Бич Бойз тобының 1979 жылғы "L.A. (Light Album)" альбомы

1979 album by the Beach Boys

L. A. (Light Album) is the 23rd studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on March 16, 1979, and their first issued through CBS Records. Recorded during a period of acrimony between the band members, it was a critical and commercial failure, peaking at number 100 in the U. S. and number 32 in the UK. The album largely consists of solo recordings by the individual band members, including two from Dennis Wilson ("Love Surrounds Me" and "Baby Blue") that were lifted from his unreleased second solo album, Bambu. Brian Wilson was not present for much of the L. A. sessions. The production was credited to returning Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, the band itself, and their manager James William Guercio. L. A. produced three singles: an 11 minute disco rerecording of "Here Comes the Night" from their 1967 album Wild Honey, the Brian and Carl Wilson collaboration "Good Timin'", and Al Jardine's "Lady Lynda". "Here Comes the Night" and "Good Timin" charted at numbers 44 and 40, respectively, while "Lady Lynda" was a top 10 hit in several territories abroad, including the UK.

In the late 1970s, the Beach Boys were in a state of professional and personal disarray, with the Wilson brothers struggling with drug abuse and, alongside Mike Love, each facing an imminent or ongoing divorce from their wives. In March 1977, the group signed an $8 million deal with CBS Records, with their first album expected for delivery before January 1, 1978. Dennis Wilson released his first solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue, in September 1977, after which the band recorded M. I. U. Album to finish off their contract with Reprise. The Beach Boys missed their CBS album deadline and, from February to March 1978, embarked on a three week tour of Australia and New Zealand. While the tour was a commercial success, tensions within the band were disastrous and nearly resulted in another breakup when the group discovered Dennis had purchased heroin for Brian Wilson with funds allegedly acquired from Carl Wilson. During an argument regarding this incident, Brian's bodyguard Rocky Pamplin punched Carl in the face. Band manager and business advisor Stephen Love, who felt that Pamplin's actions were justified, was subsequently fired. After returning to Los Angeles, Brian ran away on a days long drug binge and was later discovered lying under a tree at Balboa Park in San Diego without shoes, money, or a wallet. Biographer Steven Gaines writes that Brian was then admitted to a local hospital, and when discharged, immediately joined his bandmates at Criteria Studios in Miami, where they were recording their long overdue first album for CBS. Peter Ames Carlin, another biographer, supports that sessions had already been underway in Miami, but Mike's 2016 memoir, Good Vibrations, gives a different timeline:

From January 11 to August 22, 1978, members of the band held sessions at various studios in Los Angeles. The album received mostly unfavorable reviews from music critics. In his review for Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh wrote, "The Beach Boys have not made great rock music since Wild Honey [and have not] made competent pop music since Holland", concluding that the album "is worse than awful. It is irrelevant." The New York Times concluded that "the songs here are better than some recent albums by the group; they're gentle, tuneful and innocently charming But they're pretty trivial, too." AllMusic reviewer John Bush felt, "The Beach Boys ended the decade by releasing the worst album of their career", describing it as "yet another oddball attempt to push the Beach Boys into the contemporary mainstream despite their many songwriting and production flaws." Stebbins praised the Wilson brothers' contributions and derided the songs by Love and Jardine, calling the album "an uneven and disappointing affair. If you liked one part of it, then you were sure to hate others." Carlin opined that L. A. was "a big improvement over M. I. U the album's strength came largely from its diversity of voices". Critic Richard Williams referred to "Angel Come Home" as "the most beautifully textured and exquisitely pain racked white soul music ever made".

+Chart performance for L. A. (Light Album)Chart (1979)Peakposition Dutch Album Chart43 UK Top 40 Album Chart32 US Billboard Top LPs & Tape100