...you should well know that album credits are rarely if ever accurate for various reasons.

Absolutely, categorically, 100 percent false.  You are living in the '60s man, people don't cut deals like that anymore (except Brian Wilson, I guess). In 2015 (the year of our lord) most album credits are 99.99 percent accurate. After decades of turmoil in the music industry it has become of the utmost legal importance that each musician and participant is credited correctly. Do you think Beyonce likes having to list all 15 producers, and 60 plus writers on her albums? Of course not, it makes her look silly, but you can't get away with not doing that in this day and age. Been that way for years. Sounds like you're working with really dishonest people.

What an absurd thing to say.

Living in the 60s? I was born in 1978, pal. And for a supposed writer, you are seriously stretching what is left of your credibility.  By trying to prove me wrong, you're actually proving me right! These days, a guy can fart in the general direction of the studio and be given credit. And sh*t, you named Beyonce, who has been accused of using a ghost-writer for her songs, at the very least. One good example was with the song 'If I was a boy' and the controversy when it came out that BC Jean actually wrote the song.

Research is vital.

This is why you write in forums, and I write in newspapers and magazines. Good luck to ya.

THAT is a good review. It's isn't full of conjecture from your mystical alternate reality where Zooey Deschanel never met Brian Wilson prior to NPP and where Joe Thomas has writing credits on all the NPP songs.

Oh my god you have posted the Zooey Deschanel thing like 8 times now. Jesus christ, enough! The album is a 10/10 and I'm gonna go buy the She & Him discography now, off to the record store! You win!

...you should well know that album credits are rarely if ever accurate for various reasons.

Absolutely, categorically, 100 percent false.  You are living in the '60s man, people don't cut deals like that anymore (except Brian Wilson, I guess). In 2015 (the year of our lord) most album credits are 99.99 percent accurate. After decades of turmoil in the music industry it has become of the utmost legal importance that each musician and participant is credited correctly. Do you think Beyonce likes having to list all 15 producers, and 60 plus writers on her albums? Of course not, it makes her look silly, but you can't get away with not doing that in this day and age. Been that way for years. Sounds like you're working with really dishonest people.

What an absurd thing to say.

I tried giving him the benefit of the doubt, but by continously grasping at straws in order to boost his already failing argument, he's coming across as more of a uninformed troll. Makes question some of his other reviews. .

I mean, the fact that Thomas was in a completely different state during the actual recording of the album should count for something since we had been talking about Thomas's involvement with the production , but I guess it's possible to produce by proxy.  Maybe him and Brian switched bodies.  Or maybe it was a Nicholas Cage &John Travolta Face/Off situation and Thomas with Brian's face was in LA. Or there was cloning involved. Or, it could've like Avatar, with Brian as a blue-cat person and Joe Thomas was playing the Sam Worthington role.

Oh...I got it...I know how Thomas produced NPP despite not being anywhere near California. ..



I've been holding out this whole time...NPP was actually produced by Dr Fucking Who.

Okay, I'll take you at your word that Thomas was in fact not present at the sessions for this album. I have no reason not to trust you if Thomas is a friend of yours or of the board's. But as a reviewer, I have to go by the credits given on the record, and if they don't match up with reality that's a problem with the record company, not with my judgement. My copy says "Produced by Brian Wilson and Joe Thomas", and Thomas is also credited with a co-write on every song except "One Kind of Love", you can look those things up yourselves. So thats what I went on. But it doesn't change how I feel about the record, because if Brian was really behind all of that autotune, the beats on Runaway Dancer and all the collaborations, then I think it was a very, very poor decision on his part. I would score it the exact same way. But obviously, we will have to agree to disagree on the quality of the music, as you can with any review. I was just genuinely curious as to what people were attracted to about this album, that's the reason I commented on this thread.

This seems like it's kind of another example of how, since the '80s, nothing is how it seems with Brian. His camp is always playing the smoke & mirrors game with the fans, I'm so tired of it.

If JT co-produced just one track, he would still be listed as co-producer on the album. He and Brian have a long standing relationship.

Billy it's also my understanding he was not very involved in NPP aside from the co-writing of the tracks. I think Casey saw what was posted here about his popmatters review and joined not to discuss anything, but ruffle feathers for the sake of it.

So what you're saying is, "he wasn't very involved with NPP, he just co-wrote every track except one."

Sounds pretty involved to me. Also, I never knew people's thoughts on the PM review until someone was kind enough to show them to me. I came here because I thought this was a place to discuss the Beach Boys' music with other fans. I guess I was wrong?

The story is "produced by Brian Wilson"

And it's a true story too, unless Thomas learned to produce an album while not being present.  To play devil's advocate,  maybe he produced by phone or email, or learned how to be in two 0 places at once.

So now you're denying Joe Thomas co-produced this record?

Go to this link: http://www.allmusic.com/album/no-pier-pressure-mw0002760473/credits

"Joe Thomas   Composer, Hammond B3, Keyboards, Mixing, Piano, Producer"

On my promo CD he is officially credited as co-producer.

Read the interview posted in this link with the engineer at Ocean Way who worked on the album, concerning Brian's participation or as you're suggesting, non-participation, and consider that this album is NOT Imagination, as if connecting the two almost two decades apart from each other doesn't prove anything, no less back up an opinion of what was done.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,18510.0.html

Direct link to the piece in Mix magazine:
http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/brian-wilson-and-friends-ocean-way-studios/366563

Interesting article. The first thing I noticed upon reading it, is that it doesn't contain the word "Joe" or "Thomas", but when you look at the album credits, I see the words "Joe" and "Thomas" quite a bit, in the producer credits and in every song credit (besides one) and these : additional mixing, acoustic piano, B3 organ, additional keyboards. (BTW if you have a CD copy, check out the list of all the engineers credited!)

I think I have something equally as interesting you might want to read. In June of 2014, Brian Wilson told the Irish Times: “I’ve had it with collaborators. I still work sometimes with Scott Bennett – he writes lyrics – but he’s the only one I work with." - Brian Wilson, June 2014

Now lets take note of when the album was recorded. The album credits (on my promo copy I received for review purposes) provide this information: Recorded in early 2013–November 2014.

So lets recap. Brian said, apparently in the middle of recording the record, and I quote:  “I’ve had it with collaborators."

Brian also mentioned: “I still work sometimes with Scott Bennett – he writes lyrics – but he’s the only one I work with."

Bennett has one co-write on NPP, maybe not so coincidentally, that song is also the only track Joe Thomas does NOT have a co-writing credit (One Kind of Love).

Read the article for yourself: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/brian-wilson-s-united-states-of-music-1.1823177?page=3

I think we might eventually hear a different story about the making of this record in the near future.

The issue is that you made statements in the review which were untrue yet you seemed to be suggesting they were factual in the context of your review (including the follow-up replies posted here), and some responding here know the statements are untrue and corrected them. If the review originally were simply whether you liked or disliked the album, and the reasons why, there would be no problems with that. People would either agree or disagree with the opinions you shared. But considering there are people who know the facts, and they've corrected what was wrong in your review (and posts here), why not accept that some of the statements you made as fact in the review were wrong and leave it at that?

Someone who knows the facts has not corrected me, someone who thinks they know the facts has corrected me. There's a big difference. If you've read Catch a Wave by Peter Ames Carlin (a writer I've spoken with about the Beach Boys, who lives in my city, and who worked at the Oregonian newspaper, where my review was also published), you'd know that during the Imagination sessions with Joe Thomas in the late '90s Brian had very little to do with the final product, per those involved. An excerpt from Carlin's book reads:

"Joe took it upon himself to make sure that the new songs sounded as adult contemporary radio as possible. Most were dominated by tinkling keyboards, with plenty of melodic interjections from a gently plucked nylon-string guitar. If Brian tried to use an instrument or an arrangement that might not fit into the soothing blend, Joe would shake his head and slice it out of the picture. And if this bothered Brian, he didn't show it." P. 292

"...Brian reportedly stated: "We call it a Brian Wilson album, but it's really a Joe Thomas/Brian Wilson album." P. 292

Brian and his team sued Thomas after the record came out and was universally panned, alleging that Thomas had taken too much control of their partnership, read about it here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bad-vibrations-brian-wilson-sues-collaborator-19990824

I see nothing different about NPP than I do about Imagination, another record pockmarked by bad collaborations (Jimmy Buffet) and horrific adult contemporary production.

You folks may need a reminder that an album review is not a scientific document, it is not a legal document, it is not a research paper, but it is an opinion piece that is equal parts personal experience, conjecture and, in my case anyway, a historical examination through the lens of a consumer. If everything I wrote was wrong, or slanderous, I would have been contacted long ago to make corrections or remove the article outright (believe me, managers, and particularly labels, are VERY quick to go after journos for negative reviews, even if they have no grounds for doing so. London electronic label Hyperdub threatened an editor of mine recently because I thought Jessy Lanza's EP contained "filler").

But of course, we never received anything like that from Capitol or Brian's team. Probably because they too knew the product was weak (if you think I wrote the sole harsh review please look again) and they knew there was nothing legally dubious about what I was saying.

And above all else, I would encourage you to have a sense of humor. Opinion pieces are meant to be provocative, album reviews are no exception. You can't review an album like Consumer Reports reviews a vacuum because music is ENTIRELY subjective, there is nothing more pompous than a dissection of a pop album that presents itself as anything but one dude/lady's opinion.

The Beach Boys are my favorite band, and they have been for a decade now. And if there's one thing I've learned about loving this group, and Brian, is that being a BBs fan is very frustrating. My review is a reflection of those frustrations, and in more general terms it's also about the complexities of fandom.

I commented on this thread originally to express my personal shock about how highly this album is thought of by fans, because in my listening experience, there isn't anything on NPP that resembles what has always attracted me to his music. I don't listen to BBs/BW to hear Kacey Musgraves, to hear autotuned vocals, or to hear disco (Didn't they learn ANYTHING from Here Comes Comes the Night???). I listen to hear Brian and, in regards to the Beach Boys, his brothers, cousin and friend. I hear way too little of Brian on NPP.

1. Brian Wilson and Zooey Deschanel must be friends because they did a youtube video together once. Yes, I'm sure that wasn't a PR stunt or anything like that. She covered one of his songs, of course he knows her, just like Brian is friends with every one of the thousands of artists that have covered his music! You win that one!

2. Brian doesn't need money, he's got Beach Boys royalties. Exactly, it's not like he's obligated to fulfill his record contract with Capitol or face legal penalties and I'm sure he doesn't have money tied up in lots of different places like most wealthy people with big families and lawyers and managers and all that stuff. He never needs income ever again! You win round two I guess

3. Yes, this officially released behind the scenes video shows him fully engrossed in the record-making process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPHPYULAS1k
Joe Thomas is conspicuously absent from the video, which must mean Brian was the ONLY one in the booth during the making of the entire record! And Brian clearly thought high enough of the material to leave most of the singing to guest spots. I read it on a source that is "easily available on the internet". You win again!

btw I found it funny most people took it as an attack on Brian. Clearly the targets were Joe Thomas and his horribly schlocky production (which was almost universally panned) but I guess it's hard for people to realize that their favorite artist can turn out a dismal product. Truth hurts folks.

[I cannot believe NPP has this many fives.]

I cannot believe NPP has this many fives. Percentage wise, this album has a higher favorability rating on this site than Surf's Up. I assume my review on PopMatters didn't go over too well...

13 people gave it 5 stars. Is it really that hard to believe that 13 people like this album a lot? The people that didn't like this album probably don't care enough about it to waste their time reviewing or rating it. Also, given that the NPP poll has only been up for 4 months and the Surf's Up review thread has been up for almost 10 years, I'd say give it a bit more time for the numbers to even out.

As for your Popmatters review; I don't think too many people cared specifically about your review. I thought it was satire actually, given how much you got wrong in the article. It honestly sounded like you were just making fun of the people who were knocking the album. If you were being serious, I'll clear up some glaringly obvious faults with your review...

For instance, Runaway Dancer is indeed a Brian Wilson track - he recorded a demo track with Joe back in 1998 and according to people who would know the track didn't change much at all. I think Sebu helped add some synths and other things, but much of the track is the same concept from the 90s.

Would he invite Zooey Deschanel, or that guy who was on that Pink song from a few years ago to do guest spots? No, because he doesn’t know who those people are, nor should he.

Actually there is a history between Zooey and Brian, she even interviewed Brian quite a few years ago, it can be found on Youtube. No doubt he had heard her Wouldn't It Be Nice cover.

But alas, the man has bills to pay and family to support, so he signed off on this thing.

Ahh of course because he's not making enough from the Beach Boy royalties...he's scrounging up those pennies and dimes to feed his hungry children.

If anyone has seen an interview or spoken with Brian these last five or ten years, you know that this is a man who is simply not interested in making music anymore, and he doesn’t need to be.

People who have actually spoken with Brian said he was amped up nearly every day to get to the studio to record for NPP. He worked his ass off for months in the studio before this was released, polishing and getting each sound right.

edit: actually just found an even better breakdown of your review from the poster Wirestone: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,20283.msg510064.html#msg510064

Again, pardon if I completely misread your review; if it was satire just ignore the above. If not, next time you do a review and rip an artist to shreds, do 10 minutes of research on the World Wide Web before you open that Word application.

If you are of a mind to give this record 5 stars then that's a good sign that no amount of logic or facts could possibly sway you.

I cannot believe NPP has this many fives. Percentage wise, this album has a higher favorability rating on this site than Surf's Up. I assume my review on PopMatters didn't go over too well...

I like Sunflower, but man its reputation has really become so bloated (IMO of course).

"Got to Know...", "Tears" and "Its About Time" I have been routinely skipping for years. I used to love "Add Some Music", but as time has gone by I've found it to be excessively wooden, and the decision to release this as the lead single from this record is kind of baffling. "Slip on Through" would have been the obvious choice but "Forever" and "Our Sweet Love" would also have made excellent singles. It's funny that when Brian is finally forced out of the drivers seat the BBs (and Reprise) still didn't have a clue. I love "At My Window", but "Take A Load Off Your Feet" is my favorite track on Surf's Up so maybe I'm just a weirdo.

3.5/5

Sorry if this is overly 'critic-y' but...

Admittedly, I like a lot of record as a fascination, rather than an enjoyable piece of music. The first side plays like a hypothetical Side 3 of 15 BO, silly rock 'n' roll numbers that are willfully obtuse in the sense that Brian seemed to be daring the listener to enjoy them. Totally abrasive and wild, and often very funny, but with a gleeful perversity to them that makes them very unique to this particular era of Brian/BBs. It's hard to enjoy them, it took me years not to immediately skip to "Good Time", which is a highlight for me, but I've learned to appreciate the sheer balls of recording a track like "Johnny Carson" or "Honkin' Down the Highway". Even though around this time most of the Boys were apologizing publicly for the let down of 15 BO, Brian seemed to basically double-down on that record's approach with an almost complete deconstruction of rock music as we know it, instead playing a stripped-down and mechanical machination of rock that almost plays like a parody of the genre itself.

Side 2 is where most of the record's gems lie, "Solar System", "I'll Bet...", "Airplane" and "The Night" are as good as anything they did in the '70s. They play more to the obvious strengths of all involved and are almost entirely devoid of rock music, but play well together as a collection of waltzes and robotic ballads. The instrumental arrangement on "I'll Be He's Nice" is brilliant, the guitars and synths play off each other like a call and response, so cool! Mike does an incredible job with "Airplane", and I actually love Carl's soulful, kind-of-drunk vocals that are all over the second side. "Love is a Woman" is an obvious weak point, no wonder its stashed away at the end there. "Pick you Up" I actually enjoy mostly because the lead synth sound is wonderful, and "pat....pat.....pat her on her buuuuuutt" always cracks me up, only Brian would ever sing that lyric on a record.

I'd give this record a solid 4, I'd probably even go 4.5 just for the complete madness that is this record. A classic Brian record.

M.I.U. sounds totally MOR to me, in a much less ambitious way than L.A., and yet I greatly prefer it to that album. I think there's kind of a nice intimacy to the mellow sound, although it becomes too much in places ("Sweet Sunday" is the most aggressively M.I.U. track on M.I.U., by which I mean it's frustratingly bland), but when they go for something with a bit more scope in sound ("Winds of Change") it doesn't work at all. Maybe that song and "Good Timin'" should have swapped places, they seem to fit each other's album.

I suppose those two albums are as good as each other really... neither come to life very often. But M.I.U. is all in all pretty modest, and L.A. attempts to be colossal and ends up sounding like the adult contemporary Holland. I guess I just prefer the former because I like my sh*t twee.

I feel like a lot of MIU is still going for the Spector sound, but maybe Spector via Born to Run with all those charging saxophones and sleigh bells (especially on the first side).  L.A. Light is straight yacht-rock, which I like to a degree, but the boring moments are much more prevalent, IMO. And I think L.A.'s biggest flaw is the sheer amount of ballads on that record. It seems Dennis, and to a lesser degree Carl, saved all their mid-to-uptempo numbers for solo projects and gave the Boys nothing but ballads from Sunflower on. Some really good ballads mind you, but when you have Full Sail, Goin South, Angel Come Home, Baby Blue and Love Surrounds Me all on the same record its a complete slog.

MIU is a total blast comparatively.

Been a die hard BBs fan for over a decade now, and for whatever reason I barely gave this one a chance until I recently found my bargain bin LP of it and decided to put it on, and shockingly, I kinda liked it. Like, really liked it. SO much better than L.A., and I think the reason is that it is almost entirely devoid of the MORisms that ruined so much L.A.. Instead, M.I.U. is a lot of Brian, Mike and Al, the three quirkiest (quirky might be an understatement) members of the group. As much as I love Carl and Dennis, when left unchecked, their post-'75 songs can too easily veer into adult contemporary land, whereas Brian, Mike and Al's weirdness always shone through, no matter the quality of track (and the quality here is admittedly dubious). Overall, this record feels more like Love You than it does L.A., particularly with Hey Little Tomboy, which toes that funny/disturbing line like so much of LY does. Yes, it's totally ludicrous fluff, but thats probably why I like it.

Fave tracks: Matchpoint, Come Go With Me, Sweet Sunday, Hey Little Tomboy (mostly for comedy purposes), She's Got Rhythm.

Winds of Change is just horrid though.

Solid 3 1/2 stars.