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http://www.letoilemagazine.com/2015/02/25/we-will-rock-you-hooray-another-late-career-brian-wilson-triumph/ (http://www.letoilemagazine.com/2015/02/25/we-will-rock-you-hooray-another-late-career-brian-wilson-triumph/)

I like the way he assumes that anyone reading the review won't need the Honeys reference explained. A fan writing for other fans, it's good.

Good ol' Jon Hunt. Wonder what became of him? :)

It's a Hunt instead of a slam dunk!

Now THIS - THIS is a PROPER review. By a guy who absolutely DOES knows his stuff. Go Jon!

And it's not just that I like this one better because he likes the album, either. Compare this review with that Jim Pusey one and it's like chalk and cheese. This is proper writing. Sure, it's opinionated, but the opinions are clearly justified in the text, and grounded in a proper knowledge of the subject. And Jon writes with a real style, too, conversational and funny. It's not just dumped on the page.

Caveat - I've always liked Jon's writing, in posts, on-line and in print. For me, this doesn't disappoint.

PS I'm hoping I eventually share Mr Hunt's opinion on the album, too. For a guy who loves synth-pop and electronic dance, like I do, you'd think I'd like Joe Thomas's more plasticky - or less organic, shall we say - input to the BW/BB canon over the years, but I don't. I like about a third of Imagination a lot, but baulk at the AC shrink-wrap, and I can't stand Stars & Stripes - from the name onwards, it makes me recoil. But I like most of That's Why God Loves The Radio. So NPP is hanging in the balance, and what I've heard on the preview clips is going the wrong way for me. But this review gives me hope...

Good review. I know the joe Thomas haters won't like it, but if NPP compares well with TWGMTR I'll be happy. And, I agree 100% that it's incredible that Brian is being creative and writing new music as his age and after all he's been through. From a purely commercial sense, he really doesn't have to do anything at all. He could just rest on his prior accomplishments and tell his critics to shut up and go listen to Pet Sounds. But, he's a guy who seems to thrive on the music, so from a personally creative stand point, he has to do it. And we get the benefit of that.

It's all good.

What gets me is that here's a guy in his 70s who still gets up and goes to work. And works hard, takes pride in his output.

I love JH's positivity - qualified positivity - just as I love the Way BWs work just gets ever-better the more he becomes his own guy again. We're witness to a remarkable healing, and fortunate that the byproduct is the most beautiful music.

Maybe he makes that assumption, but I'm surely glad he knows his BB stuff.  It had sometimes been hard for me to accept and learn that a lot of music reviewers have biases that inform their reviews.  And that the BB's are just one of many, whose work is being reviewed without a lot of the proper attention that it merits.  

What I find about the cover with the "pier" theme, is that it reminds me of one of the POB photos, (Ed Roach's work,  I think) with Dennis leaning on a pier in on a cloudy maybe mid-afternoon judging by the shadows cast, and judging from the mushy looking sand, at or near low tide.  And, Brian's album cover looks from the darker side, also, presumably at low tide, toward what looks like late afternoon sun...looks like photographic optimism to me...  ;)

Gotta love a review lie that.....

I was a little surprised there was no mention of The Last Song.

Lovely write-up, made me relisten to The Right Time with fresh ears. :)

Jon has always had an instinctual knack for summary.  The guy's still got it!

What an odd review???  The guy is obviously a fan...and he knows him some Brian stuff.  Yet his premise that 'we' all expect Brian to fail comes from where?  I have never sat around waiting for or anticipating a failure from BDW.  Never.  I always wanted Brian to succeed and to wow the bageesus out of me.

He then assures us that Brian has yet to fail but then goes back and slams Imagination and Gettin In Over My Noggin'...or at least parts contained there-in.  And he does it in two separate sections of the review which otherwise is pretty much glowing.  He's just foolin' with us.  Pullin' our chains.

I know that the guy who wrote the OTHER review we discussed here knows a bit about Brian but not nearly enough to make accurate comments about stuff he's only vaguely or 'kinda' aquainted with.  Yet when I questioned his knowledge I was told that the only reason I was questioning the guy's know-how and cred was because he didn't give the album an A+ review.  How could he?  He'd never recognize something worthy of that.  

He merely pretended to know Brian/The Beach Boys/The body of work ... but clearly he doesn't.  On the other hand...this guy here pretends NOT to know it but he clearly does.  Beer drinkers should not be encouraged to write about wine.  Our boy this time is not a beer drinker.  He's a connoisseur of only the finest wines.  And NPP is clearly one of the very best bottles of wine you'll ever uncork...on an ocean.

this review makes NPP sound like an album that will reward with repeated play.  Unlike GIOMH which yielded growing WTF's with repeated play.    If I like it as much as LOS,   It is a certified BW' grand slam.    I 'm actually eager, rather than pensive about the release.    Now.   which released version to buy....................

I was thinking about this the other day.  Appreciation of artists (musicians, certainly) largely depends on how well you know the artist, or think you know them. 

Brian's biggest fan likely was his mother!  She probably knew him and understood him better than anybody... I would imagine in her eyes all his music was beautiful and great.  Next up was probably his wife.  Not just Marilyn but Melinda I'm sure thinks he really knocks it out of the park everytime, because she understands him and knows him so well.  Trickle all that down to us die-hard fans; we know him pretty well or think we do, and know all about his trials and tribulations... we see his new stuff and really enjoy it. 

Then eventually you get down to people who may have never even heard of him and dont have much of an appreciation for it. 

I guess the tricky part is making music so good that even people who have never heard of you hear it and go "Wow! that's great!".

Just thinking out loud.  It's a strange world we live in!

Is that a typo or a wisecrack? ;D

That's my feeling.


No argument here. Disappointment Central.


Me too. Most eager.