M.I.U. / L.A. Album
Want a party game sure to clear the room in record time? Try playing Name the Beach Boys Worst Album; two-plus decades on, 1978'sM.I.U.remains a dogged contender. Vocalist Mike Love, perhaps stunned by the massively weird, if eminently lovable, originality of theLove Youalbum, somehow cajoled the band to sojourn from Southern California to cut their next effort in that somewhat lesser-known recording Mecca--the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. Cascading effortlessly from one sentimental, ill-conceived aural greeting card to the next, the forms and harmonies are familiar, if virtually substance-free, in service of a pop sensibility--Love's--that makesBarry Manilowsound like Rimbaud. Bruce Johnston returned to the fold after a long absence just in time for 1979'sL.A. (Light Album)--and a shot at another round of everyone's least favorite party game. The band was right about one thing: this is one light album, a virtually fat-free concoction that shamelessly borrows Bach one moment ("Lady Lynda"), then apes Japanese modalities (Al Jardine's clumsy "Sumahama"), and pimps waning disco fever (a cliché-ridden redux/remix of "Wild Honey's "Here Comes the Night") the next. All it desperately needed was a soul, a commodity the devil had apparently collected in a previous deal. Though the infectious "Good Timin'" was both a highlight and moderate hit,Brian Wilson's creative guidance is sorely missed throughout; judging from these two albums, he may indeed have been crazy ... like a fox. Both albums are newly remastered on a single disc.--Jerry McCulley