*Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread

[D409]

Zooey (with She & Him) sings Wouldn't It Be Nice :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pGxE7cJRs

[Turtle_13]

The Irish Times Weekend supplement that's out today has the interview with Brian that's referred to on the first page of this tread.

Good interview, good read. Brian seems more responsive than normal.

Picked up a magazine called "Hotpress" with Imelda May on the cover that's also out in Ireland today and this includes a short interview with Brian as well promoting the gig in Cork.

Some answers:

My new album is very mellow but the next one we make is gonna be a rock 'n' roll album. I guarantee it.

When is the new record out? I don't know. I've been booked in and out of studios for half a year now. We're been working on my album for a very long time. We have a few guest artists. There's one girl - Lana...something." Lana Del Ray?  "That's her. She did a wonderful job on the song". What's the title of the song she sings on? "I don't remember the title, you know that, I don't remember the title, I just know she sang her ass off, she was so good."

[Dancing Bear]

Perhaps it would be more useful to interview Joe Thomas.

[Nicko1234]

Certainly seems like Brian is the one in charge of choosing the guests as he was when Robbie Williams was invited to sign on GIOMH. 

[guitarfool2002]

Guess I'm the only one here who thinks it's cool in a historical way to have both Daddy Deschanel and Daughter Deschanel working on projects with Brian almost 50 years apart.

I must be getting too sentimental. Or else that kind of thing just doesn't matter here where it's easier to go negative on what the project might be before hearing a note of music, who knows.  Sad.

But I also see the usual stuff happen whenever something involving Brian Wilson comes up. Some of it is so predictable it's almost a joke by now, but let me just say...get over the Mike Love stuff already, you know?  Every damn thing reported on Brian Wilson does not need to bring a discussion of Mike into the fold, and vice versa.

[Heywood]

It's very cool that Brian is doing anything!

It's just the (very) vocal minority.

[puni puni]

if this album turns out to be anything other than yet another misguided, mislead, misdirected, autotuned mistake for apologetic fans and the ever decreasing minority of young adults who can bear the cringe factor permeating the last 35 years of new beach boys-related material, ill eat my hat

[Amy B.]

if this album turns out to be anything other than yet another misguided, mislead, misdirected, autotuned mistake for apologetic fans and the ever decreasing minority of young adults who can bear the cringe factor permeating the last 35 years of new beach boys-related material, ill eat my hat

Maybe it's just me, but I think Brian/BBs have released some great music in recent years. A good portion of TWGMTR was terrific, and I don't think much of Brian's recent albums has been cringe-worthy.
I'll also add that Brian was so uncharacteristically talkative in the Irish Times interview that I wondered if they doctored up his answers a little bit.

[Niko]

Perhaps it would be more useful to interview Joe Thomas.

As much as I dislike Joe Thomas, he has given some incredibly informative interviews

[Andrew G. Doe]

He's also made some incredibly poor mixes. In the case of the 2012 live album, two whole CDs worth.

[Niko]

I laughed so hard when I heard Robo-Mike on 'Don't Back Down'.

Then I cried 

[c-man]

I laughed so hard when I heard Robo-Mike on 'Don't Back Down'.

Then I cried 

Maybe in ten years' time or so, the general listening public will regard auto-tuning with the same antipathy as they now do for such dated-sounding '80s digital artifacts as the Linn Drum, DX7 and over-predelayed vocal delays.

[puni puni]

I don't think much of Brian's recent albums has been cringe-worthy.

if you can play anything from them in front of a group of teenagers and/or 20-somethings who have a basic comprehension of music that goes beyond dadrock and top 40 without turning beet red, i'd be impressed. the music is just so antiquated and uncool, and not in a good way. this includes everything that's ever come out between Love You and now. the only thing i could ever suggest to anybody is "From There to Back Again", but not before desperately urging them to 'pleasepleasepleaseplease ignore the autotune'.

at least with BW88, you can tell people 'look, this is smile as '80s power pop' and that will ease their apprehension knowing that they're getting into one of those, where a '60s relic makes '80s pop tunes with a DX7. how would you recommend this new album based on what we now know for sure? 'a centennial hasbeen of groundbreaking pop art duets with ephemeral top 40 pop hacks'? why would anyone (who is not a member of this board) want to listen to that? what is the selling point there, besides that 'he is still making music when he technically shouldn't'?

Maybe in ten years' time or so, the general listening public will regard auto-tuning with the same antipathy as they now do for such dated-sounding '80s digital artifacts as the Linn Drum, DX7 and over-predelayed vocal delays.

hasn't this already been true for the last 5 years? i thought autotune only appealed to the lowest common denominator now.

[Sam_BFC]

Hasn't there been a omgdx7retromustbecool revival anyway?

[coco1997]

Don't know if this has been talked about here and I don't even have the magazine handy, but I was flipping through it last night and there's a blurb about Brian's new album in the current issue of Rolling Stone in the "In The Studio" column that mentions Brian deciding whether to include a duet he recorded with Zooey Deschanel. He says "I can't believe we pulled it off". 

 

Is this the issue with Miranda Lambert on the cover?

[guitarfool2002]

if this album turns out to be anything other than yet another misguided, mislead, misdirected, autotuned mistake for apologetic fans and the ever decreasing minority of young adults who can bear the cringe factor permeating the last 35 years of new beach boys-related material, ill eat my hat

I'll buy a bottle of really good white wine to go with that hat if you tell us which Brian Wilson albums of recent years are autotuned mistakes as you suggest. Gershwin? TLOS?

[guitarfool2002]

I could also throw in a bottle of this stuff with the wine...

[Moon Dawg]

  In some respects we've heard a lot about this album in the way of guest stars (Al, Dave, Blondie, Jeff Beck (maybe), Zooey, Lana Del Ray, Frankie Laine - kidding) but does anyone know specific songs, themes, cowriters? Are we looking at another GETTIN' IN OVER MY HEAD??

[Moon Dawg]

  How long have Brian & Co been recording this album now?

Well over a year. Fifteen months or so.

  Is the finish line in sight? My last couple of posts have been a bit skeptical, but I'm still looking forward to hearing the album.

[southbay]

My 16 year old daughter is in to most the current artists of the day and understands their appreciation for Brian. One of her favorite artists is Lana del Ray, who I had never heard of until she mentioned her a couple of days ago and today she got a bit of a kick that she is apparently on Brian's album. For the record, my daughter did like about half of TWGMTR

[Cyncie]

Why are people so concerned that the "kids" like Brian's new music? He's 70+ years old now. Lots of popular artists are name-checking him/Pet Sounds as an influence, but that doesn't mean his current work will appeal to the hit-making demographic, anymore.  I like "That Lucky Old Sun" and Gershwin and "That's Why God Made the Radio" on their own terms: Songs from Brian at this stage of life for his fans and contemporaries.

Besides, I'll take "B-dub step" over "Dubstep" any day.

[Jim V.]

Ugh. This is looking so worrisome. Of course it's entirely possible that this will be a success, but things are sure looking quite odd. I think what I will do is quickly throw together a pro and con list about what we've heard thus far.

Pro
-Al on the album
-Blondie on the album
-Previously unreleased songs
-Jeff Foskett is gone, so hopefully his annoying falsetto will be replaced by either Matt Jardine or Brian
-Some interesting sounding material (at least early in the sessions) according to Rolling Stone
-Joe Thomas is on board, so Brian's vocals will likely sound really nice
-Joe Thomas has said that it has a Wild Honey or Carl and the Passions type vibe

Con
-Possibility of having a bunch of guests, some of which Brian wouldn't know if they walked up and smacked him in the face
-As far as we know, Brian hasn't written a single new song for the project (however I'm sure he has reworked things and added lyrics, or so I'd assume)
-Jeff Foskett is gone, which means Brian has lost a true confidant and a crutch; could really bother Brian's morale
-Joe Thomas is on board, so the backing might sound like super lame '90s adult contemporary "dad rock"

Ultimately I think this comes down to whether Brian is motivated to be making good new material. If he's just being shoved in the studio to record duets with people he doesn't know on songs that he doesn't care about, then we are in a lot of trouble. However, on the other hand, if he's been inspired trying to follow up his last number three hit album with The Beach Boys (That's Why God Made The Radio) with a great solo album then maybe we're in for a treat. It's really hard to say.

[Andrew G. Doe]

You're assuming Jeff beck is off the project, I see (fwiw, I concur): pro or con ?

For me the two biggest cons are Thomas being even in the same county, never mind the control room, and the (apparent) lack of new material. Unless I missed something, the last concentrated batch of new material from Brian was composed in summer 2006: TLOS.

[GhostyTMRS]

Don't know if this has been talked about here and I don't even have the magazine handy, but I was flipping through it last night and there's a blurb about Brian's new album in the current issue of Rolling Stone in the "In The Studio" column that mentions Brian deciding whether to include a duet he recorded with Zooey Deschanel. He says "I can't believe we pulled it off". 

 

Is this the issue with Miranda Lambert on the cover?

I think there are multiple covers for this as the one I was looking at had Eric Church (?) on the cover. I looked again last night. They also mention Brian recorded a duet with Lana Del Ray (the other name I couldn't remember). So that's three duets with young hot shots. This is shaping up to be the most guest stars since "Getting' In Over My Head". I'm on the fence about stuff like this. I'd rather just hear Brian with a choir of Brians behind him, but we haven't heard the songs yet so who can judge? I guess I'll buy the issue and transcribe the paragraph here if someone else doesn't beat me to it (although I hope someone does, I'm not crazy about Rolling Stone magazine in general).   

[GhostyTMRS]

Oops! Sorry, some of what I wrote had already been mentioned. Having just looked up info on Zooey, Kasey and Lana, I can safely say this'll be Brian's sexiest album.