Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2019 17:15:09 GMT -5
TL;DR: Fantastic stuff, and the closest solo Brian ever came to sounding like he did in the 60s/70s
GIOMH is revelatory after listening to the godawful '04 version. This one actually has a sincerity to it. That piano riff sounds like something straight from the heart. It's REAL. It's understated. It's analog. It's classic Brian. After drowning in Joe Thomas autotuned, pro-tools crap all day, it's gorgeous. It's something only the man himself could make, and all the lousy computer programs in the world can't recapture. Overall a very intimate recording of a track with a lot of potential (that would sadly be squandered).
You're Still a Mystery is also great. So far [only 1/10 of the way through admittedly] these recordings sound like the good old Brian I loved so much again. It's just the reaffirmation I needed that the man could still write some great tunes and I still deeply admire him after having my faith tested with his Landy and Thomas collaborations.
Chain Reaction of Love has the dynamism and great chord progressions that I haven't seen all day. This could have been a Love You track, and today, that's the highest praise I could possibly bestow. Some constructive criticism though--it needed some new lyrics. After hearing the same phrase uttered a hundred times in a row, it's like "okay...we get it." Still, with a rewrite, it could have been great.
Soul Searching is probably the weakest track yet. I'm just not a fan of the 50s doo-wop vibes I get from this melody. The chorus is just so ill fitting of the theme too.
It's Not Easy Being me is good. It's not on the level as Til I Die or the introverted 60s stuff, but it's cut from the same cloth. Very emotionally honest, and with Brian, sometimes those emotions are pretty upsetting to be privy to. This is another one that I think would have benefited from some reworking though.
Desert Drive...lose that sax or whatever horn instrument it is and replace it with a different instrument. I think with that change it'd be a great backing track, maybe with some changes a good instrumental. As is, it's a little too one note and the sax kind of washes over everything.
SMITC's intro is fantastic. It sounded so unique and unexpected--something NO SONG from his other solo albums has captured. And the rest of the track lives up to that promising start. It also could benefit with some tweaks to the lyrics and some overdubs, but it would have been a welcome addition to TLOS.
This Song's Gonna Sleep With You...what a title! Channeling the same offbeat humor of Do You Like Worms It's ruined though, when the title is actually sung as a lyrics. The REST of the lyrics are great, but I think that phrase works better as an unsaid joke title rather than the chorus. Rewrite the chorus and you're all set. THIS is the kind of offbeat, uniquely Brian lullaby I've wanted all my life, and that several of his solo tracks could have been had the lyrics and production not been godawful.
Marketplace...Brian did it guys!! He made a sequel to Vega-Tables about fruits (and other stuff)!! If you followed my posts on SmileySmile, you know that was something Id been saying he ought to do for awhile. Along with SMITC, he has the makings of a suite about city life. Probably the genesis for TLOS, and both would fit right at home there.
Im Broke...more like Im not a fan. It's okay, but sounds forced. Like Brian wanted to try out something new and out of character, and it doesn't work too well. It doesn't fit with the aesthetic that the rest of these tracks have built up, and it's WAY too one-note lyrically.
Must Be a Miracle would be a lot better with Carl or Al singing it. Brian's voice just couldn't handle this kind of track anymore by this point. He sounds like a whiny scream when this should be a beautiful falsetto. There are a few clunky lyrics too that could stand to be touched up.
In My Moondreams is a gorgeous backing track. It needs more layers, but this is the kind of aesthetic Joe Thomas so obvious labored to create all his time with Brian and never came anywhere close. By this point, I'm noticing several motifs here with these songs, like the city living and now the dreamy lullabies.
Mary Anne has potential, but again the vocals are awful. Too whiny and nasally. If Brian sang it softer it would sound much better. As is, he's like SHOUTING the lines and I just want to tell him he doesn't have to. I'm curious how a slowed down ballad version might sound too...
Slightly American Music is a rare misfire...but again it has potential. I just hate the repetitious lyrics "I getch, I getcha"/"we made it, we made it" x100 each. The titular phrase is also kind of awkward as a lyric. There are the callbacks to his own past tracks and Be My Baby. I could totally see this as the closer of the whole album though.
Proud Mary's pretty good. I sense some Worms channeling here too, lyric wise. The "Rocking! Rolling!" part makes me think of the "Rock, Rock, Roll" part. Maybe some River Song being channeled as well, intentionally or not. The instrumental bridge sounds great. Just vintage Brian goodness after so many mediocre albums of a digitized autotuned robot. Not as big a fan of the slowed down version. This needs to be a rocker--the lyrics alone signify that.
The second version of Soul Searching with the female vocal accompaniment is an improvement, but this is still probably my least favorite track from these sessions. That chorus just makes me feel like Im lugging my pick axe to go a'working on railroad or something. It just doesn't fit the theme of actual soul searching, nor is it something I can bob my head to and get into a groove.
Everything I Need is also good. But Brian's vocal just sounds so weird. The guest vocalist whoever it is also sounds kinda out of place to me. They sound too young. It sounds like he's singing a romantic duet with his niece or something. The voice does grow on me as the song goes on, however. There's an endearing quality to it. Like everything else (possible exception of Soul Searching) though, there's definitely potential here.
Untitled...spoiler alert, it's great. This melody would make for a great instrumental OR backing track. Even as is, just a little piano coda, it's got more Brian magic than '88/Imagination/GIOMH'04/NPP combined.
Holy cow, everybody. Brian's Back!!! (Not really because this was recorded 20 years ago...and most of what I heard today was recorded after this.) But seriously, you have NO IDEA how fresh, authentic, endearing and just plain fun this boot was to listen to after suffering through the Joe Thomas and Eugene Landy crap. And this does indeed make all the rest of his solo projects (besides, again, BWPS/TLOS) sound like crap in comparison. Honestly, I haven't been this enamored with new Brian material since the first time I heard Love You...maybe even the first time I heard the SMiLE boots.
A good portion of the songs need some work, but there's a very strong foundation for a great album here. I picture a "suite" of the city living and songs about women on Side 1, with Mary being our narrator's recurring love interest. Probably ending with Proud Mary. Then Side 2 could have the introspective stuff, kicking off with GIOMH as well as the lullaby/dream stuff. Whole thing ends with Slightly American Music. I'd like to listen some more and really play around with a complete sequence at some point.
This might be a bold assertion, especially seeing the (frankly baffling) lukewarm reaction you guys gave, but as far as Im concerned, these are the SMiLE Sessions of Brian's solo career. Just a great, inspired collection of tunes made with a collaborator who stimulated Brian, and then another Beach Boy made him feel bad about it so work halted. Fragments wound up on other albums, but the beautiful whole that could have been will never be finished. And unlike SMiLE, it's too late to hope for a revisit and completion. Ah well.
I know Im just rambling on repeating myself...but I cannot emphasize enough how much this music touched me. This is the closest Brian ever came to recapturing his old offbeat muse since Love You. Hearing this after wondering if Brian was replaced with a body double in '88 due to all the mediocre material was beautiful and sad. Sad because it proves that the man did indeed still have the talent to make great albums...he just never found the right collaborator ever again. This makes you want to curse the cruel fate that caused Brian to meet Joe Thomas. This is the ultimate proof that genuine analog recordings, warts and all, are miles and miles better than digital "enhancements" with the rough edges filed down.
10 out of 10. Brian's best solo material, possibly sans TLOS. This is what I expected from ALL his solo stuff.
Found some more of the Paley tracks on another boot.
I think Some Sweet Day and This Could Be the Night would both be fantastic latter-era Beach Boy tracks.
Sweets for my Sweet was a little too loud and one-note for me. This sounded more like a Landy era Brian song to my ears. I don't think it would fit on a hypothetical album.
Frankie Avalon doesn't sound finished. I mean, even more than the others. It's not as funny or WTF as Johnny Carson, and I don't think such an unexpected outta-the-blue track would have worked on the Paley album. As I said before, I think the major themes of this music is city living, romance, dreams/lullabies and introspection. Love You was more of an anything goes/stream of consciousness project.
Elbow '63 sounds almost like a joke/filler song from days gone by. Again, doesn't really fit with the bulk of the tracks to me.
God Did It is WAY too overtly religious for my tastes. The melody isn't anything special either. Definitely a throwaway for me.
Goin Home is a good song but I don't think it really fits with the aesthetic. This album seemed fairly grounded in the present day, I don't think a cowboy/saloon themed track really fits.
What Rock and Roll can Do would have been a great bookend for the album along with Slightly American Music. I think this works better as a closer now that I've heard it.
So, it seems like these are the weaker Paley stuff which probably explains their absence in the other boot. I still like them as individual songs for the most part (except God Did It). Doesn't change my rating of 10
Still can't seem to find Rings, Sweetie, Walking on Water or Dancing the Night Away tho. *cough*belch*bark*
GIOMH is revelatory after listening to the godawful '04 version. This one actually has a sincerity to it. That piano riff sounds like something straight from the heart. It's REAL. It's understated. It's analog. It's classic Brian. After drowning in Joe Thomas autotuned, pro-tools crap all day, it's gorgeous. It's something only the man himself could make, and all the lousy computer programs in the world can't recapture. Overall a very intimate recording of a track with a lot of potential (that would sadly be squandered).
You're Still a Mystery is also great. So far [only 1/10 of the way through admittedly] these recordings sound like the good old Brian I loved so much again. It's just the reaffirmation I needed that the man could still write some great tunes and I still deeply admire him after having my faith tested with his Landy and Thomas collaborations.
Chain Reaction of Love has the dynamism and great chord progressions that I haven't seen all day. This could have been a Love You track, and today, that's the highest praise I could possibly bestow. Some constructive criticism though--it needed some new lyrics. After hearing the same phrase uttered a hundred times in a row, it's like "okay...we get it." Still, with a rewrite, it could have been great.
Soul Searching is probably the weakest track yet. I'm just not a fan of the 50s doo-wop vibes I get from this melody. The chorus is just so ill fitting of the theme too.
It's Not Easy Being me is good. It's not on the level as Til I Die or the introverted 60s stuff, but it's cut from the same cloth. Very emotionally honest, and with Brian, sometimes those emotions are pretty upsetting to be privy to. This is another one that I think would have benefited from some reworking though.
Desert Drive...lose that sax or whatever horn instrument it is and replace it with a different instrument. I think with that change it'd be a great backing track, maybe with some changes a good instrumental. As is, it's a little too one note and the sax kind of washes over everything.
SMITC's intro is fantastic. It sounded so unique and unexpected--something NO SONG from his other solo albums has captured. And the rest of the track lives up to that promising start. It also could benefit with some tweaks to the lyrics and some overdubs, but it would have been a welcome addition to TLOS.
This Song's Gonna Sleep With You...what a title! Channeling the same offbeat humor of Do You Like Worms It's ruined though, when the title is actually sung as a lyrics. The REST of the lyrics are great, but I think that phrase works better as an unsaid joke title rather than the chorus. Rewrite the chorus and you're all set. THIS is the kind of offbeat, uniquely Brian lullaby I've wanted all my life, and that several of his solo tracks could have been had the lyrics and production not been godawful.
Marketplace...Brian did it guys!! He made a sequel to Vega-Tables about fruits (and other stuff)!! If you followed my posts on SmileySmile, you know that was something Id been saying he ought to do for awhile. Along with SMITC, he has the makings of a suite about city life. Probably the genesis for TLOS, and both would fit right at home there.
Im Broke...more like Im not a fan. It's okay, but sounds forced. Like Brian wanted to try out something new and out of character, and it doesn't work too well. It doesn't fit with the aesthetic that the rest of these tracks have built up, and it's WAY too one-note lyrically.
Must Be a Miracle would be a lot better with Carl or Al singing it. Brian's voice just couldn't handle this kind of track anymore by this point. He sounds like a whiny scream when this should be a beautiful falsetto. There are a few clunky lyrics too that could stand to be touched up.
In My Moondreams is a gorgeous backing track. It needs more layers, but this is the kind of aesthetic Joe Thomas so obvious labored to create all his time with Brian and never came anywhere close. By this point, I'm noticing several motifs here with these songs, like the city living and now the dreamy lullabies.
Mary Anne has potential, but again the vocals are awful. Too whiny and nasally. If Brian sang it softer it would sound much better. As is, he's like SHOUTING the lines and I just want to tell him he doesn't have to. I'm curious how a slowed down ballad version might sound too...
Slightly American Music is a rare misfire...but again it has potential. I just hate the repetitious lyrics "I getch, I getcha"/"we made it, we made it" x100 each. The titular phrase is also kind of awkward as a lyric. There are the callbacks to his own past tracks and Be My Baby. I could totally see this as the closer of the whole album though.
Proud Mary's pretty good. I sense some Worms channeling here too, lyric wise. The "Rocking! Rolling!" part makes me think of the "Rock, Rock, Roll" part. Maybe some River Song being channeled as well, intentionally or not. The instrumental bridge sounds great. Just vintage Brian goodness after so many mediocre albums of a digitized autotuned robot. Not as big a fan of the slowed down version. This needs to be a rocker--the lyrics alone signify that.
The second version of Soul Searching with the female vocal accompaniment is an improvement, but this is still probably my least favorite track from these sessions. That chorus just makes me feel like Im lugging my pick axe to go a'working on railroad or something. It just doesn't fit the theme of actual soul searching, nor is it something I can bob my head to and get into a groove.
Everything I Need is also good. But Brian's vocal just sounds so weird. The guest vocalist whoever it is also sounds kinda out of place to me. They sound too young. It sounds like he's singing a romantic duet with his niece or something. The voice does grow on me as the song goes on, however. There's an endearing quality to it. Like everything else (possible exception of Soul Searching) though, there's definitely potential here.
Untitled...spoiler alert, it's great. This melody would make for a great instrumental OR backing track. Even as is, just a little piano coda, it's got more Brian magic than '88/Imagination/GIOMH'04/NPP combined.
Holy cow, everybody. Brian's Back!!! (Not really because this was recorded 20 years ago...and most of what I heard today was recorded after this.) But seriously, you have NO IDEA how fresh, authentic, endearing and just plain fun this boot was to listen to after suffering through the Joe Thomas and Eugene Landy crap. And this does indeed make all the rest of his solo projects (besides, again, BWPS/TLOS) sound like crap in comparison. Honestly, I haven't been this enamored with new Brian material since the first time I heard Love You...maybe even the first time I heard the SMiLE boots.
A good portion of the songs need some work, but there's a very strong foundation for a great album here. I picture a "suite" of the city living and songs about women on Side 1, with Mary being our narrator's recurring love interest. Probably ending with Proud Mary. Then Side 2 could have the introspective stuff, kicking off with GIOMH as well as the lullaby/dream stuff. Whole thing ends with Slightly American Music. I'd like to listen some more and really play around with a complete sequence at some point.
This might be a bold assertion, especially seeing the (frankly baffling) lukewarm reaction you guys gave, but as far as Im concerned, these are the SMiLE Sessions of Brian's solo career. Just a great, inspired collection of tunes made with a collaborator who stimulated Brian, and then another Beach Boy made him feel bad about it so work halted. Fragments wound up on other albums, but the beautiful whole that could have been will never be finished. And unlike SMiLE, it's too late to hope for a revisit and completion. Ah well.
I know Im just rambling on repeating myself...but I cannot emphasize enough how much this music touched me. This is the closest Brian ever came to recapturing his old offbeat muse since Love You. Hearing this after wondering if Brian was replaced with a body double in '88 due to all the mediocre material was beautiful and sad. Sad because it proves that the man did indeed still have the talent to make great albums...he just never found the right collaborator ever again. This makes you want to curse the cruel fate that caused Brian to meet Joe Thomas. This is the ultimate proof that genuine analog recordings, warts and all, are miles and miles better than digital "enhancements" with the rough edges filed down.
10 out of 10. Brian's best solo material, possibly sans TLOS. This is what I expected from ALL his solo stuff.
Found some more of the Paley tracks on another boot.
I think Some Sweet Day and This Could Be the Night would both be fantastic latter-era Beach Boy tracks.
Sweets for my Sweet was a little too loud and one-note for me. This sounded more like a Landy era Brian song to my ears. I don't think it would fit on a hypothetical album.
Frankie Avalon doesn't sound finished. I mean, even more than the others. It's not as funny or WTF as Johnny Carson, and I don't think such an unexpected outta-the-blue track would have worked on the Paley album. As I said before, I think the major themes of this music is city living, romance, dreams/lullabies and introspection. Love You was more of an anything goes/stream of consciousness project.
Elbow '63 sounds almost like a joke/filler song from days gone by. Again, doesn't really fit with the bulk of the tracks to me.
God Did It is WAY too overtly religious for my tastes. The melody isn't anything special either. Definitely a throwaway for me.
Goin Home is a good song but I don't think it really fits with the aesthetic. This album seemed fairly grounded in the present day, I don't think a cowboy/saloon themed track really fits.
What Rock and Roll can Do would have been a great bookend for the album along with Slightly American Music. I think this works better as a closer now that I've heard it.
So, it seems like these are the weaker Paley stuff which probably explains their absence in the other boot. I still like them as individual songs for the most part (except God Did It). Doesn't change my rating of 10
Still can't seem to find Rings, Sweetie, Walking on Water or Dancing the Night Away tho. *cough*belch*bark*
