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Where were you one year ago today?

I hurried from work to Target, where my fiance (now wife) had called and had them reserve a copy of the brand new Deluxe Target Exclusive Edition of Brian Wilson's No Pier Pressure. 

It's very rare that I go and buy a new album on the street date anymore. 

After dinner that night, I sat and played the CD, satisfied with the majority of it. 

A few days later, my fiance and I listened to it on the way to the beach for a long weekend, and we played it a lot through spring and summer.

After a year, the album as a whole still sounds really good IMO.

While it isn't a masterpiece, I find the entire album perfectly listenable from start to finish. I have loved Runaway Dancer since the start, so that doesn't ruin the album for me, and I was underwhelmed by Right Time since the start, so that kind of drags for me. I enjoy all of the guests artists, and I think the entire album does quite well in establishing a mood that carries through to the end.

Great album that captures a 21st century BW well.

I bought the deluxe edition. It took me a while to get into it, until it struck me that it was the last official album track and the two extra ones that bugged me. Now I listen as far as "Saturday Night" and no further----end of problem. :=)   

Well that year went by quickly.

I skipped my last class to go to Target and buy the deluxe edition.  I still enjoy it very much.  No songs that I truly dislike, though I will skip Our Special Love and The Last Song on occasion (and the two bonus tracks).  Whatever Happened is still my favorite track.  It's closest you'll get to the Beach Boys without it actually being them.  I like to play it and From There to Back Again back to back.  I didn't like Don't Worry at first, but now it's one of my favorites.  I think I'd give the album a 7.5/10. 

Is it one year already? I listened to it again the other day, and to me it's really Brian's "Summer In Paradise". Aside from "Runaway Dancer" there are absolutely no interesting sounds or arrangements on it. In "The Last Song" that song of the Smurfs part still rolls my toenails up. The vinyl track order works better for me, as the especially tedious tracks come later there. "Guess You Had To Be There", "Sad", "Saturday Night", and "Don't Worry" are decent tunes at least which would have made a nice EP.

I remember how puzzled and disappointed I was that I had to put it back on the shelf after the first two listens. Hail "That Lucky Old Sun", that one was great!

Pardon me if you've read my opinion on the BW Forum....

But, for me, I'd rank NPP as my favorite Brian solo album if not for Runaway Dancer and Guess You Had to Be There. 

Runaway Dancer starts out OK, but completely loses me when the EDM beat kicks in.  I tried to like the song better once I heard the live version, but when I go back and listen to the album as a whole, I still cringe when that beat starts. 

Guess You Had to Be There has become a fan favorite, but I don't like the country / pop vocals. 

Other than those two gripes, there's 14 tracks that I really like (I don't include the bonus Target tracks as part of the album).  This Beautiful Day, Whatever Happened, Half Moon Day, This Special Love, One Kind of Love, Saturday Night, Tell Me Why, The Right Time, and favorite, Sail Away are all still getting a lot of listens. 

I think the inclusion of Al Jardine's vocals really take the album to another level.  While I think Brian sings very well on the album, I think it's great to have Al on there to help with the heavy lifting. 

Agreed with Micha on this one. I've tried again and again with this album, and I enjoy it on some days, but on the whole it just wasn't for me. I think my main problem with it is the production. It all sounds a bit too loud (the drums especially are really cranked on most of these songs), which hurts a few cuts, especially "One Kind of Love" which can't decide whether it wants to be an 80s power ballad or "God Only Knows". To me there's something really by-the-numbers about songs like "Whatever Happened" and especially "The Last Song", which I feel bad writing considering they both address a very serious subject, but "From There to Back Again" hit that mark more or less perfectly a few years ago whereas these two just don't do anything for me.

Not that it's all bad. Even if I don't like the sound of "One Kind of Love" it's still the album's definitive piece of proof that Brian can still write a hell of a song. I enjoy the majority of the collaborations even if there's nothing conventionally 'Brian Wilson' about them - "Runaway Dancer", "Saturday Night", "Guess You Had to Be There"... all perfectly fine bubblegum (still not fond of "Our Special Love" though). "Half Moon Bay" is a fairly nice instrumental and I continue to love the hell out of "Don't Worry" (and to a lesser extent "I'm Feeling Sad").

So although I have no doubt Brian had total creative control, the music here just doesn't remind me of why I love the man and his music so much. But at least it's not another GIOMH as some had feared.

A year on and it still hovers above the realm of being almost completely uninteresting. Al, David, and Blondie are the saving graces.

I struggle with this one. Like a lot of Brian's later stuff (88 aside), I just don't here the melodies that attract me. I do like That Beautiful Day, Tell Me Why, Half Moon  Bay and Sail Away. I don't think there's anything on here as strong as the best 4 or 5 tracks from TWGMTR - though there's nothing as bad as Beaches in Mind - ot TLOS or even the best 3 or 4 off Imagination, even though I really don't like most of that album. Of course. this has Blondie and Al and Brian sounds a hell of a lot better than he does on most of his previous albums.

What section/part of "The Last Song" sounds like The Smurfs? I'm feeling blue just thinking about it...

I think the album absolutely has its moments, like One Kind of Love, This Beautiful Day, Runaway Dancer (I dig it), Whatever Happened, and On the Island. I mostly like the songs without the guest stars, though Zoe sounds rad on her song.

The production isn’t my cup of tea, and I wish that The Mulleted One was not at the helm as producer, and that we instead had another album with production like That Lucky Old Sun or In the Key of Gershwin, but that said, there are still some gems to be found on this album.

I still can’t help but to think that Brian was still deeply bummed about how Mike abruptly quashed plans for a BB followup to TWGMTR, and that this could in part be to blame for some of the lack of inspiration that IMO affects parts of the album. Brian had plans for a BB album that he was enthusiastic about, he was working on a project, and it got screwed up again. A guy can only take that happening a certain amount of times before it can affect their output and ability to create. Brian deserved better.

Not only would it have been more beneficial and awesome to have Mike and Bruce contributing their voices, but I think that if Mike had been genuinely supportive of Brian (and this being a BB album), and not making demand after demand, that this album could have turned out better and closer to its original intention by Brian.  Plus, I'm sure that Mike could have contributed a few genuinely good ideas of his own, but again, not if they came attached with an "or else" implementation order.

But I’ll still enjoy the rad parts of the album, of which there are quite a few.

I'll agree with you on one aspect, CD, I could've done with less guest stars. 

Halfway through my first listen, I felt like Brian was a guest on his own album. 

Although, the ones with Zoey D., Nate Ruess, and Peter Hollen have grown on me.  Not so much Sebu and Kacey.  I'm still thankful a year later that Frank Ocean didn't appear on NPP. 

Solid summer album. My preference is for the basic 13 track version minus the song with a bored guest vocal. But best solo album ? Nope.

Brian had some great stuff on all of his solo albums. But I don't know if he's strung together one front-to-back killer album, with the probable exception of "Smile" if we're counting that.

I think "That Lucky Old Sun" and "Orange Crate Art" have a good unifying concept and the overall quality level stays high enough across the entire albums to call those excellent albums. But even on "TLOS", there's some stuff I sometimes skip.

I kinda don't count the covers or re-recordings albums (though I dig big hunks of those). That gets us back to just a few albums, and they're all of a similar hit-and-miss quality. BW'88 has a number of great songs, and some great Brian vocal stacks. It also has "Little Children" on it.

I'm not *quite* as down on GIOMH as some folks, but it's all over the place at best.

"Imagination", apart from a few key tracks, remains elusively kind of unmemorable to me; I should probably give it a listen again.

"No Pier Pressure" kinda falls smack dab in the middle of Brian's solo stuff for me. I think "Sail Away" is great. I think having Al singing on the album is amazing. A subset of the compositions on the album are strong, most are at least okay. The only track I usually have to skip is "Our Special Love", and Brian's (and Joe's) composition is equally to blame as Hollens's recording/performance on that one.

It's not nearly as bad as Summer In Paradise. It's more like Brian's "L.A. Album" to me, because of the soft-rock adult contemporary sound it often has. Whenever I listen to this album I have it on a playlist minus the bonus tracks and minus "Don't Worry."

I love NPP. It's my favorite Brian record. The guest vocalists are FANTASTIC and probably why I love it. Brian never sang lead on all of the tracks of any Beach Boys album. Breaking it up with the guest vocalists gave this the "feel" of a Beach Boys album more so than any of Brian's other solo works. That was a good thing as opposed to Brian all by himself trying to sound like a Beach Boys album (minus the Boys) which has been the case for most of his solo output. It also made me realize Taylor Mills should have been given some leads or at least partial leads on Brian's solo efforts. It turned me into a fan of Kacey Musgraves and I don't care for much country at all. That gal is unique and her songs are very catchy and witty. It turned me into a fan of She and Him. I had heard of Zooey, but had no idea she was part of a cool band that make songs I actually want to hear. Bringing in talented people to work with Brian who's best days were not behind them was a great idea.

The la-la-la's, I should imagine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqbpzEHuO2g

Happy Birthday, NPP.  It's a solid B- for me.  At first, I thought I would not enjoy the guests vocalists, but to my surprise, I Guess You Had to Be There and Saturday Night are among my favorite tracks.

My ideal track listing would have been:

This Beautiful Day
What Ever Happened
Half Moon Bay
Our Special Love
The Right Time
Guess You Had to Be There
Somewhere Quiet
One Kind of Love
Saturday Night
The Last Song

A year already!

That's the ideal listing for me too.

NPP was more of a collection of overlapping EPs to my ears. The guest numbers, the suite-like numbers, the pop numbers, the slice of life numbers…

Having heard Brian's backing vocals on a couple of indie tracks - Emile H's Falling Apart and Mini Mansion's Any Emotion - I was kind of expecting something else completely of NPP. I built up an expectation that Brian was listening to and being inspired by a new generation of creative indie artists, and had every faith in his ability to, for his own album, take them on at their own game and surpass them. I had (and retain) faith in his ability and potential to do that.

What we got instead was another album belonging faithfully to the pop genre. Outstandingly good in many places, packed with brilliant ear worms, utterly thrilling even at times… but yet another pop album.

Were my expectations too high? No way. This is the guy who's shed genres like snake skins in the past, going from surf and sun to Pet Sounds and Smile in the near-wink of an eye, before morphing into something else again completely.

BW88, Imagination, GIOMH, BWPS, TLOS, WIRWFC, the Disney album and now NPP… all great to differing degrees (IMHO), but still all pop albums at heart. OCA and BWPG were something else again, as we might have expected in OCA's case, given the brilliant VDP's steering hand.

But while I really enjoy NPP, recognise if as being music Brian wanted to make at that time, and still play it (well, most of it!) pretty regularly, I wonder (and hope for) what Brian might pull out of another sleeve one day. Hopefully soon.

I do think several of the tracks could have made the basis for an outstanding Beach Boys album but hope Brian's kept a few tunes back in case that comes about!

I didn't post in the album review thread because the flak that most reviewers here came in for deteriorated at times into one of the worse examples of Brianista/Camp Love grudge matches I'd seen (at the time) and didn't want the unpleasantness. But my view's not changed over the last twelve months, and this seems to be a more honest, calmer thread.

Upshot: NPP, great in places.

I was in a restaurant few weeks ago, and all of sudden I noticed this easy-listening song playing in the background... And it was On the Island! It had been a while since I'd last heard it, and the song really made my gloomy, rainy March Sunday a little bit brighter. Such a genius little song. It inspired me to dig out NPP, and I have to say, I really like this album. It's no masterpiece, and maybe half of the songs are pretty run-of-the-mill, but no matter. Listening to NPP makes me feel good. Has a nice sunset feel to it. Lazy, warm, mellow. It doesn't tear my heart out, inspire me to scale any heights, remind me of the endless wonder of life and art... It's just alright, and sometimes that's all you need.

I have to say, though, that Sail Away and The Last Song kind of suck. Not bad songs per se, but after all the hype they really let me down. Uninspired. Latter day Brian is at his best when he doesn't try too hard (see On the Island)?

I have to wonder how much Brian is really into these latter day albums. I mean, they spend some time writing and recording them, hype them all to heck when they are released...and then a short time later, it's like they are forgotten. I mean, how many NPP songs is Brian doing on his tour this year? When was the last time he played anything off TLOS or the Gershwin record? His solo career has been spotty; for me, BW88, OCA and TLOS are the keepers. And maybe IJWMFTT. The rest I could take 'em or leave 'em.

+


= What?

noooo not this please

It just feels to me like he's going through the motions. He's expected to make a new record every couple years or so, so he does, then the tours happen...but the tours are mostly about playing the old songs. I guess that's what pays the bills. There was a time, though, when I thought Brian's future promised a lot more than just being a touring oldies act. It's strange that Mike gets so much flack about doing the old hits year after year, but for the most part, that's what Brian's been doing, too.

Well actually mate...
Not sure about your neck of the woods but he has done in Australia, The Gershwin Tour and The Lucky Old Sun tour. Plus you can't imagine him doing a NPP world wide tour in the 50th Anniversary Year of Arguably the greatest album of all time. Makes zero sense at all. I can't remember what your point was again.

Wow, a year ago?

I was at work when it was released and tethered my iPhone to my laptop in an unused room to download as I couldn't  access the wifi there. Soon as it came down I put it on my iPod and listened whilst I worked.

 I can still remember the feeling listening to that first track, I really thought I was going to hear something special, man, that track blew me away.

 Alas, it was not to be as the album was all downhill from there, for me. It's not a classic, it's 'ok' not a travesty but hardly great.

For some reason, it feels like an eternity ago for me, rather than the year seemingly going by fast.  I did listen to this heavily last summer and fall, particularly on hikes.

I'd agree with the person who said that they skip "Our Special Love" and "The Last Song".  Those are definitely my least favorite tracks by far.  The tracks I enjoy the most are "Whatever Happened", "Tell Me Why", "The Right Time", "Saturday Night" and my absolute favorite "I'm Feeling Sad".

I kinda wish more NPP songs made the setlist on the 2015 Tour, but I'm grateful that I got to hear Sail Away in concert a couple times.  I listened to that one, and a couple other assorted NPP in the car yesterday, and there's just something about it. 

Liked it then, like it now. I'm thrilled we got "just" a pop album, as the concepts thing grates on me sometimes. (I'd like TLOS even more if it were separated into songs, no linking tracks, dialogue, musical callbacks.) I do prefer the shorter version--still dislike the apparent favorite "I'm feeling sad" most of all--but generally think it's in the upper echelon of his solo albums. Masterpiece? Nah. But how many masterpieces can one guy make?

It's actually this what it reminds me of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEYFgtxYxJ8&feature=player_detailpage#t=169

A bit longer, but without the images "The Last Song" conjures up in my mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JrhkCJ0emtY#t=172

Silly me, that song probably is unknown outside Germany and the Netherlands.

The "promote the album for one tour and then drop most or all of the new songs from the setlist" phenomenon is not unique to Brian. McCartney is probably one of the most comparable examples to look at, someone who also has a huge catalog of 60s hits everybody knows and wants to hear (and McCartney actually has even more late 60s and 70s hits that people want and expect compared to Brian), and who also continues to make new albums and put tracks into the setlist. What McCartney ends up doing is relatively similar to Brian; throw in 3-4 songs from the new album on tour, and then by the following tour, or within a few years, the songs are mostly gone. It's not a perfect comparison, because McCartney's touring patterns and what constitutes one "tour" varies. So a "new album" tour might last two years, but with smaller blocks of shows interspersed throughout that time.

Also like Brian, McCartney rarely goes back to recent (e.g. two or three or four albums ago) but not "newest" material and puts it back into the setlist.

In both Brian and McCartney's case, they have a huge back catalog of mostly 60s material that's always going to take up most of their setlists. After both do the well-known stuff, maybe a few old "deep cuts", and new album stuff, there isn't a lot of room left in the setlist for "recent, but not newest" solo material.

I haven't looked at other similar contemporaries, but I would imagine for artists from, say the 60s or 70s, the more "hits" and "well-known" songs they have, the less likely they are to continue to add in a ton of latter-day album material (albums that spawned no "hits"; even if well-received by the fan base, and even in McCartney's case sometimes get Grammy nominations).

Hey Jude,

Apt comparison with Paul.  The Stones kinda do the same thing.  Although, they will sometimes sneak in a number from Steel Wheels or Voodoo Lounge (although both of those albums are 20+ years old now). 

Although, in my personal opinion, I think Brian's work over the last decade has been much more consistent than McCartney's. 

Both Paul and Brian know that their past glories sell the majority of the seats. 

 :lol

Can't. Stop. Laughing. You're kinda sorta right. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but that is hilarious.

And now I will probably think of that weird Smurfs Youtube clip every time I hear The Last Song.

I think NPP is a fine record and i still play it to this day.. Quite surprised  i enjoyed all the young guest artists on it.. Saturday Night rocks.. !! Having Al Jardine on vocals and Blondie Chaplin was a great move also.. The BVS vocals are outstanding.. I have nothin bad to say about NPP..  I saw  some of the songs performed last summer at the greek theatre in Los Angeles.. Excellent show..!!  Rock on Brian..!!

I just wonder what motivates these guys to record new material when it is the old stuff people will always want to hear. It must be discouraging, after you've had a bunch of hits, to see your albums consistently sell in lesser numbers. And I would enjoy hearing Macca add "My Brave Face" or "Hope of Deliverance" to his show; or Brian doing "Melt Away" or "Orange Crate Art".

They do grab back catalog stuff for the setlist once in awhile. Brian *did* add "Melt Away" to some shows in the early 2000s. Ironically, McCartney also has done "Hope of Deliverance" in the last few years.

Sometimes, it's some sort of reissue/repackaging of an old album that spurs them to do something from it. I'm pretty sure that's why Brian did "Let It Shine" on the 2000 tour, because Rhino had just reissued the '88 album.

As for why these guys make albums, it's probably a mixture of still wanting some sort of creative outlet, and record labels still offering some sort of up-front cash to do it.

They may sometimes do new stuff because it interests them more, and do tours because it pays the bills and gets them the adulation. In some cases, both recording and touring are ways to just stay keeping active.

It was great hearing "Let it Shine" in 2000. I kept hoping they would do more songs from that first solo album. It's easy to forget what a huge (YUGE?) deal that was in 1988 to finally have a solo album from Brian.

Yep. For example, the Zombies released a new album last year -- and immediately dropped the songs from their 2011 album from their setlist. That had in turn knocked out the couple of songs from their 2004 album that were in the set. Ray Davies' current standard setlist has two new songs, two mid-late 70s Kinks tracks, and everything else is from 1972 or earlier.

Sorry for ruining the song for you... I'm pretty certain too that Brian never heard the song of the Smurfs "Das Lied der Schlümpfe".



GAW AWN!  >:( You can't blame Mike for Brian making a lame solo album! When Brian's book comes out are you going to say it would have been a better book if Mike hadn't put Brian under pressure by also writing a book?

You're essentially saying Brian's work would be better with Mike on board?

If Mike had once again knuckled down to Brian's reign, the Wilson/Thomas production style would have been the same.

The Zombies didn't even have many hits. Interesting. I really enjoyed seeing Ray in concert touring behind "Other People's Lives". He did probably half the songs or more from the album that tour. It's been disappointing to me that both Ray and Dave have ignored a lot of great (and popular) songs from their 70's/80's catalog. It's like all these artists have been stuck in a time warp and aren't allowed to move forward. I guess at some point, everyone becomes Chuck Berry, just playing the old songs year after year for an audience that wants nothing more. And there's not necessarily anything wrong with that - I'm thankful I got to see guys like Chuck, Little Richard and Fats Domino when they were touring in the 80's and 90's, felt like I was witnessing history.

Given that Brian's book was initially announced a few days shy of three years ago, I somehow doubt it.  ;D

It's comparable to Imagination as far as slickness and polish goes. But I think NPP might have the "better" (read: catchier and more commercial) songs. It deserved far better as far as its reception.

The Last Song stands up with anything Brian has done.

Firstly, I didn't say Brian's album was lame. I do think it has some flaws and lacks inspiration in some parts though. Certainly the same could be said for much of Brian's solo material, as well as TWGMTR. That said, I don't think one can just dismiss and completely negate the potential ramifications of Brian being legitimately bummed out about a lost musical opportunity, where his dreams of a BB project were crushed *yet again*.  It is shameful for this to have happened again to Brian as a result of Mike's ego. Truly.

It's pretty well known that it's not exactly easy anymore to get a fire under Brian's belly to get his truly best efforts written and on tape these days. Latter day Brian still tries, and has his moments for sure. But if he was genuinely inspired by being a BB again, and had great plans for a BB record, and that context truly meant something to him on a deep level, well I would say that yes, one can place some possible blame on Mike for Brian potentially not being able to create on quite the level as an indirect result of Mike's actions. Just as Brian shelved lots of amazing material in the past when a project fell through (and his emotions were affected), and then made a good but not great album in its place, so is it possible that this scenario happened again on this album.

Brian deserved better, and I think it is naïve to think he is invincible from his output being negatively affected by things he deeply looks forward to (and puts his heart into) falling through over and over and over again. I can personally empathize because I know how hard and inspiration/motivation-sucking it can be to make art when external factors get in the way of the original intention. It's not some wild idea.

I'm saying that I think it's highly probable that Brian's work could have been better if Mike was onboard, but in a manner where Mike could be utilized as Brian wishes. And perhaps throw some good suggestions Brian's way here and there. That worked pretty damn well during Pet Sounds. Not just because Mike's voice sounds great when used in a good way, but simply because Brian wanted Mike there and wanted to make a BB album; Brian's plan was for this album to be a BB album with Mike and Bruce included. He should get what he wants in this respect. Period.  I also think the guest stars would either not have been on the album, or they would have been lessened in quantity/ prominence - which to me would have been a good thing. I think they were there in part to compensate for what Brian may have felt he just lost.

Let's put it this way - would we have gotten From There To Back Again out of Brian, finished and released, if there had been no BB reunion at all? Maybe, but I am not convinced that is a certainty.

I listened to NPP recently  while out on a sunny day playing around with the garage door open.      Really hit the spot.    I wasn't sure last  year but I am now calling this one a keeper.    I like almost all of it.    Interestingly,  I first heard right time as the best cut but now not so much.   


A couple of people mentioned Ray Davies recent solo material.    I have not stopped listening to Other People's lives and Working Mans Cafe since they were released.     If any of you have not heard these two albums,  I think you are missing a real treat.    Best Kinks or Ray released in a long, long, time.   Rays story telling has never been better and the music is killer.

I loved Other People's Lives, still put that one on occasionally. Working Man's Café wasn't as good, but still better than most of the stuff coming out in this latter days. It took him so long after the Kinks breakup to put out an original album, though, and now it's been something like 8 years since the second one, I think sometimes a writer benefits from having a vehicle to write for. For 30 years, that vehicle was the Kinks (similar, IMHO, to how John Fogerty and John Sebastian dried up as writers after CCR and the Spoonful broke up). I know that Ray has being doing other things, writing books, musicals, etc, maybe that's where his energies are focused now. Not holding out any hope for one last Kinks album.

  Happy Birthday, NPP. You are today what you were one year ago: an OK late career record that will primarily be of interest to the devoted, despite the presence of some name guest stars. Far better than brethren such as GIOMH but quite inferior to the likes of TLOS.

Inspired by this thread, I finally got around to re-listening to this album today.  The Deluxe Edition is still the way to go (why would anyone choose to hear less Brian Wilson music?).

My favorites are still: "Whatever Happened", "The Last Time", "I'm Feeling Sad", "Sail Away" and "Tell Me Why"...but "Guess You Had To Be There" has shot up to the #1 spot for me. The duets with the (then) new artists are usually the weakest links on the chain IMO, but this jaunty number gets better and better with each listen. I'm half-inclined to pick up a Kacey Musgraves CD to see if her own material stands up to this.

Brian gave an interview recently (linked somewhere on the board) where he emphatically claimed that "The Last Song" is not about the C50 tour expiring. I'm inclined to believe him, despite what Joe Thomas was saying at the time of the album's release.  That always struck me as a bit of pre-release hype from Joe. I've warmed to the "la la la's" but I really think it's weaker song than "One Kind Of Love" which would've been the perfect album closer.

I rated it highly then and still do now.

The only problem there is that "The Last Song" wouldn't be the last song. 

I have both of her records and I think they are great. They don't sound a lot like GYHTBT....that tune has Brian's influence in it for sure....a good reason why so many of us do love it. The guests brought something FRESH to Brian and Joe that was different than their own stuff, and different than Brian's other solo stuff. It was like a brand new harmony as opposed to another star just adding a vocal. Kacey has true talent that is rare today. Check out some vids and tunes on youtube or something and if you think she sounds pretty good she is sure to grow on you. Her songs have a ton of heart and humor as well. Kind of like those guys from California in the 60's....you know the bothers, cousin and friend.

I just read this thread, as my life has been a bit under pressure for the past 10 days or so.

I stick with my stand that this will be appreciated much more as time goes on, as has so much of Brian's works, as he challenges preconceptions, and people like to be comfortable with the familiar.

I personally loved it then, and love it more now.

I'd agree with that Debbie.  Personally, I think Brian has been on a roll since the Smile revival. 

Sometimes an album sounds pleasant on first listen, and you kind of put in on the shelf and forget about it for awhile and go back to listening to the old stuff.  Not the case here. 

I must work on "The Last Song", the way I worked on Alan's "And I Always Will". Album closers are tricky things... 

I think "One Kind of Love" is the "Love and Mercy" of Brian's recent career - it's a song he's still singing in concert, I suspect, like L&M, it will remain in his setlist for a long time to come.

I think you're right. 

I had an interesting moment in Barnes and Noble in Tyson's Corner last year at a Brian Wilson signing.  They were playing NPP over the PA when I approached Melinda to sign the Blu Ray of the Love and Mercy movie I'd just had Brian sign.  When One Kind of Love came on, she stopped the conversation she had with somebody, and said with a big smile on her face, "this is the song Brian wrote for me." 

While her music doesn't sound like Brian Wilson, I strongly recommend that anyone who likes a light country pop (not the kind of bro country that you hear from time to time, with distorted guitars and huge drums, and not really rootsy and rough, either) get both of her albums. She's a really clever songwriter lyrically and does some very cool things musically.

She is a great artist with many years of songwriting ahead! And funny she is closer to traditional country than "bro" country. ;)

Not my cup of tea, but I just hope she doesn't go the Taylor Swift route. 

I doubt she will, as she's more mature, and a better singer than Swift.

Her latest album certainly would probably be best called countrypolitan and fit right into that popular country of the '70s.

(Bringing it all back to the topic--sorry for those who get bugged by derailings) I really liked her track on NPP. Considering it's only four chords repeated the whole way through, it's a minor miracle that it is even listenable. And I actually don't even like the lyrics much. But it sounds great, it's upbeat, and I love the harmonies.

I had NPP in my car player all summer long. It went by the wayside a bit this winter, but I still really like the album.

One Kind of Love is amazing. Truly a fantastic song, top 5 of Brian's solo career easily. I could only imagine how emotional it must be for Melinda to have the beauty in that song written for her.

Then we are in rare accord: a solid summer album.  ;D

I was looking for her cd tonight at Hastings. Was looking in 'country', didn't see any. Guess I will just look her up on youtube, you've got me interested now.

no one has mentioned This Beautiful Day yet? I know it's short but it's absolutely breathtaking!

I love how you can hear the exhales on the harmonies...makes them 'breathe' and really come alive.

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Not sure if I mentioned it, but it's a great beginning and sets the tone for, well most, of what's to follow.  I only wish Whatever Happened directly followed it.  Instead, IMO the album kinda gets blown off course for a minute by Runaway Dancer. 

'One Kind of Love' was just amazing at the Osaka concert. As I noted in my review, Brian seemed to struggle vocally during some of the Pet Sounds stuff, but he sounded fantastic on 'One Kind of Love.' Kinda surprising, because it does not sound like an easy melody to sing, but I suppose he writes his recent music with his current range in mind.