*Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread

[SMiLE Brian]

Ray,

Have you listened to any cuts from the new album and when do you think it might come out?

Yes ; I don't know the release date but I would think sometime this year.

I can't wait to hear them!

[Loaf]

Brian Wilson as franchise. Dear God.

He's been a franchise since, what 1970? When Mo Ostin insisted on a certain percentage of BW productions per album. And how about the Brian's Back campaign?

[Andrew G. Doe]

With the way the record industry works, I don't see how anyone realistically thinks we're getting "3 albums" any time soon.

You mean like when Brian released three albums between 2004 and 2005? Or three albums between 2010 and 2012? Or how it's been stated that he has three albums worth of material with 2 years of recordings done? And how he has a biopic in post-production that will likely need a soundtrack to go with it?

Reality check: GIOMH was largely old material either reworked or re-recorded (mostly in about a month). It also very nearly didn't get released at all. BWPS was overwhelmingly decades old material that had been worked up in concert by the time they went into the studios for two months, tops. WIRWFC, again old material/recordings bar two tracks: total time spent in the studio, eight days. My point, such as it is, is that the circumstances of recording those albums differed greatly from the current project as the current opus has been underway for some 15 months and has changed direction at least twice in that time. Similarly, the Gershwin and Disney albums were both recorded in weeks, not months.

[Andrew G. Doe]

So far we've seen no pictures of Joe at the boards and only pictures of Brian at the boards.

Proof if proof be need be. 

I'm guessing Thomas took those shots. 

[ToneBender631]

So far we've seen no pictures of Joe at the boards and only pictures of Brian at the boards.

Proof if proof be need be. 

I'm guessing Thomas took those shots. 

Or Melinda or Scott or any other number of people in the studio. ;-)

[Awesoman]

Well I plan to go into this album with the same exact expectations I had with the Beach Boys' reunion: none.  I ended up really liking That's Why God Made the Radio.

[buddhahat]

So are fleet foxes, frank ocean, lana del rey, zooey deschaniel & Daft Punk actually likely to duet on this new album? Has this info come from rolling stone mag or is this a wind up? I flicked back through the thread but can only see Zooey and frank ocean mentioned in a scan of the RS article. Or maybe that has been photoshopped?! Frank Ocean sounds like an April Fool to me. I love Brian Wilson. I love Frank Ocean. But duetting? Mmmm ... That said, at least there are some interesting artists potentially involved.

I'm not a massive Fleet Foxes fan (although quite liked first album) but I would love to hear their harmonies arranged by BW. That could be worthwhile.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Listened to the FF album and wondered if it was all a big wind up. Nothing special at all.

[Mikie]

Brian Wilson as franchise. Dear God.

He's been a franchise since, what 1970? When Mo Ostin insisted on a certain percentage of BW productions per album. And how about the Brian's Back campaign?

And don't forget his first solo album.

[The Shift]

Listened to the FF album and wondered if it was all a big wind up. Nothing special at all.

Which album???

I enjoy their sound (and they're great live) although (as I've said before) so much of it sounds like variations on Well, You're Welcome and other Smiley-era vocal exercises.

Their style of harmony blend isn't BW's usual style but then there'd be no point having them going to the trouble of guesting if they sounded just like the BBs or the BWBand.

Though then, of course, no-one has actually suggested they are lined up to guest on anything (thought I'd better get that in before AGD does!), though speculation on this board occasionally becomes fact.

Frank Ocean: Hadn't heard of him until his name appeared in this thread.  Googled one of his vids on YouTube. Lots of "blankety-blank" in the lyric, naked chicks in the vid, smokin' something that wasn't tobacco, and plenty of other lyrical and visual drug references. Them youngsters are going to be a bad influence on us middle-aged clean livin' Beach Boys fans!

[joshferrell]

well Paul McCartney and Brian should do a duet called "The girl was mine but then you stole her."  and YES Mike Love sings the song "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen." with a lot of feeling and passion. .

[ToneBender631]

With the way the record industry works, I don't see how anyone realistically thinks we're getting "3 albums" any time soon.

You mean like when Brian released three albums between 2004 and 2005? Or three albums between 2010 and 2012? Or how it's been stated that he has three albums worth of material with 2 years of recordings done? And how he has a biopic in post-production that will likely need a soundtrack to go with it?

Reality check: GIOMH was largely old material either reworked or re-recorded (mostly in about a month). It also very nearly didn't get released at all. BWPS was overwhelmingly decades old material that had been worked up in concert by the time they went into the studios for two months, tops. WIRWFC, again old material/recordings bar two tracks: total time spent in the studio, eight days. My point, such as it is, is that the circumstances of recording those albums differed greatly from the current project as the current opus has been underway for some 15 months and has changed direction at least twice in that time. Similarly, the Gershwin and Disney albums were both recorded in weeks, not months.

Well yes, those albums (...and TWGMTR in 2011/12) were recorded in different circumstances with source material that varied between fresh and "less fresh". Although I seem to recall you saying earlier in this thread that you believed the current material being worked on is older as well?

Regardless of origin or gestation times, it would seem that there's probably quite a bit of material that's been recorded, likely of differing quality and, at this point, clearly differing styles. But how you got there doesn't necessarily impact what you do once you are there (unless there was a major budgetary impact). Maybe they go through all of it and find 10 songs that reach a certain quality and cohesiveness to warrant a single release. Or maybe they'll go through and separate it into multiple releases, spaced out over X amount of time. We don't really know, since as you've pointed out, this entire "project" has seemingly changed directions a number of times.

If I'm BW's team and I've got a fall tour, biopic and book to promote over the next 1+ years (probably with an abbreviated spring/summer tour as well), I could think of a variety of ways that I'd make use of 15+ months worth of recording (that we're aware of) to maximize money, exposure and acclaim.

What kills me is that there's no finished product to judge yet, as Ray and guitarfool2002 have already spoken about. Let's see where this all goes and judge the final product then.

Also, Fleet Foxes are pretty darn good vocally, but I'd much rather see Brian work (as a producer/arranger) with a band like Band of Horses. They've been a little uneven throughout their career but their songs "On My Way Back Home" and "Infinite Arms" are fantastic...I'd love to hear what he could with them based on those two songs alone.

[superunison]

Dear. God. No.......... I truly admire the folks on here who are willing to give this all a chance... But let's be real... This is terrible news...

Let's be real...  this is pure prejudice.

Hate to get so negative, but I'm sorry this is like my worst nightmare. Dream album: Brian, Mark Linnet, and the wondermints

So your worst nightmare is Brian working with a bunch of younger artists who are fans of his...  but your dream is for him to work with Wondermints.

Check, please,
Jon Blum

Sorry, had a few drinks when I first posted. I think somewhere in that mess of a post I wrote "not my taste" so I guess it is just my own prejudice in a way. As far as the wondermints/Linnet comment I guess I just meant that I'd love a home grown TLOS type album one more time. And yes, my worst nightmare is DEFINITELY Brian working with a bunch of you get artists (esp LDR and FO who are not even in the same musical universe as BW stylistically). I mean hey, maybe Lil Wayne is a Beach Boys fan, might as well get him on there too. This isn't like the idea of a High Llamas collaboration, it's something else. Anyways, just my taste. I don't like olives on my pizza either, but that's just me.

[alf wiedersehen]

Hey, I'm a huge Brian Wilson fan, how come I'm not on the album?

[KittyKat]

The question with this album is how much Brian is going to be on it.  If Al and Blondie have any leads, or co-leads, then you have duet partners, it won't be a Brian-lead-only album, which will be a departure from past solo albums.

[Andrew G. Doe]

GOMH had three shared leads. TLOS had a couple.

[onkster]

People like Kacey Musgraves have a hundred songs in them, she can write a fucking GREAT song right now, on that piece of paper, if you want her to.  Brian can't do that anymore.  Brian can flesh out the background and the melody, and the production like Kacey can only dream of.  

Just make sure she only gets paid for the 10 minutes she spent writing it, right? 

[phirnis]

Listened to the FF album and wondered if it was all a big wind up. Nothing special at all.

There's one song on their 1st album I really love, was called "He Doesn't Know Why" I think.

[Smilin Ed H]

Trouble is, you'e going to have an album where everyone's voice is in better shape than his. Maybe he should do an album of duets with Elton John...

[SurfRiderHawaii]

http://www.wmmr.com/music/news/story.aspx?ID=2160943

From Howie's news feed. Brings together some of the latest discussion. Nice video of Brian and Zooey.

[runnersdialzero]

The auto-tune on TWGMTR (exempting the IIT single remix) is actually done very subtly. There's one particular moment in TLOS where the auto-tune jumps out far worse than anything on TWGMTR. But hey, it's not like there was any pitch manipulation on a single from Brian's magnum opus...or was there? And it's not like Brian has gone on-record with recording magazines stating that he doesn't mind auto-tune...or has he?

Outside T-Pain records and the like where it's used for effect, I've never heard a less subtle autotune job on a record. I don't understand how anyone involved found the vocal sound on that record tasteful or necessary. Thankfully the songwriting and performances were strong enough, but jeezus were the aesthetics awful on much of the album.

There are ways to use pitch correction tastefully and make it 100% undetectable - Joe Thomas has just made it clear that he is astonishingly lazy with this and especially the live album.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Brian will be 72 in less than two weeks and is still in the studio working. Does he have an agenda ? Unequivocally yes. He wants to hear his songs on the radio; that's his internal barometer that gives him satisfaction.

Well, that would explain a lot of things...answers a lot of questions...Brian's agenda...

[John Malone]

With the way the record industry works, I don't see how anyone realistically thinks we're getting "3 albums" any time soon.

You mean like when Brian released three albums between 2004 and 2005? Or three albums between 2010 and 2012? Or how it's been stated that he has three albums worth of material with 2 years of recordings done? And how he has a biopic in post-production that will likely need a soundtrack to go with it?

Reality check: GIOMH was largely old material either reworked or re-recorded (mostly in about a month). It also very nearly didn't get released at all. BWPS was overwhelmingly decades old material that had been worked up in concert by the time they went into the studios for two months, tops. WIRWFC, again old material/recordings bar two tracks: total time spent in the studio, eight days. My point, such as it is, is that the circumstances of recording those albums differed greatly from the current project as the current opus has been underway for some 15 months and has changed direction at least twice in that time. Similarly, the Gershwin and Disney albums were both recorded in weeks, not months.

As you can see from my number of posts, I don't weigh in here often. But, I do read it all the time to keep up on things, whatever they may be. I do have a question for AGD, however....  Mentioning that GIOMH almost didn't get released, I have always been kind of curious why it even was?? Being so close to BWPS, it almost seemed unnecessary. I agree it is much flawed. So, who pushed it out there to begin with?

[rab2591]

There are ways to use pitch correction tastefully and make it 100% undetectable - Joe Thomas has just made it clear that he is astonishingly lazy with this and especially the live album.

The only album I've ever felt ripped off about buying. Although there are some great moments on there, that first disc is completely unlistenable. That purchase was pretty much $20 down the toilet.

[drbeachboy]

There are ways to use pitch correction tastefully and make it 100% undetectable - Joe Thomas has just made it clear that he is astonishingly lazy with this and especially the live album.

The only album I've ever felt ripped off about buying. Although there are some great moments on there, that first disc is completely unlistenable. That purchase was pretty much $20 down the toilet.

Joe Thomas just sucked all the life out of that live CD. I have cell phone recordings that sound better than anything on that CD. I can't imagine what he was thinking releasing it in that fashion?