Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson (Dlx)
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Free Music Notes for Brian Wilson (Dlx)
Free Music Review: I'm listening to it now!
Hit: 5 Stars
Great album. A real pleasure to listen to. Easy-going with lush arrangements and some personal material and comments by Brian on the songs and his thoughts. Rio Grande is a fantastic song that really showcases Brian's genius. The opening song Melt Away is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and is worth the price alone.Free Music Review: BUY THIS CD!!!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Boy oh boy - - the album proper is de-mudded [made mud-free?], the bonus tracks sound fantastic, and the piece as a whole is as documentary as anything Don Was ever dreamed of. What a time capsule!Free Music Review: There's only one Brian Wilson
Hit: 5 Stars
Only Brian Wilson could write "Melt Away," and for this song alone this CD is a MUST HAVE.Free Music Review: WIGGLY PARTY
Hit: 5 Stars
Did you know that on a Wiggles movie they sing Little Children??!??Free Music Review: Superb Comeback for Beach Boy Leader
Hit: 4 Stars
This is an excellent reissue of Brian Wilson's self-titled solo LP from 1988. It remains the best music that the Beach Boy singer and composer has released in the past twenty years or so.The albums starts promisingly with "Love and Mercy," which has become a staple of Wilson's concert performances. It has a simple but well-structured melody which is lent potency by the Beach Boys-style harmonies for which Wilson is justly famous. However, on this album, Wilson handles almost all the backing vocal chores by himself, having painstakingly multi-tracked each vocal part. The results on this track are particularly spectacular on the bridge section. The lyrics of the song are disarmingly direct, almost childlike in their plea for (what else) love and mercy.
Other highlights include the acapella self-harmonizing on "One for the Boys," the lovely romantic ballad "Melt Away," and the retro pop effervescence of "Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight." The most spectacular cut is saved for the close, "Rio Grande." It's a pop suite seemingly inspired by the Americana themes and quirky melodies of the Beach Boys' abortive 1967 "Smile" album. It contains several haunting melodies blanketed in lush harmonies and production.
If there is a fault with the album, it may be its excessive reliance on the programmed synthesizers that were so popular in the late `80s. The entire project feels a tad overproduced. There are also some weak numbers, notably "There's So Many" and "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long." Other than that, it's a satisfying return to the sophisticated harmonies and striking melodies that were the hallmark of Wilson's best work in the `60s.
Rhino has done a superb job of repackaging this album for release, replete with bonus tracks including demos for "Rio Grande," "Melt Away," and other key cuts on the album. Also included are tracks that were featured as B-sides and on movie soundtracks around the period this album was released. Interview segments with Wilson round out the package.
Rhino Records should be applauded for bringing back this long out-of-print release, especially with the wealth of bonus material included. "Brian Wilson" deserves a wider audience than it was able to garner at the time of its release. It's a key piece in the body of work of one of America's greatest songwriters of the modern rock era.