Hopefully, this topic will work as a companion to the currently active topic of the top ten Beach Boys albums, focusing our attention on the part of the Beach Boys' career that receives very little discussion. It appears to be a unanimous concensus among Beach Boys fans that these albums simply do not rank with the surfin'/fun era of 1962-1964, the ambitious era of 1965-1966, or the democratic era of 1967-1973, but this Part IV of their career should merit a few comments, huh??

You can choose any number of these albums as a 'favorite'. But mostly what I want to hear is if ANYTHING from these albums tickles the ears of the knowledgeable Beach Boys fan...

Very briefly - as it's 1.25 over here right now - I voted for Love You as it has something resembling sincerity, a quality that the others (what I've heard of them) seem to lack...

The easy choice for me is Love You. I love this album and I don't really think there is anything I dislike on it. I fit it comfortably in with the ambitious and democratic eras as you named them, and ahead of the surfin'/fun era.

The other ones tend to have weaknesses in places, but the highlights are certainly worthwhile to me. The weakest album content-wise (at least from lack of highs) to me has always been Surfin' Safari. There's nothing I can really say I'd miss on that one, though the historical significance makes it indispensible.

John, I think you hit on the key issue explaining why Beach Boys fans regard these albums so poorly. When the Beach Boys are great, they are hitting on all these cylinders:

1. Well-crafted songs with memorable melodies.

2. Exquisite production, both in the music and in the vocal arrangments.

3. Belief...sincerity...a JOY exuding from the performances.

The interesting thing about the Beach Boys is that they also presented music in which one of these key elements is missing but the other two are present...

It seems to me that Friends and Love You are albums which are weak with #1, but very strong in #2 and #3, and both are highly regarded Beach Boys albums.

Secondly, Smiley Smile and Wild Honey are weak with #2, but very strong in #1 and #3, and these albums also have their strong advocates.

Hence, what kills these latter-day albums, despite some very professional songcraft and very professional performances, is the overriding lack of #3. The lack of sincerity (as you stated) has proven to be the unpardonable sin for the latter-day Beach Boys albums.

The albums that I chose as my favorites from this era were L.A. (Light Album) and Keepin' the Summer Alive. I've stated in other places my mostly negative feelings about Love You, but I suspect that this album will run away with the poll...

My vote went for Love You easy. Like most of you have quoted already i would say the same. The other albums have weaknesses and lack key things in places here and there hence my Love You vote. What a album brilliantly crafted throughout with some great classics on there one being "I Wanna Pick You Up" Dennis does an excellient job on the vocals. For me Love You is the best album out the list here.

Mine was LA LIGHT ALBUM because it had all those Dennis songs on it. The rest of them I didn't care for all that much. FIFTEEN BIG ONES was good the summer it came out but I don't play it anymore.

With the Beach Boys it was always more about singles for me anyway. I hated KEEPING THE SUMMER ALIVE but really loved "Goin' On" for instance.

Light Album for me...remember buying it as a new release when i was only very liccle - not realising that the band were still making music.....whooopsie

It was THE BEACH BOYS LOVE YOU for me. I first heard the album on the 2001 15 Big Ones/Love You twofer CD (having only come into TBB in 1998).
I was at first confused by 15 Big Ones. I still knew little about the band at this point, but had heard that their 70's material was spotty. 15 Big Ones sounded pretty boozy and very self-indulgent. I was however blown away by "Just Once In My Life".

TBBLY was rocking, fun and strange. Some of those songs ("Airplane", "I'll Be He's Nice", "Honking...", "Mona", "The Night Was So Young") are amazing.

Half of MIU is great, the other half is not. Light Album is fine with some great songs and KTSA certainly does not deserve such a bad reputation.

But for me TBBLY is a very, very effective album.

I'd have to say THE BEACH BOYS LOVE YOU too. It was the last Brian Wilson-produced Beach Boys album; it was the last thing they really did that broke any new ground musically; it was, as Roy Wood put it about his BOULDERS album, "weird enough to be different."

LOVE YOU to me is all about textures and voicings; only on PET SOUNDS, in my opinion, did Brian use different instrumental voices and the different voices of the group members so effectively. Check out "I'll Bet He's Nice," and the way the synth backing is arranged, so that the different instrumental voices "speak to each other" while also functioning as a coherent, flowing whole, and the way he, Dennis and Carl trade off the lead vocal. Brilliant.

One of those albums which, every time I hear it, I hear something new. And to think, when I first bought it (April 1977), I hated it.

As for The Beach Boys (1985), check out the long review on this page, as advertised in Les Chappeau's profile.

Ooh la la indeed...

L.A. Light Album for me. I've always loved the songs on this album, and it just feels like real Beach Boys album to me. Plus of course I love the re-worked Here Comes The Night. It's an album full of strong vocals and brilliant songs. That can't be bad for a band who were out of their prime.

Mark

I didn't like "Here Comes The Night" or "Shortening Bread" on that one, but I liked every other song, esp Denny's and Carl's.

My second vote would of went to "Fifteen Big Ones" you know. That's a pretty cool album to i must say. Love the "TM Song" & "Had to Phone Ya" great songs. Did you know that; the BB also embarked on a large US tour, several of the performances included Brian. Although Dennis Wilson suggested calling the album Group Therapy, and rejecting Pick Ya Up At 8 (after the song "I Wanna Pick You Up") 15 Big Ones, was named for their fifteen years in the business and for the fact that it had the same number of tracks. It was released in late June, reaching #8 in the US and going gold. It was the most successful Beach Boys studio album in over ten years, though the critical reaction of the album was not strong.

I voted for Light Album if, for no other reason, than for Angel Come Home. My all-time favorite song from the late period. It's enough to make up for the Here Comes the Night remake.

Good answer never thought anyone would say that album. Fair play. and by the way i just saw; we joined this forum on the same day 7-June 07.........................