1st Love + Lookin back with Love you have a nice record.. And throw away the POOP of Country Love + disco Celebration..  That's how I feel about Mike"s solo outtake. .. But since you can"t do that I honestly will give this LP 3/5..  His best solo record is unreleased.. Unleash the Love ..Now that"s a fine record for Mike.

[bluesno1fann]

One thing is safe to say which I realized recently: This album is better than "Wrinkles"

[Andrew G. Doe]

The music, while isin't the best, i greatly enjoy. But like Match Point Of Our Love, the song is virtually destroyed by embarrasingly horrible lyrics. Ultimately, the song is cringeworthy. Seriously, "Good Vibrations, Assasinations" WHAT THE f*** WAS HE THINKING!!!"

Here would seem a reasonable place to point out that Mike wrote the lyrics for precisely one track on the album, and it wasn't this one. 

[Mr. Wilson]

But Mike decided to release it with those lyrics .. So he is still responsible .

[bluesno1fann]

But Mike decided to release it with those lyrics .. So he is still responsible .

Yeah, that's what I meant too!

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

I finally gave in to my masochism and listened. After the first track I honestly felt ashamed and wondered what my life had come to. I skipped around here and there after that. Same basic feeling. I suppose I'll be ridiculed for voting when I didn't honestly listen to the entire thing start to finish, but I think I heard enough to know it's...not very good.

I give it a zero. Not because it's Mike love. Because the music is truly awful. The lyrics are something I or anyone could have penned in an afternoon. The production is pure 80s cheese. It's not even fit to laugh at, like SIP. I felt unclean listening to it, and that's not hyperbole. The cover art is bland and off-putting. Need I go on? Well, the fact that he had the gall to bill this as the first solo album from a Beach Boy really rubs me the wrong way.

I guess you could say it's a product of its times, for better or worse. To me, it's just further proof that the 80s really was the worst decade not only for pop music, but pop culture in general. And I'm not saying that as a close-mindedly youngin' who thinks anything pre--nineties is too old.

Now I'm rambling and wasting more time thinking about this than it deserves.