That Lucky Old Sun [Slipcase]

Performer: Brian Wilson (Pop)
Engineer: Aaron Walk; Paul Smith; Kevin Mills; Mark Linett
Producer: Scott Bennett; Brian Wilson
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Brian Wilson (vocals, keyboards); Jeffrey Foskett (guitar, ukulele, background vocals); Probyn Gregory (guitars, trumpet, French horn, background vocals); Nick Walusko (guitars, background vocals); Scott Bennett (Spanish guitar, keyboards, vibraphone, bass instrument, background vocals); Paul VonMertens (flute, clarinet, saxophone); Darian Sahanaja (keyboards, bells, background vocals); Bob Lizik (bass instrument); Todd Sucherman (drums); Nelson Bragg (percussion, background vocals); Taylor Mills (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Michael Corcoran; Scott Bennett; Brian Wilson . Arrangers: Paul VonMertens; Darian Sahanaja; Scott Bennett; Brian Wilson . Seldom has an album had as much to live up to as THAT LUCKY OLD SUN. When Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks wrote the iconic song suite SMILE some four decades earlier, they created the definitive art-pop statement, inspiring countless imitators for years to come. It's a gutsy move for Wilson to create a new album-length suite in 2008 in collaboration with Parks and bandmate Scott Bennett, a work that will unavoidably be compared to the unmatchable SMILE. LUCKY OLD SUN isn't SMILE's sequel; rather, it's an extended meditation on the pop myth Wilson and the other Beach Boys created in the '60s--L.A. as eternal summer-land, a surf-sand-and-hot-rod-heaven. Naturally, the music references the Beach Boys' classics, teeming with rich, close vocal harmonies, lilting, piano-driven song structures, and sunny, sophisticated melodic lines that will send a chill up the spine of anyone who's ever absorbed the sunshine-pop majesty of PET SOUNDS. Sure, Wilson's voice is a bit worn with age, but there's no attempt to duplicate the epic sweep of SMILE. THAT LUCKY OLD SUN succeeds on its own terms. That Lucky Old Sun, Brian Wilson's second major thematic work, isn't quite the third coming of SMiLE. Instead, it's an ode to the Southern California of the '50s and '60s that the Beach Boys constantly evoked, and although it's polished with the peak-era production style that Wilson made famous, most of the songs are wrapped around the overwrought pop/rock he's revisited again and again since his first major return to form, back in 1976. As a thematic topic, "That Lucky Old Sun" is ripe for integration into Brian Wilson's California myth-making. A Tin Pan Alley chestnut from the '40s, it contrasts the ease of the sun's transit each day with the hardship of human toil on earth, a sort of "Ol' Man River" set in the sky. (Even better is the fact that it's a professional songwriter's account of working-class life, which dovetails perfectly with the Beach Boys' mythic vision of Southern California and the illusionary aspects of Hollywood's brand of reality.) That Lucky Old Sun begins with Wilson briefly stating the theme and the intonation of a heavenly choir, but then barrels into the first song, "Morning Beat," a rocker with a set of adolescent rhymes (one example: "The sun burns a hole through the 6 a.m. haze/Turns up the volume and shows off its rays"). But wasn't this is supposed to be a collaboration with the great lyricist Van Dyke Parks? Actually, Parks contributes only to a set of spoken narratives, delivered emphatically by Wilson himself, that are interspersed throughout the album and attempt to advance the California panorama from Venice Beach to East L.A. to Hollywood -- as well as frequent stops along Brian Wilson's personal time line. ("How could I have got so low, I'm embarrassed to tell you so/I laid around this old place, I hardly ever washed my face.") That Lucky Old Sun rarely evokes the classic Beach Boys sound, but instead the driving '70s productions on latter-day Beach Boys albums like 15 Big Ones and Love You -- granted, with innumerable production touches that could only have come from the mind of Brian Wilson (ah, the clip-clop of wood blocks!). It's obvious that Wilson was at the center of some of the best and brightest productions of the '60s, but the added assumption about being at the center is that there are integral parts radiating outward. (In Wilson's case, those parts consisted of a superb harmony group with several great lead voices and the on-demand talents of an array of excellent musicians, plus copious engineers and studio technology.) Naturally, his solo career has positioned him at the forefront, which is a very different place than the center and one he's proved himself unwilling and unable to embrace fully. He needs not only talented collaborators but strong lead voices to place alongside his own; an apt comparison at Wilson's age is Burt Bacharach, who would hardly consider writing lyrics as well as music and singing every song on one of his albums. The lack of colleagues who could inform the result of this album -- the lack of Van Dyke Parks in a prominent role or a Carl Wilson or even a Mike Love -- is what makes That Lucky Old Sun assume a place below SMiLE in the pantheon of Brian Wilson's achievements. ~ John Bush That Lucky Old Sun, Brian Wilson's second major thematic work, isn't quite the third coming of SMiLE. Instead, it's an overripe ode to the Southern California of the '50s and '60s that the Beach Boys constantly evoked, and although it's polished with the peak-era production style that Wilson made famous, most of the songs are wrapped around the awkward songwriting and overwrought pop/rock he's revisited again and again since his first major return to form, back in 1976. As a thematic topic, "That Lucky Old Sun" is ripe for integration into Brian Wilson's California myth-making. A Tin Pan Alley chestnut from the '40s, it contrasts the ease of the sun's transit each day with the hardship of human toil on earth, a sort of "Ol' Man River" set in the sky. (Even better is the fact that it's a professional songwriter's account of working-class life, which dovetails perfectly with the Beach Boys' mythic vision of Southern California and the illusionary aspects of Hollywood's brand of reality.) That Lucky Old Sun begins with Wilson briefly stating the theme and the intonation of a heavenly choir, but then barrels into the first song, "Morning Beat," a turgid rocker with a set of adolescent rhymes (one example: "The sun burns a hole through the 6 a.m. haze/Turns up the volume and shows off its rays"). But wasn't this is supposed to be a collaboration with the great lyricist Van Dyke Parks? Actually, Parks contributes only to a set of spoken narratives, delivered over-emphatically by Wilson himself, that are interspersed throughout the album and attempt to advance the California panorama from Venice Beach to East L.A. to Hollywood -- as well as frequent stops along Brian Wilson's personal time line. ("How could I have got so low, I'm embarrassed to tell you so/I laid around this old place, I hardly ever washed my face.") But if Brian Wilson is attempting to look back, his muscle memory for the Beach Boys' classics appears to be fading faster than his personal memories. That Lucky Old Sun rarely approaches the subtleties of the classic Beach Boys sound. What it evokes instead is the driving '70s productions on latter-day Beach Boys albums like 15 Big Ones and Love You -- granted, with innumerable production touches that could only have come from the mind of Brian Wilson (ah, the clip-clop of wood blocks!). It's obvious that Wilson was at the center of some of the best and brightest productions of the '60s, but the added assumption about being at the center is that there are integral parts radiating outward. (In Wilson's case, those parts consisted of a superb harmony group with several great lead voices and the on-demand talents of an array of excellent musicians, plus copious engineers and studio technology.) Naturally, his solo career has positioned him at the forefront, which is a very different place than the center and one he's proved himself unwilling and unable to embrace fully. He needs not only talented collaborators but strong lead voices to place alongside his own; an apt comparison at Wilson's age is Burt Bacharach, who would hardly consider writing lyrics as well as music and singing every song on one of his albums. The lack of colleagues who could inform the result of this album -- the lack of Van Dyke Parks in a prominent role or a Carl Wilson or even a Mike Love -- is what dooms That Lucky Old Sun, which assumes a place well below SMiLE in the pantheon of Brian Wilson's achievements. ~ John Bush

Rolling Stone (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[H]e sings with a reborn will, even when the truth hurts....It has a natural, hopeful flow that leaves you warm all over." Rolling Stone (p.92) - Ranked #27 in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums Of 2008 -- "This modest treasure has the same warm glow of the Beach Boys' WILD HONEY." Spin (p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Sweetly and unmistakably, THAT LUCKY OLD SUN limns the sunset of Wilson's career, while still showing how California is at its most beautiful through his eyes." Billboard (p.41) - "Wilson and his collaborators create richly arranged and orchestrated pop songs as well as four poetic spoken-word narratives that give the album a trippy, avant edge." Paste (magazine) (p.60) - "[A]lternately gorgeous and gut-wrenching....If you are about this tortured genius and his music, THAT LUCKY OLD SUN is an essential yet gripping narrative."

As leader of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson was largely responsible for their revered 1966 album, PET SOUNDS. His subsequent two-decade-long submersion in drugs, mental problems, and controversial psychotherapy has become the stuff of legend, but he cleaned up and returned to recording in 1988 with a steady stream of albums that combined his flawless melodic sensibility with a restlessly experimental vibe. In 2004 he finally released the legendary album SMILE, whose initial production fell apart in 1967 as Wilson's excesses and mental illness took their toll. Since then he's been performing live regularly (often with daughter Carnie Wilson on backing vocals) and has assumed his rightful place as one of the grand old masters of pure pop perfection.

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