New album info (as it rolls out...)

[elnombre]

So far, love the second half. First half sounds fresh, classic, but a little hackneyed (the lyrical callbacks in particular). All of it however, sounds like and represents many of  the various sounds, eras and moods of The Beach Boys - that in itself is an achievement. Looking forward to living with it a while.

[runnersdialzero]

The guy who leaked the album took this picture, the CD looks nice

Why do people set their CDs down like this? CDs go in CDs players or CD cases, not thrown on top of a wooden table ;(

[Sheriff John Stone]

I wish Mike went in a more introspective direction with his lyrics..

The man's been through so much just like the rest of the BB's in the last 20 years, would've been interesting to hear his thoughts on life etc

Was going to start a separate thread about the lyrics for this album, they really do seem godawful! I'm much more interested in harmony and melody anyway so it doesn't bother me that much, but jeez. I laughed when in the Joe Thomas interview he talks about how amazing it was that Mike Love wrote the lyric 'Spring Vacation, Good Vibrations/Summer weather, we're back together!' in 5 minutes - really?

Maybe when they realized they were going to go with the melancholy, reflective albeit beautiful ending, they decided that they needed Mike's happy, Beach Boyish lyrics to balance things out. Just a thought...

[Wirestone]

Can anyone work out who sings the high part in the main melody of TPLOBAS?
I know Brian is singing the majority but is Foskett taking over at that point?

That's what it sounds like to me. Sounds like Foskett does a line solo, then the next line is a BW / JF hybrid.

Jeff and Brian trade lines in the chorus. Jeff sings the "x to y" bits and Brian sings the answer lines.

[AndrewHickey]

So brief thoughts after one listen to the album -- it's not very good. But "not very good" is still another way of saying "better than anything released under the Beach Boys' name since 1979". It's about on a level with something like MIU, I suppose -- perfectly competent, but without a single track that sounds like someone had something to say, as opposed to just wanting to put out some product. Some nice tunes, abysmal lyrics throughout, but decent enough I suppose.

Think About The Days sounds like something Bruce would write, but in a good way.
That's Why God Made The Radio sounds much better than the single mix, but is still an underwhelming song.
Isn't It Time is great -- could have come from the Paley sessions from its sound.
Spring Vacation -- sounds like the theme for a poor mid-90s American sitcom. I can't hear it without seeing images in my head of Greg Evigan or Joey Lawrence in an improbably large apartment with a wacky neighbour and an executive production credit for Linwood Boomer.
The Private Life Of Bill And Sue -- one of the best things on the album, but sounds *exactly* like a Boney M record (can't remember the name), apart from the first two seconds, which sound *exactly* like a track by Carolyn Edwards (an LA pop musician who's worked with some of Brian's band).
Shelter -- "but don't forget who's taking you home, and in whose arms you're gonna be...". Worryingly, all the best stuff so far is very, *very* derivative. But this *is* one of the better tracks.
Daybreak -- That's definitely four minutes and twenty seconds of music-like sound.
Beaches In Mind -- Utter, irredeemable sh*t. Along with Spring Vacation the worst thing on the album.
Strange World -- a really interesting track, seems to be equal parts Disney, Beethoven, Phil Spector and bad 80s AOR. Combining different types of bombast is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it comes off.
From There To Back Again -- Nice. Sounds just like Paul Williams. That's a good thing, mostly.
Pacific Coast Highway -- Nice enough, but pointless to judge as a separate track rather than as a link between the two songs on either side of it.
Summer's Gone -- I don't get the fuss that some people have made about this one. It's pleasant enough, in a nursery rhyme way, but doesn't really do anything for me. That said, it took two months for me to really get why Midnight's Another Day was actually a good song after I dismissed it utterly on first listen. Maybe this will grow on me in the same way.

But the thing is, in a couple of months I could have totally changed my opinion. I have with many other Beach Boys albums. Right now, I think this is like A Postcard From California -- something I'll listen to a couple of dozen times in the first month or so, then never again -- but I could be wrong.

[seltaeb1012002]

Can anyone work out who sings the high part in the main melody of TPLOBAS?
I know Brian is singing the majority but is Foskett taking over at that point?

That's what it sounds like to me. Sounds like Foskett does a line solo, then the next line is a BW / JF hybrid.

Jeff and Brian trade lines in the chorus. Jeff sings the "x to y" bits and Brian sings the answer lines.

Nice, you're probably right. Just going off of what I remember from one listen.

[Wirestone]

Also, the musician credits are definitely not correct. There's a distinct bari sax line on the title track, but no credit for Mertens. Possibly a late overdub?

[Shady]

wow, AndrewHickey really expected Sunflower 2

[AndrewHickey]

wow, AndrewHickey really expected Sunflower 2

No, I didn't. I expected pretty much exactly what we got.
I *hoped* for better, because as recently as 2008 Brian was putting out music that is as good as anything the band ever released, but any expectation I had for anything other than bland competence went away once I heard the title track.

[keysarsoze001]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet (I've tried reading through this entire thread as time has gone by, but my word, it's long). Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "What Love Can Do" the most recent BW track before the stuff on this album? If so, I'm not sure if it's coincidence that there was some kind of pitch correction slathered all over his vocals on that song as well. Now, on the one hand, that was produced by Phil Ramone, IIRC, who I haven't known to use modern tools like that in most of the music of his that I've heard over the years. But it's definitely there. So couldn't it be that Brian requested its use there and continued to do so on the new stuff because he liked the outcome there? To my ears, it sounds no better or worse than it does on the new album.

[runnersdialzero]

Now, on the one hand, that was produced by Phil Ramone, IIRC, who I haven't known to use modern tools like that in most of the music of his that I've heard over the years. But it's definitely there.

Just like Brian is said to have produced this material and yet the idear of autotune feels pretty foreign to this kind of material. Even at the height of his perfectionism in the 60s, I can't see Brian resorting to something like this, although I'm sure some people could give me some kind of valid points about why he would.

Regardless, I'm sure there are outside influences in stuff like this. It could be some folks from Capitol, it could be Joe Thomas, it could be Melinda (who is known to have wanted Brian to double his lead vocals when redoing them for a live DVD until it was explained to her why this was a terrible idea), etc. etc. etc.

[Wirestone]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "What Love Can Do" the most recent BW track before the stuff on this album?

He's released three solo albums since then.

[keysarsoze001]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "What Love Can Do" the most recent BW track before the stuff on this album?

He's released three solo albums since then.

Oh, wow, the song's that old?! I thought it was maybe 18 months ago or something, recorded contemporaneously with Disney. My bad.

[Jim V.]

People like to point out how "Brian's production style" has to have all these certain things that have to be there for it to be an official Brian production. However, there's people like Quincy Jones, George Martin, Paul McCartney, Dr. Dre, etc. And guess what? A Quincy Jones production from the '80s sounds way different from one in the '90s. McCartney productions from the early '70s sound much different from '80s, which sound different from the '90s. Even say, Dr. Dre, who is from the hip-hop side of the things, he had an album in 1992 which sounded a lot different from the album he released in 1999. People change and so do their styles.

[BJL]

Question: can anyone make out the lyrics of the backing vocals on the last verse of shelter - I didn't even notice them until my fourth or fifth listen, but they're really cool.  It's in the last two choruses.  It sounds like their saying "moonlight" to me, but it might just be nonsense syllables even. 

[Sheriff John Stone]

On "The Private Life Of Bill And Sue", every time they sing "California to Mexico..." I expect the next line to be "everybody's goin' to Kokomo..."

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

People like to point out how "Brian's production style" has to have all these certain things that have to be there for it to be an official Brian production. However, there's people like Quincy Jones, George Martin, Paul McCartney, Dr. Dre, etc. And guess what? A Quincy Jones production from the '80s sounds way different from one in the '90s. McCartney productions from the early '70s sound much different from '80s, which sound different from the '90s. Even say, Dr. Dre, who is from the hip-hop side of the things, he had an album in 1992 which sounded a lot different from the album he released in 1999. People change and so do their styles.

Amen.

Another thing... the production sounds similar  on the BW christmas album, and TLOS, and Gershwin, and (especially) the Disney album...

[Zach95]

Question: can anyone make out the lyrics of the backing vocals on the last verse of shelter - I didn't even notice them until my fourth or fifth listen, but they're really cool.  It's in the last two choruses.  It sounds like their saying "moonlight" to me, but it might just be nonsense syllables even. 

I noticed this as well. They are really cool.  They give that last chorus a really cool vibe, I was really into the song when I heard this.  But I have no idea what they're saying.

[Autotune]

Question: can anyone make out the lyrics of the backing vocals on the last verse of shelter - I didn't even notice them until my fourth or fifth listen, but they're really cool.  It's in the last two choruses.  It sounds like their saying "moonlight" to me, but it might just be nonsense syllables even. 

I noticed this as well. They are really cool.  They give that last chorus a really cool vibe, I was really into the song when I heard this.  But I have no idea what they're saying.

Isn't that Spanish (as per Joe Thomas)?

[Jonathan Blum]

2- unfamiliar and trendy production techniques are being used as exhibit A for proving that BW was overruled by Thomas.

2b - footnote: this is a definition of "trendy" which includes sounding like an album that's 30 years old this year.  ('80s power chords are retro now, folks!)

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Wirestone]

Question: can anyone make out the lyrics of the backing vocals on the last verse of shelter - I didn't even notice them until my fourth or fifth listen, but they're really cool.  It's in the last two choruses.  It sounds like their saying "moonlight" to me, but it might just be nonsense syllables even. 

I noticed this as well. They are really cool.  They give that last chorus a really cool vibe, I was really into the song when I heard this.  But I have no idea what they're saying.

Isn't that Spanish (as per Joe Thomas)?

That's on the bridge to Strange World, I believe.

[18thofMay]

People like to point out how "Brian's production style" has to have all these certain things that have to be there for it to be an official Brian production. However, there's people like Quincy Jones, George Martin, Paul McCartney, Dr. Dre, etc. And guess what? A Quincy Jones production from the '80s sounds way different from one in the '90s. McCartney productions from the early '70s sound much different from '80s, which sound different from the '90s. Even say, Dr. Dre, who is from the hip-hop side of the things, he had an album in 1992 which sounded a lot different from the album he released in 1999. People change and so do their styles.

Amen.

Another thing... the production sounds similar  on the BW christmas album, and TLOS, and Gershwin, and (especially) the Disney album...

100% agree I was going through saying Style wise.. Smile, Disney, TLOS ,Gershwin etc

[18thofMay]

I love the album. But I loved Disney so did the kids, I also loved Gershwin so did my Dad, I also love TLOS so did my kids and wife.

[Wirestone]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "What Love Can Do" the most recent BW track before the stuff on this album?

He's released three solo albums since then.

Oh, wow, the song's that old?! I thought it was maybe 18 months ago or something, recorded contemporaneously with Disney. My bad.

They've put it out on a couple of different compilations since then, so it's tough to track. But I believe the original CD (which also includes a remake of GOK) was issued in 2007. It was appreciated, too, because we hadn't had a studio album from BW for a couple of years at that point.

[Ziggy Stardust]

So, of course Mike had to include "Fun, Fun, Fun" in the lyrics to Beaches In Mind.

Jesus christ, what is WRONG with this guy??
didn't he wrote GREAT lyrics, such as All This Is That ?