The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi folks.  I have been buying all of the Beach Boys CDs over the last few months and now have all of their studio albums and the Smile 2CD box.  I am thinking of moving on to some Brian Wilson CDs before moving into live and other albums.  To start with I would like to get Brian's studio work with new material.  Am I right in thinking there are three of them?:

Brian Wilson
Imagination
Gettin' In Over My Head

Thanks for any info and suggestions, and please point me at another thread if my search skills let me down yet again.

Hi Tony,

There is also Orange Crate Art which is written (mostly) by Van Dyke Parks but sung by Brian, and That Lucky Old Sun which many people, including myself, seem to enjoy. There is also the odd track on his other albums which is 'new material'. So on What I Really Want for Christmas you have the title track and "Christmasey" and on Reimagines Gershwin you have two 'new' tracks (ie: Brian completing unfinished Gershwin tunes) in "The Like in I Love You" and "Nothing But Love". There is also two pretty nice tunes - "The First Time" and "This Isn't Love" - from Live at the Roxy Theatre which have never been given proper studio releases.

If it was me I would start with Brian Wilson, That Lucky Old Sun, Imagination and then follow that with Smile, Reimagines Gershwin and Orange Crate Art and then the rest. Anyway, that's just my opinion but perhaps you may want to listen to a few tracks on Spotify / iTunes / YouTube or whatever before making your decision.

Hope that helps.

and of course the Disney cd and I just wasn't made for these times (which is nothing but remakes of his older songs)

Thanks for the helpful replies.  That Lucky Old Sun looks interesting, I will add it to my list for 'the near future' as opposed to the 'slightly later' list  :)

That Lucky Old Sun has much more new material than Gettin' in Over My Head, and with much better quality too.

"The Flintstones have a movie coming out, and this song's gonna be in the movie! Isn't that great??" :-D

Both good songs, especially "The First Time". I love that one.

There's also I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, which is a decent little album of Brian rerecording some of his material in a more stripped-down, intimate form. 

IMHO, Brian's solo material is somewhat spotty, but there is some good stuff to be had on all his albums. 

Seconded.  It takes a cue from the SMiLE format and has some of the most engaging material he's recorded on a solo album.

Hi all,

TLOS is a must have!!!

TLOS is defiantly a must have.

You won't hear brian having much more fun on a song than on "goin home"

TLOS is a magnificent album. If you don't count Brian Wilson Presents Smile, That Lucky Old Sun is by far Brian's best solo album. 'Southern California' gets me all misty; 'Midnight's Another Day' is a darkly powerful and beautiful mini-masterpiece; 'Goin' Home' is so so Brian; everything else ranges from excellent to merely very, very good.