[ A review by Noel Copiaco, Lansing, Michigan ]
Over the weekend, my wife and I got together with some friends for a “listening” party to immerse us in Brian Wilson’s new album “That Lucky Old Sun”. There were three couples and three single individuals, all baby boomers albeit my wife and I were the only Filipino couple as usual. This is Michigan after all.
After popping open several bottles of local wine and serving delicious chunks of mid-west cheeses, the host unwrapped the cd and plunked it in the player. The opening vocal harmonies blew us away instantly as soon as the cd started playing. Everyone looked at everyone in the den with a wide-eyed smile signifying disbelief at what is coming out of the speakers. Except for a few ooohhhs, aahhhs and chuckles, no one said a word all through the album.
This is another manifestation of Brian’s creativity that he wasn’t able to express with the musical constraints and financial obligations of the Beach Boys. This is his musical homage to the California of his youth, the California of the 50s and early 60s when the post war economic boom was at its crest. Even the album cover reminded me of those pretty “fruit crate art” of yesteryears. Bright, colorful and elicited good feelings.
Maybe it was the unending goblets of merlot and chardonnay but I felt rather emotional halfway through the album. If you think that Brian could not surpass the legendary “Smile”, well . . . he did it with this one. While some critics compare him to Mozart, I for one see the musical sensibility similar to Aaron Copland’s. “That Lucky Old Sun” is Brian’s fanfare for the common rock and roll man and his ‘American’ spring. This is classic rock Americana that Stephen Foster and Aaron Copland could be proud of.
Sure, Brian’s present day voice is no match for his searing falsetto of the ’Surfer Girl’ days but the vocal harmonies and the instrumental arrangements on this album is probably his best since PetSounds. While I can’t stand to listen to Mike Love’s version of the Beach Boys these days, Brian has avoided becoming an anachronism by constantly innovating and tapping into his genius creatively since his escape from the depths of mental malady in the late 80s.
I went out and bought the cd the next day. I don’t afford my self many luxuries these days but I make exceptions when it comes to masterpieces and Lucky Old Sun certainly qualifies as a masterpiece in my book.
And to think, there were some people around Brian during his prime that almost killed this proverbial Golden Goose by trying to extract the golden eggs from him in the most insidious ways. I am glad the Goose has survived and continues to share his gift of music to the world today. Brian is living proof that as humans we can be derailed, wounded, become a total wreck and still transcend it all, pick up the pieces and realize the dreams we have shelved in our past. The completion of Smile in 2004 still blows my mind.
Brian Wilson is the rock and roll Lazarus and I am thankful to witness his rebirth, if not metamorphosis.