Originally Posted by ribbons

Sunflower's my all-around favorite (after Pet Sounds, that is) followed by Friends. Love You was actually the first Beach Boys album I purchased, on vinyl. I was intrigued by Dean Torrence's needlepoint art on that big album cover. It's a weirdly touching and comical record - sort of Brian's musical equivalent of Crayola poetry. Or as Lester Bangs wrote, "The Beach Boys Love You pulls off a feat that's eluded, say, Pete Townshend and Mick Jagger – it's almost more juvenile than their original stuff. It's not self-conscious, and it sounds right up-to-date. It's that joyous, rocking, soaring, roller-rink-in-the-sky sound that always made them the real American Music of the Spheres".