*Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread

[The Heartical Don]

Speaking of album covers, is the cover for GIOMH the worst of all time?

It is pretty ugly, but it's done by the Sgt. Pepper cover designer, so they thought it was an honor. They would have been better off with Mark London as designer.

It looks like it was done by the Sgt. Pepper designer's teenage daughter, who didn't get around to finishing her high school journal collage. It is awful.

actually I like the cover! and I like the concert poster for the album (which is the cover)..... I have it signed and hanging in my house...

its no sgt. pepper....... but to me, nor is 'pepper' to the 'pet sounds' cover....

the 'pet sounds' cover is 'da bestest'..

to me the worst would be the BW 2004 'Smile' album cover ...... very bland indeed..

RickB

The BWPS cover looked like actual clip art. Really a missed opportunity. Almost as bland as the Imagination cover art.

Actually, the Imagination cover made me laugh. A friend of mind showed it to me, and I said on instinct: hey, is that the son of Brian Wilson? He had to laugh out loud, immediately grasping what I meant.

[The Heartical Don]

kind of gives me an idea for another thread...we've all ranked the albums, songs, ect...but not the album covers. Could be interesting. Or not, I dunno.

Good idea, but my answers are fixed for years now: Wild Honey and All Summer Long. You may write that down sir.

[Gabo]

Speaking of album covers, is the cover for GIOMH the worst of all time?

It is pretty ugly, but it's done by the Sgt. Pepper cover designer, so they thought it was an honor. They would have been better off with Mark London as designer.

It looks like it was done by the Sgt. Pepper designer's teenage daughter, who didn't get around to finishing her high school journal collage. It is awful.

actually I like the cover! and I like the concert poster for the album (which is the cover)..... I have it signed and hanging in my house...

its no sgt. pepper....... but to me, nor is 'pepper' to the 'pet sounds' cover....

the 'pet sounds' cover is 'da bestest'..

to me the worst would be the BW 2004 'Smile' album cover ...... very bland indeed..

RickB

The BWPS cover looked like actual clip art. Really a missed opportunity. Almost as bland as the Imagination cover art.

Actually, the Imagination cover made me laugh. A friend of mind showed it to me, and I said on instinct: hey, is that the son of Brian Wilson? He had to laugh out loud, immediately grasping what I meant.

I like Brian's photoshop facelift on the back cover.

[Dudd]

The only bad BW album cover, in my opinion, is Lucky Old Sun. It looks borderline unfinished. The rest are bland at worst, I think.
And Reimagines Gershwin looks awesome!

Also we kinda-ish already did album covers rankings:
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,14939.0.html

[Gabo]

That Lucky Old Sun cover is gorgeous... !??!?

[Loaf]

People seem to be using Lady Gaga as a yardstick of what's rubbish about modern pop music, but actually she's one of the few very talented people in the charts over the last few years. She's a musician, a songwriter, delightfully weird, and has a great head on her shoulders for someone who got so famous so young. I'd love to hear a true BW/Gaga collaboration. It could make Love You seem like a Joe Thomas production. Imagine if Brian took Beyonce's part in this track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U

If Frank Ocean has any say in his role on the album that could be great too.

I'm not a huge fan of Lana Del Ray, her music seems like a studio creation of the bland king of indie Dave Sitek, but i'll reserve judgement until i hear the track. Maybe Brian'll make good use of her.


On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity surrounding the new album, but i'm disappointing they invoked BW's right to "foda with the formula". A, this phrase is a loaded one in terms of BB fandom, and suggests that what we're about to receive will be a gamechanger on a par with Smile (instead of perhaps the album that GIOMH should have been). And B, getting a bevy of young popular female popstars isn't really fodaing with the formula, it's rigidly adhering to a formula of aging sales-declining new-target-demographic-outreaching 60s and 70s popstars. If Brian's camp had claimed their right to stick to the formula, based on the fact that Brian has given us all the great music over the years, that'd be closer to the truth


On yet another note, has anyone been so poorly served by artwork as Brian in his solo career? GIOMH, WIRWFC, TLOS, Disney, Pet Sounds live... all of which suck mightily. The Gershwin one is good, though, and I have a soft spot for Imagination.

[The Heartical Don]

The current debate makes me think of starting a Lady Gaga vs. Zooey Deschanel vs. Conchita Wurst poll.

[Ray Lawlor]

Often a negative tone comes about due to a lack of information. If you sign on again Ray, can it be suggested to those that decide these things that a little bit of detail about release dates for both the album and the movie would not go amiss. Both were started last year and we still a none the wiser for either of them.
Thanks.

I think the release date announcements and all the marketing are controlled and will be done by Capitol ; I don't believe that BriMel can preempt the record company on any of this.  I assume it would be the same with the movie, which I believe is finished.

[Andrew G. Doe]

On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity...

"Excessive negativity" ?  Maybe thirty posters on a handful of fora ?  At first I was mildly amused but having slept on it, something of an over-reaction on the part of Brian's management.

[The Shift]

On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity...

"Excessive negativity" ?  Maybe thirty posters on a handful of fora ?  At first I was mildly amused but having slept on it, something of an over-reaction on the part of Brian's management.

Any publicity is good publicity tho'…!

[RiC]

On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity...

"Excessive negativity" ?  Maybe thirty posters on a handful of fora ?  At first I was mildly amused but having slept on it, something of an over-reaction on the part of Brian's management.

Any publicity is good publicity tho'…!

Exactly. I think that it's pretty correct to assume that this all is part of marketing. It's meaning is to start people speculating. And it worked.

[guitarfool2002]

I first saw the Facebook user comments when they numbered around 175. It was posted in this thread that a majority of them were negative, but after reading them that was shown not to be the case. As Andrew said, it wasn't that many and the excitement/positive posts outweighed the negatives by far.

This was also just as the statement from Brian was posted.

I think it may just have been something of a precedent, to be honest. Maybe that's why the "story" got picked up by several other outlets. We don't see an artist's Facebook page or web site or whatever else confront something like this too often.

I also think the absurdity of what some of the negative comments were being based on may have been a factor in why a response was even posted in the first place. That's ground I've covered too much already in this thread, but I stand by it. If you're going to go negative on something, at least base your opinion on something resembling the truth. It's actually a win-win situation, because if/when the truth does come out those folks won't look like fools.

Andrew above mentioned the number of negative leaning comments at around 30 in that Facebook comment thread.

Consider this: Was it better to address it head-on, forcefully, and directly when the number was only 30 rather than have it spin out of control, potentially getting *really* ugly and deflecting attention away from the actual topic of announcing details of a new album?

I think it was. It was kind of refreshing in a web culture where a "hands off" or ignore type of approach leads to dozens of additional flamethrowers coming on board to get in a few digs while the topic is raging, which leads to more bad feelings, flame wars between posters and visitors, and ultimately a situation where opinions far removed from the truth end up getting spun into the truth, and it happens as the subjects of the flame wars sit back and take the hands-off approach not wanting to get involved.

So in this case, water was thrown on the flames before it got out of control. That was refreshing, and it did at least slow down some of the stuff going on.

And you have to assume it was effective...even here, the old tactic showed up from the political world.

The message was posted...it called out the negativity directly and succinctly, not to mention with a bit of frustration and disappointment too having to read this on a fan community, and immediately the origin of the message itself became the topic the negativity was transferred to. Brian didn't write this, Brian wouldn't have said this, Brian didn't know about this, who wrote it, who said it, etc...

Totally missing the point, but deflecting the message itself by calling into question the origins of the words as much as the words themselves is the moment where it's grasping at straws to find something to bash after being challenged.

I'm amazed that so much negative energy is spent trying to go negative on Brian Wilson, of all people, on projects that haven't been heard nor seen by anyone bashing them. At least listen or watch first, right?

[rab2591]

From Brian's Facebook:

I'm humbled and honored and totally blown away by all the positive fan support I've received. You've given me the love and inspiration that keeps me going.
Love and Mercy, Brian

[KittyKat]

Maybe Brian is feeling a little betrayed right now, or his management is. They had to deal with Jeff Beck's negative comments recently. They had to deal with his daughter Carnie, while kindly defending her father against Beck, saying that he's scaling back on his career right now, even though he's spent over a year working on a new album, while also touring with Beck during part of it and planning some new tour dates. He had to deal with Jeff Foskett not only leaving his band, but going to join Mike Love's Beach Boys. Brian may claim he's glad for Jeff, but at some level, it might feel like a personal rejection (and some people keep saying Brian is hyper-sensitive to rejection and criticism). Al is playing one date with Mike and that was publicized in Rolling Stone magazine. Not only that, but Al is, or at least was, planning to try some writing and recording with Mike. I wonder if that's what Brian was referring to in the Irish Times when he spoke about not thinking too highly of the lyrics in songs he wrote with other Beach Boys.  He wrote songs with Al as well as Mike, and I suspect Al wrote many of the lyrics of their few collaborations.  Al extending an olive branch to Mike in such a public way may be prompting Brian and his management to downplay his contributions on the new album in favor of publicizing these duets. The material may have turned out the same way no matter what (Al and the female singers will both be on the album), but they are changing the emphasis of what they want to highlight on the album, and instead of being a total positive, it didn't go over that well with the entire group of diehards who post on the Blueboard and on Facebook. They should take it as a compliment that Brian's hardcore fans want to hear all Brian, all the time, instead of shoehorning other singers in. Not to mention the fact that being able to take criticism is part of the game, whether the material has been heard or not.  It's called gossip, which is also part of being in show business.

[leggo of my ego]

I was a lot more excited at the prospect of Brian working with Jeff Beck than I am with him working with modern female pop vocalists. For all we know the results may be fantasitic but as a fan I'm entitled to say it's not what I'd want or expect from the guy if asked.

I agree, this was the original premise and now this project seems to be meandering and morphing into something else. I really dont know what to make of it at this juncture.

So just watching &  waiting.

[Micha]

On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity...

Maybe I haven't paid attention enough, but what exactly are you referring to?

[the captain]

I'm skeptical about Kacey and Frank, though. Country and hip hop singing might not be a comfortable fit with his music.

I wouldn't worry about Musgraves fitting in. Pop in country garb; she'll fit fine. I am clueless about how Ocean will fit, but he's a good singer and I'm sure can can fit. (Not saying I'm sure it will work, but that I'm sure it could work.) it's not like he's writing and producing Brian.

[Dudd]

I was a lot more excited at the prospect of Brian working with Jeff Beck than I am with him working with modern female pop vocalists. For all we know the results may be fantasitic but as a fan I'm entitled to say it's not what I'd want or expect from the guy if asked.

Jeff Beck's still gonna be on it. Ain't he?  
We've been promised a lot of things - rock and roll, a collection of instrumentals including "Metropolis", a 'life suite', and most recently these duets. I'm still a bit confused about whether or not these are all gonna be on the upcoming album or split into 3, although it certainly doesn't look like the latter at this point (as well as the fact that they've evidently been recording all three anyway), so no wonder it's taken so long. I like to hope this is gonna be something long crammed with everything; it'd only be fitting for what an album with "Last Song" implies. I don't think it's right to jump to the conclusion that these duets were last-minute decisions (if they even are 'duets', per se; the guests may just be there to add a few brief backing vocals); Brian and co. may have always had female vocal parts planned.
But again, no way to know until we've heard it. I wish some people were more open to all this... as ghostwritten as that Facebook message might look, they do have a point that we aren't letting them do their thing. And we aren't complaining about publicity grabs with these big names or anything, we're complaining about their voices simply being on the album that isn't even complete yet. Why are we so grouchy? People protested at the mere sight of Brian holding a bass a while back.

[alf wiedersehen]

Ray, what's your favorite song that you've heard so far from Brian's new album?

[Ron]

We don't know for sure if that was Brian writing that... because we'd have to believe that either A. he reads all the negativity (highly doubtful) or B. somebody reads him all the negativity (why would they?).  So I throw the bullshit flag on that one.

Also, something similar which may or may not have been Brian was posted years ago on his forum, by 'him', because people were complaining about "Silent Night", which he had released for free to his fans.  The tone and everything was the same, he said he considered it a christmas card and if you don't like it throw the card in the trash.

So I would imagine it's either him, or someone who's been with him for a long time who wrote BOTH condemnations

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's what it comes down to.  Yes, Brian, you've earned the respect of all of us, especially your fans, but you've also made some GREAT music over the last 25 years, and some HORRIBLE music over the last 25 years.

We love and respect you, and want to hear YOU be YOU, because that typically lines up with what we consider the GREAT music you've done over the last 25 years.

When we hear you're recording songs with people and you don't even know their name, and they're the latest industry darlings... talented as they may be, they have about a fifth of your talent.  So it seems to us, with the LIMITED INFO we have, that the songs may end up being pretty crappy; it's happened before. 

I HOPE WE'RE WRONG! 

God Bless Brian whether he makes the great music he's capable of or the half-interested, disheartening music he phones in sometimes.

[Ray Lawlor]

Ray, what's your favorite song that you've heard so far from Brian's new album?

I would say "Sail Away" with Blondie ; tied with two others I don't know the titles of with Al and Blondie and "On the Island" with Zooey Deschanel on lead .

[JohnMill]

And now i'm going to thrown in a whole dollar. Forget the two cents.

First of all...I get quite angry when I read posts about how so and so has no talent, and their music sucks, ect. It's one thing to say that you don't like something. Music is subjective, and not everybody is going to like the same stuff. But despite what some may feel, you cannot have a sustained career without possessing some modicum of talent. As a songwriter myself, I cannot claim someone has no talent just because I don't like their sound. That's just...wrong. For someone to work on something, to put their all in it, and then get told that they're hacks, or that what they did has no redeeming value? Well, it had value to the person who made it. Obviously I'm not referring to novelty hits that were intentionally bad for comedic value.

Eh I don't know about that talent and the evaluation of talent is subjective.  If you want to be completely politically correct about it you could say "So and So doesn't have much talent" as oppose to "So and So doesn't have any talent" but to me the difference between the two statements is so small that I couldn't fault anyone from making either/or.  It's all subjective anyhow and as Ron pointed out in many cases in evaluating talent, people tend to compare one person's talents comparatively speaking to another person's.  Through that process many of those same people then use the comparative process to judge the markup as to who is talented and who isn't.  The problem with your analysis of all art having any type of legitimate value simply due to the fact that it had personal meaning to the artist himself is that there are artists out there who urinate on canvas and call it art or an expression of their art.  That doesn't necessarily mean it has any true value.  Since we are speaking within the realm of subjectivity I've heard quite a bit out of the modern music scene over the past twenty years that I would put on the level of someone relieving themselves on a piece of canvas.

[Wirestone]

the modern music scene over the past twenty years

 

[LostArt]

"On the Island" with Zooey Deschanel on lead .

So not a duet then?

[the captain]

We've been promised a lot of things - rock and roll, a collection of instrumentals including "Metropolis", a 'life suite', and most recently these duets.

Have? I don't think we've been promised anything, just told what Brian has been working on.