Just got the email from Target that my copy has shipped!!

Already discussed and already pre-ordered. 
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,19886.50.html

This.

NO MORE COVERS!!!!  If I want a crappy cover album I will listen to 15BO.

Maybe on par with TLOS??  From what I have heard, it blows away TLOS.

I prefer the production sound of TL OS better than what's on this record, but song for song I think there are more stronger songs on NPP than on TL OS.

I just don't get the love for TLOS.  NPP is actually TUNEFUL instead of more Brian checked out, I'm being forced to do this, robotic, tuneless crap.

Maybe on par with TLOS??  From what I have heard, it blows away TLOS.

I'm not completely blown away by On The Island like I am by the other tracks...it feels like a novelty to me.  But as far as novelties go, it's decent.

otto-toon

bite me

So we've now heard over half the record, correct? I'm really enjoying everything I've heard.

Seconded.

Absolutely.  This is an incredibly good album.

I would put it in the same category as The Faith by Leonard Cohen.

More like the great Warren Zevon's "Keep Me In Your Heart for A While".  Hopefully Brian's got more time left on earth than Warren did when he recorded that.

Papa-Oom-Meow-Meow.

Genius.

Tell us about how your life became a train wreck, and how things ended horribly with your girlfriend at the time.

MIU, LA, and Keepin the Summer will soon be lauded as the fine Yacht Rock records that they are.

It's about time...why should Michael MacDonald and Christopher Cross get all the glory??

Yep.  Solar System, Johnny Carson, Matchpoint of Our Love.  Also: I Wanna Pick You Up, Hey Little Tomboy, It's Trying To Say.

Definitely "Surf's Up".

Frankly, I'm ambivalent to this new music. Having listened to the available songs already, it's possible to have a better idea of where NPP is going. I love the fact the Brian is creating new music; I appreciate the fact that this is fresh-sounding; and also that he is keeping away from production cliche/patchwork of some of his solo efforts (sleighbells, clip clops, etc.).

Having said that, I find it so hard to relate to the sensibilty of these new recordings, that I am starting to wonder if those commonplace production and arrangement traits (even if provided by deafult by his longtime band) are not part of the ethos and essence of this man's music that we all came to love. Fuethermore the problem for me transcends the arrangements into the compositions. There is a classic American feel to most of Brian's music; even his weaker efforts are usually devoid of pedestrian sentimentality and very much colored by jazzy/bluesy-flavored pathos. There is a certain joie de vivre in Brian's music, even in his most pathetic songs, that is lacking here. He may be into writing stock-and-trade sentimental music like this; or it may be Joe's sensibility as a songwriter. Whatever the reason, it is taking me long to get used to this, and I fear this may be the first totally-unrelatable BW album for me.

I hear what you're saying, but it just sounds like a a long fart to me.

1. Saturday Night
2. Guess You Had To Be There
3. Sail Away
4. Runaway Dancer
5. The Right Time
6. Our Special Love

Everyone here knows that I love LA...almost annoyingly so to everyone here.  This will be better.

Holy crap...Brian is now 6 for 6 on awesome tunes that have been released in their entirety!

I like the song, but I'm not hearing a lot of Brian.  That's really my only concern about this album.  I want to hear Brian Wilson on a Brian Wilson album.  The guest-heavy tracks are just bonus tracks to me-- and that includes that Blondie verse on "Sail Away."  I dig the symbolism of having him on the album and singing on that verse, but aside from the symbolism he really brings nothing to the table. 

You mean other than writing and arranging them???

Yeah, I don't really care much about or notice writing and arrangement.  I guess that makes me music dumb.  Joe Biden could have arranged that number and I wouldn't know any better.  I want to *hear* Brian.  So yeah, I mean other than writing and arranging.

Yes you do or you wouldn't have cared about or noticed the Beach Boys.  The voices are just another instrument in the arrangement. 

WOW.  That makes it 5 for 5 of full tracks the I've heard and love from this record!  Each one is better than the last.  This really sounds like an excellent Beach Boys record would sound.

I like the song, but I'm not hearing a lot of Brian.  That's really my only concern about this album.  I want to hear Brian Wilson on a Brian Wilson album.  The guest-heavy tracks are just bonus tracks to me-- and that includes that Blondie verse on "Sail Away."  I dig the symbolism of having him on the album and singing on that verse, but aside from the symbolism he really brings nothing to the table. 

You mean other than writing and arranging them???

This makes 4 really great tunes so far IMO.  Plus, from what I have heard of Saturday Night, I am certain that I will love that tune as well (the damn song has been stuck in my head just from that Soundstage snippet!).

Like I said...NPP will be the best Beach Boys album since Love You.

Not enough money to be made on such a project. Who would buy it? Well, we would, but that's only, like, 50 copies. Would need some unreleased goodies snuck in to generate more sales ("MARKETPLACE").

For fun I threw this lineup together to see what a Brian Wilson 20 Greatest Hits would look like on paper. It actually looks a little better than I thought it would.

1.   Love & Mercy
2.   Melt Away
3.   Rio Grande
4.   The Spirit of Rock and Roll (SI)
5.   This Song Wants to Sleep With You Tonight
6.   Orange Crate Art
7.   Your Imagination
8.   South American
9.   Lay Down Burden
10.   Happy Days
11.   The First Time
12.   City Blues
13.   Getting In Over My Head
14.   Good Kind of Love
15.   Forever You’ll Be My Surfer Girl
16.   Midnight's Another Day
17.   Someone to Watch Over Me
18.   The Right Time
19.   One Kind of Love
20.   The Last Song

If you don't include anything off of NPP, the only worthy tunes from that list are:

1.   Love & Mercy
2.   Melt Away
7.   Your Imagination
8.   South American
9.   Lay Down Burden

5 songs a greatest hits package does not make.

Just received and read my LA issue of ESQ this weekend and was in heaven.  I love that album and it was fantastic getting a behind the scenes peek at the making of.  Thanks again ESQ!!!