As our own Tim Hibbs noted last April prior to a chat with the man himself, “…Brian Wilson is a musical genius. The depth he brought to the Beach Boys recordings through his vocal and instrumental arrangements is still the benchmark so many strive to reach. Wilson’s personal struggles have been well documented but he has never stopped creating arresting and vital music.
On April 7th, Capitol Records releases Wilson’s eleventh solo studio album, No Pier Pressure. Originally intended as a Beach Boys release, those plans were scrapped when the band fell apart after their 50th anniversary tour. Instead, Wilson assembled an all-star lineup of guest vocalists including Kacey Musgraves, fun.’s Nate Ruess, and She & Him’s Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, along with Beach Boy alumni Al Jardine, David Marks, and Blondie Chaplin.
Likewise, he recruited A-list session players like Don Was, drummers Jim Keltner and Kenny Aronoff, Dean Parks, and Jeffrey Foskett. The good news for vinyl fans is that it will be released as a two-LP set pressed on 180-gram vinyl in addition to CD and digital formats.”
In April, Rolling Stone referred to No Pier Pressure as “Wilson’s most forward-looking solo LP,” and elaborated, “Wilson casts a huge shadow—even punk rock owes him, via the Ramones—and his influence on a new generation of nostalgists, choral-pop harmonists, psychedelic sound-scientists, and orchestral-rock geeks is profound.
And his best music has always come from working with independent-minded peers, like Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks. So it’s telling the highlights here are not mere vocal cameos, but true writing collaborations.
“Guess You Had To Be There,” a wry comment on Sixties nostalgia (and a melodically delicious celebration of it), was penned with next-gen country It Girl Kacey Musgraves. “Well, I guess you had to be there/All we wanted was more/There were winners and losers and people passed out on my floor,” she sings conspiratorially, while Wilson delivers the glorious hook. “Saturday Night,” sung by fun. frontman Nate Ruess, tightropes between cliché and pop timelessness, a Wilson stock-in-trade.
In celebration of the No Pier Pressure, a summer tour which takes Brian across North America, and the gloriously well-received biopic Love & Mercy, we’re thrilled to sponsor a very special giveaway indeed—an autographed vinyl copy of the aforementioned No Pier Pressure—which will find a home on one of your shelves.
Enter to win the signed vinyl copy of No Pier Pressure by simply citing in the comments below what that Beach Boys or Brian Wilson has meant to you over the many years. We’ll choose one inspired winner with a North American mailing address a week from today, July 6, 2015. Our winner will be notified directly via email.
