The Beach Boys
M.I.U. Album

In a hypothetical collection of the worst albums ever released, a spot must be reserved for some of the Beach Boys' LPs. Unfortunately, that's how it is. The Californian group has been responsible for a series of creations that calling superfluous is a great sign of kindness in judgment. Brian Wilson's creative and personal crisis, along with the simultaneous disinterest of brothers Carl and Dennis towards the end of the '70s, led the group towards barren creative lows with minimal inspiration. Tired and overused melodies, predictable for terrible songs. "M.I.U. Album" saw the light in 1978 under the guidance of Al Jardine and Mike Love, and it found its appropriate place among the "worst of the worst" on the various radio stations brave enough to play it. Leaving aside the title's acronym, one might stop to admire the beautiful cover photo, a wave at sunset set in a circle that almost recalls the eye of Hal 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey". The choice of the image is very apt after a series of terrible covers marked by the utmost lack of taste ("15 Big Ones", "Love You"), but the music? The absolute nothingness. With Dennis Wilson engaged in his masterpiece "Pacific Ocean Blue," pieces of Brian Wilson are used showing the confused state he is in. The beginning is very banal, "She's Got a Rhythm" aims to be a sunny pop song but goes unnoticed like everything else until the cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue". The idea is that the album is composed without a precise idea; in the '70s, the group had produced beautiful albums like "Holland" and "Surf's Up," but by now, it seemed headed for an unstoppable decline, which would be confirmed in subsequent works; however, it must be said that "L.A. Album" from '79 is decidedly more valid with some good compositions by Carl and Dennis Wilson. Perhaps a song to save is "My Diane" sung by Dennis, his only contribution to an album he defined as "a source of embarrassment" and worthy of being destroyed. The art of the pop song no longer lives in California; in those years, one had to look elsewhere for delightful songs crafted with ingenious vocal harmonies, particularly in Sweden where Abba had fully embraced the lesson of Brian Wilson from a few years earlier.

"M.I.U. Album" can be defined as a work that is not only an example of terrible music but also cannot boast even a particular historical value worthy of mention. If you find it, you might hang it framed on the wall because the cover deserves it but nothing more.