In 1961, The Beach Boys were founded by lead songwriter Brian Wilson, his brothers Carl and Dennis, as well as cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. They gained a large following in the United States due to their unique combination of surf rock and doo-wop style harmonization. None of the members actually surfed except for Dennis Wilson however, and Brian Wilson was getting sick of singing about surfing and was starting to get more artistically adventurous in the mid 1960s. He quit touring with the band in 1965, wanting to entirely focus his efforts on songwriting for The Beach Boys.
Brian was getting increasingly influenced by Phil Spector, who pioneered the “Wall of Sound” production technique, in which he would use session musicians to double or triple an instrument’s sound (as Brian put it in a 1976 interview, “Combing say piano with guitars to form a unique instrument … if you combine them electronically well enough, you’re not gonna have a guitar or a piano, you’re gonna have piano guitar a new instrument”). Brian Wilson started incorporating this technique with 1965’s “The Beach Boys Today!” which moved towards more introspective themes lyrically and away from just surfing and girls. Brian Wilson was also influenced by the Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” which he saw as a full cohesive album without filler, he put these influences into The Beach Boys’ 1966 album “Pet Sounds” which remains their most acclaimed album ever. He attempted to succeed “Pet Sounds” with an even more ambitious album, “SMiLE” which collapsed due to a myriad of reasons, one of which being his declining mental health. He made 3 lo-fi albums afterwards, which struggled in the charts, this led to his involvement in the Beach Boys’ subsequent albums declining.
He still wrote songs for the band, however they were getting stranger, he was writing a lot of songs about health food as well as a 12 minute fairytale. In 1974 The Beach Boys’ “Endless Summer” released which led to a resurgence in popularity for their older surf themed material, their popularity increased greatly after this, however Brian was doing worse than ever, he entered a “recluse period” in which he would rarely leave his home except to party in the middle of the night. But with The Beach Boys’ rising popularity the fans wanted to see Brian, who wrote all of their early hits, but he had absolutely no interest in making new music or performing live. In 1975 he entered a 24 hour therapy program, and started to slightly recover in 1976.
There was a large media campaign proclaiming that “Brian’s Back!” He started performing live again, and returned as their lead producer.
15 Big Ones (1976)
4/10
This album features a mix of covers and new songs. Brian Wilson didn’t really want to create this album, and it shows. The production is haphazard and sloppily made, a far cry away from the lush orchestrations of Pet Sounds and SMiLE. The original songs here, while not being excruciatingly bad, are mostly bland. The covers here are absolutely useless and pale in comparison to the originals. Mike Love delivers a really shitty song about Transcendental Meditation titled “Everyone’s In Love With You”. There are some highlights hidden amongst this mess of an album, one of which being “Had to Phone Ya”, a fun short song with a great string section, another highlight is the cover of Phil Spector’s “Just Once in My Life”, a synthesizer heavy cut featuring a wonderful and emotional vocal performance from Carl and Brian. Overall, nothing special.
“Love You” (1977)
10/10
In late 1976 Brian Wilson went through a creative boom and created “Love You”, the first Beach Boys album wholly written and produced by Brian Wilson since Pet Sounds, as well as the first album where he primarily wrote the lyrics. This album sounds like nothing you have ever heard before. Brian and Dennis sing with raspy cigarette damaged voices. Moog synthesizers take prominence here, and according to Rateyourmusic this was actually the first synth-pop album ever released.
“Let Us Go On This Way” is an absolutely perfect way to start this album, a strangely menacing moog synthesizer sound, an aggressive performance from Carl Wilson, oddly childlike lyrics about not wanting to go to school (along with a random verse about extrasensory perception), with a wonderful vocal harmony in the hook. Mona is another highlight on this album, with lyrics about taking a girl on a date and talking to her about “Be My Baby” and Phil Spector. This song exemplifies another unique trait about this album, despite its categorization as synth-pop, it has a lot more lineage with older 1950s and 1960s pop in comparison to most synth pop in the years following which took more influence from disco and progressive rock. In keeping with the lyrical subject matter, this song in particular sounds like a Phil Spector wall of sound production but drenched in synthesizers. “Johnny Carson” is about how much Brian Wilson likes the late night TV host, Johnny Carson. Despite the rather bare bones synth sound, there are wildly complex chord progressions and harmonies here. “Ding Dang” ends side 1 of the album, throughout the years Brian has called it one of his favorite songs. It is a minute long and consists of a single chord. It was co-written by Roger Mcguinn of The Byrds, Brian reportedly went to his house late at night asking for amphetamines, they then had a small jam session and Roger Mcguinn wrote the lyrics “I love a girl, I love her so madly, I treat her so fine, but she treats me so badly”. This song may have also kickstarted Brian’s obsession with the folk song “Shortenin Bread”. I love this song.
Side 2 of “Love You” starts with “Solar System”. A song about the Solar System. This is the first song on the album where Brian himself does the lead vocals, his voice is gruff and Randy Newman influenced, a far cry away from his old tenor voice of the 1960s, but his vocals are still great. I love how Brian just wrote about whatever he was interested in and this song is a prime example. The next three songs are beautiful and emotionally in depth. “The Night Was so Young” has a deeply atmospheric sound and is about his extramarital affair. “I’ll Bet He’s Nice” has a fun cheesy synth instrumental while the Wilson brothers sing from the point of view of a self-pitying guy who is sad about his ex-girlfriend leaving him for another man. “Let’s Put Our Hearts Together” is a duet with Brian and his wife Marilyn, the song is a heartfelt emotional tribute to his marriage.
“Adult/Child” (1977)
7/10
This was the planned successor to “Love You” and moved away from the synthesizer dominated sound of that album into a sound influenced by big band and crooner music of the 1930s and 1940s (synthesizers were still prevalent here but were more a lot more subtle then on “love you”).
The album starts you right in the action with “Life is for the Living”, a big band song in which Carl Wilson yells at the listener not to “Sit on your ass, smokin’ grass, That stuff went out a long time ago”. “It’s Over Now” is a heartbreaking big band ballad reflecting the collapse of his marriage. “Shortnin Bread” is another highlight here, a rendition of a folk song Brian was reportedly obsessed with. He once was at a party with Iggy Pop, he played “Shortenin Bread” repeatedly, causing Iggy Pop to flee and say “I gotta get out of here man. This guy is nuts!”. The rendition on this album is booming with energy, and features a passionate lead by Carl, while Brian delivers the bass vocals. “Still I Dream of It” is one of the most personal songs Brian wrote, reflecting his yearning, and his health struggles, this is honestly one of my favorite Beach Boys songs ever made. The other songs on the album are underproduced piano based songs with strange lyrics and varying quality.
I do enjoy this album but not nearly as much as “Love You” . It’s a lot less consistent in quality and less cohesive in style. The big band idea is only explored on a few songs here, and the vocal harmonies don’t show up nearly as much as on past Beach Boys efforts and when they do they are rather thin.
“Adult Child” was never officially released; bandmates Mike Love and Al Jardine thought the record was too strange and scrapped it. The songs recorded for the album were finally released in 2026 as “The Adult Child Sessions” but it really wasn’t a full release of the album. The Beach Boys fully embraced being a nostalgia act and never made a good album ever again. Brian fell into more issues after this era, he was under control of the evil 24 hour therapist Eugene Landy for most of the 80s. Brian finally broke free in the 90s, started recovering and even finished SMiLE in 2004. He unfortunately died in 2025 at the age of 82 years.