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Brian's "shouty" vocals were in full force on his 1988 self-titled album. This is one of the reasons that I prefer alternate versions of "Love and Mercy," such as the more nuanced studio performance from a few years back.

His vocals on the soundtrack album for  I Just Wasn't Made For These Times and the Paley Sessions continued the shouting trend.

Imagination had some more subtle vocals, such as "Cry" and "Lay Down Burden." Unfortunately,  Gettin' In Over My Head showed that when Brian is not engaged, he really phones in his performances. Both of these albums, especially GIOMH, have Brian slurring his way through parts of songs. He also ends some phrases with "sh" sounds instead of "s" sounds. Additionally, GIOMH is an aberration in Brian's solo career in that the backing vocal blocks are not executed with his usual amount of care, precision, and inventiveness.

Based on these two albums, I had reservatons about the studio recording of Brian Wilson Presents Smile. Happily, Brian ended up recording his best solo vocals yet.

With his backing band helping out, he pulled SMiLe off very convincingly. Even songs like "Wonderful" and "Cabinessence" worked well with his 'new' voice, although he was often still shouting instead of using his head voice/falsetto. Brian was slurring much less and showing fewer audible signs of tardive dyskenesia. I believe a de-esser was also used sometimes to make his "sh" sounds less noticeable.

BWPS was Brian's first breakthrough in vocal quality during his solo career. The long-overdue addition of his band as a vocal group in the studio added to the album's excellent quality. The sound of Brian in his 60s singing a completed, newly recorded version of SMiLe added greatly to the poignancy of the album.

That Lucky Old Sun showed a decent amount of improvement over BWPS. Less slurring, less shouting, more life and brightness in Brian's voice. When I first heard "Midnight's Another Day," I was seriously impressed not just with the composition (a worthy successor to "Til I Die" - who ever thought we'd get that?) but with his beautiful, evocative, soulful lead vocal.

TLOS also showed Brian learning how to use his expanded lower range to greater effect. "Morning Beat" has him rocking out like never before in his solo career, and yet this vocal is topped towards the end of the album with "Goin' Home." I was floored the first time I heard the album version - unlike the demo, he is growling like a mad dog! I would love to hear more vocals like this from Brian. He has never done anything like it before! On "California Role" and "Oxygen to the Brain," Brian uses his lower range effectively to sing jazzy shuffles. When he tried this on Gettin' In Over My Head only four years earlier, he was less successful.

Brian's second major leap in vocal quality came with Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin. Try to picture Brian singing "I Loves You Porgy," "The Like in I Love You," "It Ain't Necessarily So," or "Someone to Watch Over Me" in 1988, 1998, or even 2004. He wouldn't pull these songs off nearly as successfully. You may notice a pattern here - I was floored the first time I heard Brian's vocals on this album! As much as BWPS was a leap in vocal quality, BWRG makes me wish Brian could go back and redo his vocals for BWPS! If he could sing "Wonderful" like he did "Someone to Watch Over Me," I would gladly buy BWPS again on CD and vinyl.

Finally, In The Key of Disney. How does he keep improving with each album?? "Colors of the Wind" is amazing. I can't believe I am listening to Brian circa 2011 with minimal studio processing - his voice has gotten so much better, even showing improvement since BWRG one year earlier. Songs like "You've Got A Friend in Me" would have been shouted in 1988 or 1994 but are now sung with style and confidence - dare I say Panache?

Brian has once again learned how to sing with subtlety, and he is not lisping when he sings. Linnett rarely needs to use autotune on Brian's voice anymore, and there are more single-tracked vocals than ever.

My question is - what is the reason for Brian's improvement? Between BW88, Sweet Insanity, IJWMFTT, Paley Sessions, Imagination, and GIOMH, he went up and down. I would consider Imagination the most vocally consistent of all these albums, but he didn't show steady improvement over these years.

There were gems here and there, of course. Brian's cover recording of Carl's "Heaven" was one such song - Brian sang with then-uncharacteristic tenderness and showed a dynamic sorely lacking in much of his solo work.

Then, BWPS marked a breakthrough. Perhaps Brian exorcised enough demons through the successful completion of his "white whale" project, and has since been engaged enough with the material that he has been really trying. Perhaps all the touring and vocal coaching has helped.

Whatever the reason, Brian has finally learned how to utilize his voice most effectively. It has been a continual delight to hear his steady improvement and to marvel at the leaps and bounds he has made. It has also made ITKOD much more interesting and enjoyable to me - long gone are the days when a new release from Brian would have excellent compositions marred by substandard lead vocals.

You missed out What I Really Want For Christmas, which I think is a really significant step in the right direction. I think there are a few factors, here in order of importance IMO:
- the band starts doing the bvox, Brian can concentrate on just doing 12 leads vocals rather than 120 vocals per album.
- hard work from Brian. I recall an interview around 5ish years ago and someone asked him "what have you got left to prove?". and he said "to prove that I'm a great singer I guess" or something along those lines. Since then he's often referenced vocal coaching, and the hard work he puts in.
- I think you have to view GIOMH  as a blip. BW88>OCA>Imagination is quite a steady trend I think. By all accounts GIOMH was a horrendous recording experience and Brian not at all engaged in the project.
- The years of touring must have helped his stamina and technique
- More sensitive mixing/production
- Might get criticised for this, but I've often wondered if there's been a change in Brian's medication

But even with those factors it is startling how much better his vocals are, including the jump even between Gershwin and Disney. How much better can he get?

I disagree. I think his best vocal performance since the 70s is the title track Lucky old sun. Heartfelt and dynamic.

On Color of the wind I think he has tons of reverb (and maybe some processing?). I'm not impressed at all.

IMO his performance on Meet me in my dreams is better than on You've got a friend in me. He put more energy and heart(and vibrato) into MMIDT

My hunches, reading between the lines and interpreting the available information lead me to think along these lines...

Generally, Brian's mental state improved a lot once he was rid of Landy and with Melinda. Whatever else you might say about her, she provides stability for Brian and the unconditional love he needs. There has been a steady general trend towards Brian functioning better in all areas of his life in the last 15 or so years.

Brian has admitted to using a vocal coach in the run-up to SMiLE in 2004. The improvements seen between his previous work and SMiLE can be partially put down to that. Plus, following from the huge success of the SMiLE gigs he was riding the crest of a wave. He was engaged in the work, enthusiastic - which he wasn't for a lot of the songs on GIOMH.

The touring helps, he must have better lungs and stamina than in the mid 1990's. It also acts as practice and we all know that makes perfect. The Christmas record in 2005 showed more improvements. But the big leap was TLOS. Those vocals, I am given to understand, were recorded over quite a short period of time and yet for the most part they are excellent - albeit with a few odd processing moments in them.

As for Gershwin...once again Brian was enthusiastic about the work and spent a good amount of time perfecting his vocals rather than expecting them to be patched up in production. If you were fortunate enough to experience Brian and the band play the Gershwin set live you'd know that he is perfectly capable of pulling off 95% of it ln a live setting with (obviously) no recourse to overdubs or retakes.

I feel it is a combination of more involvement from Brian post-SMiLE...it was a monkey off his back...and from his band....some general improvements in his state of mind (which could be tweaks in medication but I have no knowledge of this)....and Brian generally since 2004 working on projects that he was enthusiastic about.

The Disney album is a slight step down, for me. Not criticizing, he sounds pretty good, but I was really floored by some of his vocals on That Lucky Old Sun and Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin. And while I'm very much a fan of his newer "style", I think a more "shouty", single tracked vocal on, say, "You've Got A Friend In Me" might've had a better effect. I have to wonder if he's even interested in doing such a vocal anymore, though, or if his minders would allow it, really.

That said, am I the only one who thinks his vocals sounds better 99% of the time these days when single-tracked, well compressed, fairly dry and right up front? Brian practically abused double-tracking and reverb in the 60s, but it sounded wonderful in those days. Nowadays, not so much. I was very happy to hear such a dry vocal sound for TLOS, which I think suits his modern voice a hundred times better than when they cake it in reverb and double it in an attempt to replicate what he did in the 60s.

I also wish they'd stop using autotune. It's subtle enough, true, but there's the occasional spot where things sound really watery/robotic/something. Pay for a few more studio hours and use manual pitch correction, which always has better results.

Overall though, yeah, I'm a bit surprised by the drastic improvements in his voice over the last decade. I never really though Brian sounded truly bad (although the IJWMFTT soundtrack edges pretty close), and while I think he sounds fine on Imagination, it's cool to hear him evolve and improve so much since then.

Nice thread, with some good insights.

On Brian's medication: IIRC (from various articles in print and on the web that I don't have access to), Brian is under the supervision of a good, regular psychiatrist (or was, until fairly recently), and takes a modest (or standard) dose of an antidepressant (IIRC Luvox, which probably is a trade name for fluvoxamine, a compound that increases freely available serotonin in the brain, which is a messenger molecule).

This seems probable, because, as far as I know, there is no real remedy against the 'voices' that plague him; I mean, perhaps a strong antipsychotic medicine could partially counteract these, but first, there could be serious side effects (and God knows Brian has already had his share of these in the Landy days); and second, I recall that when he was hugely overmedicated way back then, the voices were still there. Might be that the expert here has decided on the best available option, here, because there might not be an ideal one.

Fitting in with this is that he has a nice beer once in a while, which would probably not have been possible if he'd use stronger types of meds.

(Disclaimer: the above does not pretend to be absolutely true; as I wrote, it's based on reading a couple of articles here and there; additions are therefore welcome - also because I am occupied with this subject matter in another context).

I for one am not for striving for the absolute perfect pitch either. Just listen carefully to the vocs only stuff on the Pet Sounds Sessions... Brian himself used to let small imperfections stand, and I dare place a safe bet that that contributes to the authenticity of that album. We need natural sounds, we don't need sterile music.

I think one reason he doesn't sound great double-tracked nowadays is because his voice is just much thicker. In the 60's a lot more processing worked well since his tone was very pure. Double-tracking, etc. complimented that tone well, but nowadays it just makes him sound too overloaded.

Also, I don't know how much Auto-Tune is ever on Brian's vocals, but I wouldn't be quick to blame it for that occasional robotic sound. The only references most people have are from a) consumer-grade pitch-shifting tools or b) modern pop, where the effect is intentionally noticeable. But in a professional studio dealing with super-high-quality multitracks and $600+ plugins, you'd have to push it pretty hard, on a note that was really botched, before it starts to sound synthetic. I'd venture to bet that most performances fans attribute to being marred by Auto-Tune are, in fact, marred by just not-good performance.

Boots, great topic, and with the addition of the Christmas Album (which like the others I think was a step in the right way and a great album in it's own right vocally).... with the addition of that, I agree with pretty much 100% of what you said.  It seems each album is slightly better vocally even though Brian's slightly older.  Also the comments about him singing with subtlety are dead on.  

I attribute it to 1. a good vocal coach who I believe he's still working with, and 2. he's likely just more generally happy than he's been in a while.  

There's the possibility that Brian's meds are changed over the years, or changed daily maybe depending on how he feels that day.  I don't know and won't pretend to.  

The shouty vocals to me sounded like he was drugged and jacked up on anti-depressants.  When I was younger, I knew a couple kids who took anti depressants and they always seemed jacked up to me the same way Brian used to during the Landy years.  What comes with it, it seems, is a fake happiness.  They just grin a lot and overdo things.  

Again I know nothing about medication so perhaps they did change the specific type he's taken over the years and tweaked it a lot.  

Really though, back in the early 80's before he was being medicated, he still didn't have the ability that I'm aware of to not shout vocals, so who knows.  




Re: Autotune.  Can't autotune live vocals.  Surprisingly, Brian consistantly sings all this stuff pretty damn good in a live setting. 

Never said he needed it - that was kind of the point of what I had said, that he does well enough without it. A tiny bit of manual pitch correction on a spot or two is all he'd likely need, providing it was a good performance, of course.

Thanks Ron, glad you enjoy the post/thread. It was kicking around in my brain for a while. To everyone who mentioned it - good call about WIRWFC as well. It was definitely another step in the right vocal direction.

I for one cannot wait for Brian's next album of original material. TLOS was excellent. Is there any chance that we'll get "Pleasure Island" or was that just a momentary flight of fancy on Brian's part?

I really love some of the Sweet Insanity vocals.
"Someone to Love" speaks out.
Lots of dynamics and great harmonies.
Of course he still has that shouty/shrill voice but it's good for the "rockers."

I love this topic. Here are some of my thoughts -- I've posted a great deal on this subject through the years.

-- The question actually isn't: "Why does Brian sound so much better now?" If someone didn't know his history and then listened to Gershwin or ITKoD, they would simply think he had aged normally from his hitmaking days in the Beach Boys. Sure, he doesn't sound exactly the same, but that general smooth, detached sound remains. The real question, then, is "Why did he sound so terrible for 30-odd years?"

-- I think you have to look at the 80s and the 90s carefully. I have long felt there was some kind of event in the early 80s, during that horrible pre-Landy period, that actually damaged Brian's brain. While his tone had been awful for a long time, he still knew how to phrase. But just listen to something like "Stevie" -- which still has sweetness in it -- and compare it to BB85, which is the first full-on "shouty" album. Something happened to BW. Everyone denies a stroke, but I still kind of believe it.

-- Perhaps Brian also wanted to sing differently. There is some evidence that he wanted to sing like the lead vocalist in the Modern Folk Quartet -- and if you listen to that group's take on "This Could Be the Night," you definitely hear an influence on the BW88 vocals.

-- I think you look at BB85, BW88 and Sweet Insanity, you can see an upward progression in vocal quality. Parts of SI are actually deeply impressive. But then Landy leaves and Brian craters again. He gets really fat. He starts smoking a lot. And that's why you have the big dip in tonal quality during the Paley Sessions and OCA.

-- OCA is an incredible document of Brian's voice, by the way. It was recorded over a lengthy period -- two or three years? -- most of them post-Landy and pre-Melinda marriage. And Brian sounds like several different people over the course of the record! He has never sounded odder. There's some of the SI power and range, but also some bizarre phrasing and disastrous tone. And he didn't even finish it -- backing vocalists were called in to finish his backing vocals on several songs!

-- Imagination was a real vision of the future. He worked on the vocals there harder than anything until BWPS, I would say. And you can tell. He really works on the phrasing and sweetness of tone, and it pays off. Joe Thomas does use quite a bit of reverb, though, which covers its share of flaws.

-- GIOMH is, as lots of people noted, an aberration. And indeed, you see a steady upward rise from BWPS to the Christmas record to TLOS.

-- But the change to the Gershwin record is really extraordinary. And I think that Brian finally learned to sing differently. Finally. He doesn't push out of his range that often anymore. He stays close to the pitch of everyday speech -- a trick used by latter-day Paul Simon, too. And he sings softly. Put those things together, and he can sound pretty remarkable.

-- At a certain level, this recent change is also a mirage. It's not that Brian's voice has improved in the sense that he can now sing his old falsetto parts impeccably, or his songs in all their original keys. It's that he's finally learned to sing with the voice he does have, and use it for the effects that it can produce, rather than trying to force it out of its natural space.

As I said, fascinating and fun!

Don't know about that. I try my damnedest sometimes, when listening more analytically, trying to find hints of Brian's old voice in his new voice and vice versa. I just don't hear even the slightest bit of it, strangely. Other folks age, but you can still hear that guy from the 50s, 60s, 70s in there, if only a little. This was true of Carl and Dennis and is also true of Mike, Bruce, and Al.

I guess that's just my ear's interpretation, though. Still, I doubt I'm alone there.

As for your other point about something happening to Brian in the early 80s, it's an interesting thought. I'll agree there - I can very much hear his current voice on BB85, but nothing prior. Anything before that album, he still sounded like Brian, albeit a Brian with a very different sound from 74 and after. His phrasing on 15 Big Ones and Love You are especially consistent with his late 60s/early 70s voice.

It struck me most on the Gershwin album, I think. That and Midnight's Another Day. But this is obviously incredibly subjective.

Just a quick point on this. There are a number of ways you can auto tune a vocal live on the fly these days.

Yes, exactly. Brian has learned to sing with his 'new' voice and to utilize it to its best potential. At times, it evokes his voice from the 60s because he has finally become somewhat comfortable in his own skin, and has learned to sing with subtlety.

I don't know how someone could not hear the change, even between TLOS and ITKOD. If Brian went back and re-did his 2004 SMiLe vocals, songs like "Wonderful" would be much better off. This isn't to say that BWPS has duff vocals like GIOMH does - Brian clearly put a lot of effort into the BWPS vocals, and anything less would have marred an otherwise sublime piece of work.

Essentially, redoing SMiLe from the ground up at the age of 60+ years old with modern technology was an extremely audacious move. The original album seemingly depended largely on the voices of The Beach Boys and Brian circa the mid 1960s. Perhaps even more importantly, SMiLe has always been inextricably linked to the recording techniques of the era.

With insanely talented and well-versed people like Mark Linett, Darian Shahanaja, et. al. working with him, Brian was able to essentially pull off what was previously thought to be impossible. With everyone else bringing their "A" game, he stepped up and delivered in spades. Imagine if somebody told you, after the release of Imagination in 1998, that the album after the next one would be a finished version of SMiLe, completely re-recorded from scratch, and that he would perform it as a live piece, touring all over the world for a couple of years.

Incidentally, I agree that there was an improvement between BW88 and Sweet Insanity. It is interesting that Brian "starting from zero," so to speak, had a big effect on the quality of his vocals. It speaks volumes to the fact that Brian needs a good support network of people who understand his mind and his music. I am not a Brianista by any means, but with all the negativity and niggling towards Brian's organization (some of it justified), it is easy to forget just how far he has come with their assistance, motivation, and support.

Now that I think about it, the first appearance of his 'Mad Dog' growling rock and roll voice was probably on Sweet Insanity. It was not to be heard again until "Goin' Home" on TLOS. I hope we hear it again soon!

Yes, I have seen racks of auto tune modules backstage at shows (usually shows I wouldn't want to attend). It has nearly always been obvious to me when used live or in the studio, even when used in a subtle manner such as on BWPS.

Sometimes, a singer (like Stevie Wonder) has such good control and pitch that he almost sounds auto tuned - even Stevie's 70's albums have this quality. Stevie knows how to sing with soul, though.

Unfortunately, the rampant, unwarranted use of Autotune in post production, even when people can sing well and hit the notes, has resulted in singers largely adopting the style of auto tune in their singing, making pitch the most important thing in their performance and sacrificing nuance and feeling.

It really bothers me because I record block harmonies and sometimes people assume that I use a 'harmonizer' or pitch correction, and it is one technique I never, ever employ (I like the sound of a natural, non-computerized human voice, although vocoders are cool).

One thing that colors this whole issue is that I think Brian held onto his adolescent voice much longer than other performers. For many vocalists, we're actually hearing the adult voice on their earliest recorded material, so it may not be as dramatic a change as they age. Brian, on the other hand, was captured in all his adolescent glory throughout the 60s. Carl was as well...and you can hear how his tone changes as he enters adulthood (of course, there was a ton of smoking going on there). There is no question that Brian damaged his voice during the 70s, but I wonder how much different he would sound today had he taken care of that voice? I suspect it would not be as different as we might think.

Eh, don't agree. He doesn't sound a thing like he used to. Still sounds good, but in an entirely different way. I really feel his voice would be drastically different nowadays had things not happened in the way they did.

Just take a look at the falsetto live replacements (Adrian Baker, Jeff Foskett, Matt Jardine), they all sound pretty much the same today as they did in their 20s/30s.

Or Al, or Bruce, or Carl who all sound(ed) like an exact older version of themselves.

I hear echoes of him all the time, but you can hear it in some of the older solo stuff too.  If you listen to Live @ the Roxy, when the band breaks into "Don't Worry Baby", although it's a couple keys lower, Brian sounds remarkably similar to the original record.  Not in the notes or the falsetto, but just the old-school Brian Wilson tone.  His voice had a kind of hollow sound to it, it's hard to describe but you can definately hear it pop up on many of his songs he's done over the years that makes you think "Hey! He's still in there somewhere!"

Alright sir.  

Re: Autotune.  Isn't autotuning live voals.  Surpsingly, Brian consistantly sings all this stuff pretty darn good in a live setting.

Old Brian with an older version of his original voice would sound interesting...

I agree with those who say the Gershwin album is the point where Brian really started to sound like his younger self again. A lot of the stuff on BWRG definitely sounds like the guy that sang "Please Let Me Wonder", just over 40 years older. Honestly, this is another reason why I want Brian to do a new Beach Boys album. Not to make Mike Love or Bruce Johnston happy, but to show to the world Brian Wilson is still a great singer. And lets be honest, the best way to get a lot of people to hear a new Brian Wilson vocal would be to release them via a new Beach Boys album, which I would bet probably would have much more commercial impact than BWRG or ITKOD.

As far as his '80s voice, well....its weird. Because he sounds really good on the verses "Heavenly Bodies", which I think is from '86 (?). Because he is singing in the calm tone he used on a lot of his better Beach Boys vocals. It's obvious that

And I've said this before, but I think it was the lack of the "classic Brian vocals" that hurt the group after Endless Summer. If he would have still had his "classic" voice on 15 Big Ones and Love You and so on, I think the band would have been much more commercially successful.  It's no coincidence that "Good Timin'" was a hit (with great Brian-type vocals by Carl or Bruce), along with "Getcha Back", which had Brian sounding like in the '60s and the early '70s.

It's arguably why "Your Imagination" was an adult contemporary hit. That falsetto sound still sells.

Personally I don't hear him sounding much like his younger self on BWRG, in fact while listening to "The Like in I Love You" I can already picture the guy doing his trademark weird latter-day hand gestures. Of course the singing here is extraordinary for someone who did Orange Crate Art back in the 1990s but I have to admit I don't hear the same guy who did "Please Let Me Wonder" throughout the album. There was something predominantly sweet and (in a good way) naive about many of his 60s lead vocals (reaching an apex on Friends) and I think this was probably due to his overall personality then, which makes it downright impossible to reproduce it more than 40 years later. What I do hear on BWRG, however, is the man who did Imagination giving his best in order to sound convincing and sometimes even passionate. At certain points throughout his latter-day solo career that's been a highly enjoyable thing to witness (especially so in concert) but personally I prefer his gruff but soulful lead vocals from the Love You period.

yes it can be done, and is. Just look at any of the X-Factor-Idol-Star type TV shows. They choose to autotune some acts live.

But Brian most certainly is not autotuned in a live setting. My ear can pick it out on a record, and I note it's use very occasionally. My best guess is that it is occasionally used on a duff part of an otherwise great take.

Using autotune for double tracked or 'wall of Brian' would result in a terrible "car horn" effect that would render the track unlistenable.

I get the idea that Brian is finally comfy with and using the voice that he has *now*. That's partially why he can pull off the Gershwin album live in its entirity. He arranged it around his current vocal abilities. He's not able to perform vocal gymnastics as he could 45 years ago...but he's still got a powerful voice - in terms of volume and emotion.

Not to say he uses it, but the thing about any auto tuning software, is the closer the original note was sung to the pitch intented, the less you'll hear auto tuning working. As well as a number of other factors you can decide on how much it affects. Its actually used a lot these days on great vocalists as a sweetner on already hit vocals. Obviously you could argue why bother then but in these cases, its actually near impossible to detect by ear, yet has still been run through the software.

As said, it's the duff notes that usually stand out as more is done to them to correct the pitch and thats where the dehumanised element comes in. Sorry, i'm bringing this off topic a little, but i'm really enjoying reading all your thoughts on his voice over the years.

While Carl maintained a great voice throughout his career, I would not immediately recognize his vocals from the late 70s through the 90s as being from the same guy who sang "God Only Knows" in 1966.

Re his 70s "non-classic" vocal style: didn't he say something to the effect of, he wanted to sound more manly?

This seems to been something that bugged him for years--being "manly" sounding. He supposedly hates his vocal on "Let Him Run Wild" when it's pretty much perfection, and derided other high-range vocals as being "girly". When Murry died, he said it was "makin' a man outta me". And so on.

Am I overreading into things? Does it seem like somebody was bugging him about how he sounded? (Murry? Mike? Bueller?)

Lucky for us, I don't think he worries about that now...

I don't think you're overreacting, as Brian has gone on record as stating that he was trying to 'damage' his voice intentionally.

Personally I'd take BW's 1988 voice over his current any day, though that has to do with his increasingly slurred voice over the years. But I agree his tone has gotten better since his debut solo album.

Not me. His 88 voice is just grating to my ears. Even though I like much of the music, I rarely listen to it due to Brian's voice.

It works on some songs, I think he sounds great on "Melt Away".

I like his 1988 voice WAY more than his voice of the last 13 years.

I don't know, the voice on OCA and the Paley sessions, which I know people dislike but I personally don't mind on the latter, isn't too far removed from that '88 voice. Still shouty, just with a nasally quality that isn't too appealing. His current voice is softer when used right, but the slurring - a side effect of singing out of the side of his mouth, maybe? - isn't good. I prefer the leads on the Gershwin record to much of the early solo career, though, especially when he nailed it all live.

I think the 1988 voice was good in parts, but I think it would have been better if he used his softer tone in more places. He shouted nearly everything back then. That would be like him using his "Heroes And Villains" voice on "Surf's Up" in 1966/1967. It just wouldn't work the right way. I think using the softer tone on stuff like "Love & Mercy" and "Melt Away" might have helped them do better commercial.

On his self titled album, I feel like that's the last time he sounded "younger" though. I think his vocals on OCA were just bad. He was the wrong singer for that album. And on IJWMFTT I liked his energetic approach on "This Whole World" and oddly enough he really kinda sounded like the 1971 BW on the lead for "'Til I Die", because his voice had that weird, Mickey Mouse-ish nasal quality that it had Sunflower and Surf's Up. On Imagination he just sounded, well, older (which he obviously was). He didn't have that youthful sound that I feel he retained even through the gruff 70's and the whiney/nasal '80s. But he did finally sound smooth again, which especially enjoyable on "Your Imagination", "She Said She Needs Me" and "Lay Down Burden".

His vocals on the "California Feelin'" remake from 2002 was horrendous. He just sounded so bad. I don't know why. I even like Rocky Pamplin on that song. But hopefully we'll hear a 1974 take on from him reasonably soon.  ;D

I gotta say though, I don't believe that his vocals on BWPS are anything special. It especially bums me out on "Surf's Up", because that is where it's really apparent. But the album is still enjoyable to me.

I do think a turning point, vocally was, "What Love Can Do" and "God Only Knows", which I think were recorded in either '06 or '07. His best vocals since Imagination, nice and smooth. I felt like his vocals on TLOS weren't that great. I felt they were kinda rough. I thought his songwriting was at its strongest since his self titled album, and I thought the vocals on "Midnight's Another Day" was cool, but I thought the song was a weak attempt by his co-writer to try turn something that was originally an up tempo thing into "'Til I Die Part Deux".

BWRG he really stepped it up though, especially on the lighter, jazzy tunes. He sounded just as good, if not better than his Imagination days. But also around that time, he sounded like absolute horseshit on "Drivin'" from Al's solo album. You can tell when Brian doesn't give a sh*t about a vocal these days and I hear it on that song and "California Sun".

I feel like his vocals on the new Disney album are alright, but not half as good as the Gershwin album, and once again, I chalk this up to material. Because his cover of "Listen to Me" by Buddy Holly that was released recently is such a nice pure vocal that reminds me of the guy that sang "Please Let Me Wonder" (once again).

I think on this new Beach Boys album, it should be interesting. It likely will be mostly original material except for "Do It Again", and if really wants this album to be great, I think he will give some great performances. But if he is being pushed into it, and Mike and Bruce are annoying him, we might hear some half-ass stuff. However, with Joe Thomas at the boards, I gotta say I'm expecting vocals at least as good as Imagination's, if not better, along with some lovely Beach Boys harmonies. Maybe even have Al double some of Brian's lead and "thicken" them. Might sound cool. I just hope the music sounds more organic than Imagination.

I don't think he sounded that bad on 'Drivin'.  You know what was an absolute abortion? The remake of 'The Spirit of Rock & Roll'.

You are right about "The Spirit of Rock & Roll" from Songs from Here & Back or whatever it's called. I remember when I bought that CD i was pleasantly surprised that he brought that one back, but yeah, it just didn't work out that well. Mike definitely had the best new song on that album. "Cool Head, Warm Heart" was surprisingly excellent, although I must say, the rest of his (never-released) recent album was almost uniform garbage.

And I think we will be able to tell how good Brian will sing on the new Beach Boys project after we hear the new "Do It Again" which I assume could possibly be released to go along with the Grammys maybe to stir up interest? Makes sense. Although since it makes sense, they probably won't do it. But anyways, I'm assuming he probably is singing the bridge that was by Carl on the original version, and I imagine he could really sound good on that if he wanted. So if he doesnt, uh oh.

I'm a fan of Brian as an artist, both his work with the Beach Boys and his solo career. I loved BW88 I agree his voice is unusual but I thought in later Beach Boys albums Brian's voice stood out and sounded strange, whereas when he sang nearly all the parts on 88 it created a Brian Wilson world that i still find great. A voice is an unusual instrument, in that it carries a lot of personality in it, a good actor doesn't necessarily have a pleasant voice but one that is expressive and distinctive, and there is a large element of  acting in singing. Brian still makes vocal tapestries he uses it musically but it is also unusual.

I do prefer Brian's studio singing especially when he sings multiple parts. I love Orange Crate Art, the song writing/arrangements are fantastic my favourite Van Dyke album along with Jump! But Brian's singing gives it an amazing colour.

I'm also in a minority as I love Brian's singing on GIOMH, i was really pleased that he did most of the vocals himself, it gave that album a really quirky and distinctive character.

But yeah on BWRG and ITKOD his voice seems to have gained a naturalness and ease, maybe it is slightly less quirky but he has plenty of quirk to spare.

Yeah.  The original is better, and that's saying a lot because the vocals are pretty crappy on the original.  The best part of the remake is at the end when the music dies and they're doing the acapella harmonies. 

That statement is just plain weird. I don't hear much slurring at all -- let alone increased slurring -- on the Gershwin or Disney records. Have you heard the albums?


The point of this thread is that his voice has improved over that time. His 2011 voice is quite a bit different than his 1998 voice. And WAY more? You realize he sings with approximately zero expressiveness for the entire '88 record?


They're not as thought through or carefully crafted, perhaps, but I'd say they're definitely of a piece.

Yes - Brian has been slurring much less than ever before in his solo career on BWRG and ITKOD. I made a playlist of songs from those two and TLOS, BWPS, and Imagination. Even on TLOS, Brian was slurring more than he has on these past two albums.

Ditto about the expressiveness. Love & Mercy on BW88 is practically shouted the entire time with little or no dynamic. The re-recording from the "Walking Down the Path of Life" charity single has a better vocal and arrangement (although it is trucated). Even "Live at the Roxy" has a better vocal than the original on BW88. The rest of the album is similar. Sweet Insanity found Brian singing more dynamically, if not with more nuance.

Yeah, and I disagree totally with that "point". Kthxbye.

I can see why this fellow would say that. Even though his voice on the self-titled album is really shouty and not so much varied, it did have a certain kind of personality, which I find to be lacking in GIOMH, TLOS, and the Disney album. I felt BWPS and BWRG both largely sounded like Brian had a grip on the material and vocally was trying to give off a certain feeling, whereas on GIOMH he seemed like he was sleepwalking through a lot of the material. And especially on TLOS (where he was singing self-referential bullshit)* it kinda seemed at a lot of points like he was just reading lyrics off of a sheet a paper that Scott Bennett showed him for the first time before he stepped in the recording booth. Although I felt "Going Home" had personality, and a different kinda vocal from Brian.

*About the self referential b.s., I gotta say it's finally hit me that the sh*t about "turning off the light at 25" or whatever, and "hardly ever washing my face", blah blah blah, it seemed to be alluding to "the Brian Wilson story" which I think is lame, and I don't think Brian would have done otherwise. I think it's almost as lame as Mike still putting the words "fun fun fun" and "good vibrations" in Beach Boys songs from the '90s. It's cheesy and not clever. It's lame. And whoops, sorry for derailing, I just realized this is about vocals, not lyrics, hahah.

Am I the only one who never got into BWRG?  I listened repeatedly and tried to make myself like it, but other than "The Like In I Love You" and "S'Wonderful", I don't really find much of it very intriguing, and some tracks are cringeworthy at times ("It Ain't Necessarily So").  I'll take ITKOD any day over BWRG.  As for OCA, I recognize that the lead vocals were not the best, but that's part of the charm...and the backup vocals seem pretty flawless throughout most of the album.  OCA still stands as my favorite BW album to date, even if he's just a vocalist on the album, and nothing else.

Right, so because you can't hear it, it isn't so right? *shrugs*
To my ears his slur has gotten worse by every subsequent albums. Like I sad in my first reply, his tone has gotten better, but that doesn't remove the slurring. Singing more and more out of the side of his mouth, his age are probably some of the reasons.

And your point is? I can't express that I prefer his 1988 voice over his current, just because the OP says otherwise? pft.
He definitely sings with more expressiveness on BWRG, and his tone is better than on his debut, but that doesn't make the record better, or his voice better for that matter.  It's a question of what the listener prefers. Oh, did I mention that I would also take his Love You/Adult Child -era voice over his current voice too?

And come on guy, get off your high horse, will ya.

Whoa, I love It ain't necessarily so.
 
As for me, yeah, his vocals are less shouty and I like them that way myself. Actually, I like them both ways. I never hated BWRG but it took awhile to get into it. At one point I heard it and realized there was a LOT going on in the arrangments (at first the obvious shout outs to BW's past obscured all the other interesting touches for me.)

Sweet Insanity has grown on me in big, big ways. At one point I hated it.

 Um. I don't really have a point.

The best part is when he puts the grit in there and goes "Joooooaaannhahhhh he lived in a WHALE!.... oh JOOOOaaaaaannnaahhhhh he lived in a WHALE!"

Love that part.  Never thought Brian was down with the blues like that.

Don't really hear slurring when he sings, (speaking is another thing...see TSS webisodes) but the shouting has been an annoyance for years. It has popped up in large and small bits and seems to show up a lot less when he is OK with what he's singing/recording at the time. From 15 big ones to '88 most of his singing has that shouting quality. Starting with Imagination he seems to do it a lot less. BWRG has very little of it, but when he sang a track from BWRG live on Jay Leno the whole thing was shouty. Again, I doubt he wanted to be there just like I doubt he wanted to sit there with Landy and record '88.

Also explains why every time I saw him live he sang better AFTER the intermission than before. I don't think it was a case of warming up his vocals but more a case of ...Hey the shows half over and I can start to relax now.....

Couldn't agree more, in fact I can't sit through TLOS in its entirety without being heavily annoyed by the "self-referential b.s.", which is too bad as I really enjoy most of the music on that album.
Even stuff like "Midnight's Another Day", which has earned its fair share of praise... that song I think would have deserved an identity of its own instead of being "the 'Til I Die-like song about BW feeling lowly". "Good Kind of Love", on the other hand, feels much more natural. It's a quirky little love song and it works very well without having to rely on the autobiographical approach.

Not saying you're wrong, but how is this different to the autobiographical lines on PS?

That's an interesting question that I find really hard to answer somehow, although it does make a huge difference for me whether I'm listening to "Going Home" or "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times". To a certain extent they're both autobiographical (or at least we're supposed to believe they are) and in both cases the lyrics were handled by someone other than Brian, so it's hard to put my finger on what it is that makes these two songs so different.

There's a difference between autobiographical and self-referential. No need to hate on "Midnight's Another Day" for a reputation fans gave it, as it's merely autobiographical in the way that Mr.Goodman stated that Pet Sounds is.

I'm also gonna add that Brian has had two or maybe even more "shouty" voices over the last couple of decades. Some sound great, others, ehhh. All's I means by that is I don't see the need to hate on the "shouty" vocals outright.

Yes, the shouty voice really has its moments. I'm probably in a minority here but I absolutely love the overall vocal delivery on "I'm Broke" for example.

For me there is a huge difference is the two. Pet Sounds is legitimately emotional and expressive. Tony Asher did a great job working with Brian, putting Brian's feelings into beautiful lyrics that fit the mood of the music Brian was describing to him. Many of the songs on TLOS however, have no connection to real emotion. It was just some turd* writing lyrics for the baby boomer crowd based on the legend of BW. I like TLOS, but some of those lyrics make it hard to swallow.

*I have never met Scott Bennett so I have no idea if he is a turd as a person, but I have heard his lyrics, including work with other artists and his solo stuff, and he is a lyrical turd.

Insanity.


You realize that Brian wrote many of the lyrics on the record, right?

(insert Captain Picard faceplam picture here)

I don't understand how people can think Brian -- of all people -- would be incapable of writing gauche, if not downright awful, lyrics at times. Do we really need to bring out examples?

NO

NO WE DO NOT

That is THE 12th most ridiculous post in this boards history*




*whilst I have been a member

Freddie Mercury refused to fix his teeth because that would have affected the sound of his voice...Brian seems to have more teeth now... so what I'm trying to say is that must be the way his vocals have improved these past few years :o

Are there examples of singers whose voice changed considerably after they had their teeth fixed? Quite an interesting topic I think!

I`m probably in the minority here, but I think I prefer Brian`s shouty vocals...especially on 15BO and LY.

What were the other 11?

Ok, I'll take my lumps for my ridiculous post. If you guys do feel a connection to the TLOS lyrics, that's great. I just don't. They leave me totally cold.

I'm obviously aware of Brian's hand in the lyrics too, so Scott isn't totally to blame for their lameness, but no matter who wrote them, they still don't really do anything for me.

Speaking as a fan of music and also as a guy who has a small home studio and records harmony vocals all the time...I f*ckING HATE AUTOTUNE.  It is yet another in a series of technological advances that is 95% unnecessary and only serves to train singers to sing badly and to value the wrong things, and that is used in idiotic ways because "everybody does it".  And to further alienate audiences from what should be, by rights, "their" music by removing any sense of humanity to it.

You can still put four singers around a mic and get a great blend.  With ProTools editing it's easier than it ever was, and faster.  I do it all the time.  The only reason to use Autotune is if people can't sing, or if you want everything to be double perfect.  It removes creativity in dealing with difficult recording problems and encourages people to be lazy.

I hate autotune.

Rant over.

This will go over a lot of people's heads here, but the rapper Nas fixed his chipped front tooth and a lot of people said he never sounded the same.  I think it had more to do with his voice simply maturing (he was still a teen when he first began recording), but that was the talk and he even referenced it in a song.