Brian Wilson - Sweet Insanity (1991)
I thought I knew nearly everything there was to know about Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, but this album took me by surprise when I stumbled on it quite by chance. 'Sweet Insanity' is an unauthorized Brian Wilson studio album that was originally planned for release in 1991, but Wilson has said that the master tapes were stolen, preventing an official release, although the songs are available on numerous bootlegs, so not sure if that is exactly the case. Five of the songs were re-recorded over a decade later and released on Wilson’s 2004 album 'Gettin' In Over My Head', although some critics believe the remakes weren't as good as the originals. In 2015, Wilson spoke about 'Sweet Insanity', saying "it was never really released. You’ve got bootlegs, but it was never released. And I thought some of the stuff was pretty good. It wasn’t the best album I ever wrote. We just didn’t think it was good enough. They were just like demos. We recorded about 10-12 songs, and we decided not to put it out because we thought that maybe people wouldn’t like it, so we junked it". 'Hotter' was recorded between 1987–1988, and produced by Brian Wilson and Russ Titelman and was released as a single, so I've added it here as a bonus. 'The Spirit of Rock and Roll' featured Bob Dylan on co-lead vocals, and was recorded between August 1986 and January 1987 and produced by Brian and Gary Usher. If there's one song which does stand out, however, It's 'Smart Girls', but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. It's not just that Brian raps(!), but the fact that he randomly throws in samples of Beach Boys tracks from the 60's with absolutely no thought for the flow of the song or the relevance of the sample. It's just a mess from start to finish, and yet the rest of the album is really surprisingly good for late-period Wilson, and there are some great songs on here. I don't normally bother with bonus tracks, but in this case I've made an exception as I honestly cannot listen to 'Smart Girls' ever again, so I've removed it from the running order and quarantined it in its own folder. If you want to add it back in that's entirely up to you.
Track listing
01 Intro (Concert Tonite) 02 Someone To Love 03 Water Builds Up 04 Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel 05 Do You Have Any Regrets? 06 Brian 07 The Spirit Of Rock & Roll (featuring Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne) 08 Rainbow Eyes 09 Love Ya 10 Make A Wish11 Country Feelin' 12 Hotter
Bonus track 13 Smart Girls
You mentioned there are some great songs here. In your opinion, which ones are they?
ReplyDeleteAll of them have an instantly recognisable Beach Boys sound, which is a great start, and 'Someone To Love' and 'Water Builds Up' are pretty good rockers, if you can just get past the cheesy 80's synths. 'Don't Let Her Know' and 'Rainbow Eyes' are nice ballads, and while they are certainly not up to the standard of the classics of the 60's I think it's a creditable effort considering everything he'd gone through up to that point.
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