In article
<3825b4b3-5c82-43bf-873b-6c7b588050e0@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
The old geezer <JYOB@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Brian's voice is SHOT, the Wondermints CANNOT compare to the original
> BBs vocals & harmonies, the lyrics are inane, it is not PC,
> uhhh....what else........uhh....errr....oh yeah, the cover art is
> Stoopid......& when I purchase a cd I want at least 60 minutes of
> music....anything less today is a rip-off! The ONLY thing that may
> have salvaged this recording would have been to include Mike & Bruce &
> Al in the vocals. Only maybe.
Another view --
To me Brian sounds more natural on this recording than he has for
decades. He'll never sound like the 22-year-old Brian Wilson anymore,
but here he sounds like -- well, himself. His singing here sounds just
fine to me, and although it's clear in concert that he was problems
sustaining notes and sometimes with pitch, he sounds like he mostly
pulled this one off in the studio without much digital assistance.
Possibly the songs were constructed more carefully this time around to
suit what we can do with his voice these days. Not much doubling by
Foskett this time, either.
Also, I have no problem with the lyrics, or anyway no problem other than
with the sophomoric rhymes of the word "muchacha". I found that the
subjects of the songs are handled directly and deftly, not tritely or
cloyingly. I didn't cringe at any forced lyrics here as I do during some
of the numbers on "Gettin' In Over My Head" -- excepting the few lines
of "Mexican Girl" I mentioned above, and even those I readily admit are
stupid on purpose. (Warning: I like the sometimes reviled "The Waltz",
which I think is can be excused on the grounds of its clever
sentimentality, so as usual YMMV.) Also I think the sequence of songs
hangs together as a cycle or work that has greater impact than its
individual parts.
Good performances, including good backup singing. By now I think Brian
has toured with the Wondermints-and-friends longer than he did during
the initial run of the Beach Boys, and clearly they work together well
and have established their own identity as a performing and recording
entity. At no point did it sound to me like they had tried and failed to
be Beach Boys, and at no point did I think that any of the surviving
co-litigants were missed. If the guys who made the record wanted to and
could have woven them in, fine, but I think it would have amounted to an
inessential gesture.
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