TLOS is really good. Really good.

[the captain]

That's what I was just thinking. The neighbors may or may not agree.

[The Heartical Don]

It is. It's a bit of a sleeper. It took me a long time to enjoy it in full, as a sequence of sometimes achingly personal songs. Perhaps the music is not as daring as Brian could produce at his peak, but it's the whole of the experience. Beautifully understated, is perhaps a good description.

[matt-zeus]

I haven't listened to the album for ages. Maybe i'll give it a spin today....
I'd say half the songs on it - Good kind of love, Forever my Surfer Girl, Live let live, Midnights another day, Oxygen to the brain (and also Message man) are among my favourite Brian songs that he's done in his solo career, the rest (the more 'rocking' tracks) I can take or leave - usually leave.

[The Shift]

It's the way forward -  more concept style albums, a la BWPS & TLOS, please!

[the captain]

more concept style albums..., please!

god, kill me now.

[Amy B.]

I love TLOS. My feelingis that after Brian is gone, this will become a beloved classic. Whenever people are arguing about BWPS and saying Brian is incapable of creating great music, I always want to point to TLOS. It may not be as good as Smile, but what album is?

[Sheriff John Stone]

It's a bit of a sleeper.

I agree.

[Alex]

It's certainly better than Sweet Insanity.

[Wrightfan]

I think it might be one of Brian's best solo albums. It's a VERY good album.

[shelter]

TLOS is among my all-time favorite albums. I absolutely love it.

[Mike's Beard]

I have to admit I really don't care for it all that much.  I've even now wiped it off my mp3 in a sacrifice for more space.  To me BW88 is still his best solo effort. "Imagination" might have took the crown if it were not for the Celine Dionesque production.  I have a feeling the Gershwin thing might light a fire under Brian's ass and produce something special.

[Dr. Tim]

Admittedly there's some filler and a couple mild cringeworthy moments (let's hear that Spanish rap again!) but I was surprised how consistently good it was.   When I play it as often as not I just let it run all the way through.

Don't need the DVD or LP versions, though.  Do check out the live version he recorded for NPR, they still have it up there.  Good performance, mixed by Mark Linett.

[The infamous Baldwin Organ]

I really enjoyed TLOS. I think part of the weirdness for me personally, was that I wished that it had been recorded sooner after the live performance than what it turned out to be. Also, I wish for a harder rocking album in the future. But I enjoyed it head and shoulders above anything else in his solo career.

[lance]

Very good album....

You know what I listened to last night and kind of liked? Sweet Insanity.  Just a year ago I was ready to nail that album to a cross and spit on it. Last night, it sounded good to me, almost like a slicker Love You with more serious lyrics.

[the captain]

Sweet Insanity. ... more serious lyrics.

Such as "my name is Brian and I'm the man, I write hit records with the palm of my hand"?!

Really, I'd have a hard time calling even the "serious" lyrics anything resembling serious. Landy...jesus.

[adamghost]

Thank you Luther...

The first time I heard TLOS I was finishing up a tour...one of the worst tours of my life, I got sick and my brother died both right in the middle of it.  So maybe I was more receptive to it.  The first listen I was only somewhat impressed, but I noticed I got tears at the end.  My third listen, I was somewhere in Texas, and I noticed I was in tears at the end of the album every time.  Then I was like, "whoa, what is going on here?

I had formulated a whole essay about the album and I wish I'd sat down and written it then.  But I think it's inarguably the only overall cohesive statement Brian has made since 1967, not counting SMiLE.  I hate "Mexican Girl" but I think the album would be weaker without it, oddly enough.  It's how you know it's really Brian talking.  And there is a lot of really unexpected depth in the lyrics. I'm not just talking about the obvious songs.  To me the most astute lines on the album are on "Oxygen" and "Going Home":

Let's get the jump on it/before it's too late/friendly reminder/friendly reminder

and:

It's good to travel/but not for too long/so now I'm home/where I belong/and that's the key to every song

Why?  Because they go to the heart of the human condition in a way that I've almost never heard anyone do.  I know Scott wrote most of the lyrics (and he and I have talked about these lines a little), but they're very Brian, only articulated in a way that Brian rarely can do himself.  The "friendly reminder" line is very moving to me because it's a direct communication from the singer to the listener that he cares about them, but he also realizes that it's up to the listener whether they want to accept the love or not.   Without that line, it's just another dorky Brian exercise song, but with that lyric, it gets to a whole philosophy about what music is supposed to mean to peoples' lives that is uniquely Brian's.  To me, that line is the pivot point of the whole album.  The second line because -- well, you either get it or you don't.  But if you're a musician, what it says about life, a pop song, and how the two interconnect are oceans deep.

I hear THAT LUCKY OLD SUN this way:  you're up at 3 a.m. with your crazy old uncle, drinking and hanging out.  You're there because you love him, but you're also rolling your eyes a little as he tells his same old stories, farts and his mind wanders.  Then, unexpectedly, he puts his glass down, leans over, looks you straight in the eye and says, "now, there's some things I've never told you, that we need to talk about."

And I get tears.  I think it's a brilliant album.  When I saw Scott Bennett after I heard the album, I literally did the bow down "we're not worthy" thing at his knees.  Think about how many people tried to make this kind of album with Brian, and didn't quite get there despite best intentions.  He deserves a ton of credit.

[Andrew G. Doe]

TLOS threw me for a major, major loop - I seriously didn't think Brian could achieve those heights again. Individually, some of the songs aren't anything special, but... put them in the sequence and it's a classic example of synergy at work.

And even if every other song was a steaming heap of horse pucky, it would be worth it for "Midnight..." alone. That may very well be the best thing Brian's done since, oh, 1970, 1971. Majestic in its desolation.

[TdHabib]

I love this album, I just heard it today in the car and it held up very well. Oddly enough I love "Mexican Girl" but can't stand "Oxygen" musically, lyrically it's all there. I can remember great joy first hearing "Midnight," but it didn't even compare to when the album was streamed online and I heard the recording of "Goin' Home." You know that's a real update of the Love You sound, gruff but rocking Brian lead, those infectious "ho, home, be du be du be du" back grounds, the synthesizers splashes, and the sudden BAM of accapella harmony on "at twenty five I turned out the light" reminds me of the BAM for the chorus on "Let Us Go on this Way."

I reall like the "at twenty five" line, some slam it but I think it's real cool. Andrew's right about the sequencing, really enhances the album. Just one more nitpick that "California Role" sounds much better on the boots and live DVD, the mix on the album is too dry.

[the captain]

The "at 25..." part is one of those lines I dislike. There are others, too. But part of what I meant to get across in this thread is that an album can have those moments and still be good. Really good. Instead of not hitting perfection being seen as a flaw, it would be nice if we could recognize that music starts from nothing and is built. If four, five, six, or seven songs on an album are cool--songs you'll listen to again--sh*t, that's an accomplishment! What did each of us do today that other people will want to revisit time and time again in the coming years? TLOS is not among the best albums of all time, or even of the decade (in my opinion). But it's still got a lot of really cool stuff that I want to listen to.

[Shady]

TLOS is among my all-time favorite albums. I absolutely love it.

+1

I adore it, played the hell out of it for the first few months, haven't played it in a while though.

I save it for summer.

Lovely post adamghost.

[donald]

Leave off Mexican Girl and Oxygen.  And the Spanish speaking Brian.   The rest I'll keep.   Morning Beat rocks.  And Midnight.  Love the line...when there's no mourning without u..........

I still listen to the album and it never sits long enough to gather dust.  But I plan to do a little deleting/editing.  Anybody ever think of substituting the longer version of Been Too Long?  Maybe Moving Something Good in place of  Oxygen ?

[the captain]

Oxygen might be the second- or third-best song on the album, imo.

[donald]

Oxygen might be the second- or third-best song on the album, imo.

Really?   I usually see your point Luther.......

Please, seriously, try to school me on on what I'm missing here.  Reminds me of Happy Days from imagination.  Which was enough.

[Jay]

I find Oxygen To The Brain annoying, in a Saturday Morning In The City kind of way if that makes any sense.

[MBE]

Except for Dennis' stuff I find most of the post 1974 work lacking, however TLOS is one album that I do like a lot. "At 25 I turned out the light" is a little off putting because it's too simplistic a view, but that's an exception.  OK I could also do without the narration and "Good Kind Of Love" but song for song it really holds up. I even like Mexican Girl.