Brian Wilson - "Our Speical Love" Out now

[bonnevillemariner]

I've come to accept robo Brian and am now at peace.  Love his vocals here and wish, like others naturally, that it was a Beach Boys track.  I won't be joining Peter Hollens' fan club any time soon-- or any of the yahoos in that BBC GOK vid either.  That said, I'll take a collaboration over no Brian at all.

[Mikie]

No sir, I don't like it.  I mean, the harmonies sound nice, but robo Brian combined with the other dude who's voice bores me to tears AND what sounds like a boy band tune production just aren't hitting the spot for me.  I'm still hopeful that Brian's album can be enjoyable, but this style of tune is what I was afraid of when they started throwing out all of the guest artist's that were going to be featured on it.  I generally loathe the "classic artist with a bunch of contemporary guests" type album.  Still, I will let my ears decide when the album is released.

Gotta agree with this.  Bring back the BW '88 and even the somewhat sterile Imagination production.  We know what Brian Wilson is suppose to sound like.

Let's hope this 'guests' type album works as well as it did for J.C. Fogerty recently, even though his 'guests' did sing mostly Fogerty classics.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

I think I'm to the point where I'll buy the song because BW is on it, but won't put it on any of my playlists.

[RONDEMON]

Apparently this is from 2012 according to Spotify. Not sure if we can call it a "No Pier Pressure outtake"??

Not a bad tune though!

[MugginsXO]

Apparently this is from 2012 according to Spotify. Not sure if we can call it a "No Pier Pressure outtake"??

Not a bad tune though!

Pretty sure that is just a mistake. Spotify has plenty of dates wrong and other issues of accurate cataloging.

[milkenburt]

I started to like this track much better when I realized that there are no instruments.  Everything, down to the drum sounds, is made with the human voice.  Pretty cool, actually.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Yeah, I thought that was pretty badass

[SIP.FLAC]

I'd love to hear this.

[Ron]

It's OK but really not my style of music overall. The whole thing sounds a bit forced and slick and I agree about it sounding a bit like a 90s boyband production.

That's a fairly strange comparison, since the Beach Boys themselves kind of originated the boy band sound.  Saying it sounds like a 90's Boyband is like saying it sounds like the Beach Boys. 

[Ron]

Apparently this is from 2012 according to Spotify. Not sure if we can call it a "No Pier Pressure outtake"??

Not a bad tune though!

I kept trying to get it to play yesterday and was having some trouble, and in the meanwhile noticed the album date went from 2011, to 2012 while I was messing around.  So I think they don't know what they're doing. 

[Ron]

I'd like to reiterate what somebody pointed out earlier in the thread too... there's a really interesting melody bit about half way through that's EXACTLY like the "Get up, and hit up... all the Hot Spots in Town...." bit from "Spring Vacation".  It's such an interesting little rhythm (certainly the best part of Spring Vacation) that it undoubtedly must have came from Brian, in both instances, or was purposely stolen by Peter when he arranged the song (if he did, and Brian didn't). 


Another thing I woudl like to just go ahead and start... can somebody guess at what the lyrics would have been for Frank Ocean's shitty rap that he claimed he did on this song originally?  I'm sure he would have sounded nice on this song, but rapping?  God awful. 

[Jonathan Blum]

You know, I have to say that even though I'm not a huge fan of the backing track for "Our Special Love" I gotta say that I'm kinda glad it's not the "Brian by numbers" sound that it seemed his band had been using in the studio from GIOMH through ITKOD. I feel like even as good as TLOS or BWRG were, they seemed like pastiche. Whereas even though TWGMTR may have seem overproduced, I think it IS probably truer to Brian's taste these days then that other stuff. So I am interested to see how NPP sounds. I suspect it will very likely sound much more organic than "Our Special Love", which truly does have a '90s r&b feel.

Possibly a more charitable way of looking at this -- I'm really struck by the way that this track is in many ways the direct opposite of the band-led sound Brian's been going for over the past couple of decades.  The intro and outro being based round a sung moving chord progression, with no attempt to arrange it for anything more rhythmic either in voice (di-dits etc) or instrumentation, is a place Brian's only come from a couple of times in decades...  "Think About The Days", the "From There" coda, "Rhapsody In Blue"... before that, "One For The Boys"... and that's basically it since his heyday.

I miss the band-oriented approach of things like "Lucky Old Sun", but if something like this is the upside of that, count me in!

(The downside would be how easily I can picture the Hollens-sung sections fitting into "Imagination", as a sort of MOR R&B number.)

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[gsmile]

"Bet you wish it really didn't matter
All along you never really had her
She's your everything, makes you wanna sing
Ooo-Ooo-ooo-ooo"

Song was cheesy as fudge, but this part at the end totally gave me goosebumps.  A beautiful melody, and damned if those aren't simple and direct BW lyrics!  Too bad Frank's take isn't getting released, I could totally hear how parts of this song were geared in his direction, although Peter did a serviceable, if not memorable job.  Overall, a thumbs up to Brian and all involved and I hope the melodies are as lilting as this one on the new album!

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I'd be shocked and amazed if those weren't Brian's lyrics, as those match his normal rhyming scheme, and Joe Thomas by his own admission is better writing music than lyrics.

[MugginsXO]

Another thing I woudl like to just go ahead and start... can somebody guess at what the lyrics would have been for Frank Ocean's shitty rap that he claimed he did on this song originally?  I'm sure he would have sounded nice on this song, but rapping?  God awful. 

Eh if Frank Ocean wrote a verse it would have likely been many times more lyrically complex than the rest of the song. You know Rap is not just what you heard on Smart Girls right?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Yeah, Frank's one of the more lyrically deft guys around in hip hop, and he's not really a 'typical' rapper in the traditional sense either.

[phirnis]

It's OK but really not my style of music overall. The whole thing sounds a bit forced and slick and I agree about it sounding a bit like a 90s boyband production.

That's a fairly strange comparison, since the Beach Boys themselves kind of originated the boy band sound.  Saying it sounds like a 90's Boyband is like saying it sounds like the Beach Boys. 

I frankly don't hear it in the group's original 60s and 70s music. Maybe their image up until All Summer Long had somewhat of a basic impact on the original idea of the boy band thing but even in this regard I think there were others who were much more of a blueprint for that (like the Beatles with their distinctive personalities, for example, or later on, the Bay City Rollers).

[Fro]

For those in Europe it is on Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/track/63C74sXSFFjmX64ZgD75X8

Don't care for this guy's performance but the song is nice and Brian sounds good. Ah well.

It's now up in the US on Spotify as well.

[Matt H]

It is for sale on amazon, itunes etc in the US.

[LostArt]

Another thing I woudl like to just go ahead and start... can somebody guess at what the lyrics would have been for Frank Ocean's shitty rap that he claimed he did on this song originally?

Frank Ocean claimed that he did a shitty rap on this song?

[the captain]

You guys realize Frank ocean is a rapper about to the same extent BW is a bassist, right? Singer, producer, songwriter, sometimes raps.

My apologies if any credible source said his contribution was a rap--it's possible--but it wouldn't be the assumption otherwise.

[Mr. Cohen]

This was Frank's verse...

Frank Ocean

That's Brian, he don't sound like a robot
Brian and no Frank is like Brian and no Scott
On That Lucky Old Sun, yeah, that's my favorite
For Ocean hearing it was like a wave hit
Listen to that Brian a capella, uh-huh
Guaranteed to rock ya fella, uh-huh
Y'know I gots love for management and Melinda
With them Brian is always a winna
So Brian, come and surf the Ocean
It's a notion, it's emotion, it's devotion

[MugginsXO]

You guys realize Frank ocean is a rapper about to the same extent BW is a bassist, right? Singer, producer, songwriter, sometimes raps.

My apologies if any credible source said his contribution was a rap--it's possible--but it wouldn't be the assumption otherwise.

Right and when he does rap it is as far from the stock image of a rapper as it is possible to get. Is there an awareness that he has written and performed way more introspective love songs than he has rapped?

[the captain]

You guys realize Frank ocean is a rapper about to the same extent BW is a bassist, right? Singer, producer, songwriter, sometimes raps.

My apologies if any credible source said his contribution was a rap--it's possible--but it wouldn't be the assumption otherwise.

Right and when he does rap it is as far from the stock image of a rapper as it is possible to get. Is there an awareness that he has written and performed way more introspective love songs than he has rapped?

Stop ruining the overly simplistic stereotypes that make the board/world go round.

[pixletwin]

It's OK but really not my style of music overall. The whole thing sounds a bit forced and slick and I agree about it sounding a bit like a 90s boyband production.

That's a fairly strange comparison, since the Beach Boys themselves kind of originated the boy band sound.  Saying it sounds like a 90's Boyband is like saying it sounds like the Beach Boys. 

Why is it strange to point out similarities? Now if he had compared it to Marilyn Manson or Rob Zombie, that really would have been a strange comparison.