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.

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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