Disc One is entitled NOW. In the liner notes Mike writes: "There needs to be a whole new renaissance of love and peace. There are so many problems in the world right now where there shouldn't be. And where there are true problems, we should come together as one to fix them. We're divided by the same things we were 50, 60 years ago-racism, climate change and the polluting of the environment, social injustice, economic inequality, opioid addiction, nuclear proliferation. I thought we all marched and sang and voted and raised our voices to change these things".
1. First up is a Mike Love/Paul Fauerso co-write 'All the Love in Paris' featuring Dave Koz on saxophone and Corky Bennett on accordion. Mike's sons Brian and Christian contribute backing vocals on this light pop song of romance: "All the love in Paris is but an echo of the love we shared/Romance and passions, never out of fashion when it comes to a classic love affair/All the world loves Paris/Been known forever as a city of light/But all that light just doesn't seem as bright/As what I see in your eyes tonight".
2. 'Getcha Back' features John Stamos on drums and was originally track one on THE BEACH BOYS (1985). It was written by Mike and Terry Melcher. The light pop version here includes some additional lyrics of romantic longing: "There's a dream I have a many a night/We're back together and it feels so right/Do you ever think of me like I do you?/Is there a chance we'd make my dreams come true?/Can we ever get it back?.../You know I wanna getcha back".
3. 'Daybreak Over the Ocean' finds The Blossoms on backing vocals. It appeared in 2012 on the Beach Boys' THAT'S WHY GOD MADE THE RADIO. This song and the rest of the songs on Disc One are solely penned by Mike Love. This adult contemporary song runs over five and a half minutes long and includes these words of inquiry: "Daybreak over the ocean/Moonlight still on the sea/Will the waves gentle motion/Bring my babe, my baby back to me?"
4. 'I Don't Wanna Know' is a soulful pop song a lot of guys will be able to relate to: "If you're gonna pick me up just to put me down/Leave me looking like a fool over town/If you're ever gonna let me go/I don't wanna know, know/If you're ever gonna break my heart, why even start?" (2X)
5. 'Too Cruel' is actually a pleasant sounding adult contemporary song featuring Christian Love, Jeffery Foskett, and Hayleigh Love on backing vocals, and a guitar solo by Tim Pierce. The song reflects on a romantic relationship: "In the morning just before the light/We'd kiss again/You'd hold me tight/My heart would melt like stars before the dawn/As another sunlight starts to glow, my mind accepts you have to go/But still within my heart, the ache goes on".
6. 'Crescent Moon' is a beautiful easy listening piece that finds Mike searching for contentment: "Glow, crescent glow, on that moon ship, I wanna go/Billowing clouds, like swollen sails/Take me where there's love, like in fairytales".
7. Next up is 'Cool Head, Warm Heart', a light pop song beginning with Beach Boy-like harmonies and featuring Joel Peskin on tenor sax. The song offers some good advice: "Hey, boys and girls hear what I say/Don't blow your cool cause there's a better way/Whenever you encounter stress and strife/Things'll be better if you go through life/With a cool head and warm heart/To get you through the day without coming apart/You need a cool head and a warm heart/And that's how every day should start".
8. 'Pisces Brothers' is Mike's sentimental tribute to the late Beatle George Harrison: "Not for fortune or for more fame/But for enlightenment we came/To Maharishi and how sublime/It was an atmosphere divine/Such precious moments, now in the past/Music and memories are all that last.../And though we'll miss you, now that you're gone/Your songs of life go on and on".
9. The title track 'Unleash the Love', follows. Mike shares: "I felt compelled to write a song or poem about unity, compassion, kinsmenship and peace, not just with each other, but with nature as well". Here are some of the lyrics to this spirited and catchy pop/gospel number: "The thing about Mother Nature/She got a place for every creature/The beauty of God's creation is diversity/For all of us it's a lesson about our planet's prized possession/There are differences, yet I think it's time we all agree/We gotta unleash the love and do it with dedication/Unleash the love and set it free/Unleash the love and spread it through every nation/For the greatest power on earth lies in the heart of you and me".
10. 'Ram Raj' is unfortunately a tribute to a false religion, which Love does not consider false. It does however include a nice electric guitar solo by Laurence Juber.
11. '10,000 Years Ago' finds John Stamos on drums again. It's a cool rock song with a 60's influenced message: "Everybody's looking forward to the day/When the past will cease to haunt us and we'll find a way/The folks will make war no more/I pray that peace, peace/I pray that peace is what we have in store". Unfortunately the song does include a Hindi chant, but all in all it's a great song!
12. 'Only One Earth' finds Mike, Christian, and Brian Love on lead vocals, Ambha Love on backing vocals, and includes a spoken poem by Hayleigh Love! This gospel/rock song includes these words desiring a better world: "We must stop all our transgressions/We must stop to count our blessings/If I had a wish I knew that God would grant me/I knew it would be/To live to see a new world in which there'd be no room for suffering/No war, disease, or poverty/One could hear a celebration/Brotherhood of every nation".
13. Last up is 'Make Love Not War'. It was inspired by Marvin Gaye's 1971 song 'What's Going On' and includes backing vocals by The Waters Family. It's a sizzling rock/gospel number and definitely a fave of mine, with a great message: "Got to say I'm grateful to the USA/And all the folks protecting us everyday/But love's the only way to get hate to go away and that's why so many people are saying/Make love, not war/What in the world is all the fighting for?/Give peace a chance (2X)/The earth could use an evolutionary advance".
I'm rating Disc One of UNLEASH THE LOVE, NOW, 89%. The main genres you will hear are light pop, easy listening, rock, and rock/gospel-so there's a good mix. Thematically, Mike on several songs, sings of past romantic relationships and hopes to rekindle them. These are songs of romantic longing, if you will. They come from a place of loneliness. A second main theme is that of making this world a better place to live. Mike urges us to love and care for and to understand each other. He makes a plea for unity in the human race, and praises peace not war.
Disc Two of UNLEASH THE LOVE, THEN is twelve Beach Boys remakes. That group put out their first studio album, SURFIN' SAFARI, in 1962, and their latest studio album, THAT'S WHY GOD MADE THE RADIO, in 2012. In the liner notes to THEN, Mike writes: "I've passed the Beach Boys torch down to my kids who joined me on several recordings, that was very special, a real blessing! The family tradition lives on!! I love what we did then..And feel blessed to do it again now!!"
1. Starting things off on THEN is 'California Girls'. It's one of ten co-writes with Brian Wilson on this collection. John Cowsill plays drums and Randy Leago the sax. It's one of my fave Beach Boys songs of all time. This upbeat rock 'n' roll song celebrates the opposite sex: "The Midwest farmer's daughters really make you feel alright/And the Northern girls with the way they kiss/They keep their boyfriends warm at night.../I been all around this great big world and I seen all kinds of girls/But I couldn't wait to get back to the States/Back to the cutest girls in the world".
2. Of 'Do It Again', Mike writes: "Brian and I sat down at the piano and literally wrote that song in 20 minutes as we had done so many times before. As Brian pounded out the melody on the keyboard, I wrote the lyrics. This version of the happy rock 'n' roll song finds John Stamos on drums and Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray helping out on vocals, as well as Scott Totten playing a guitar solo. It's all about having fun: "It's automatic when I talk with old friends/The conversation turns to girls we knew when their hair was soft and long and the beach was the place to go/Suntanned bodies and waves of sunshine/The California girls and a beautiful coastline with warmed up weather/Let's get together and do it again!"
3. 'Help Me Rhonda' is a bouncy rock 'n' roll number that finds a guy asking a gal to help him get over another gal who has done him wrong: "Well, since you put me down I've been out doin' in my head/I come in late at night and in the mornin' I just lay in bed/Well, Rhonda you look so fine and I know it wouldn't take much time/For you to help me Rhonda/Help me get her out of my heart".
4. 'I Get Around' features backing vocals by Jeffrey Foskett, Scott Totten, and Brian Eichenberger. It's a fast paced rock 'n' roll song that includes these funny lyrics: "I'm gettin' bugged driving up and down this same old strip/I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip/My buddies and me are getting real well known/Yeah, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone".
5. Mike's daughter Ambha Love delivers a great lead vocal on 'Warmth of the Sun', an emotional easy listening ballad: "The love of my life/He left me one day/I cried when he said/'I don't feel the same way'/Still I have the warmth of the sun/Warmth of the sun/Within me at night (2X)".
6. Mike is the sole writer of 'Brian's Back'. Mike writes: "It is a reminiscence of childhood memories growing up as cousins and best friends who shared a love of music...The laughs we shared and the songs we wrote and sang together will always be precious memories to me". Here is the chorus to this light pop song: "They say that Brian is back/Well, I've known him for oh so long/They say Brian is back/Well, I never knew that he was gone/Still they say Brian is back/Well, I know he's had his ups and downs/Well, they say Brian is back/But in my heart he's always been around".
7. On 'Kiss Me Baby' Mike and Ambha Love sing lead. Three of the backing vocalists are: Christian Love, John Stamos, and Bruce Johnston. This one's a pretty love song: "Please don't let us argue anymore/I won't make you worry like before/Can't remember what we fought about/Late late last night we said it was over/And I remember when we thought it out/We both had a broken heart/Woah baby, kiss me baby/Woah baby, love to hold you/Woah baby, kiss me baby/Woah baby, love to hold you".
8. AJR sing lead vocals on 'Darlin''. It's an upbeat pop song that is an ode to a lady: "I was living like half a man/Then I couldn't love but now I can/You pick me up when I'm feeling sad/More soul than I ever had/Gonna love you every single night/Cause I think you're too outta sight/Oh, oh darlin'/I dream about you often my pretty darlin'".
9. John Cowsill sings lead vocals on 'Wild Honey', while Scott Totten provides a great electric guitar solo. This energetic rocker finds a guy infatuated with a gal: "The girl's got my heart and my love's coming down on me/My love's coming down since I got a taste of wild honey/You know she's got the sweetness of a honey bee/Wild honey/She got it on and stung me good, yes sirree".
10. Mike Love, Brian Wilson, and Tony Asher wrote 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'. Lead vocals are handled by Jeffrey Foskett, Scott Totten, and Mike. It's a cheery rock 'n' roll song seemingly from a teenager's perspective: "Wouldn't it be nice if we were older/Then we wouldn't have to wait so long/And wouldn't it be nice to live together/In the kind of world where we belong/You know it's gonna make it that much better/When we can say goodnight and stay together".
11. Mike and Jeffery Foskett sing lead on the highly experimental rock song 'Good Vibrations'. The lyrics are again focused on a gal: "I, I love the colorful clothes she wears/And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair/I hear the sound of a gentle word/On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air/I'm pickin' up good vibrations/She's giving me the excitations!"
12. Last up is 'Fun Fun Fun', a well, fun and getcha movin' rock 'n' roll story song that begins as follows: "Well, she got her daddy's car and she cruised through the hamburger stand now/Seems she forgot all about the library/Like she told her old man now/And with the radio blasting/Goes cruising just as fast as she can now/And she'll have fun, fun, fun/Till her daddy takes the T-Bird away".
I'm rating Disc Two of UNLEASH THE LOVE, THEN, 94%. There are six rock 'n' roll songs, three easy listening ballads, and 3 rock cuts. Nine of the twelve songs are fast paced. Several of these Beach Boys covers celebrate girls and the happiness and joy they bring guys. Several other songs are just about having a fun time out and about or driving cars. There are three songs of heartache, and a couple of songs that look back on one's youth. There are great harmonies to be found on these Beach Boys covers. Many of these songs will make you want to get up and dance. This is great summer music! I should mention there are all kinds of pics of Mike Love in the cd booklet to this 2 cd set, UNLEASH THE LOVE. What a great project! For more info visit: www.mikelove.com and/or look him up on facebook.