{"id":21136,"date":"2021-06-16T05:30:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T09:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21136"},"modified":"2021-06-16T07:46:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T11:46:52","slug":"album-review-jem-records-celebrates-brian-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/16\/album-review-jem-records-celebrates-brian-wilson\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Here we go again. I\u2019ve long held that various-artists tribute albums are by definition uneven. Some acts try to take the songs too far from their essence, stripping the songs of whatever made them special and noteworthy to begin with. Others are too slavish by half, effectively adding nothing to the discussion, making what amounts to karaoke covers with inferior vocals. Yet there seem to always be at least one or two tracks that defy the lack of inspiration found elsewhere; they make the entire affair worthwhile, almost (but not quite) redeeming the duds or flame-outs elsewhere in the set.<\/p>\n

Nothing about Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson<\/em> is changing my opinion. All of the artists are starting with some of the greatest songs in the pop canon, so there\u2019s really no excuse for turning in a dud. The songs themselves are often deceptively complex on the instrumental side, and the vocals on the originals \u2026 well, that almost goes without saying: they\u2019re finely layered, sometimes transcendent.<\/p>\n

The Weeklings do okay with \u201cThe Warmth of the Sun.\u201d I suppose it\u2019s unfair to compare them to the Beach Boys, but they invite such comparisons by giving us an a cappella reading. The rocked-up \u201cHelp Me Rhonda\u201d tinkers with the phrasing: the Weeklings earn points for inventiveness. Thing is, the changes don\u2019t work that well.<\/p>\n

The Grip Weeds knock \u201cYou\u2019re So Good to Me\u201d out of the park, finding an effective way to wed \u201cla-la-la\u201d vocals to a muscular arrangement. Bravo<\/i>. Their reading of the majestic \u201cHeroes & Villains\u201d (with some additional SMiLE<\/i> material tacked on) is ace as well. These two tracks easily fulfill the \u201cmakes the album worthwhile\u201d requirement.<\/p>\n

Nick Piunti sidesteps the Pet Sounds<\/i> \u201cI Know There\u2019s an Answer\u201d rewrite in favor of the more adventurous \u201cHang Onto Your Ego.\u201d He does a fine job with the song; no complaints here.<\/p>\n

Rather than piling on the poor fella, with regard to Johnathan Pushkar\u2019s contribution, \u201cDance, Dance, Dance,\u201d let\u2019s just say that it\u2019s consistent with my previous comments upon his approach and delivery. Collaborating with Richard Barone ought to make \u201cI Get Around\u201d more successful. It doesn\u2019t. Bereft of original thinking. My thoughts on \u201cPlease Let Me Wonder\u201d? I\u2019ll let you<\/em> wonder.<\/p>\n

The typically reliable Gold Needles take on the lovely \u201cLove & Mercy,\u201d but for me, while the new arrangement ideas would seem to work on paper, the execution doesn’t do it for me. Your mileage may vary, and the band is so good that I\u2019m happy to give them a Mulligan here. The lead guitar break is nice.<\/p>\n

The Anderson Council\u2019s \u201cGirl Don\u2019t Tell Me\u201d isn\u2019t earth-shaking, but it\u2019s completely enjoyable. Even better is the lesser-known \u201cI\u2019d Love Just Once to See You,\u201d the second-most left-field choice on the album. They make it sound like they wrote it, but do so without losing the Brian Wilson-ness of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn My Room\u201d is a daunting song to attempt. Richard Barone makes it his own, effortlessly. Okay, maybe he put a lot of effort into it. Point is, he understands the song and treats it well.<\/p>\n

The Midnight Callers give \u201cDo It Again\u201d a pop-punk-flavored makeover. It works! That middle eight…niiiice<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Lisa Mychols & Super 8 take \u201cDon\u2019t Worry Baby\u201d into girl-group territory, making one wonder why it hasn\u2019t been taken there before. (If it has, I missed it.) No matter: it\u2019s lovely. And they win the award for most adventurous song selection with their reading of \u201cPet Sounds.\u201d Shades of exotica. I could luxuriate in an entire album\u2019s worth of this kind of music.<\/p>\n

Verdict: spotty as expected. High points are high, low points are low.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we go again. I\u2019ve long held that various-artists tribute albums are by definition uneven. Some acts try to take the songs too far from their essence, stripping the songs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,51,62,65],"tags":[416,950],"class_list":["post-21136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-brian-wilson","tag-grip-weeds","cat-19-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21136"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21162,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21136\/revisions\/21162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}