The Beach Boys of 1978 were definitely at a crossroads. Tensions within the group had led to various factions emerging from the discord, and there was a legitimate fear that the band would in fact dissolve. Some would argue that it might have been best for that very scenario to happen, but against the odds, The Beach Boys would press onward with M.I.U. Album. <\/i>In a career of diminishing returns, this was the beginning of the final, inexorable end.<\/p>\n
Dominated by Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Brain Wilson, M.I.U. <\/i>was originally intended to be a Christmas album. Label executives, having been presented with the album, demanded the group go back and deliver a \u201cnormal\u201d studio album. Instead of completely new songs, however, the band decided to record new vocals over some of the preexisting tracks. This marked the full extent of Carl and Dennis Wilson\u2019s involvement in the recording process, having decided not to make the trek to the Maharishi Institute in Iowa. Such behavior makes it plainly obvious the band was not experiencing a wellspring of creativity.<\/p>\n
Love You<\/i> had its share of quirks, but the occasional glimmers made the record worth a listen. M.I.U<\/i>. finds the Beach Boys unable to recreate similar conditions. Is there a professional sheen to the proceedings? Yes, The Beach Boys could never be accused of lacking in that on record. What one finds blasting forth from the speakers is a lifeless, empty album. It has no particular reason to exist, no compelling storyline behind it, and more importantly, nothing new.<\/p>\n
The times when M.I.U.<\/i> works \u201cbest\u201d are when The Beach Boys\u2019 formula manages to overcome the doldrums. \u201cCome Go With Me\u201d became a minor hit; say what you will, but the band could always cover a \u201850s standard with aplomb. \u201cWontcha Come Out Tonight\u201d brings to mind how well the old partnership of Wilson\/Love worked in the early days. Brian Wilson manages to sound sane and pulls off the youthful yearning of the song\u2019s narrator perfectly.<\/p>\n
There is little else of note to speak of with regards to M.I.U.<\/i>, though. \u201c<\/i>Match Point Of Our Love\u201d is flat-out embarrassing, analogizing the concept of love to \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 tennis. The French would undoubtedly find \u201cBelles Of Paris\u201d to be ridiculously absurd in its description of the city. As has been astutely noted elsewhere, \u201cKona Coast\u201d essentially rips off the tune \u201cHawaii\u201d from the early days of the band, stooping so low as to include the exact same harmonies. \u201cPeggy Sue\u201d is theoretically a cover of the Buddy Holly hit, but a little research reveals the track was originally one of the aforementioned Christmas recordings. Strike Three, gentlemen.<\/p>\n
It was hard to imagine that things could get worse for The Beach Boys, but they did so. L.A. (Light Album) <\/i>marginally improved upon M.I.U.,<\/i> but that is not intended as a compliment in any way. As far as some were concerned, The Beach Boys were completely irrelevant at this particular point in time. One thing is sure, the group didn\u2019t do a damn thing to correct that mindset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7136],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-41567","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-beach-boys","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41567"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}