Brian's New Album Cover

[c-man]

Amazon now has cover art posted for TLOS, for those who haven't seen it...

[BiNNS]

I like it. It's not what i was expecting. I've chosen not to listen to any of TLOS material as of yet. (Don't know how i did it:). I can't wait to get it all at once on Sept 2.

[mikeyj]

I hate the cover...but who cares? I like the music (well at least from what I've heard) and that's all that really matters.

[XY]

Like it a lot. Uplifting colors, simple, but effective. Love oranges anyway, they shine like suns here and are good symbols for this love message to LA in the 60's.

[Dancing Bear]

I like it. I was expecting a hopeful Brian looking at the sunrise or another crapfest like that.

[Fun Is In]

And the Golden Poppy is the California state flower.

[Don't Back Down]

kind of reminds me of the Wild Honey cover in a way

[brianc]

I preferred Mark London's TLOS design for the UK program. That seemed to be more in the L.A. vein than this California crate view of nostalgia.

[phirnis]

On first sight I'm not all too crazy about the artwork, but it sure looks nice enough. Also, I'm still VERY excited about the music and having the cover art feels like another crucial step to TLOS finally materializing.

[pixletwin]

I really like it, You know why? It lacks any pretension which it could have easily been encumbered by. 

[Don't Back Down]

looking at the design closer, it doesn't look complete. notice the penciled in sun, don't you think that should be "in your face" a little more? since the album is titled That Lucky Old SUN. not that it matters, and is that grid supposed to be there too? not complaining just observations.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Looks like a post card.

[melissalynn]

It's different...but I dig it. Very cheerful.

[Roger Ryan]

On first sight I'm not all too crazy about the artwork, but it sure looks nice enough. Also, I'm still VERY excited about the music and having the cover art feels like another crucial step to TLOS finally materializing.

In the "Smoking Section" column in the latest edition of Rolling Stone, Austin Scaggs says he just received an advanced copy of THAT LUCKY OLD SUN and thinks it sounds great (he's especially taken with Van Dyke Parks' "Venice Beach" narrative). Scaggs reports of a phone interview with Brian whom he quotes as saying something like..."It's different from PET SOUNDS and SMiLE. I'll just call it a piece of art"!

Oh...I like the cover quite a bit. It would be too obvious to feature the sun prominently and, besides, BWPS already did that.

[brother john]

The text is awful - looks like it was knocked up in MS Word or something... Come on BriMel...

[the captain]

I think that cover is pretty ugly. And the font I think is especially bad. But I already know I like the songs, so that's the most important thing. Hopefully the final recordings will not disappoint me. I'd love to love it.

[Amy B.]

The text is awful - looks like it was knocked up in MS Word or something... Come on BriMel...

Considering that Brian has never been known for having good album covers, with or without the BBs, I'm not sure it's fair to blame BriMel.

Anyway, I actually like the cover. It's got a bright innocence that goes well with the music. I do hate the font.

[brianc]

What are you talking about?

The "Smile" album art is incredible, and Brian was totally involved with the creation behind that. Besides which, I think the album sleeve for the "Surfin' U.S.A." LP is amazing (definitively inspiring a bevy of imitations in 1963). The "All Summer Long" album cover is bossanova era perfection, as well. And what is not to like with the cover of Today!" or "Pet Sounds"? I also love the covers for "Smiley Smile," "Sunflower," "Surf's Up" and "Holland." It seems to me that Brian and/or the Beach Boys are prefectly capable of delivering a fine piece of album jacket art.

[The Shift]

The text is awful - looks like it was knocked up in MS Word or something... Come on BriMel...

Agree -  looks like a default font coloured in by a kid. Typical of desktop publishing, not graphic design.

Thank God the music is redeeming in the extreme!

(I guess we'd've said similar about the Beach Boys dressed in their Dads' clothes feeding goats in ’66 though).

[Amy B.]

What are you talking about?

The "Smile" album art is incredible, and Brian was totally involved with the creation behind that. Besides which, I think the album sleeve for the "Surfin' U.S.A." LP is amazing (definitively inspiring a bevy of imitations in 1963). The "All Summer Long" album cover is bossanova era perfection, as well. And what is not to like with the cover of Today!" or "Pet Sounds"? I also love the covers for "Smiley Smile," "Sunflower," "Surf's Up" and "Holland." It seems to me that Brian and/or the Beach Boys are prefectly capable of delivering a fine piece of album jacket art.

Most of them are just photos of the band. Some are more artistic, yes. I suppose I'm comparing them to the Beatles. I mean, the BBs moved into this era where album covers became high art, and they never had that. I don't place high importance on that issue-- I'm just saying.

[brianc]

"Surfin' USA" is frameable. Most of Del-Fi's surfing catalog from 1963 was a take-off of the sleeve design for 'Surfin' USA."

I also happen to think "All Summer Long" was a special design. In fact, the whole vibe of "All Summer Long" and 1964 in L.A. was so special to me that I devoted a whole issue of "Dumb Angel Gazette" to it. But that might have just been me going overboard. :-)

I think the only thing that Brian had that could be included in the era of high-art album sleeves would have been "Smile." Some might disagree, but I think Frank Holmes captured something there. He's an artist that came out of the comic-as-art world of the Hairy Who in Chicago, as well as the architectural style of Earl Newman (both Holmes and Newman worked at the Insomniac Cafe in Hermosa Beach), and the combination spoke to the floating balloon vibe of 1966, where, as Greg Shaw once told me, "A lot of people were reading 'The Little Prince' and 'Winnie the Pooh,' and taking them as serious pieces of literature." I didn't fully understand what Greg was getting at until I saw the "Smile" LP jacket on a full page in my new book, "Pop Surf Culture." Whatever that book's merits are, so be it. But for myself, when I turned the page from the chapter that outlined where surf culture had been in 1964-65 to the next chapter, and saw the Frank Holmes art, it blew me away.

[Aegir]

For some reason, I imagined that the TLOS cover would be a lot darker. I get a very dark feel from the songs, even the happy upbeat ones.

[the captain]

For some reason, I imagined that the TLOS cover would be a lot darker. I get a very dark feel from the songs, even the happy upbeat ones.

Perhaps a pic of a bearded, 300+ pound BW with an unbuttoned shirt chain-smoking and playing piano--drinks lined up atop it--in a dark, seedy San Diego gay bar would have hit the spot. For me it would have, anyway.

[brianc]

Despite what Mike Love said in "Endless Harmony," it was the combination of optimism and melancholy that sold the original Beach Boys songs so well. There was a feeling like it was the greatest moment ever, and that we have to hang on before it's too late.

People called Chet Baker and West Coast cool jazz "light" for years, before realizing that L.A. might have great weather, and the people here might be soft and weird, but it's a place that also has a heaviness, and the art that comes out of here does as well.

Uhhh... that was in reference to the idea of "darkness" in TLOS.

[brianc]

Perhaps a pic of a bearded, 300+ pound BW with an unbuttoned shirt chain-smoking and playing piano--drinks lined up atop it--in a dark, seedy San Diego gay bar would have hit the spot. For me it would have, anyway.

Dude, you're hilarious.