:: Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun

Brian Wilson

I really wanted to love this album because The Beach Boys have been an institution in my life. I rate songs such as ‘Sloop John B’, ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘California Girls’ as some of the best songs ever written and, up until this point, Brian Wilson’s solo work has been on par with anything he had done with The Beach Boys. But the wheels have well and truly fallen off with ‘That Lucky Old Sun’, as Brian Wilson tries to become the unthinkable, a leopard who changes his spots. While no-one has uttered the dreaded phrase ‘concept album’, you get a feeling that Wilson was trying to create an album about living in southern California, that part works. What doesn’t work is Wilson trying to perform the tracks in a Frank Sinatra-Big Band style, Wilson’s voice was built for harmonies not Big Band and as a result ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ ends up becoming a very average pop album indeed. The sad thing is there are the odd occasions to be found here where Wilson does recapture some of his old gold. ‘Morning Beat’ sounds like The Beach Boys ‘Kokomo’ phase while ‘Mexican Girl’ sees the old Beach Boys sounds mix well with a modern Latin-pop sound, but these tracks are largely over shadowed by average pop songs like ‘Live Let Live’ and ‘Good Kind Of Love’ that end up sounding like they should be used in B-Grade musicals rather than be here on a songwriting genius’s album.

It almost seems like Wilson knows he is flogging a dead horse as well. He tries desperately to recapture some old Beach Boys class with ‘Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl’ and ‘Southern California’ but his new style holds the songs back dreadfully. Where Wilson really falls apart is on ‘California Role’ where he struggles with his new found sound so much that it becomes obvious to all that his voice just doesn’t suite this crooner style. Let’s hope that this isn’t Wilson’s last album. It would be a tragedy for a music legend to bail out with such an average album for a farewell. Only hardcore Brian Wilson will get anything out of this album…and even then most of them will experience disappointment as well.