Brian Wilson - "Our Speical Love" Out now

[Ron]

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.

Thank you for your apology; Mr. Ocean himself (which AGAIN, I've said is very talented) said he rapped on it.  I appreciate your apology though, it's nice when somebody like you is wrong and you admit it before hand

I would love to hear the Frank Ocean version, without the shitty rap.  How in the hell he thought a rap would fit on this is beyond me. 

I think it went something like this

"oooh-oooh-oooh that's right Shorty
Me and B-dubb smokin' blunts and buying 40's
B-dubb like the 20's on my carz
I met Mike Love once at a Shomarz"

[Ron]

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

Eh.  Needs a little work, but I like the part about the 'wave hit', he should change it to something about hitting bongs. 

[Ron]

here's a sample of some of Frank's actual rapping skills, from "Blue Whale". 

"And if I ever have a daughter
I wonder what I could call her?
Nine months after I f*** on the beach
I guess I call her Karma"

He's so.... so.... so stereotypical. 

Or, here, this is a really brilliant line from his song "Novacane"

"Sink full of dishes pacing in the kitchen, cocaine for breakfast, yikes
Bed full of women, flip on a tripod, little red light on shooting
I'm feeling like Stanley Kubrick, this is some visionary sh*t"

or the hook is particularly inspiring.

"Novacane, baby, baby, Novacane, baby, I want you
f*** me good, f*** me long, f*** me numb
Love me now, when I'm gone, love me none
Love me none, love me none, numb, numb, numb, numb"


I can see why you guys think he's so different than all the steretypical rappers.  He's a little worse. 

[rab2591]

I find it hilarious that many here make judgements about music that they haven't heard yet.

Frank Ocean rapping on a Brian Wilson track? "BURN THE TAPES" or they automatically conclude that it's sh*t without hearing one fucking second of it.

[The Shift]

Mike:"Okay Frank, explain these lyrics… 'Over and over the Novocain flies uncover the f*** fields, Over and over the f*cker uncovers the wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat fields…'."

I'd like to hear anything BW thinks we should hear. And then decide whether I like it.

[startBBtoday]

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. 

So, the Backstreet Boys and Nsync sounded like The Beach Boys? I personally beg to differ.

[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. 

So, the Backstreet Boys and Nsync sounded like The Beach Boys? I personally beg to differ.

Me too. Strongly.

[SMiLE Brian]

Ron, your jokes don't work outside walmart.

[MugginsXO]

here's a sample of some of Frank's actual rapping skills, from "Blue Whale".  

"And if I ever have a daughter
I wonder what I could call her?
Nine months after I f*** on the beach
I guess I call her Karma"

He's so.... so.... so stereotypical.  

Or, here, this is a really brilliant line from his song "Novacane"

"Sink full of dishes pacing in the kitchen, cocaine for breakfast, yikes
Bed full of women, flip on a tripod, little red light on shooting
I'm feeling like Stanley Kubrick, this is some visionary sh*t"

or the hook is particularly inspiring.

"Novacane, baby, baby, Novacane, baby, I want you
f*** me good, f*** me long, f*** me numb
Love me now, when I'm gone, love me none
Love me none, love me none, numb, numb, numb, numb"


I can see why you guys think he's so different than all the steretypical rappers.  He's a little worse.  

It is pretty hilarious that you select Novacane as an example of his lack of ability or fitting to your really quite embarrassing idea of what rappers are. Novacane is unequivocally one of the great songs of the last decade, particularly for R&B. It is unsurprising that you can't understand the context or environment in which the song takes place, seeing as you still have an image of mentally impaired 40 drinkin Boyz in the Hood left over from when you no doubt last spent some mental energy on the genre.

It is a song first about an emotionally numbed and artificial environment, particularly referencing the genre and culture which informs it. You might have missed for instance the fourth line:  

"Every single record auto-tuning, zero emotion, muted emotion.
Pitch-corrected, computed emotion."

The song is an attempt to express desperation, isolation and a deep emotional feeling that is constantly being diverted by sex without love or care, and numbed by medication and drugs. It is also in a genre sense about how R&B and Rap got stuck in a certain artistically dull and thoughtless way. The song is, from its performance to the production to the amazing hook a supremely emotional and complex work about the need to be numb; artistically, personally and culturally. I am sure I won't have to explain that swearing or coarse subject matter says nothing at all against a work's complexity or as you are implying the artist's intelligence. Your criticism is about on the level of pointing at a nude work and saying "That Michelangelo made trash!" More palatable people like Lou Reed spent much of his career addressing these issues, just in a different genre.  

And as for this:


"And if I ever have a daughter
I wonder what I could call her?
Nine months after I f*** on the beach
I guess I call her Karma"

Eh seems a pretty clever knock at cause and effect and how living only for momentary pleasure is not a great way to go about things.

How untypical a "rapper" he is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNBD4OFF8cc

A gay guy singing a beautiful song about the first time he fell in love with a man.

[startBBtoday]

here's a sample of some of Frank's actual rapping skills, from "Blue Whale".  

"And if I ever have a daughter
I wonder what I could call her?
Nine months after I f*** on the beach
I guess I call her Karma"

He's so.... so.... so stereotypical.  

Or, here, this is a really brilliant line from his song "Novacane"

"Sink full of dishes pacing in the kitchen, cocaine for breakfast, yikes
Bed full of women, flip on a tripod, little red light on shooting
I'm feeling like Stanley Kubrick, this is some visionary sh*t"

or the hook is particularly inspiring.

"Novacane, baby, baby, Novacane, baby, I want you
f*** me good, f*** me long, f*** me numb
Love me now, when I'm gone, love me none
Love me none, love me none, numb, numb, numb, numb"


I can see why you guys think he's so different than all the steretypical rappers.  He's a little worse.  

It is pretty hilarious that you select Novacane as an example of his lack of ability or fitting to your really quite embarrassing idea of what rappers are. Novacane is unequivocally one of the great songs of the last decade, particularly for R&B. It is unsurprising that you can't understand the context or environment in which the song takes place, seeing as you still have an image of mentally impaired 40 drinkin Boyz in the Hood left over from when you no doubt last spent some mental energy on the genre.

It is a song first about an emotionally numbed and artificial environment, particularly referencing the genre and culture which informs it. You might have missed for instance the fourth line:  

"Every single record auto-tuning, zero emotion, muted emotion.
Pitch-corrected, computed emotion."

The song is an attempt to express desperation, isolation and a deep emotional feeling that is constantly being diverted by sex without love or care, and numbed by medication and drugs. It is also in a genre sense about how R&B and Rap got stuck in a certain artistically dull and thoughtless way. The song is, from its performance to the production to the amazing hook a supremely emotional and complex work about the need to be numb; artistically, personally and culturally. I am sure I won't have to explain that swearing or coarse subject matter says nothing at all against a work's complexity or as you are implying the artist's intelligence. Your criticism is about on the level of pointing at a nude work and saying "That Michelangelo made trash!" More palatable people like Lou Reed spent much of his career addressing these issues, just in a different genre.  

And as for this:


"And if I ever have a daughter
I wonder what I could call her?
Nine months after I f*** on the beach
I guess I call her Karma"

Eh seems a pretty clever knock at cause and effect and how living only for momentary pleasure is not a great way to go about things.

How untypical a "rapper" he is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNBD4OFF8cc

A gay guy singing a beautiful song about the first time he fell in love with a man.

Fantastic post.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Well said.

[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.

Thank you for your apology; Mr. Ocean himself (which AGAIN, I've said is very talented) said he rapped on it.  I appreciate your apology though, it's nice when somebody like you is wrong and you admit it before hand

O hadn't heard, or didn't recall, Ocean saying he'd rapped. Hence the prepology (tm). I stand behind my general point, though, which is the constant repetitions of boring stereotypes on this board (about EVERYTHING). Not calling you out specifically here, just speaking generally. One of those would be popular young black musician as "rapper," with the immediate leaps into caricatures. Ocean raps, sure, but, well I've already commented on the label.

Anyway, I am curious what you mean by "somebody like [me]." Should I be offended? Or did you mean brilliant, witty, and more handsome than he looks?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Don't let it offend you, just consider the source.  If ignorance is bliss, he's pretty damn happy.

[Cabinessenceking]

I find it hilarious that many here make judgements about music that they haven't heard yet.

Frank Ocean rapping on a Brian Wilson track? "BURN THE TAPES" or they automatically conclude that it's sh*t without hearing one fucking second of it.

people making assumptions as people always will do!

hell, Frank Ocean is as unconventional a rapper as you can get. He sings far more than he raps and he produces excellently. A perfectionist like Brian was in his heyday. Any collaboration between them is at least interesting even for those who hate rap or what they believe to be rap.

[the captain]

Don't let it offend you, just consider the source.  If ignorance is bliss, he's pretty damn happy.

Oh I'm not going to be offended regardless. It's a message board. But as for the source, I like Ron. He's contributed great stuff in the general music forum. Just curious if that was one-way admiration, I guess.

Anyway, blah blah off topic, so to get back on: I've listened to the new tune a lot. I think it's a lot more Hollens in performance and production, and maybe arrangement. (I'm sticking to my baseless guess--so another prepology!--that Hollens just remixed and supplemented whatever BW had/sent him.) But it's pleasant and has nice harmonies, especially from a guy who seems like a church youth group leader.

[Autotune]

Ron and Frank Ocean are interesting topics indeed. Regarding the song in question, I guess we have to get used to this hyper-processed Brian sound. That the vocal conveys sweetness and feeling notwithstanding the layers of effects is a merit of the singer. I like the song. It's not Brian-by-the-numbers as a poster said before, but a fresh-sounding recording that still nods at the classic Beach Boys harmonies, good melody, hooks... A couple observations: the pre-chorus sounds indentical to Spring Vacation (not that there's anything wrong with it), the sections during which Holland sings prominently sound pretty generic in every way, compared to the rest of the song; there's a boy-group quality to some of it that stylistically owes nothing to any previous BW product and -again- sounds like generic patchwork. And not BW stock patchwork (a Shortenin' Bread riff or a "rockin' and rollin'" vocal for instance) but something from a different hand and sensibility. Now, if the alternative is the Pet Sounds production cliches of recent albums (clip-clops, sleighbells, etc.), I'd rather have this for a change.

[the captain]

Despite my lukewarmness, I agree. I'll take an ambitious failure over a safe success. Not that I think boy band cheese is exactly ambitious, but the unusual blend of sounds and hopes for what else could be yet to come...

[Wirestone]

Pretty sure that Frank Ocean never commented on the BW project at all. One of the Rolling Stone pieces about the record-in-progress mentioned a rap, but I don't think anything was recorded.

[superunison]

FWIW I bought the track on amazon. When I imported it into iTunes, it lists the composer as solely "Joe Thomas"....

[SIP.FLAC]

FWIW I bought the track on amazon. When I imported it into iTunes, it lists the composer as solely "Joe Thomas"....

Itunes says Joe Thomas and Brian Wilson.

Don't like the song. Brian sounds real smooth, though. I don't mind the autotune.

[the captain]

Looking for info, I found this little bit: a video is apparently forthcoming.

"'I reached out to artists I haven’t worked with before. I’m excited to have a song on the album with Brian Wilson.' Hollens noted that a week after we spoke he would fly from his home in Eugene, Oregon to Los Angeles to record a video with Wilson, of Beach Boys fame.

"The album features seven songs from Hollens’s catalog and six new releases. In addition to “Our Special Love,” an original song written by Wilson, the album features collaborations...[irrelevant stuff]"

http://acappellablog.com/interview/acb-interview-peter-hollens

[NickandthePassions]

A lot of my friends my age (17-21) seem to really enjoy it.  Most of them have little to no prior knowledge of Brian Wilson.  I think that says something.

[joshferrell]

I played this to my sister who grew up with the boy bands of the 90's and she said that she liked it, she said it was different for him but was a great song...so yeah maybe that is a good sign for younger people getting into him..

[southbay]

I love it. Could have been a great Beach Boys song😔

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

BW Music - Modern Singer.....

HEAVEN. Yes please. I need an album like this.