“Sumahama,” written and sung by Mike Love, is just infuriating. It is a nominee for one of the worst Beach Boys songs of all time and I’m not sure it is the worst song on the album.

Side two of the original L.A. (Light Album) makes the first side seem like a classic.

“Here Comes The Night” marks the Beach Boys entrance into the disco era. The song, which was originally released on the Wild Honey album, is re-structured with a heavy bass and up-tempo disco beat. The worst thing that happens is that the song is lengthened to just under 11 minutes. Listening to this song today just makes it all the worse. It goes to show that the only thing worse than a bad song is a miss-conceived and long bad song.

The album just limps home after the disco fiasco. “Baby Blue” is another song from Dennis Wilson’s Bamboo.”  Dennis’ vocal sounds slightly better but the song has an odd structure which makes it a difficult listen. “Goin’ South” is basically a Carl Wilson solo piece and might have been more appropriate for one of his solo releases.

The final song on the album is also its worst. The traditional song “Shortnin’ Bread” is just unlistenable. The saying always leave your audience wanting more does not apply in this case.

L.A. (Light Album) is an album with a lot of low points. Given today’s technology I would advise downloading the first three songs and avoiding the rest. Enough said.