I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #41:

It was 1988, the dreaded year of the Kokomo. We were musical miles from cruisin’ to the hamburger stand now, or the columnated ruins domino...

But, brilliant as he is, who needs a Van Dyke Parks — let alone the other Beach Boys — for Brian Wilson’s first solo album? The affecting lead-off track, “Love and Mercy,” is so harmony drenched and direct — “I was sittin’ in a crummy movie with my hands on my chin / Oh the violence that occurs seems like we never win” — that even Mike Love surely would comprehend and approve.

And overall, though the self-titled release was tainted with an ‘80s-style synth-stiffened production — making for a mixed and inconsistent effort that kept it from being fully successful — its many high points ascended and soared with its harmonies, beating out any of the other Brian-less and brainless Beach Boy LPs of the era. (In one particularly egregious alphabet-soup merchandising move, you can now own the M.I.U. Album and L.A. (Light Album) packaged together! Supplies while they last… and last, and last, and…)

In addition to “Love and Mercy,” other hook-driven contempo-confections in Brian Wilson include “Walking the Line,” and “Night Time.” “Let it Shine, though another new song at the time, was co-written and produced by Jeff Lynne, not only making it sound like we've taken a wayback machine trip to ELO Land, but also spurring the thought that Brian might be a shoe-in for another re-teaming of the Traveling Wilburys. Though he might end up being a Non-Traveling Wilbury.

But as much as Brain may want to live in the present or look ahead to tomorrow, the more successful moments on the album belong to those songs that harken back. “One For The Boys” evokes one of those a cappella exercises in harmony the Beach Boys executed so effortlessly and marvelously in the early '60s, while “Little Children,” an impulsively-written ditty about toddling daughters Carnie and Wendy, suggests something — “I Wanna Pick You Up,” perhaps — from the spirited, homespun, and Brian-led masterwork from 1977, The Beach Boys Love You.