"Fairy Tale" has Brian's best lead vocal on the album, but those lyrics.
(Although the cover version on "Caroline Now" DOES successfully makes this song sound COOL). "Rainbow Eyes" is ok, but there's something sort of Care Bear Adventures about this song, you know? I just don't think the Sweet Insanity materials can be retranslated. Evidently Brian didn't care enough to speak up this time. Paul has said Brian will tell him when he's using "too many notes". He's tackling a sweet simple love song like it's "Flight of the Bumblebee" or something. Here it is ruined by the Paul Von Merten's "Wall Of Flutes". "Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel" is a highlight of "Sweet Insanity". Yet strangely I don't exactly like the material here either. I'm not the biggest "Sweet Insanity" fan. Here we have pretty faithful interpretations of his unreleased materials (aside from some lyrical revisions). But when Brian resurrects something old under his own creative impulses he usually modifies it in some way and doesn't just serve it up "as is". And who knows if Brian wasn't hiding these tunes under his mattress even longer than that. This yard sale of an album consists of mostly Sweet Insanity-era stuffs, although some go back farther to the Gary Usher sessions of the mid-80's. Maybe it was just because there wasn't a Joe Thomas polishing the crap out of it. Some said this was because Brian didn't really want to re-record this material. There are moments where these harmonies sound a little off-key ("You Touched Me" intro). This was the last album that featured Brian prominently doing most of the background harmonies himself. Right down to the album cover.Ĭoming on the heels of the live premiere of "Smile", yet just months before the release of the "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" album, it was hard to get excited about this material when we're all wallowing in Smile bliss.
I know they weren't released on the same label, but I think it may have been the same parent company. Again, it's been a long time, so my memory may not be exact. I also seem to remember that this album and the solo SMiLE album were presented to labels as a package deal which led to some labels passing on them because they didn't want Gettin' In Over My Head. I never saw any specific issues posted, so that can be taken with a grain of salt. I remember reading at the time on some Beach Boys message boards that even some of the band members weren't happy about this album and some of the details surrounding it. Lastly, the album cover itself is hideous. Maybe because they were recycling pretty old material at this time? Maybe he was more focused on the SMiLE stuff they were also doing around that time? I don't know, but some of the results should have never been allowed on a Brian Wilson album. It just doesn't sound like his heart was in it. I think Brian was still very capable at this time, so I'm not sure what happened. For instance, the backing vocals on Make a Wish are really bad. Brian sounds bored throughout and somehow, backing vocals that aren't even totally on pitch made the album. The "wall of Brian" backing vocal approach on this album doesn't work at all. The only track that features Brian's other band members on backing vocals is Desert Drive, which is a huge mistake. The Clapton solo on City Blues isn't awful, but it's pretty standard fare. This makes them all sound pretty terrible to my ears, even if the performances themselves weren't bad. All of the guest vocals sound like they have a weird effect on them that make them sound really boxy with a slight chorusing effect on them or something. The guest spots do nothing at all for me. I think that the title track is nice and I like Desert Drive a good bit. It has a couple of spots that I like, but very uninspired.
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