Okay, so it's been made quite clear to me that I'm an annoying "cheerleader" here.
Hello Debbie. Like Luther, I am wondering if what I posted somehow gave offence, as your post quoted above came shortly after one of mine. I hope not; nothing I wrote was so intended. I suppose it might have been when I said 'The repeated references back grate on *me* somewhat — but I guess not everyone feels the same...' But I meant that as a simple statement of fact, not as a denigration of 'cheerleading' — and clearly, from subsequent posts, it would seem that what I wrote *is* true. Some people, like myself and now I see also Wirestone, are bothered by the clearly deliberate quoting of Brian's past successful musical work in his new stuff, while others are less concerned or let it wash over them. All of these different reactions are fine by me: if we all felt the same way, it would be pretty dull in here and indeed in the world in general.
I would imagine that we've *all* of us here been cheerleaders of Brian Douglas Wilson's work at some point: giving cassette compilations, self-burnt CDs or iTunes playlists to friends or loved ones to spread the word or shine light on obscure parts of his back catalogue that we rate. Hell, I can cheerleader about some tracks until the cows come home, like I did about 'Don't Talk' the other day at the end of
this thread (which subsquently tanked and sank without trace after I posted in it, but there you go..., this will happen from time to time...!).
So anyway, no hard feelings intended in your direction — or indeed in anyone's. I'd always far rather keep BW-related discussion here a) going and b) civil than see it descend into personal insults, and my posting history here backs that up.
With that in mind, let's continue. As is so often the case, following my post expressing unease at Brian's 'audible quoting of back catalogue' Wirestone has nailed my reasons for not liking it far more concisely and effectively than I did:
...That second example is more troublesome to me (and others) because it means you have a song like "Summer's Gone," for example, which is gorgeous on its own, and yet is arranged as a callback to "Caroline, No." It can deprive a wonderful song of originality.
[snip]
...But there's no real reason why it [that is, the Sloop John B flute riff in Sail Away that I mentioned — Matt] has to be there, except to refer to an earlier song. And it's annoying, because "Sail Away" is a hook machine, a crazily constructed tune, a real achievement, and yet someone like the Rolling Stone reviewer hears it and instantly dismisses it as a Sloop John B rewrite because of one single, damned riff.
That's *exactly* what bugs me. Brian's recycling of riff ideas to build new songs throughout his creative life, no: 'deliberate and audible throwbacks to past glories', yes. But like the use of pitch-correction or over-sheeny 80s production, it bothers some more than others.
I'm kind of in the middle on the latter points. The production of what I've heard of NPP so far, as I've been open about here, bugs me a bit, and I'm certain I hear warbly pitch artefacts on some spots in the new stuff that riles my ears from time to time (like Robo-Brian on this track on 'take a look at the paper and throw it AWÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ' and to a lesser extent on 'no place to go, but I'm on my WÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ'): but when the songs are as strong as much of what we're hearing of NPP seems to be, I can still get caught up in the music and forget those kind of objections. I mean, a lot of us did and do that with Robo-Al on 'From Here To Back Again', right? Great (then-)new tune from Brian, Al still sounds 25, incredible stuff. BUT — aaargh, the Orto-Choon, my ears are bleeding... Overall, though, the positives outweigh the negatives, and you can find a way to listen to it such that you're not unhappy and just hear the good aspects.
(Not everyone here is the same. A lot of people are rubbed up the wrong way by runnersdialzero, but I totally get where he's coming from on this pitch-tweaking and 80s production stuff on the bits of NPP we've heard, and on TWGMTR. It makes him unhappy and he can't 'unhear' the squeezy, cheesy mustard and the audible equivalent of Joe Thomas's ice-hockey hair all over the tracks (ewww...). I can sort of see and hear past it, as I can with the bits of Imagination I like — but he can't. I respect that opinion too, because there are some bits of Imagination, like Lay Down Burden, which I *can't* do that with — it's an AC, sheeny, 80s nylon-guitarfest too far for me — so I relate to what he means)
But on I'm Feeling Sad, for me the positives definitely outweigh the negatives (slightly ironically given the title). It sounds bloody great; the chord progressions, BVs and even the lyrics are classic Brian (for all that the processing on it bothers me, the line 'no place to go but I'm on my way' is a terrific lyric, as is the couplet 'take a walk to the grocery store; can't remember what I came for'). It's also catchy as all hell. For the sake of that, I can definitely live with a bit of Kiss Me Baby floating in now and again...!
Author
