The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've always been a huge fan of Orange Crate Art, enjoying the songs and Brians singing. I was wondering what the overall impression of this album was for people, especially the older longtime fans who heard it after not hearing much Brian for a while.

i consume this album    ;D

Love it!

Can't listen to it. Sounds like 40 minutes of Brian Wilson yelling at me. The music and arrangements are great, but Van Dyke picked the wrong Wilson for commercial/political reasons, and it didn't work. Should've chosen Carl Wilson, or Carnie Wilson...

The thought of that makes me gip.

I'm happy with Brian's voice on the record. But if it hadn't been him, Van should have sung.

Still one of my favorite albums.

This was and is my favorite album of the 90's, by any artist.

Good vibes,
Eric

I love this album! It's almost perfect (I really don't care for the cheezy production on "On Wings of a Dove," and although I love Brian's vocals on the rest of the album, he really is SHOUTING on "Hold Back Time"). It's that one album that I'll always put in whenever I absolutely can't decide what to listen to. The mood of it is wonderful.

Damned tuneful shouting, if that's what it is.

Love it beyond description.  Love the songs, the production [for the most part], the singing [for the most part], and the fact that it brought Brian back to the surface as a singer.  I will go to my death bed contending that without this album, all the performance that followed - and that includes the full realization of Smile - might well not have happened.

A fine album that I listen to periodically.  I like Brian better in his non falseto voice for lead vocals.  Palm Tree and Moon, Summer in Monterey.    The falsetto in the title cut sounnds like Mickey Mouse with a sore throat (hey, where have I heard THAT before?)

I also like VDPs concept here. 

I Love this Album...I hear something new everytime I listen to it...

Susan, a great point. It didn't seem as though Brian really wanted to do anything after Landy packed up and left, did it? And who would want to deal with Brian? But Van Dyke took the risk, and Brian delivered something special.

I love seeing all this love for the album. It really is terrific, my favorite solo Brian and my second-favorite Van Dyke album.

Great album, fantastic cover / booklet, superb Gershwin cover at the end. I think BW's vocals work far better than Van D's would have on these songs. Mind you, I love 'Jump!' as well! (but not 'Discover America').

At first listen, Orange Crate Art, didn't really work for me. But the more I listen to it the more I like it. IMHO there's a good balance between melody and sophistication. Pity Brian didn't write on it, but it's overall a fine album. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy it now.

Pity he didn't write it? Van Dyke Parks wrote it! He's a genius too.


What warmed me to this record was Van Dyke's own solo renditions of the material. I like Brian's harmonies, but the arrangements are a bit cheap. If it sounded like Jump or Tokyo Rose, it would almost be a masterpiece.

I like this album a lot.

Sometimes, though, it makes me feel like an old man before my time; other times: just fine and mellow.

The ooooooonly thing that bugs me is, I swear I hear 'wow' in Brian's vocals on the title track. Why do I hear that? Wish I had vocal iso's to see if I'm crazy or not...

I think I heard that there was some pitch correction done by hand (as opposed to Autotune).  Maybe that's it.

Three weeks ago, I listened to OCA for the first time in about ten years. I am still of the opinion that it might have worked better if Van Dyke sang.....the songs are much better than Tokyo Rose, if not quite up to the incredible standard of Song Cycle and Jump.  But the fact that he chose instead to help Brian get back on his feet in the aftermath of the Landy era really speaks volumes for Van Dyke's stature as a human being.

Can't stand it.

I dig it. I want it on vinyl.

title tune is full on 1976 brian to me.

Heard VDP sing the title song at the Will Geer gig; it's better when Brian does it. (I don't know why he didn't do it that day--they both seemed to be staying away from each other, performing separately and whatnot...)

There's loads to love on that album, but on the title track Brian sounds like Gypsy from Mystery Science Theater 3000...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

I like a lot of the songs, but don't dig the production at all.

:lol

I love it.  Favourite song is San Francisco which I also think has the best Brian vocals of the album

I love half of it, I think if "Clang Of The Yankee Reaper" and this album were mixed with Jump production and Broan vocals, I'd have to say itd be one of the best ever.

This album was a great gift after many years without new music from Brian. Is he shouting? I don't here that, I find his vocal work on the album very, very impressive. Sounds like he put a lot of work into those layered harmonies. Love those melodies, too - really would love to have some chords/tabs for those songs. Glad Van Dyke chose Brian to sing these songs. Only track that sounds slightly 'off' is the Wilson/Hutton duet "Hold Back Time". But maybe they did that deliberately. Sounds like two guys not really singing with each other. I will buy the vinyl if it ever comes out!

Love the album, but love Van Dyke's live performances of the songs even more. As great as it was to hear those two men working together again, I don't think much of Brian's vocals on the album.

I've come around to feeling the same way. Van Dyke's voice somehow sounds right.

I love it. I was working in a record store in the late 90s in college and just getting into the BB's and this came into the store. I gave it a listen and didnt like it but I tried again several years later and really fell for it.

Yes, I should have thought more about how I worded that. I personally think that if Brian and Van Dyke had fully collaborated on writing the album, the result would have been better. VDP is a skilled songwriter/composer. But Brian is better at writing melodies that lodge straight in the brain. If they had worked together more (and I know why it was a big ask that they didn't), I think the result would have been better. Not that I have anything against VDP's writing, but I think that Brian, at his best, is better.

I went honkin' down the highway on this sunny morning and had Orange Crate Art on. It's a much better album for driving than it is straight listening. And blared at top volume, I wasn't as bothered by the production as I had previously been. It's very tinny, but at least the drums sound good, and Brian's vocal has a grit to it that is missing from his current work (not that I'm saying OCA's vocals are better than TLOS or TWGMTR, they aren't). But the quality of the songs shined through, the strong melodies and the clever wordplay that pains images of a sunny California. It's a cool album.

I really love hearing Van do these songs himself, too, (although I do love Brian's vocals on the album), and I'm so surprised that nobody has mentioned Van's great album "Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove".  The Ash Grove was revived, albeit all too briefly, on the Santa Monica Pier, and Ed Pearl was able to once again host some very, very memorable shows.  However, this one was bar none the best that I was fortunate enough to see & hear - and Van was lucky enough to record both sets.  While it has his version of several of Orange Crate Art's songs, it also includes some great covers, (including Little Feats' "Sailin' Shoes" - which he dedicated to Dennis at one show), as well as many back catalog songs of his own. 
By all means, check it out!

Yeah, I love that album.

Holy moly,  am I am amazed by the positive views of OCA.  this album is dire (apart from Wings of a Dove! sail away and possibly my Janine which is just a bit dull).  Brian's vocals are terrible, it sounds like VDP tried to do him a favour by getting him the gig but had not realised his voice was shot. Considering how bad his vocals were, it is AMAZING what he has done since. i speak as a huge fan of the BB and esp BW, but come on, lets not switch off the critical faculties.

Apologies for the negative debut, I just find the apparently universal positive regard for this album weird.

Best regards.

Love the vocals especially.

Some of Brian's finest from the 1990s.

When this album was released close to I Just Wasn't Made for these Times and the rumours of the Paley sessions began to emerge it was an exciting time as we had been waiting since '88 for new BW recordings after Sweet Insanity did not get a release. I love OCA dearly, I love the songs and Brians performance. I am a sucker for the wall of Brians. Pity we got Imagination in '98 rather than the Paley collaboration.

I'll take Imagination over the Paley stuff I've heard, but agree with the rest of your post. Can't believe anyone thinks Brian's voice is "shot" on OCA. No, it's not the sweet voiced Brian of Surfer Girl, Don't Worry Baby or Caroline, No, but he sings very well with his "grown up" voice on OCA.

I agree, most singers voices change over time, especially those who don't take care of them, Brian is one of them. It doesn't mean he can't sing it just means he sings differently. I love his 90's singing voice just as much as his 60's voice, it's different, but to me he was still amazing. Fast forward to 2012 and he's different again, somewhere between his 60's and 90's voice and still sounding great to these ears.