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Post by kds on Oct 1, 2019 13:05:16 GMT
The album that drove a wedge into the Beach Boys online universe.
The pros - It features some of the best songs and vocals of Brian's solo career. Sail Away might be my favorite solo BW song. This Beautiful Day, Half Moon Bay, Whatever Happened, and The Right Time are all very good. Nice to have some Al and Blondie vocals on the album too. The production is also quite good, far better than some of Thomas's prior work with Brian. Also, I think the three "bonus" songs should've been on the proper album, perhaps with some of the guest songs bumped to bonus tracks.
The cons - Too many cooks. Too many guest stars. Nate Ruess and Mark Isham are alright. The Zooey Daschenel (sp?) and Peter Hollens songs are merely OK. The songs with Kacey Musgraves and Sebu are dreck. Luckily, we were spared from a Frank Ocean rap song on a BW album. We were also spared from an even sadder, melodramatic version of Last Song with Lana Del Rey.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 1, 2019 21:55:00 GMT
Right up there with TLOS as the best original work of Wilson's solo career. (I still put Gershwin in his upper echelon, and BWPS, too. But neither was really original work from his solo career.)
My complaints are similar to KDS's, though we differ on a few specific tracks. I think the Hollens one is a boy-band joke, while I enjoy Musgraves's song. And I don't think I'd have brought all the bonus tracks into the album proper: "Somewhere Quiet" is pretty forgettable for me, though I guess I wouldn't hate it being included. (I've also never been as high on "I'm Feeling Sad" as some, though it's fine.)
I do think it might be the first of his solo albums in which it seems obvious he can't really sing very well anymore. Even when he's multitracked on higher parts, they sound awful, and his diction is just gone. The voice sounds hollow to me. It's still functional on certain types of vocals, but with limited range and fewer, slower-hitting syllables. Presumably he's aware of it, hence so many vocals handed off to Al or guests. There's no shame in that, and I'd love for him to release more music with other lead vocalists (ideally from his band, as I believe Darian, Al, and Matt are all lead-caliber singers).
It's all over the map as opposed to being a cohesive album, but I wasn't upset by that at all. In fact, for me it was a plus after a few too many concepts...
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Post by kds on Oct 2, 2019 12:28:35 GMT
My ideal NPP would probably be:
This Beautiful Day Whatever Happened Half Moon Bay The Right Time Don't Worry I'm Feeling Sad Run James Run Tell Me Why One Kind of Love Saturday Night Sail Away
Bonus Tracks:
On the Island Our Special Love Guess You Had to Be There Somewhere Quiet The Last Song ........ Runaway Dancer (I guess)
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Post by kds on Apr 7, 2020 19:15:00 GMT
I'm giving this album a listen right now on the fifth anniversary of its release.
It's still hard to believe a MOR, yet mostly pleasant, later career album could be so polarizing.
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Post by kds on Apr 7, 2020 19:33:48 GMT
I thought I'd rated this one already.
As far as BW albums go, I'll give it a 7 (almost an eight). There's a lot of light, breezy later era Brian stuff to like, but I think the non BB guests muddle up the waters a bit.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 7, 2020 19:35:26 GMT
It's still hard to believe a MOR, yet mostly pleasant, later career album could be so polarizing. Not when you're talking about people who love hearing themselves opine and won't tolerate dissent (at least not without lengthy, detailed, rude, point-by-point follow-ups). Lots of those people. With different opinions.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 7, 2020 19:36:21 GMT
I thought I'd rated this one already. As far as BW albums go, I'll give it a 7 (almost an eight). There's a lot of light, breezy later era Brian stuff to like, but I think the non BB guests muddle up the waters a bit. Apparently I hadn't either. But now I have, also a 7. Though as our posts from last fall show, I have some different ups and downs than you do. (Wanna fight about them? )
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Apr 7, 2020 19:39:09 GMT
I remember the dissent started with whether or not there was autotune on the album, then it got even more ridiculous when people were being taken to task over using autotune as a blanket term or not supposedly knowing what EDM is.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Apr 7, 2020 19:40:16 GMT
I thought I'd rated this one already. As far as BW albums go, I'll give it a 7 (almost an eight). There's a lot of light, breezy later era Brian stuff to like, but I think the non BB guests muddle up the waters a bit. Apparently I hadn't either. But now I have, also a 7. Though as our posts from last fall show, I have some different ups and downs than you do. (Wanna fight about them? ) Looking at the album sub forum, it doesn't look like polls were added to any of the threads.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 7, 2020 19:40:49 GMT
Apparently I hadn't either. But now I have, also a 7. Though as our posts from last fall show, I have some different ups and downs than you do. (Wanna fight about them? ) Looking at the album sub forum, it doesn't look like polls were added to any of the threads. Nope, we just chatted about them ... which I kind of like, actually.
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Post by kds on Apr 7, 2020 19:43:24 GMT
I remember the dissent started with whether or not there was autotune on the album, then it got even more ridiculous when people were being taken to task over using autotune as a blanket term or not supposedly knowing what EDM is. That person would be me. And that's probably not the most ridiculous debate I had about NPP. And, I'm actually a fan of the album.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 7, 2020 19:43:44 GMT
I'm going to review the album on its fifth year anniversary, but first I'd like to get this out of the way.
I thought the polarizing had more to do with the criticism of Brian Wilson than it did the album. Let's be open and honest here. You're mainly referring to the Smiley Smile forum. By that time, the two moderators and a few of the posters basically dug in their heels and were not going to allow ANY criticism of Brian Wilson, no matter how objective and well-stated it was. It was - nope, don't wanna hear it, how dare you, not here, go away. Clearly agendas were in place and the lines were drawn. It just came to a head with No Pressure and some of the other bullying bullshit that was going on behind the scenes. But, again, I don't think the negative criticism of the album "drove a wedge" into the Beach Boys' online universe. That wedge was well-driven already, at least on that particular forum.
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Post by jk on Apr 7, 2020 19:44:31 GMT
I have the deluxe edition. If I ever listen to it, I end it on an upbeat note with track #15, "Saturday Night". (I can do without "La-la-la-last Song", "ITBOMM 1975" and "L&M 2015".) Then I think it's a corker of an album, and one I could play in any company. I can't give it ten for the above reasons but I can give it nine.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 7, 2020 19:49:02 GMT
I'm going to review the album on its fifth year anniversary, but first I'd like to get this out of the way.
I thought the polarizing had more to do with the criticism of Brian Wilson than it did the album. Let's be open and honest here. You're mainly referring to the Smiley Smile forum. By that time, the two moderators and a few of the posters basically dug in their heels and were not going to allow ANY criticism of Brian Wilson, no matter how objective and well-stated it was. It was - nope, don't wanna hear it, how dare you, not here, go away. Clearly agendas were in place and the lines were drawn. It just came to a head with No Pressure and some of the other bullying bullshit that was going on behind the scenes. But, again, I don't think the negative criticism of the album "drove a wedge" into the Beach Boys' online universe. That wedge was well-driven already, at least on that particular forum.
I think that's true: the album was more what was happening at the time the various spats were ongoing. (And they weren't the first or last spats, either.) PSF already existed by then, didn't it? Or did it grow out of that fight? Anyway, there had been splinter boards and battles going back as long as I've been around online with the BBs, which gets us to the early '00s.
Some people just aren't able to maintain cordial relationships when they disagree about things. It's unfortunate. A lot of the people who have been involved in the various fights over the years, I like or respect (or both). But for some reason, certain triggers are pulled and all decent behavior is out the window.
The campaign season heating up around then didn't help anything, either. Things got really weird then.
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Post by kds on Apr 7, 2020 19:51:58 GMT
I'm going to review the album on its fifth year anniversary, but first I'd like to get this out of the way.
I thought the polarizing had more to do with the criticism of Brian Wilson than it did the album. Let's be open and honest here. You're mainly referring to the Smiley Smile forum. By that time, the two moderators and a few of the posters basically dug in their heels and were not going to allow ANY criticism of Brian Wilson, no matter how objective and well-stated it was. It was - nope, don't wanna hear it, how dare you, not here, go away. Clearly agendas were in place and the lines were drawn. It just came to a head with No Pressure and some of the other bullying bullshit that was going on behind the scenes. But, again, I don't think the negative criticism of the album "drove a wedge" into the Beach Boys' online universe. That wedge was well-driven already.
From what I recall, the criticisms were about the album, but they were taken as an insult to Brian himself, which doesn't really make sense. As if not saying that NPP was Pet Sounds II was some kind of personal attack at the man. And you're right, there was already quite a division in the fanbase, but NPP really brought it to a head. But, as I was often mocked for on SSMB, discussing the music is far more fun to me. The Last Song is now (thankfully) fading out as the album finished. I'd say five years later, I probably don't like the album nearly as much as I did in 2015 (I can actually say that for every BW album to be honest), but I still find it mostly enjoyable. On the whole, my opinions of the individual songs hasn't changed much. Although, I find myself liking On the Island more now.
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