Review:
“Pioneering musical genius Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys,” AZ “has added countless songs to the canon of great American pop music” JB “during his five decades of music-making,” JB “but he hasn’t recorded many by other composers.” JB “Still, his affection for the work of George Gershwin is long, and quite evident from this tribute album. In it, Wilson presents 11 classics from Gershwin’s pen, and received the blessing of the Gershwin estate to finish two incomplete songs, The Like in I Love You and Nothing But Love.” JB
“Brian Wilson has more than a few things in common with George Gershwin. Both led wildly successful musical partnerships with their brothers. Both combined pop-song punch with harmonic sophistication worthy of the European classical tradition. Both blazed early then flamed out: Gershwin died of a brain tumor at age 38; drugs and mental illness sent Wilson into seclusion in the late 1960s. And, oh, yeah, both are certifiable geniuses, two of the greatest masters of melody that popular music has known.” JR
“In recent years, rockers of a certain age have struck commercial pay dirt by serving up embarrassingly stiff big-band versions of popular standards. (We’re looking at you, Rod Stewart.) Wilson’s project is more cavalier – and far more successful.” JR “Produced by Brian Wilson, mixed by multi-Grammy winner Al Schmitt and joined by his longtime acclaimed band, the new album features the trademark stacked vocal harmonies and orchestrations that made Wilson a towering and revered figure in popular music.” AZ
“As usual, Wilson’s musical instincts are impeccable, and with a full orchestra lending additional weight to these songs, it’s easily the best production on a Brian Wilson record since 2004’s SMiLE. It doesn’t hurt that the lyrics as well as the music are tried and true; most of Wilson’s solo output, and much of the Beach Boys’ after 1967, has suffered from trite or tone-deaf lyrics.” JB
“Wilson’s normal studio group is augmented here with an orchestra (the arrangements and orchestrations are by Wilson and Paul Von Mertens), and they stay in the background except when needed – just one of the many fine touches to the entire production here.” JB
The album finds Wilson “multi-tracking his vocals for the first time on the opener, a nearly a cappella version of Rhapsody in Blue.” JB He reprises the song in the end “with a gorgeous, string-laden rendition of the main theme.” JR
The material in between finds Wilson “in fine voice for his age, finding the pathos in Summertime and It Ain’t Necessarily So” JB while turning the former “into a doo-wop ballad.” JR He also “teleports Someone to Watch Over Me from Broadway to sun-splashed California.” JR
“I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ is done up, as an instrumental, in full Pet Sounds splendor (complete with bass harmonica), while I Got Rhythm is neatly transformed into an uptempo nugget to rank with ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ or ‘Little Honda.’” JB
Wilson “tricks out They Can’t Take That Away from Me with brass and lush harmonies” JR although his “bouncy take…is never going to compete with Ella Fitzgerald’s (or even Julie London’s).” JB
In one of the few misses, “‘S Wonderful is nearly blanded out into easy listening oblivion, but nearly everything else here is loving, sincere, and worthy of hearing by fans of the Beach Boys or Broadway.” JB This is, after all, “Porgy and Bess-meets-Pet Sounds: lovely, weird, subtly psychedelic symphonic lounge music.” JR “By the time the album ends…you can’t help but ask: Is Brian Wilson the baby-boomer George Gershwin? Or was Gershwin the first Beach Boy?” JR
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