The Sunset Album

That Brian Wilson survived the sixties is surprising. That he made this music over half a century after the Beach Boys' first album is astonishing. It's evidence that his muse, although taking a well-deserved break from time to time, never left him. No Pressure Radio - credited here to Brian Wilson And The Beach Boys - is an assemblage of songs from That's Why God Made The Radio and No Pier Pressure. I've omitted all the celebrity "feat." team-ups, the up-beat numbers, anything vaguely quirky, and anything "feat." Mike Love. What we're left with is an old man, singing on the beach at sunset, lost in bittersweet reminiscence, but the warmth of the sun still inside him. A suite, a hymnal, as full of melody as the beach is full of sand. The subtle quotes from early Beach Boy hits, although getting the thumbs down from miserable Beach Boy Factbots, are pitched absolutely right and part of the DNA. The participation of David Marks, Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar is inspired. Carl and Dennis are here in spirit. Bruce Johnston probably wore shorts at the mic, and good for him. Mike Love sez: "I was disappointed with the album's direction. I was denied much songwriting input." Well, we cordially urge Mr Love to do a hundred yard sprint and jump up his own ass.

I can't offhand think of another artist who has expressed the euphoria of youth and lived long enough to sing the melancholy of old age so personally, and so affectingly. Although never a surfer, he made us all feel like we were catching that wave; the giddy rush of sheer teenage fun never sounded so real. And here we are, a lifetime down the line. He's not bitter, angry, or even depressed. He can still write and sing the upbeat stuff (which the world apparently has little use for), but his heart is here, in the acceptance of old age and the world that lives only in treasured memory. And that's what memory can be, as old people know - treasure, glowing with the warmth of the sun.

It's not an album he could ever have released himself - he'd get bored with the lack of rock n' roll - but it shows the man as transparently as anything he ever did. Fourteen songs, forty-four minutes. Proper album.

Thank you Brian, for everything.