"The Beach Boys Love You" was Brian's last big public hurrah before he vanished for a while again, and I think it's fitting, this album is so good. Another fractured self portrait of the man in record form. this record details a broken, sad, drug addicted, 'washed up' pop icon, indulging the Beach Boys in one of his most bizarre set of rocking, sensitive, and at times uncomfortable collection of songs. It pioneers a Moog synth as main element of almost every composition on this album, with people labeling this one of the first steps toward "Synth Pop" and "New Wave", and its "Punk" ethic of simplistic topics and lyrics. Brian writes songs about The Solar System, Roller Skating Girls, Highway Traffic, and Johnny Carson among other topics. This album despite the weirdness is insanely tuneful and catchy and honestly on levels is pretty accessible in its overall pop sensibilities, but has that edge with the subject matter, moogs, and brians damaged voice. There's something very "Outsider" about this album. (Songs like Solar System and I Wanna Pick You Up are great examples of this, though i feel that way about the whole album.) It's comparable to 'Pet Sounds' in its inventiveness ahead of the times, its varied interesting arrangements, and its "concept" of these wonderful songs coming from a fragile child-like psyche. I really like 'Love You', its among my favorite Beach Boys releases. What are your thoughts?
PET SOUNDS drawn with crayons is the best phrase I’ve heard to describe LOVE YOU. I love the album, but it’s definitely the one record that divides fans. Lyrically it’s strange, unsettling at times and childlike, but the melodies are gorgeous and the arrangements are inventive and not what you would expect from Brian. It makes you wonder what a Wilson Brothers album from around this era would have been like, as Carl and Dennis add lots of vocals.
Love You? Love it. From the honking synths to the oddball lyrics and subject matter to the arrangements. One of my absolute favourite BB albums. I can hear echoes of the sheer oddity, ‘let’s do it anyway’ feel in Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk album. Peter Buck’s liner notes on the 50 Big Ones/Love You 2fer are absolutely correct, identifying the album’s appeal perfectly. Not to mention that Honkin’ Down The Highway was my personal highlight of Brian’s 2015 Manchester date; if people were overjoyed at hearing Pet Sounds live (again) I was elated at finally getting to hear something from off of Love You. It may well be the Marmite album in the BBs catalogue but it’s the best tasting Marmite for those of us who love every daffy, sweet , oddball note on it.
It was one of those records I was desperate to hear, but when I bought it, I found it a bit of a disappointment. As a document of a fragmenting psyche, The Madcap Laughs is much better; as a set of tunes, almost any Beach Boys album is preferable. (that said, I do like I Wanna Pick You Up, even if it is a bit creepy)
One of the worst albums ever recorded in the history of music. Lame, extremely bad childish lyrics and very ordinary arrangements with no outstanding melodies whatsoever. I am astonished over the years how anyone thinks this is a great album.. give me "15 Big Ones" or MIU album any day of the week. Possibly the nadir of Brian's recorded output IMHO. The best track is "Honkin' Down The Highway" and that was sung by Al.
holy cow! thats a strong stance, but i get what your saying. I completely disagree but thanks for tellin me that Honkin was written my Al, I Didn't know that!
I wrote elsewhere about it - I only just heard it after reading about it in Mike's book. I'm on the 'like' side - again, it sounds like this record really could have been something if the boys had put a little more work into it. As it is though, it's a nice little slice of eccentric pop and the last really interesting album the Beach Boys made...
"No outstanding melodies whatsoever?" Listen more closely to the intricate chord progressions and melodic lines in "Solar System", "I Want To Pick You Up", "I'll Bet He's Nice", and others. I hear it as one of Brian's most inventive sets of melodies.
I consider it the last truly great Beach Boys album, containing some of Brian's most beautiful and inventive melodies. As for the off-beat childlike lyrics, they are a marvel of quirky charm, harkening back to the vibe of Smiley Smile (which I also love). "Johnny Carson" would have fit right in with Smiley Smile. "Solar System" is delightfully whimsical, and "I Want To Pick You Up" is melodically intricate and lyrically charming (clearly a song about a father's love for his baby girl and nothing more). The album's only flaw is the use of "You and I" when it should have been "You and me" in 2 songs, and another song that contains the always inexcusable "Her and I." I guess that's why Brian usually worked with other lyricists. That's a minor caveat, though. Otherwise, a fine album.
“Honkin’“ wasn’t written by Al, only sung by him. Brian wrote it. There’s also an early version “out there”, cut during the 15 Big Ones sessions I believe, sung by Billy Hinsche.
haha Well, an interesting perspective. As for myself; I own 10,000 albums and I consider Side 2 of "The Beach Boys Love You" to be one of the greatest album sides of all time. Every single second is pure gold. I'm glad something exists that makes me feel so good.
I really don't like Love You. To me, it sounds like it was written by a child. As far as I'm concerned, after Holland, the Beach Boys didn't do another album worth a damn until L.A. (Light Album). The reason 15 Big Ones is named such is because it's pretty obvious that Brian Wilson guzzled 15 big ones before getting to work on it. The MIU Album is hit or miss for me. There's some great stuff but there is some seriously bad stuff too.
I enjoy it. I think it's the perfect snapshot of Brian at that time warts and all. It's not the prettiest picture and at times, it's kind of disturbing to hear the state that Brian was in, but it's honest and has it's own beauty. I think it's one of the few, if not only, times that Brian has been totally left to his own singular vision (with a bit of help from Carl) in crafting a Beach Boys album since the SMiLE era and on into the present day. It's not perfect, but I think it's great. A cracked genius at work. While it's not the only good moment, The Night Was So Young is the standout. Beautiful song. Also, the bridge in I'll Bet He's Nice is pure Brian and absolutely stunning.
Love the album. "The Night Was So Young" is possibly my favorite song on the album. I love this moment in the song, with the soaring vocals expressing his anguish: Is somebody gonna tell me why she has to lie-i-ie She'd be so right to hold me tonight Love was made for her and I
Yeah, this is one of my favorite beach boys albums. I just heard it for the first time last summer, and I was really surprised by the quality of all the songs! I really think it's Brian's lost masterpiece. The three song suite on side two is perfect with "The night was so Young", "I'll bet he's nice", "The night was so Young". Honestly, one of my favorite Beach Boys / Brian Wilson albums!
Just posted this in another BB thread responding to a quote that mentioned the intricate, complex chord progressions contained in Love You:
Even though large portions of the lyrics on Love You (and its planned follow-up, Adult Child, for that matter) supposedly came from Dr. Landy, I've always considered this the second real Brian Wilson solo album after Pet Sounds, which is exactly how it was intended - or at least that was until Carl stepped in as mixdown producer and decided to polish* what his brother had considered a finished project. Rather than some anomaly in the group's discography, I've always considered Love You the logical conclusion of Brian's post-SMiLE production approach, which began in the early '70s when he started embracing keyboards more than ever. I don't claim to have any inside perspective on this, but it wouldn't surprise me if the reason Brian has always used combined instruments and later relied so heavily on synthesisers isn't simply because he wanted to emulate Spector's "wall of sound," but was instead a result of his difficulty hearing certain frequencies. Surf's Up, Holland, 15 Big Ones and even Brian's minimal work on the American Spring album pointed to him going in a direction that suggested he'd taken an interest in the likes of Switched-On Bach as opposed to the excessively slick formula of things like MIU and the Light Album. As for the analogy that Love You was equivalent to Pet Sounds if this had been rendered in crayons, this reminds me of his hand-drawn sleeve for the Mount Vernon And Fairway 7" bonus EP that came with Holland... There was clearly a plan inside Brian's head, but the majority of the other Beach Boys clearly didn't understand or appreciate this, resulting in the power struggle that meant we never got as candid a snapshot of their former leader again. By the time he was ready to finally release a statement on his own, Brian's energies had been diluted through years of interference, including the return of his controversial therapist. *For the record, I do like some of Carl's additions to the Love You material, such as him squeezing an upbeat tag to Airplane out of Brian. Also, it should be noted that while this isn't an opinion I can imagine many others sharing, I really like Brian's vocals from this period, and you can tell he was trying something beyond what others expected of him.
