Bruce Johnston's idea for a new Brian Wilson album...

[filledeplage]

Bruce said he likes the new,natural 2010 Brian voice.with out the falsetto highs and such.  I agree.  On that he is right, IMO.  But I think an all covers lp with an outside producer arranger would invite comments such as "Brian's singing is only so-so and he is no longer writing, arranging, or producing."

At this point, I'm not sure what I would like to hear Brian record.  But go with the natural voice whatever it might be.


I would like to hear a duet with Taylor Mills at some point.  At least a line or two in a song or two.

Maybe Its Over Now or Lets Put Our Hearts Together...as live numbers or remakes on a studio effort.

My initial response would be that yes, there is a new maybe untapped side of Brian that we have seen but my sense is that the Gershwin thing was more about his Beach Boy "approach" and "sparkle" (I think of Tinkerbell!) to the music, not his vocal talent, which is not bad.  And, I don't think that Brian is another Perry Como, Dean Martin or Ole Blue Eyes.   Brian has a nice voice but does not have that "voltage" which comes with early vocal training and practice.  I am not in the business for my whole life so my "uninformed opinion" is much off-to-the-side as a fan. 

The fact that Brian has moved into another surprise jazz dimension, should be a huge boost for him.  There is nothing like approval and success for your confidence. It is good for school kids and good for adults.  It may open other doors Brian did not anticipate were open to him. Whoever does this project, should be competent and trustworthy.  Enough charlatans wormed their way into the Beach Boys organization, and alienated good, "credentialed," and talented musicians along the way, notwithstanding the conflicting biographies and autobiographies, and career "chronicles" authorized or not.   

It should flattering that Bruce, whose opinion everyone may not share, does "know something" about the business, and perhaps has a "vision" - with an "informed opinion" which is different from "talking out of your butt," not knowing Brian, but having worked with him, should not be "blown off" as pie-in-the-sky.  He did studio work with Brian, and knows his capabilities, what his "adult" vocal range is, and areas where he should not tread or tread lightly.  I could say - Whether it is a good idea or not;  what do I know?   

The Gershwin album does sparkle but I am careful not to drive with it as it is so dreamy you could nod off with it...Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music!

But, it this is often a "hit or miss" business, and what is a blockbuster one year, can fail terribly the next, so it is like medicine, a lot of experience, testing and a little guesswork and a lot of luck...

[kwan_dk]

5.) Lack of record company interest. If he has a project or some themed idea, they'll try. But I don't think a major label would go for a non-concept collection of BW songs. It already exists, but Disney would rather release a Gershwin album. Them's the facts.

I don't understand this point - are you saying that an album / or demos of original material was original offered to Disney but that they instead opted for the Gershwin album? If so, I'd like to hear more about this - it's news to me...

[hypehat]

I believe Brian has enough songs knocking about from the last few years or so to constitute a solo record. At least, that's the impression i get from posts here. I don't think he's been offering them to labels, though. Could be wrong, although I imagine someone would have picked them up.
Brian appears to have wanted to do Gershwin on his own, and Disney let him with the proviso he do the Disney record too (The truth probably involves the wife&managers a bit more, but i think that's the gist).

I sure do get tired of being half-right all the time...

[ukulelejesus]

Brian needs to work with Steve Albini

Or Rick Rubin. Or Nigel Godrich.

[Andrew G. Doe]

5.) Lack of record company interest. If he has a project or some themed idea, they'll try. But I don't think a major label would go for a non-concept collection of BW songs. It already exists, but Disney would rather release a Gershwin album. Them's the facts.

I don't understand this point - are you saying that an album / or demos of original material was original offered to Disney but that they instead opted for the Gershwin album? If so, I'd like to hear more about this - it's news to me...

Nothing was offered to Disney, but Brian has enough quality songs/demos in the can to put together an album of original material. This isn't anything new, or restricted information, hell, I've been saying it for over a year. Disney approached Brian with the Movie Songs idea and he said "sure, but I want to do this (Gershwin) first": they swallowed hard, then said "OK". Artistically as great a move as it was a commercial disaster.

[Wirestone]

commercial disaster

Seems to rather overstate things, no? If Disney didn't print up many albums (as seems to be the case), I doubt they lost much on it.

[Andrew G. Doe]

commercial disaster

Seems to rather overstate things, no? If Disney didn't print up many albums (as seems to be the case), I doubt they lost much on it.

The product was great, the reviews were stellar... and you couldn't find the thing in the stores with a magnifying glass, no in-store promotion, while amazon.com sold out of the #1 seller on the first day. On top of the production costs, Disney paid Brian $250,000 up front and then got Al Schmitt to (needlessly) remix it (and he doesn't come cheap). Someone mused to me that maybe it was a tax writeoff and all they really wanted Brian for was the movie songs album... and you know, that makes more sense than what actually happened.

[bgas]

commercial disaster

Seems to rather overstate things, no? If Disney didn't print up many albums (as seems to be the case), I doubt they lost much on it.

The product was great, the reviews were stellar... and you couldn't find the thing in the stores with a magnifying glass, no in-store promotion, while amazon.com sold out of the #1 seller on the first day. On top of the production costs, Disney paid Brian $250,000 up front and then got Al Schmitt to (needlessly) remix it (and he doesn't come cheap). Someone mused to me that maybe it was a tax writeoff and all they really wanted Brian for was the movie songs album... and you know, that makes more sense than what actually happened.

ya really gotta love the strategy then! 
Give the artist what he wants, "promise" promotion but don't do it and don't stock it, but make sure he's locked into the Movie album.
Take a HUGE writeoff that will more than pay for Gershwin and the Movie album.
But will Brian be unhappy enough to break the deal? 
and if he does, does he face the wheel?

[TdHabib]

commercial disaster

Seems to rather overstate things, no? If Disney didn't print up many albums (as seems to be the case), I doubt they lost much on it.

The product was great, the reviews were stellar... and you couldn't find the thing in the stores with a magnifying glass, no in-store promotion, while amazon.com sold out of the #1 seller on the first day. On top of the production costs, Disney paid Brian $250,000 up front and then got Al Schmitt to (needlessly) remix it (and he doesn't come cheap). Someone mused to me that maybe it was a tax writeoff and all they really wanted Brian for was the movie songs album... and you know, that makes more sense than what actually happened.

Andrew, I meekly ask, is this one time where one can't put the blame on Brian's ahem management? Has that day truly come?

[Jon Stebbins]

commercial disaster

Seems to rather overstate things, no? If Disney didn't print up many albums (as seems to be the case), I doubt they lost much on it.

The product was great, the reviews were stellar...

Sorry, but the reviews were not stellar, they were mostly okay, but not as good as TLOS or BWPS or BW88.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/brian-wilson-reimagines-gershwin/critic-reviews

[Runaways]

i'm gonna be bracing myself for that disney album once it gets going. *shudder*

[Wirestone]

Sorry Jon, going by Metacritic is a pretty sloppy way to gauge critical reaction. You're using it to prop up your personal response to the record, but the site only uses a few reviews, and assigns relatively arbitrary numerical values to otherwise complimentary pieces.

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Sorry Jon, going by Metacritic is a pretty sloppy way to gauge critical reaction. You're using it to prop up your personal response to the record, but the site only uses a few reviews, and assigns relatively arbitrary numerical values to otherwise complimentary pieces.

A few reviews?  They quote/link 17 for BWRG.  Though I don't understand how they do their scoring system.
It should be noted that they note 11 Positive reviews, 5 Mixed and one Negative.

[Wirestone]

It has 17. There have easily been twice that many pieces about the album published. Many of them, however, are also profiles about Brian / the record, and thus not included in Metacritic's numerical summation. I recall fewer such pieces about TLOS. In terms of rating, Metacritic's 1-100 system is primarily used to gauge video games (the game industry is by far the biggest user of the site), and video game sites tend to review releases on a 1-100 or 1-10 scale that translates almost exactly to the aggregating site.

Records tend to be reviewed on a 1-4 or 1-5 star system. Take Rolling Stone, for instance. It almost never awards five stars. A four-star review from them tends to signify an excellent album. An A minus, let's say. 3 and a half stars (what BWRG received) tends to be the equivalent of a B-plus or B grade. Yet Metacritic translates that into a numerical grade of 70.

Given that TLOS got an average of 70 and that BWRG (currently) averages at 68 -- to say that this proves, somehow, that critical reception for one was notably better than the other -- based on a partial selection of reviews and numerical values different from those of the original reviews -- well, it doesn't add up. I think it might be fairer to say the album got solid-to-excellent reviews, with U.S. critics reacting more favorably than British ones.

[SurfRiderHawaii]

It has 17. There have easily been twice that many pieces about the album published. Many of them, however, are also profiles about Brian / the record, and thus not included in Metacritic's numerical summation. I recall fewer such pieces about TLOS. In terms of rating, Metacritic's 1-100 system is primarily used to gauge video games (the game industry is by far the biggest user of the site), and video game sites tend to review releases on a 1-100 or 1-10 scale that translates almost exactly to the aggregating site.

Records tend to be reviewed on a 1-4 or 1-5 star system. Take Rolling Stone, for instance. It almost never awards five stars. A four-star review from them tends to signify an excellent album. An A minus, let's say. 3 and a half stars (what BWRG received) tends to be the equivalent of a B-plus or B grade. Yet Metacritic translates that into a numerical grade of 70.

Given that TLOS got an average of 70 and that BWRG (currently) averages at 68 -- to say that this proves, somehow, that critical reception for one was notably better than the other -- based on a partial selection of reviews and numerical values different from those of the original reviews -- well, it doesn't add up. I think it might be fairer to say the album got solid-to-excellent reviews, with U.S. critics reacting more favorably than British ones.

17 is a lot for that site. Heart's new album has three.  David Gray's newest 12.  Katy Perry has 17 (and she's one of the biggest stars around these days).

But all in all Wirestone, a stellar review of Metacritic!

[adamghost]

Also it's worth mentioning that BWPS is the highest rated album on Metacritic...so to say that the new album isn't getting comparable reviews is setting way, way too high a bar, because almost NO album is.

Seems safe to say the critical response is fairly positive.

[Jon Stebbins]

The record is good to excellent, and that's a commendable achievement for Brian and his team at this stage of his career.  But its clearly not a critical home-run. Metacritic or any other evaluation of the average critical reaction to this record will rate it that way. Its arguably Brian's third best rated solo record by the music press. In the UK it probably rates lower than that. That's the way its playing out. I think BWRG is a very good record that charted decently. I know it won't make me popular here, and even less popular on Brian's board...but IMO that's just the reality of BWRG. Very good, not great.

[adamghost]

Re:  IMO that's the reality...Opinion and reality are easily confused, but they're not the same thang...seems like the original point, that it's a critical success, is a valid one.  How much is a big critical success as opposed to a modest one...that's a tough thing to quantify, even using Metacritic.  Particularly since these things tend to evolve over time.

Seems like a pretty minor point to quibble over to me.

[Andrew G. Doe]

commercial disaster

Seems to rather overstate things, no? If Disney didn't print up many albums (as seems to be the case), I doubt they lost much on it.

The product was great, the reviews were stellar...

Sorry, but the reviews were not stellar, they were mostly okay, but not as good as TLOS or BWPS or BW88.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/brian-wilson-reimagines-gershwin/critic-reviews

I stand corrected-ish. The initial reviews were mostly stellar. Oddly, the UK reviews were mostly "eh, whatever", which was beside the point anyway as there was even less promo for the damn thing over here and accordingly it charted for one week at #55 then fell off the radar.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Artistically as great a move as it was a commercial disaster.

Commercial disappointment maybe. Now GIOMH....THAT was a commercial (and artistic!) disaster!



Just messin'....

Seriously, though, I could give 2 shits what anybody else says...I LOVE the album, and I'm not even that big into Gershwin!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Artistically as great a move as it was a commercial disaster.

Commercial disappointment maybe. Now GIOMH....THAT was a commercial (and artistic!) disaster!



Just messin'....

Seriously, though, I could give 2 shits what anybody else says...I LOVE the album, and I'm not even that big into Gershwin!

I'm betting GIOMH, even though it charted for one week at #100, still sold more than BWRG has to date.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

What?! That....wow...seriously?! That is just...again...wow....that doesn't just blow my mind...it freakin' sets it on fire and puts it out with used cat litter.

[The Heartical Don]

What?! That....wow...seriously?! That is just...again...wow....that doesn't just blow my mind...it freakin' sets it on fire and puts it out with used cat litter.

Your emotions are too much for me. I just collapsed under the collective weight of all your 100,000,000,000 neurons unloading all that dopamine, serotonin, and glutamate. I made an appointment with a brain surgeon for urgent work. This afternoon I will be a different person.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

This afternoon I will be a different person.

You promise?


I kid, I kid....

[Mike's Beard]

Don will be like Jack Nicholson at the end of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by the time you all read this.