L.A. (Light Album)

[Andrew]

Does this album spread the light, or should it go to LALA land.....comment and rate here

Album archive entry at
http://www.surfermoon.com/albums/la2.shtml

[Lee Marshall]

Only a 3.  Good Timin', Full Sail and Angel Come Home are the highlights.  You might enjoy Here Comes the Night.  I do.  It's interesting.  A 'trendy' treatment of the classic from Wild Honey...redone ENTIRELY.  Still...by this time the group was grasping at straws and almost rudderless.  The TRULY creative days were but a distant memory.  The group...a shadow of its former self.
For fans only.

[Conspiracy Jim]

Disagree on this one Lee.  It's the flipside to MIU; minimum involvement from Alan and Mike (and Brian)(one song each), but Dennis Carl and Bruce everywhere.  If you took the best bits of those two albums you'd have the strongest late-period offering from the band.  Even on its' own, it still has that claim.  Dennis' contributions, vocally and writing are excellent, and his trade with Carl (each singing on one of the others' songs) is inspired. 

I would've preferred the incusion of It's A Beautiful Day at the cost of a shortened HCTN.  The poorest songs are Goin' South and Shortenin' Bread, which are both inconsequential.  And I'll stick up for Sumahama.

[Ed Hemingway]

Love Good Timin', Love Surrounds Me, Angel Come Home, Baby Blue. Don't Mind Full Sail, but can't trake two sluggish Carl ballads, so I'll pass on Goin' South.  Shortenin' Bread's fun, but I prefer the version that may have been slated to appear on Adult Child (though I'd rather have something altogether stronger).  Sumahama has neat singing but the spoken Japanese bit ruins it (not on the First Love version, is it?). Here Comes the Night is an awful version and, apart from anything else, takes up way too much room - so much, in fact, that it could tilt the scales towards this being a poor album. I'm not a big fan of Lady Linda.  Kinda odd song with some nice singing. It's a Beautiful Day is no great shakes, but I'd easily have that and California Feelin' instead of HCTN, and Lookin' Down the Coast and the original Santa Ana Winds instead of two out of Shortenin' Bread, Lady Lynda, Goin' South and Sumahama.  As it stands, it's their last half decent album and I certainly prefer it to MIU; it's just a shame about the other half!

[topgazza]

I'm with Lee. Only saving was Good Timin and baby Blue. A poor album they were treading water at this stage. To stand in the studio faced with this material MUST have been very obviously depressing for the Boys after the majesty of the 60s...say Goodnight Gracie

[Moon Dawg]

  I think LA is a decent album.

[Lincoln]

Best post holland.
Just Drop Sumahama, and swap out the long here comes the night for the 5 minute version. 11 minutes is OVERKILL.

[Lonely Summer]

I LIKE this album! Didn't care much for MIU. Was expecting to hate Here Comes the Night, but found it an interesting experiment, with nice group vocals and excellent leads from Carl. I also expected to hate Sumuhama but found it very enjoyable (a couple friends have also singled this one out as a favorite). Good Timin' is a classic that would standout on any BB's album, Lady Lynda is a very pretty ballad from Al, ditto for Dennis' Baby Blue. Nice to see Carl return as a writer with Angel Come Home, Full Sail, and Goin' South. Having Dennis sing Angel Come Home was a smart choice, gives it kind of a rough beauty. Shortenin' Bread? How many times has Brian recycled that music? Metal Beach? Too Much Sugar? Must rank on his favs list right next to Be My Baby!

[Moon Dawg]

  LA redux

 side one

 Good Timin', Lady Lynda, California Feeling, Full Sail, Love Surrounds Me, Sumahama


 side two

 Here Comes the Night (five minute version), Shortenin' Bread, Angel Come Home, Baby Blue, Still I Dream Of It 

[topgazza]

Its an album that is tantalisingly short of being a good album. The material is not good for me but, but, but its almost there. baby Blue, Good timing, Lady lynda and Sumuhama and possibly Angel are good tracks. Not top drawer but close and all the album needed was another 3 tracks of Trader/Long Promised Road/Sail On Saolor type quality to be an truly excellant effort. But they were scratching around the bottom of the bucket by then...shame.

[Soulful Old Man Sunshine]

A 3. A few good songs coupled with more pap, but still a marked improvement over the MIU stinker.

Good to Great songs:
Good Timin' (along with Baby Blue and The Night Was So Young, the best BBs song of the late '70s)
Lady Lynda (though the Live Knebworth version is much better...the production kinda stinks here)
Love Surrounds Me (great, dark Dennis song)
Baby Blue (my favorite Dennis song)
Shortenin' Bread (alot of fun)

and well, Angel Come Home is kinda good.

Everything else is terrible, especially Sumahama and the horrific Here Comes The Night retread. Gimme Wild Honey's version ANY day...

Really, I've been thinking about grabbing the above good songs from LA and coupling on a CD with the few good songs from MIU; it'd turn out to be a good record.

[The Baker Man]

This album is much better than M.I.U., but it still falls a bit short.  I agree with you, Soulful.  I can't stand Here Comes The Night and always skip over it.  The Wild Honey version is far better.  Good Timin' and Dennis' songs absolutely carry the album.

[Wrightfan]

I love this album! A 7.

Good Timin': One of Brian's big achievements post Holland. 9 out of 10.

Lady Lynda: Great song by Al. 8 out of 10.

Full Sail: A nice little ballad by Carl. 6.5 out of 10.

Angel Come Home: Decent song with a decent lead by Dennis. 6.5 out of 10.

Love Surrounds Me: Another nice Dennis song. Like a lot of later Dennis songs, it's sad to see how shot his voice became. 6.5 out of 10.

Sumahama: Call me crazy but...I really love this song. Great orchestration though the lyrics could've been better. 7.5 out of 10.

Here Comes the Night (Disco version): Part of me says why ruin this Wild Honey track with disco and part of me really likes it. 7 out of 10.

Baby Blue: Heartbreaking song, especially since this is the last Dennis song on a Beach Boys album. Carl sounds great here. 7.5 out of 10.

Goin' South: Another decent Carl ballad. 6.5 out of 10.

Shortenin' Bread: What an odd way of ending this album. Replace this with something like Still I Dream of It and it's an 8 album. 4 out of 10.

[Lonely Summer]

I was thinking recently that this album is so much better than MIU, maybe this was on purpose? Give the garbage to Warners for the final album there, save the good stuff for CBS. LA has a lot more Dennis and Carl input, MIU seems to be Mike and Al's baby.

[Conspiracy Jim]

I was thinking recently that this album is so much better than MIU, maybe this was on purpose? Give the garbage to Warners for the final album there, save the good stuff for CBS. LA has a lot more Dennis and Carl input, MIU seems to be Mike and Al's baby.

You're essentially correct as the MIU album had its genesis in the Merry Christmas from The Beach Boys album (tracks found on the Ultimate Christmas CD), and when that was rejected, some swift re-writing went on to make it a 'proper' album.