No Pier Pressure (board member reviews)

[petsoundsnola]

Here's my sequence and a 10-track version.

1  This Beautiful Day
2  The Right Time
3  Whatever Happened
4  Somewhere Quiet
5  Our Special Love
6  Half Moon Bay
7  Guess You Had To Be There
8  One Kind Of Love
9  Saturday Night
10 The Last Song

[Sangheon]

Here's my sequence and a 10-track version.

1  This Beautiful Day
2  The Right Time
3  Whatever Happened
4  Somewhere Quiet
5  Our Special Love
6  Half Moon Bay
7  Guess You Had To Be There
8  One Kind Of Love
9  Saturday Night
10 The Last Song

This is  like an essential version of this album.Runnaway Dancer and On the Island, Tell Me Why omitted?
Oh, Why did you omit Tell Me Why? It's a center song on the album for me.

[petsoundsnola]

Here's my sequence and a 10-track version.

1  This Beautiful Day
2  The Right Time
3  Whatever Happened
4  Somewhere Quiet
5  Our Special Love
6  Half Moon Bay
7  Guess You Had To Be There
8  One Kind Of Love
9  Saturday Night
10 The Last Song

This is  like an essential version of this album.Runnaway Dancer and On the Island, Tell Me Why omitted?
Oh, Why did you omit Tell Me Why? It's a center song on the album for me.

These are the songs I don't skip over. To each his own I guess.

[Ron]

I've had several weeks to enjoy the album.  I really like it.  I've been thinking for awhile about the lyrics on the album, however.  Does anybody have any inside info on what lyrical contributions Joe Thomas made to the album?  I actually like all the production, I know a lot of people dont' like what they perceive he's added to the production, but all of the production sounds fine to me.  I like the vocal sound, whether it's got the Dijon on it or not, I like the sound of it. 

- This Beautiful Day - Love it, sounds great.  Nice start to the album.  Very beautiful.

- Runaway Dancer - I like it.  I like that Brian's trying some new stuff.  It starts a theme though that continues through the album, of lyrics that absolutely make no sense whatsoever to me.  It kind of sounds like he's coming up with some musical themes, maybe a couple lines of lyrics, and then puts another piece right next to it that's similar, but the lyrics don't come together cohesively.  Almost how Kurt Cobain used to write!  Seriously. 

- Whatever Happened - This is so gorgeous it's mind blowing.  The chorus is just perfection.  Al sounds fantastic, the production is great, Brian sounds great.  Even when Brian's voice is a little strained in the chorus, I think he sounds fantastic.  It's a pleasure listening to him at this late in his career, sound so beautiful.  A song like this 'sounds' as good as anything he's ever done.  All just my opinion, of course... but the same beauty I hear when I listen to "God only Knows" I hear in songs like this... it's just that Brian Wilson 'thing'.   Look how god awful the lyrics are, though....

"As the time goes by
And I wonder why
When I know the day is through"

What in the hell is he talking about?  AS the time goes by, and I wonder why" .  Wonder why, what?  He doesnt' even finish the thought he's working on.  The whole album has parts like this, it makes sense lyrically for about 4 words, then it goes onto the next theme that doesn't have anything to do with the previous 4 words!  It would have been better if he just made it "oohs", "aaahs", and "dit dits".  Seriously.  Is this Joe Thomas, or do we blame Brian for this?   The chorus lyrics are actually good

"What ever happened to my favorite places
Nothing's where it used to be
What ever happened
What's gonna happen to me"

- "On The Island" I love top to bottom.  Everything about it, including the lyrics.  Would be interested in knowing who wrote it.  Brian or Joe?  I'd like to think Brian wrote the lyrics, or that Zooey wrote them, although everything I've seen suggests she sang what was already written.  I love her vocal, though, she's a very special lady.

- "Half Moon Bay" is pretty boring to me.  I've always enjoyed Brian's instrumentals, but this one just drags and doesn't have anything that interesting for me.  Maybe it'll grow on me with further listens, but I have to admit I'm already starting to skip it.

- "Our Special Love".  The boy-band-ness of this is hard for me to get by, but I've listened to it several times because I can't figure out what Brian's talking about.  Listening to this song makes me feel like an idiot, because the only explanation must be that I just can't understand it, and that Brian's not a blabbering fool going on about something that makes absolutely no sense.  It must be me, because I can't see Brian doing that.  I like the sound of it, I like the melody, I even kind of like Brian's lyrics... I just can't tell what the hell he's talking about. 

"Bet you wish it really didn't matter
All along you never really had her
She's your everything
Keeps you wondering

Doesn't matter where we are
Doesn't matter where we've been
I can't believe it's gone this far
I can't believe what's happening

Tell me why, down deep inside
Girl you gotta know
That there's a part of you and me
That I just can't let go

Fly away (Fly away)
Nothing, but nothing
Could ever stand in our way"

That's the biggest steaming pile of lyrics he may have ever written.  The actual chorus is interesting though, and pretty good:

"A special love can't be found anywhere in the world
Except for here, that's where you are
What I'm thinking of can't be found anywhere in the world
Except for here, that's where you are". 

So I don't know what to think.  I feel like a hater, and usually I just ignore it, but it's hard to enjoy the songs when the lyrics sound like something an 8 year old could have written.

- "The Right Time" - This sounds like a bubblegum commercial, and I mean that in a good way.  They all sound fantastic on it, and it almost has a "The Wonders" vibe to it... some of the harmonies are mind blowing.  Stands up with some of the best stuff he's EVER done, harmonically... but again the lyrics are just disastrous. 

"Whatever happened to me and you
And everything we've been going through
So many pieces but never in a very straight line"

Where do we even begin.  There's something so wrong with the tense the song is written in, and then the tense it goes into, that I can't even properly describe it... and the "so many pieces..." bit is just so awkward it's jarring.    I've heard people say that the first verse should have been twice as long to better fit the kind of standard format your mind is looking for, but I actually like that it jumps right into the chorus.  The lyrics in the chorus are pretty blah too, but the harmonies are so beautiful it's completely forgivable.  Then the second verse comes along, with the absolutely horrid lyrics

"So many times we get fooled again
With everything that's been happening
Like changing palces with someone
In the back of the line
But not this time"

It's so bad it's almost embarassing to play around people.  it's a damn shame too because every, every, EVERYTHING else about the song is just so beautiful. 

"Guess You Had To Be There" is nearly perfect.  I love the doubled/tripled/quadrupled sound on Kacey's voice, I love the lyrics, I love Brian's harmonies in the chorus, and my favorite part is Kacey's voice peeking out of the harmony in the backgorund of the chorus.  Brian has everybody doing Beach Boys acrobatics on the harmonies, and Kacey has a simple little "Oooh oooh Whoo Oooh!" line that she repeats a couple times, exactly the same, while the rest of the band moves AROUND it.  Listen to the 3rd and 4th measure of the chorus, and listen to that background vocal and see if you hear what I'm talking about.  She sings the same line twice, exactly the same, but the rest of the vocals move around it to create the difference in the harmony.  It's masterful. 

Kacey said she met with Brian, and asked him about recording back in the day, Brian told her how crazy it was, and said "I guess you had to be there" and she took that line and ran with it, trying to describe what his life must have been like back then.  I think she did a great job.  Brian did all the rest and he always does a great job.

"Don't Worry" - I love this.  People have talked about how they enjoy it once they figured out he was doing Philly, I don't really care what he was doing, it sounds great.  The lyrics again are a little suspect, but the song is so upbeat and travels along so strong that it's easy to forget that you have no clue what the f*** he's talking about in half of it.  The production is awesome, the guitar work is really good, Brian sounds great... more of this , please.

"Somewhere Quiet" - the lyrics are horrible.  It's almost like bad white-boy rap.  Vanilla Ice never wrote anything this bad. 
"I wanna take you somewhere quiet
So I can hear what's in my heart
Are you as real as I imagine
Or just the one who plays the part"

Ugh.  Maybe it's something only women can appreciate.  I don't know.  I've tried to make sense of the lyrics in this song, but it's just completely out of my ability to comprehend.  The rest of the song sounds pretty good, but man this must be like the B-side of a flop single or something.

"I'm Feeling Sad" is fantastic.  You could never release something like this as a single, but it's a perfect example of one of Brian's quirky, strange songs.  The lyrics work great on this!  The production is awesome, and the "Wall of Brians" is about as good as it's ever been.  The middle 8 is F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C .... it's one of those songs you can play somebody to illustrate exactly what's so special about Brian Wilson.  Brian HAD to have written the lyrics to this, songs like this are what make me still believe that lyrically he can still do it.  This is why I'm suspect that perhaps Joe is writing all the horrible sh*t on some of the other songs.

"Tell Me Why" - I actually love the lyrics on this one.  They're simple, and that's fine, my problem with the other lyrics is that they literally make 0 sense.  This song makes perfect sense!  The lyrics are actually telling a story, and it's easy to follow.  Nothing wrong with that.  It's all pretty straight forward, but when it comes down to it, if you put Brian Wilson and Al Jardine singing a decent song, I'm going to enjoy it every time.  I really like the way it swells into the chorus, too.  It's not the greatest thing ever, but like most of Brian's songs it's a solid song with some really outstanding vocal parts.  Al really shines on this, but that's nothing new. 

"Sail Away" - I'm not really a huge fan of this song... I love Blondie but I just don't really feel this one very much.  Lyrically I have to complain again, it's pretty bad.  Strangely, though, on this song, the verses are great but the chorus is god awful.  It may not even be the lyrics, maybe it's just the way the melody empathizes certain words.  I don't know, the whole thing just sounds like a mess to me. 

"One Kind Of Love" - This song must be so personal to Brian, I wouldn't dare criticise the lyrics, and there are parts of it that are just achingly beautiful.  Some of the stuff is cliche'd like "Brought back harmonyyyyy", etc.... but the parts like "From out of the bluuuue, an Angel comes to youuuuu" are just so perfectly pretty it really weights the song towards 'great'.  The melody on this is fantastic.  It's so damn good it's almost like a jingle.  "The Day You... Said, That, You'd, Be Minnnnne, I Was... On cloud Nine!!!!" it bounces around masterfully, just a completely gorgeous song.  Add on top of that it's so real, so true, so honest about his relationship with his wife, and add on to that some of the vocal bits like the much lauded "Calllllin out for you!!!!!", this song is the masterpiece of the album.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  If I were going to critique it at all, I'd say the chorus is a little overbearing, but all in all it works fine.  The verses are like heaven, and we're treated to another amazing, almost church-like bridge on this song. 

"Saturday Night" - I dig it.  I don't know anything about Nate Reuss, all I know about him is how he sounds on this song, and how he smiled so strongly in the videos I've seen of him around Brian.  I'm big fan now.  He has a great voice, and again although I'm a little puzzled by the lyrics, it's no so horrible that I can't appreciate the song and sing along while it's playing.  While it obviously shares some musical similarities to other songs, I just like the way it sounds and think it's a strong song. 

"The Last Song" - I don't get this at all, I don't enjoy it, and I have a predisposition against any kind of fateful stuff like this.  Just the idea of the song almost guaranteed I wouldn't enjoy it, so this is a song I almost always skip.  It's not his last song, I don't like the idea of that, and I don't like the idea of ever saying never.  So although it may be a great song, it's not one that I'll really ever be able to enjoy, so it wouldn't be fair of me to critique it. 

Just my thoughts after listening to the album.  The band sounds fantastic, without fail, on every song.  Brian's production is fantastic, without fail, on every song.   Brian's voice holds up and sounds great throughout, with some moments topping anything he's done since the 60's.  His gift for harmony is as strong as it ever was, bar none... harmony wise, his mind is coming up with stuff every bit as good as the beauty on SMiLE. The only real drawback to the entire album for me is that some of the lyrics are sloppy and make absolutely no sense.  With all that said, it's one of my very favorite albums of his, and I hope we get some more great music in this vein from Brian soon!

[KDS]

Ron,

That's a nice detailed review.  Glad to see that fans are still posting opinions at the three month mark (three months today exactly). 

I don't want to dismiss the idea of lyrics as a whole, but at this point in Brian's career, I would just enjoy the great music and harmonies.  Surf's Up is probably my favorite Brian Wilson composition, and the lyrics don't make any kind of sense whatsoever. 

[Ron]

That's very true, and that's pretty much where I am with it.  I really do enjoy it, I'm just mentioning the lyrics because i'm trying to mention everything in the review.... and it's strange to me that he's so perfect and legendary at everything else.  All the instrumentalists are virtuoso-level, perfect, nuanced, beautiful musicians... all the vocals are flawless with the odd note here and there... the production is flawless.... and then the lyrics are a huge let down sometimes.  It's just perplexing to me.

To be honest I'm not the biggest fan of the lyrics on Surf's up either, but I get that it's a style and can appreciate that.


With all that said, I really do enjoy the album.  Lots of beauty in it, and it's amazing that he can sing like that at this age.  Inspiring, actually.

[KDS]

Ron,

Yeah, its one of those albums that gets better with each listen. 

Vocally, it might be his best solo album.   

[kwebb]

"Somewhere Quiet" - the lyrics are horrible.  It's almost like bad white-boy rap.  Vanilla Ice never wrote anything this bad. 
"I wanna take you somewhere quiet
So I can hear what's in my heart
Are you as real as I imagine
Or just the one who plays the part"

White boy rap? What?

[Ron]

The embarrassment I feel playing that song loud enough for anybody to hear the lyrics, I have only felt listening to Eminem, Vanilla Ice, or.... well I can't think of anything else that bad. 

[rab2591]

When I was a child listening to 'Little Deuce Coupe' I didn't understand one thing they were singing about, but audibly it sounded like a symphony to my ears. When it comes to Beach Boys music this same trait has carried over to my adulthood (with the exception of Pet Sounds and Today! which have many lyrics I pay attention to). Rarely do I ever ponder the lyrical beauty of a missing door handle and a solenoid system. Nor do I really care how certain lines are worded in his latest album. It's the overall sound that pulls you in. If we are talking about lyrics, like Smile, it's the sum of the words that are supposed to paint a general picture of what is going on:

"As the time goes by
And I wonder why
When I know the day is through"

It's nighttime/evening, and Brian is thinking about something while the clock ticks on. I don't think it's supposed to make literal sense, nor do I think it's even remotely important for it to. It gives us an idea of what is going on, and that's good enough for me.

I don't know, it's all subjective, so I respect that some don't really care for the lyrics, but it's nothing to get overly hung up on. I'm really happy as well that people are still reviewing this album, nice to see it's still getting a lot of love from the fanbase!

[Ron]

Like I said, I will readily admit that it may just be I'm too stupid to understand the words. 

[marcusb]

Does anyone else think I'm Feeling Sad sounds like a Ben Folds song?

[Ron]

Does anyone else think I'm Feeling Sad sounds like a Ben Folds song?

I can hear that, definitely.  Of course it's much better than Brick but the similarity is there. 

[ArchStanton]

The embarrassment I feel playing that song loud enough for anybody to hear the lyrics, I have only felt listening to Eminem, Vanilla Ice, or.... well I can't think of anything else that bad. 

I would not rate the guy who has written songs like "Lose Yourself" and "Renegade" with Vanilla Ice. Just saying...

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

The embarrassment I feel playing that song loud enough for anybody to hear the lyrics, I have only felt listening to Eminem, Vanilla Ice, or.... well I can't think of anything else that bad. 

I would not rate the guy who has written songs like "Lose Yourself" and "Renegade" with Vanilla Ice. Just saying...

100% agreed.

[18thofMay]

The embarrassment I feel playing that song loud enough for anybody to hear the lyrics, I have only felt listening to Eminem, Vanilla Ice, or.... well I can't think of anything else that bad. 

I would not rate the guy who has written songs like "Lose Yourself" and "Renegade" with Vanilla Ice. Just saying...

100% agreed.

All right STOP, collaborate and listen..

[Sam_BFC]

Will pixletwin treat us to a special edition of survivor for tbis album?

[rab2591]

The embarrassment I feel playing that song loud enough for anybody to hear the lyrics, I have only felt listening to Eminem, Vanilla Ice, or.... well I can't think of anything else that bad. 

I would not rate the guy who has written songs like "Lose Yourself" and "Renegade" with Vanilla Ice. Just saying...

100% agreed.

Not mention "Stan", "Like Toy Soldiers", "Sing For The Moment" - seriously, Vanilla Ice doesn't belong in the same universe as Eminem.