Since he’s been doing a couple of recent sessions at the studio I work at, I decided to listen to a Brian Wilson album. I wanted to do a more recent one however and decided on 2008’s That Lucky Old Sun. The work (I would go as far as to say concept album) revolves around life in southern California, particularly Los Angeles. This is not surprising given the fact that Wilson grew up and has spent his entire life here. I wanted to see if this album lived up to it’s fairly positive reviews. Has Brian Wilson recovered enough from years of drug abuse and mental illness to be able to put something decent together? Does he really have a few good songs left? I was going to find out.
Track one is the title track. Immediately the listener is greeted by layered vocal harmonies that sound like they’re right off of a Beach Boys album (surprise, surprise!). As Wilson starts to sing however, his vocals sound almost jarring. He sounds not like a youthful teenager singing about fun in the sun, but an old man conspicuously out of place. This awkward dichotomy continues through the next track. The music sounds like a boogie woogie straight of a Beach Boys record. Unfortunately, it isn’t the sixties anymore. Times, and musical tastes for that matter, have changed significantly. It’s hard to keep the attention of a significant audience or write material that is interesting if it all still sounds like it’s completely from the early sixties. Most people (even the older ones) have moved on through a darker era of disillusionment in the seventies (Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath) all the way through the post grunge movement of the nineties (Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead). The third track is the first of several narratives, which appear throughout the album. The interludes are written by lyricist Van Dyke Parks and spoken by Wilson. While I appreciate the underlying concept in terms of cohesiveness for the concept album, Wilson comes off as awkward, his rendition akin to a poor impersonation of Burl Ives narrating Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Following that is a Randy Newman-type number titled Good Kind of Love. I found this song to be irresistible primarily due it’s feel good nature. Next is a piece titled Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl. At this point, I couldn’t entirely shake the feeling of bittersweet nostalgia that seems to permeate the entire album. Wilson comes off as the type of guy you might find at a bar. He can’t help but talk only of the glory days, which are years behind him. I found this thought to actually be quite depressing. Following a spoken track about Venice Beach, is a song called Live Let Live which is beautifully orchestrated. I should mention here that all of the songs lead right into each other to the point where track endings and beginnings can become difficult to discern. I love this effect as it truly makes the work feel like on whole, cohesive piece. This is, in essence, what a concept album is with tracks merely acting as movements of a larger work. Next, is a song called Mexican Girl. As one might imagine, it’s a piece describing the love the protagonist has for a Mexican woman complete with authentic instrumentation and stylistic hand clapping. Continuing this theme, the following narration involves Cinco de Mayo.
Track one is the title track. Immediately the listener is greeted by layered vocal harmonies that sound like they’re right off of a Beach Boys album (surprise, surprise!). As Wilson starts to sing however, his vocals sound almost jarring. He sounds not like a youthful teenager singing about fun in the sun, but an old man conspicuously out of place. This awkward dichotomy continues through the next track. The music sounds like a boogie woogie straight of a Beach Boys record. Unfortunately, it isn’t the sixties anymore. Times, and musical tastes for that matter, have changed significantly. It’s hard to keep the attention of a significant audience or write material that is interesting if it all still sounds like it’s completely from the early sixties. Most people (even the older ones) have moved on through a darker era of disillusionment in the seventies (Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath) all the way through the post grunge movement of the nineties (Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead). The third track is the first of several narratives, which appear throughout the album. The interludes are written by lyricist Van Dyke Parks and spoken by Wilson. While I appreciate the underlying concept in terms of cohesiveness for the concept album, Wilson comes off as awkward, his rendition akin to a poor impersonation of Burl Ives narrating Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Following that is a Randy Newman-type number titled Good Kind of Love. I found this song to be irresistible primarily due it’s feel good nature. Next is a piece titled Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl. At this point, I couldn’t entirely shake the feeling of bittersweet nostalgia that seems to permeate the entire album. Wilson comes off as the type of guy you might find at a bar. He can’t help but talk only of the glory days, which are years behind him. I found this thought to actually be quite depressing. Following a spoken track about Venice Beach, is a song called Live Let Live which is beautifully orchestrated. I should mention here that all of the songs lead right into each other to the point where track endings and beginnings can become difficult to discern. I love this effect as it truly makes the work feel like on whole, cohesive piece. This is, in essence, what a concept album is with tracks merely acting as movements of a larger work. Next, is a song called Mexican Girl. As one might imagine, it’s a piece describing the love the protagonist has for a Mexican woman complete with authentic instrumentation and stylistic hand clapping. Continuing this theme, the following narration involves Cinco de Mayo.
My feelings towards this album are actually quite mixed. It tends to be tragically nostalgic while offering nothing new or innovative either musically or lyrically. That being said, it does have a few songs, which are not only decently written but well produced. In addition, when I think back to all of the Beach Boys’ work, none of it was particularly earth shattering. What they were known for is making well-crafted pop songs. To this end, that is mostly what this album is. The problem is, Wilson seems stuck on constantly revisiting the past. To quote my one friend “It’s like he never left the beach”. Part of what makes a musical group or artist interesting is their ability to evolve and develop their sound. Sometimes this takes place over a shorter period of time than others but it always occurs in a highly regarded artist’s career. Unfortunately, Brian seems stuck more than forty years in the past. Nevertheless, within the style that he’s trapped, he proves that at sixty-five years old and after years of drug abuse and mental anguish, he still has a few good songs left in him.
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