[18] Later in the interview, he remarked that he had recently left the band temporarily, citing a wish to have "freedom" and "to do my own album", and was undecided on whether he would stay as their producer or instead pursue a solo career.

[22] Carl and Dennis contributed some instrumentation, while Jardine and Love were rarely present for the sessions,[23][24] and ultimately every member of the band sang several lead vocals.

"[26] Biographer Jon Stebbins similarly viewed it as "pretty much a Wilson brothers album", adding that "it's clear that Dennis and Carl willingly checked their egos to help Brian get this one out.

"[27] Contrasting his earlier records, which had used orchestras of organic instruments, electronic sounds pervade Love You, with Brian more reliant on the Moog synthesizer than he had been on 15 Big Ones.

[23] The lyrical content ranged from Wilson's stream-of-conscious (such as on "Solar System") to adolescent concerns (such as "roller skating", schoolmate infatuations, and fraternizing with the family of one's girlfriend).

"[38] Carlin characterizes the total effect as having reframed the themes of past Beach Boys hits through Wilson's "warped" adult perspective,[39] as well as "a tour through the cracked fun-house mirror of [his] imagination".

[40] Stebbins felt that the album "revealed more than the listener wanted to know", containing songs with "unsettling, pedophilic overtone[s]" such as "Roller Skating Child" and "I Wanna Pick You Up".

[11] "Roller Skating Child" elaborates on the themes of "Let Us Go On This Way" except, as Carlin writes, "with a grown-up perspective that made it sound like a kind of musical interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, complete with vivid descriptions of adolescent sexuality ... careless parenting [and] lust-fueled escape".

[45] "Honkin' Down the Highway" is a rock and roll song[46] about a man driving to a woman, at her father's behest, for an engagement that the narrator states will conclude with himself "Takin' one little inch at a time, now / 'Til we're feelin' fine, now".

"[41] "I'll Bet He's Nice", which is in a similar vein to "The Night Was So Young",[43] features lead vocals shared between the three Wilson brothers, with Brian and Dennis on the verses and Carl on the bridge section.

[55] "11th Bar Blues", "Clangin'", "Lazy Lizzie", "Marilyn Rovell", "We Gotta Groove", "That Special Feeling", and "Hey There Momma" remain unreleased.

[59]Dean Torrence designed the cover illustration, which was intended to resemble a Navajo rug, and had suggested titling the album Cowabunga, inspired by Chief Thunderball's catch-phrase on the children's television show Howdy Doody.

[30] On November 27, 1976, Wilson appeared as the featured musical guest on NBC's Saturday Night, during which he performed "Love Is a Woman", "Back Home", and "Good Vibrations".

Producer Lorne Michaels had insisted that Wilson appear without his bandmates, who were playing their third night of sold-out concerts at nearby Madison Square Garden.

[16][nb 2] Another solo appearance on The Mike Douglas Show, which included an interview with Wilson about his past drug use, was filmed days earlier, but was not broadcast until December 8.

[68] Favorable reviews were penned by numerous esteemed critics, including Circus' Lester Bangs, Creem's Mitchell Cohen, NME's Nick Kent, The Village Voice's Robert Christgau, and Rolling Stone's Billy Altman.

[68] Bangs said it was the Beach Boys' "best album ever"[25] and described them affectionately as a "diseased bunch of motherfuckers" who exhibit "a beauty so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons.

"[69] Altham called the album a "flawed but enjoyable" comeback for Wilson, who delivered the finest compositions he had written in "the past few years", albeit without "singing as well as he used to".

Casual listeners generally found the album's idiosyncrasies to be a detriment, and a contingent of the group's fanbase took issue with the production style and rough vocals.

[68] Peter Ames Carlin, then a junior high school student who had eagerly anticipated the album's release, recalled of his reaction, "This was his big return — all original songs; a complete Brian production.

[71] He did not write and produce another LP until his first solo album, Brian Wilson (1988),[72] and, according to Carlin, would not compose material that represented his true musical, emotional, and intellectual interests to the same degree until the aborted Andy Paley sessions from the 1990s.

[74] Critic Erik Kempke writes that it "stands in sharp contrast to the albums that preceded and followed it, because it was a product of genuine inspiration on Brian Wilson's part, with little outside interference.

"[29] Asked in 2009 for the records in his catalog that he felt had been underrated, he listed Love You and the tracks "Ding Dang", "Johnny Carson", "The Night Was So Young", and "I'll Bet He's Nice".

"[25] AllMusic reviewer John Bush praised the album and believed that "The Night Was So Young," "I'll Bet He's Nice," and "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" form a suite during side two that possesses a breadth of emotional attachment to rival Pet Sounds.

It ranks with Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Steely Dan's Katy Lied, and Neil Young's Zuma as the best California rock albums of the decade.

Club's Keith Phipps relented: "there's something not-quite-right about men on the cusp of middle age hungering after a 'roller-skating child'—but its failure reveals a touching vulnerability beneath the sunny good-times image of an American institution", going on to say that "more often than not, Love You has a winning, human directness.

[2] According to Dillon, Love You is considered to have influenced the development of new wave,[68] while Clay Patrick McBride of The Washington Post wrote that Wilson "helped invent synth-pop" with the album.

[92] Journalist Adam Theisan wrote that the album's "prescience" is one of its striking elements, having anticipated "new wave experiments, arty bands like Talking Heads and synth-pop in general years before they hit the mainstream.

"[55] Alex Chilton recorded a cover of "Solar System" that was included on his Electricity by Candlelight (2013),[97] and he contributed his version of "I Wanna Pick You Up" to the multi-artist tribute album Caroline Now!

Other songs covered in the compilation were "Honkin' Down the Highway" (Radio Sweethearts), "Good Time" (Stevie Jackson of Belle and Sebastian), and "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" (duet between Chip Taylor and Evie Sands).