More studio news

[EgoHanger1966]

..... there's a harpsichord in Shelter?!

Exactly.

Also, I'm pretty sure there's the sound of an engine revving up at the beginning, too. There's so much sh!t going on in that mix, there's just no way everything could be clearly audible. Well, not true, it could have been mixed WIDER, but no, this isn't the 60s so every current stereo mix has to be squashed to near mono, I guess. Except Summer's Gone...go figure!

[joshferrell]

The latest issue of Mojo has a 3/4 page on the new Brian album focusing on the collaboration with Jeff Beck.

Some choice quotes:

Earlier this year Wilson and Beck spent a week in the studio. "They got along famously and came up with some new things" says Brian's collaborator Joe Thomas. The LP's one non original, he added, is a traditional song familiar to them both from their youths.: " It's actually the first song Brian ever learned to sing from his grandmother," says Thomas. "Jeff Beck blasted off this one version and it knocked Brian out of the ballpark and then Brian came up with an arrangement and within a few hours there was this magical version" The song, whose title they're keeping secret for now " will blow everyone's minds".

Thanks, Buddahat. Do you think that song they collaborated on might be "Danny Boy" by chance?

Why do I have a strange feeling that it is "Shortening Bread?"

[hypehat]

..... there's a harpsichord in Shelter?!

Exactly.

Also, I'm pretty sure there's the sound of an engine revving up at the beginning, too. There's so much sh!t going on in that mix, there's just no way everything could be clearly audible. Well, not true, it could have been mixed WIDER, but no, this isn't the 60s so every current stereo mix has to be squashed to near mono, I guess. Except Summer's Gone...go figure!

That mix (Shelter) is probably legit the worst one on TWGMTR - nothing has any life in it, and whilst the song itself is, well, nice, it's just so boring to listen to - everything interesting, like offkilter instrumentation and harmony parts, is mixed so low as to be irrelevant. But hey, plodding 4/4 and strumming acoustics are 'nice', aren't theyzzzzzzzzzz

[Wirestone]

Yes, there's a bunch of slickness on TWGMTR. But the overall production and arrangement (particularly for the backing tracks) is so far ahead of Imagination that I'm willing to give Joe and Brian the benefit of the doubt. TWGMTR sounded like a Brian Wilson record.

Yes, the live album doesn't bode well. But on the other hand, a creatively energized Brian sounds great. And regardless of his collaborators, if Brian is excited and into the music, something good will result.

[Generation42]

I can't help thinking that some, if not all, of the 'life suite' songs Thomas described previously must be earmarked for this album if it is almost entirely original material.

Well, that as my very first thought, too, and I genuinely hope it is so.  Still, your post included this quote: "There's "no concept" this time," so is this a hint that these new tracks are each meant to stand on their own (rather than as part of a cohesive suite)?   

Man, I really want to hear the completed suite!

[AndrewHickey]

Yes, there's a bunch of slickness on TWGMTR. But the overall production and arrangement (particularly for the backing tracks) is so far ahead of Imagination that I'm willing to give Joe and Brian the benefit of the doubt. TWGMTR sounded like a Brian Wilson record.

I really don't think it did. At least, no more than Imagination did. It sounded clinical, sterile, and inhuman. There's a lot to like about the album, but I have to listen past the fairly horrible sound of the production to get to it. I'm glad others get more out of it though.

[Wirestone]

Yes, there's a bunch of slickness on TWGMTR. But the overall production and arrangement (particularly for the backing tracks) is so far ahead of Imagination that I'm willing to give Joe and Brian the benefit of the doubt. TWGMTR sounded like a Brian Wilson record.

I really don't think it did. At least, no more than Imagination did. It sounded clinical, sterile, and inhuman. There's a lot to like about the album, but I have to listen past the fairly horrible sound of the production to get to it. I'm glad others get more out of it though.

To me, it absolutely sounds of a piece with the TLOS, Gershwin and Disney records. And the difference isn't subjective, either. There is an actual objective difference to the sounds and arrangements on the record. No nylon string guitar, for one thing. No glossy synth keyboards, for another. There's a reason Brian gets the solo producer credit on it.

Yes, there is a big-studio, expensive sound to those arrangements and vocals. It's slick, no doubt, and it wasn't polished off in a week at Mark L.'s house. But oveerall, I found it at the time -- and still do -- to be warm and lush and full of life.

[Nicko1234]

There's a reason Brian gets the solo producer credit on it.

I'm sure there is. 'They say that Brian is back...' 

[Wirestone]

There's a reason Brian gets the solo producer credit on it.

I'm sure there is. 'They say that Brian is back...' 

They had no problem giving Joe a co-producer credit on Stars and Stripes and the live record.

[hypehat]

Ah, Wirestone, you omitted the sound of the vocals from your post for a reason. They are the most JT sounding thing on there!

[Mikie]

The latest issue of Mojo has a 3/4 page on the new Brian album focusing on the collaboration with Jeff Beck.

Some choice quotes:

Earlier this year Wilson and Beck spent a week in the studio. "They got along famously and came up with some new things" says Brian's collaborator Joe Thomas. The LP's one non original, he added, is a traditional song familiar to them both from their youths.: " It's actually the first song Brian ever learned to sing from his grandmother," says Thomas. "Jeff Beck blasted off this one version and it knocked Brian out of the ballpark and then Brian came up with an arrangement and within a few hours there was this magical version" The song, whose title they're keeping secret for now " will blow everyone's minds".

Thanks, Buddahat. Do you think that song they collaborated on might be "Danny Boy" by chance?

Why do I have a strange feeling that it is "Shortening Bread?"

Oh, man, I hope not!  Wouldn't be a bit surprised though. 

[Wirestone]

Ah, Wirestone, you omitted the sound of the vocals from your post for a reason. They are the most JT sounding thing on there!

Well, that's one of the clear reasons why they brought him in.    IMHO, the vocals on Imagination are magnificent. Not particularly true or accurate, but a stunning studio creation. TWGMTR's vocals come close at times, but are a little over-fussy in comparison.

[AndrewHickey]

Yes, there's a bunch of slickness on TWGMTR. But the overall production and arrangement (particularly for the backing tracks) is so far ahead of Imagination that I'm willing to give Joe and Brian the benefit of the doubt. TWGMTR sounded like a Brian Wilson record.

I really don't think it did. At least, no more than Imagination did. It sounded clinical, sterile, and inhuman. There's a lot to like about the album, but I have to listen past the fairly horrible sound of the production to get to it. I'm glad others get more out of it though.

To me, it absolutely sounds of a piece with the TLOS, Gershwin and Disney records. And the difference isn't subjective, either. There is an actual objective difference to the sounds and arrangements on the record. No nylon string guitar, for one thing. No glossy synth keyboards, for another. There's a reason Brian gets the solo producer credit on it.

Oh, it's different -- but the kind of difference that fifteen years makes, rather than the kind of difference that a different producer makes. Imagination was the kind of thing an adult contemporary producer would do in 1998, and That's Why God Made The Radio is the kind of thing an adult contemporary producer would do in 2003.

I do believe Brian might have had more of a hand in the arrangements this time than in 1998.

[hypehat]

Andrew, I like to think the 2003 in that post is a zing on Joe Thomas' cackhanded production nature rather than a typo, tbh.

I mean, I'm inclined to think that BW had a big hand in the arrangements and everything on TWGMTR, but Joe Thomas was definitely running the board in the sense that Brian doesn't give a f*** about Pro Tools and delegates that to the nearest person who does - when it's Mark Linett, we get natural sounding records like the Gershwin one, and when it's JT, we get autotuned whistling.

[Nicko1234]

There's a reason Brian gets the solo producer credit on it.

I'm sure there is. 'They say that Brian is back...'  

They had no problem giving Joe a co-producer credit on Stars and Stripes and the live record.

True but that was a long time ago with regards to Stars and Stripes. For last year's album I would have been amazed if Brian hadn't been credited as producer no matter how much he had contributed.

As for the live record, Brian obviously had nothing to do with the production so to give Joe Thomas no credit at all would have been taking the proverbial.

[hypehat]

I mean, depending on what you believe, JT is fulfilling the role Chuck Britz used to - Brian asks 'can we get X sounding like Y' and he does it, but also takes a lot of the engineering heft, knowing how to use the sheer nuts and bolts of the recording technology under the order of Brian who really doesn't want to know how to bounce 16 mics onto one track/f*** with the banal logic of digital recording so long as the sound he wants is possible.

Which, I guess, leads onto Brian being happy with how TWGMTR sounds - it sounds processed to the point of mediocrity , but it doesn't sound offkey I guess - but that speaks volumes to JT as a producer. JT doesn't want 'real' performances. Imagine if JT, rather than Rick Rubin, produced Johnny Cash in his final years - Rubin might have dressed the tracks in various ornamentation, but he never f***ed with Johnny's vocal. It's really akin to that, given that you're dealing with such an act. They aren't Ricky & The Rockets, y'know...

[Wirestone]

Andrew, I like to think the 2003 in that post is a zing on Joe Thomas' cackhanded production nature rather than a typo, tbh.

I mean, I'm inclined to think that BW had a big hand in the arrangements and everything on TWGMTR, but Joe Thomas was definitely running the board in the sense that Brian doesn't give a f*** about Pro Tools and delegates that to the nearest person who does - when it's Mark Linett, we get natural sounding records like the Gershwin one, and when it's JT, we get autotuned whistling.

I actually agree with this 100 percent. Just depends on how much it bothers one listener or another. The Chuck Britz analogy you make later is good too -- these days, Chuck would have a good case to make for being listed as a co-producer.

I mean, I agree the record is super slick. It just doesn't bother me as much as the robo-vocals of the live album.

[Jim V.]

Honestly I wouldn't doubt that this album Brian is working on is what was basically gonna be the "new Beach Boys album" that Brian was talking about doing, until Mike Love decided he would rather save his son from having to get a real job instead of making another album and possibly writing with the one of the greatest composers of the 20th and 21st centuries..

[Cabinessenceking]

I mean, depending on what you believe, JT is fulfilling the role Chuck Britz used to - Brian asks 'can we get X sounding like Y' and he does it, but also takes a lot of the engineering heft, knowing how to use the sheer nuts and bolts of the recording technology under the order of Brian who really doesn't want to know how to bounce 16 mics onto one track/f*** with the banal logic of digital recording so long as the sound he wants is possible.

Which, I guess, leads onto Brian being happy with how TWGMTR sounds - it sounds processed to the point of mediocrity , but it doesn't sound offkey I guess - but that speaks volumes to JT as a producer. JT doesn't want 'real' performances. Imagine if JT, rather than Rick Rubin, produced Johnny Cash in his final years - Rubin might have dressed the tracks in various ornamentation, but he never f***ed with Johnny's vocal. It's really akin to that, given that you're dealing with such an act. They aren't Ricky & The Rockets, y'know...

Good point. JT has no business manipulating the voices of one of the greatest vocal acts of all time. Tweaking vocals of someone very famous for not having the need to do so is incredibly disrespectful to that artist's legacy. JT should be utterly ashamed of himself for what he has done.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Can we focus on the fact that we're gonna have a new edgy Brian album?

[AndrewHickey]

Can we focus on the fact that we're gonna have a new edgy Brian album?

Edgy in the opinion of Joe Thomas, a man who thinks Jim Peterik and Jon Bon Jovi are good collaborators for Brian Wilson.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Well, we got the best Brian track in who knows how long from Bon Jovi sooooooooooooooo..........

[Wirestone]

I mean, depending on what you believe, JT is fulfilling the role Chuck Britz used to - Brian asks 'can we get X sounding like Y' and he does it, but also takes a lot of the engineering heft, knowing how to use the sheer nuts and bolts of the recording technology under the order of Brian who really doesn't want to know how to bounce 16 mics onto one track/f*** with the banal logic of digital recording so long as the sound he wants is possible.

Which, I guess, leads onto Brian being happy with how TWGMTR sounds - it sounds processed to the point of mediocrity , but it doesn't sound offkey I guess - but that speaks volumes to JT as a producer. JT doesn't want 'real' performances. Imagine if JT, rather than Rick Rubin, produced Johnny Cash in his final years - Rubin might have dressed the tracks in various ornamentation, but he never f***ed with Johnny's vocal. It's really akin to that, given that you're dealing with such an act. They aren't Ricky & The Rockets, y'know...

Good point. JT has no business manipulating the voices of one of the greatest vocal acts of all time. Tweaking vocals of someone very famous for not having the need to do so is incredibly disrespectful to that artist's legacy. JT should be utterly ashamed of himself for what he has done.

Brian's voice has been manipulated on Beach Boys albums since practically the start of his recording career. The issue isn't whether his voice is altered -- to me at least. It's how the final result sounds.

Can we focus on the fact that we're gonna have a new edgy Brian album?

Edgy in the opinion of Joe Thomas, a man who thinks Jim Peterik and Jon Bon Jovi are good collaborators for Brian Wilson.

I thought Summer's Gone ended up pretty well.

[AndrewHickey]

Well, we got the best Brian track in who knows how long from Bon Jovi sooooooooooooooo..........

I was extremely unimpressed myself, but OK, substitute Jimmy Buffet then.

[Wirestone]

You're a hard man to please, Andrew Hickey. But yes, Jimmy B. makes a good sub. As does Carole Bayer Sager.

Speaking of Caroles, I'd have like to hear the BW-Carole King cowrite of two decades ago ...