| Sweet Insanity | |
|---|---|
 J-card of Brains & Genius promotional cassette | |
| Studio album (bootleg) by | |
| Recorded | 1986–1990 |
| Length | 36:06 |
| Producer |
|
Sweet Insanity is anunofficial album by the American musicianBrian Wilson that was produced in 1990 as the follow-up to his first solo album,Brian Wilson (1988). It was largely written and produced by Wilson alongside his former psychologist,Eugene Landy.
The album was rejected bySire Records due to Landy's lyrics and the inclusion of "Smart Girls", a rap song. Select tracks were later rerecorded for Wilson's 2004 albumGettin' In over My Head.
In 1987, Wilson agreed to a two-album solo contract offered bySire Records presidentSeymour Stein.[1] The first album,Brian Wilson, was released in July 1988 to critical acclaim but underwhelming sales, and it was largely overshadowed by the controversies surrounding Wilson's former psychologist,Eugene Landy, who had become his business and creative partner.[2][3] In August,Rolling Stone reported that Wilson was readying a second album, and that "half" of it had already been written.[4] In May 1989, Wilson recorded "Daddy's Little Girl" for the filmShe's Out of Control, and in June, was among the featured guests on the charity single "The Spirit of the Forest". That summer, he began producing what becameSweet Insanity.[5]
The production ofSweet Insanity retained most of the same personnel as that forBrian Wilson.[6] This time, Landy co-produced the album alongside Wilson, and according to biographerPeter Ames Carlin, there was "no interference of the Sire hotshots who had shepherded Brian's first solo album."[7]Andy Paley, who had co-producedBrian Wilson, said that the second solo effort "was even less real Brian than the first one".[8] He recalled that working onSweet Insanity was "such an unpleasant experience", although "there were good songs", such as "Rainbow Eyes".[9] Critic Matthew Horton characterized the album's production style as "more bombastic and opulent than the subtler shades ofBrian Wilson."[10]
LikeBrian Wilson, the record included some guest appearances.[6] TheTraveling Wilburys'Bob Dylan andTom Petty, whose bandmateJeff Lynne had co-produced a track onBrian Wilson, were featured on "The Spirit of Rock and Roll".[12]Matt Dike, known for his recent hits with hip-hop actsTone-Loc andYoung MC, was asked to co-produce "Smart Girls", a rap song.[13][14] Dike, who had been a major fan ofthe Beach Boys' late 1960s era, recalled that Wilson had expected the song to make "millions", to which Dike thought to himself, "What are you, fuckingnuts?!"[15]
Brian was the album's initial working title.[16] The renaming toSweet Insanity was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to Wilson's much-publicized personal issues.[14] In Wilson's 2016 memoir,I Am Brian Wilson, it explains that "the title was supposed to be a comment about the way that mental illness could turn into something beautiful, but I wasn't sure I wanted a title like that."[16] In a 1993 interview,Mike Love remarked, "to call a recordSweet Insanity, imagine that. A whole album of Brian’s madness that no one wants to release and still everyone sayshe's a genius!"[9][14]
I thought some of the stuff was pretty good. It wasn't the best album I ever wrote. We just didn’t think it was good enough. They were just like demos. [...] we thought that maybe people wouldn’t like it, so we junked it.
Two iterations ofSweet Insanity were presented to Sire Records, in 1990 and 1991, and both mixes were rejected due to the inclusion of "Smart Girls" and Landy's lyrics.[5] According to Sire executive Howard Klein, "If [Sweet Insanity] was pathetic, Eugene Landy's lyrics were full of psychological mumbo jumbo. When Wilson brought the tapes in, I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. It was awful."[18] Sire then agreed to release Wilson from his contract.[19]
Among the originalSweet Insanity tracks, "Country Feeling" was included on the 1991 charity albumFor Our Children.[10] A limited-release cassette single of "Smart Girls" was also produced.[20][nb 1] The rest of the album has since been bootlegged,[10][22] with CD copies of the album distributed by the bootleg labels Vigotone and Invasion Unltd [sic] in 1993.[23]
In 2004, re-recorded and slightly rewritten versions of "Rainbow Eyes", "Make a Wish", and "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel" were included on Wilson's albumGettin' In over My Head.[10][24] The album also included re-recordings of "Save the Day" (retitled "Fairy Tale") and "Let's Stick Together" (retitled "The Waltz"), which were not onSweet Insanity, but dated from the same era.[25] In 2006, a re-recording of "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" was included on a limited-release CD compilation,Songs from Here & Back.[11]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [26] |
Sweet Insanity was critically panned by many listeners who heard the record when it first circulated.[27] An exception was music journalist Bill Holdship, who, in 1991, praisedSweet Insanity as "a wonderful album" and an improvement uponBrian Wilson.[28] Holdship later reported that some fans were angered by the favorable review and had sent him several death threats in response.[9]
In his 2007 bookThe Greatest Music Never Sold, author Dan Leroy wrote that several of theSweet Insanity songs suggest that "Wilson's muse was still very much intact and functioning", although "it's fair to say that there is no composition in the Beach Boys' or Brian Wilson's history that has inspired so much enmity as 'Smart Girls.'"[29] In the 2014 bookThe Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear, contributor Matthew Horton praisedSweet Insanity for having "plentiful merits", despite some "missteps".[10]
Brett Milano of theBoston Phoenix regardedSweet Insanity as among Wilson's "best post-'60s albums...For the first time since ''Til I Die', he's writing directly about his breakdown and recovery...Landy may have written these lyrics, but it hardly matters; Wilson didn't write the lyrics toPet Sounds either."[30]
AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald wrote, "Most of the record is overbaked both lyrically and musically, with a feeling of sitting in on a therapy session rather than a recording. Some of it is unlistenable, and the mark of Brian Wilson only surfaces rarely. For diehard collectors and the brave of heart."[26]
Per Andrew Doe.[31]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Intro" | 0:16 |
| 2. | "Someone to Love" | 3:57 |
| 3. | "Water Builds Up" | 3:18 |
| 4. | "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel" | 3:39 |
| 5. | "Do You Have Any Regrets?" | 3:43 |
| 6. | "Brian" (also known as "Thank You") | 3:21 |
| Total length: | 18:14 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Spirit of Rock & Roll" (featuringBob Dylan andTom Petty) | 3:23 |
| 2. | "Rainbow Eyes" | 4:18 |
| 3. | "Love Ya" | 3:05 |
| 4. | "Make a Wish" | 2:57 |
| 5. | "Smart Girls" | 4:09 |
| Total length: | 17:52 36:06 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Country Feelin'" (CD bonus) | 2:42 |
| 13. | "Hotter" (Single, B-side) | 3:50 |
| Total length: | 42:38 | |
Partial credits.[8][6][12][13][14][15][32]
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