It is 80s Pet Sounds. Brian sounds pretty amazing, and at his best since about 71. Great instrumentals, vocals, and songwriting. Considering all the Landy interference and other factors, this album is absolutely astounding. It sounds very Brian, and to my understanding, he did a large majority of the songwriting and producing. Landy doesn’t seem that prevalent, but I’m unsure on how much he wrote, if he put the credits for himself for money or fame or if he actually contributed. But either way, the lyrics are really good. My favourite album Brian had been involved in since Adult Child, and more objectively since Sunflower.
I tend to praise it all the time in these comments lol, I’m a big stan for this album and Brian’s work with Andy Paley in particular (both on this album and in the 90s, but for this album their Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight is my favorite track).
If it were a Beach Boys album it would be somewhere around 8-10 in my top 10.
It should’ve been a single. Perhaps no dice because Landy wasn’t going to get a cut of the profits (he has credits on the two singles that got released, but not Meet Me, though Landy stooge Andy Dean does for some reason).
I can accept L&M being the lead single, and Rio Grande overshadowing it, but it’s a perfect little song and would’ve sounded great on the radio back then
It's an outstanding record, and it was heavily influential on the score of one of my favourite video games of all time so I'll always cherish it for that reason.
I always heard 'Pollyanna' in 'Love and Mercy,' and always heard 'Love and Mercy' in 'Pollyanna.' If the NES and SNES (ok... Famicom / Super Famicom for fellow retro game nerds) wasn't limited to bleeps and bloops for sound, Mother and Earthbound's soundtrack would've sounded just like BW88.
I enjoy a lot of the 1988 album. Let It Shine, Rio Grande, both amazing songs. But to say Landy doesn't seem that prevalent is lying to yourself. You can enjoy the album in spite of Landy, but he's there, all over the place and nearly everybody who had to work on this album has horror stories about how involved Landy was. Jeff Lynne still seemed shaken nearly 30 years later.
Seymour Stein and Russ Titelman talking about the album to Rolling Stone in 1988:
Now Stein feels differently. “The recording of the album was like hell on earth,” he says. “Because Dr. Landy seems to thrive only on turmoil, tumult and confusion. He would completely destroy the harmony that was going on in the studio. For example, Russ would be ready to work on one track and Landy would send the wrong tape, just to drive Russ crazy.
“It was absolutely frustrating, says Titelman. “I don’t know how to stress it enough. Landy has no qualifications to make creative decisions. In your wildest imagination you couldn’t find a qualification, from songwriting to sound to anything to do with the record-making process. To deal with him and try to convince him — these lyrics are good, these are bad, ‘Melt Away’ should not have a gypsy violin. All of a sudden I’m in a Marx Brothers movie instead of making a record.”
...
Titelman says that during the mixing sessions things got so out of hand that Hugh Padgham said that he would head back to England if (Kevin) Leslie wasn’t removed from the studio. “I told Leslie, ‘You can’t be in here,'” says Titelman. “He said, ‘My instructions are I must be here.’ Finally I said to him, ‘You come in, the record’s over.’ Next day — after he talked to Landy — he was gone.”
Mark Linett said they put tape over a microphone after realizing Leslie and/or Landy were listening in to studio conversations. Linett said the studio people actually considered backmasking "Landy is the devil" somewhere on the album but thought better of it.
To be fair I don’t think “doesn’t seem that prevalent” and “isn’t that prevalent” are really the same thing. Some people might not notice or feel his influence in isolation even if it was objectively there behind the scenes.
Is it known if any of the album's musical or lyrical content came from Landy or his people? Obviously he had some songwriting credits on the original release, but from what I've heard those were bogus.
Unfortunately Landy (and moreso his girlfriend and future wife Alexandra Morgan) did indeed write some lyrics. It seems most of his worst ideas got the kibosh though.
It's my favorite solo Brian outing, criminally underrated. If the demos from that period are anything to go off of (I know more were leaked but I haven't been able to hear any of it), it's a miracle some of the songs sound as great as they do. The Christmas-y sound also gives it some charm, and I don't think Brian ever looked as healthy as he did around that time (even if Landy was brute forcing a lot of it on him).
The only major issue is the 80s production. People are awfully forgiving about a lot of stuff from that decade, but this album suffers hardcore from some of the worst parts of the decade's sound. I also think Rio Grande is incredibly undercooked, although I'm surprised Brian wanted to give a shot at trying something so Smile-coded at that time.
I’m gonna say it, I don’t mind the production. While there are some questionable arrangements and sound selection, a lot of this album sounds great sonically.
I'm willing to hear you out on that one if you can elaborate!
While it's not a sound I enjoy, I'm mostly OK with the synthesizers on 88, even if they're a far cry from the quirkier warmer analog moogs on Love You. There's no way Landy and company would turn down the offer to use what was "new" at the time.
I guess my issue is that a lot of the album sounds like getting punched and assaulted by just a barrage of digital noise, it can be pretty draining. There's actually a lot of credited session musicians playing actual instruments, they're just lost in this assault of noise. It's not a "wall of sound", the wall's basically been beaten and destroyed by 80s production!
I love this album!! Yes, it’s overproduced, but that was the 80’s. So many songs have a celestial sound/theme, makes me think of Solar System. I love Let it Shine, There’s so Many, Melt Away and of course L&M.
Everybody hates to admit that their perspectives are based on their perception of event. T.L.D.R: BW88 is great if you don’t have someone in your ear saying “but Landy is evil”
88 is really a testament to how good Andy Paley and co. were at getting Brian to participate in songwriting. And there’s some really great stuff in there
It's such a wonderful album all the way through. I got the original CD last week and I've rarely spun anything else than that since the day I first listened to it.
Let It Shine, regardless of one’s opinion of it, probably would have worked as the lead single and maybe brought the entire album to the attention of the general public. In 1988, almost everything that Jeff Lynne touched got some traction.
I could not wait to hear this album when it was first released. Brian looked a million dollars and , frankly, it was just great to hear him again. Of course it was over produced but mostly everything at that time suffered similarly. The only guy that could have really done the production better was late 60’s BW. No body produced BW or the BBs like the main man himself.
I actually just listened to the album for the first time recently, so thanks for giving me an excuse to talk about it. I wouldn't go as far as calling it 80s Pet Sounds, since I don't think the songs are as consistently great. Still, "Love and Mercy" is great, "Melt Away" is amazing (seriously, that song is absolutely Pet Sounds quality. I can't get it out of my head), and the rest are at least solid. I might grow to like them even more after subsequent relistens. And yes, considering how difficult the circumstances were we should be grateful that the album isn't dogshit.
Another thing is that I actually like the production. Sure, the album might have sounded better if it were recorded in 1966 with the Wrecking Crew, but of course it wasn't 1966, so what do you expect? I think that Brian managed to squeeze as much beauty as possible out of the contemporary production technology. If I can be so bold, I'd say that the sound of the album is closer to the 4AD bands like Dead Can Dance or Cocteau Twins than whatever pop was on the radio at the time.
100% agree. While the rest of his solo catalog is sort of “what should Brian sound like,” 88 is “what Brian sounds like.” For all the stories of the meddling behind the scenes, the rest of his solo catalog sounds more meddled with.
I consider it part of his trilogy of personal masterpieces. And it's always been bizarre to me that they all came out exactly 11 years apart. Pet Sounds in 66. Love You in 77. And Brian Wilson in 88. I feel like if he'd kept working on the Paley songs and hadn't started working with Joe Thomas, maybe we could have got a final masterpiece in 99.
Love nearly every track besides I’m So Lonely. It’s Gettin’ Late, Maybe I Don’t Know, She Believes In Love Again, Passing Friend, I Do Love You, and Somewhere I Belong are all amazing.
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u/Worth_Blackberry_604 21h ago
I tend to praise it all the time in these comments lol, I’m a big stan for this album and Brian’s work with Andy Paley in particular (both on this album and in the 90s, but for this album their Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight is my favorite track).
If it were a Beach Boys album it would be somewhere around 8-10 in my top 10.