Category Archives: singer songwriter

BEN FULLER – Aquarian Son EP

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Ben Fuller believes that every place he visits and every person he meets has a story and that visiting new places fills him with new energies he puts into music. It’s likely it’s that kind of wandering spirit, hippie ethos which gives his debut EP an upbeat vibe.

‘Ashes’ opens the EP with a 4/4 semi-acoustic workout which is musically strong. While the music is great (incorporating elements of Ryan Adams and the many other Americana-pop singer-songwriters and bands out there) and Fuller’s song writing seems to be built on solid foundations, his vocal is an acquired taste. There’s something about it which seems like a product of the studio – an unnatural shininess detracts from Fuller’s performance. Something which should have a natural sound feels a bit too “perfect” and in doing so has lost a lot of heart. ‘Handsome Lover’ offers a decent slab of pop/rock with a tougher edge than most of the EP; the lower end of Fuller’s vocal range steers away from the previous irritation. It’s hard not to listen to it and not be reminded of Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers, which, as most people know, is never a bad thing.

Although slightly slower, ‘Favourite Song’ hovers somewhere between the two styles of the previous songs. The chorus retains the decent punch and the verses have a gentle feel. With the help of its decent-ish chorus, this should have been a highlight, but Fuller’s voice isn’t that great here – as with the opening track, it sounds too clean; almost a little cartoonlike. I’m still unsure as to whether some studio trickery has been employed… There’s always a possibility his natural voice carries an unnatural timbre, of course – look at Paulo Nutini. Actually, let’s not.

Musically, ‘Inside Out’ is a great example of jangly, slightly retro pop – the kind Counting Crows are capable of, that is, on the rare occasions they’re not wading knee-deep in an overly wordy mope-athon. The ringing guitars and an unfussy drum rhythm keep things buoyant and the track has enough peaks and troughs to stop it from ever becoming stale. Once again, though, Fuller’s vocal style has a quirkiness which may not always appeal, but that’s easy to gloss over when everything else is decent.

As a sort of tribute to Fuller’s roots, on the surface, ‘California’ carries a chirpiness which strives for that perfect radio hit for the summer and in doing so it’s effective. Usually, I’m not a fan of the almost beach styled pop, but thanks to a simple chorus and a great guitar part, it manages to be a winner. However, if we look at that simple chorus a bit closer, this ode to California doesn’t necessarily seem to be all together positive. It appears to be a statement of how California thinks of itself as above others: “We don’t want nobody, we’re California!” It’s infectiousness ensures this is memorable long after listening, making it one of the EP’s strongest cuts.

‘Aquarian Son’ occasionally has a poppier edge than a lot of other stuff of a similar ilk and Fuller’s voice can be incredibly irritating at times. However, largely due to Fuller’s knack for writing uncomplicated melodies and having a decent band in tow, most of the songs really stand out. While it’s not as introspective as some of Ryan Adams’s gentler works, it’s not hard to imagine that some of his fan base could find something to latch onto while listening to this EP; or maybe if you’re a big fan of the lighter moments of Train’s work (most obviously their ‘Save Me, San Francisco’ album) this will have some appeal.

June 2010

DOM DE LUCA – A Bell I Gotta Ring

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Every band or artist has an influence. Sometimes that influence manifests itself as a plagiaristic sledgehammer: for great examples, check out melodic rock bands BB Steal and Tower City for homages to Def Leppard, or better still, check out Hockey Night for an almost note-for-note recreation of Pavement. When there are so many bands whom could be accused of imitation (whether intentional or not), it’s always good to find an artist who doesn’t just flatly imitate their idols.

Toronto based musician Dom De Luca cites both Steve Earle and Townes Van Zant as his biggest influences, yet his sophomore album, ‘A Bell I Gotta Ring’ doesn’t sound hugely like either artist. They may have influenced him, but he’s been smart enough to take that influence and twist it into something of his own.

‘Be Back Soon’ presents De Luca at his best. The acoustic shuffle, backed by brushed drums and twangy acoustic lead moments is extremely inviting. Like many singer-songwriters, De Luca’s vocal style takes a little time to tune into, but the end result is decent. Similarly, ‘So Caught Up In You’ delivers something equally uncomplicated, capturing De Luca and Phil Brown in an acoustic duet. During this number, De Luca’s distinctive warble works well in harmony with Brown’s rather more ordinary vocal style. The solo acoustic number ‘Love, I Feel It Spreading In Me’ features the welcome sound of a mandolin and pleasing guitar picking among it’s sparseness, while the ache in De Luca’s vocal style could be compared to John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting. De Luca is so keen here to capture the feeling in his performance that no effort seems to have been made to fix any off-key moments (of which this album has more than a few), but the song doesn’t suffer for that.

Those looking for upbeat acoustic-based pop may find enjoyment from ‘Brother, Brother’ and ‘Chin Up, Babe’. ‘Brother, Brother’ features De Luca accompanied in a full band arrangement; the drum style is unobtrusive and De Luca sounds at his most confident in this setting. ‘Chin Up, Babe’ has a sunny vibe, with Dom’s acoustic work combined with a simple piano riff. The drums are replaced with congas, and despite an uncomplicated arrangement, the end result seems to work well – it’s not a great leap of the imagination to picture a re-worked version of this on the soundtrack of a family movie. ‘Lovin’ You So’ presents the album with a curve-ball. De Luca steps aside from acoustic folk-pop and delivers a track that has a strong reggae bias. While the end result is summery, De Luca’s delivery combined with the pop-reggae reminds me a little too much of Paulo Nutini – and that’s not so good.

‘I Heard You Were Lonely’ steps things up a little, delivering a number in the rock pop field. There are moments within this song where De Luca’s band really pulls together – drummer Walter Maclean turns in some great fills and seemingly relishes the rare opportunity to cut loose. Over De Luca’s jangle-pop guitar lines, Phil Brown offers spacious electric lead, leading to something which wouldn’t have sounded out of place in Ron Sexsmith’s back catalogue. It’s here that De Luca’s heavily affected lead vocal resembles Sexsmith the most too – wandering drastically off-key at various points toward the song’s end.

‘A Bell I Gotta Ring’ is an album with a heartfelt approach. While there are times where his vocal delivery can be very hard to listen to, the album features a couple of clear stand out tracks. It’s possible the rest of his material sounds better in an intimate live setting.

Visit Dom at his MySpace page here.

November 2010

RAY DAVIES – See My Friends

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Ray Davies is a man who needs no introduction. A national treasure, Ray will always be best known for his 60s work with The Kinks. It’s likely you stopped listening to The Kinks after the release of their ‘Percy’ album in 1971, only to reconnect with them in 1983 when ‘Come Dancing’ became an unexpected UK top 5 hit. Unless you’re a die-hard fan, it’s unlikely you’ve heard any of the albums The Kinks released from 1971 onward, even though they tirelessly plugged on, releasing an album a year for the remainder of the decade. From that point, they sporadically released albums up until as late as 1992.

Outside of The Kinks, Davies has released a handful of solo albums which have earned a cult following (the first of which, ‘Return To Waterloo’ released in 1985 during a break in The Kinks’ schedule). As with those less famous Kinks albums, each of Ray’s solo works have moments of greatness – 2007’s ‘Working Man’s Cafe’, in particular, is a gem.

Ray Davies’s 2010 album ‘See My Friends’ is a celebration of his Kinks work, allowing many people who’ve been influenced by him a chance to put their stamp on his songs. In duet with Davies himself, the album features contributions from some musical heavyweights, alongside some potentially more interesting cult performers. While the inclusion of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Metallica are guaranteed to help the album shift a few units (or more likely a few iTunes downloads of those individual tracks), kudos must be given to Davies for choosing to work with some less obvious collaborators: it was a surprise to see Pixies man Black Francis and New York indie heroes Spoon on his roll-call of friends.

Naturally, most of the guest performers have played it safely by choosing classic Kinks tunes from the 60s, but there are a couple of exceptions. The first of these opens the album, as Ray Davies teams up with the legendary Bruce Springsteen for a fairly workmanlike run-through of ‘Better Things’ (a track from the 1981 Kinks album ‘Give The People What They Want’). The original version is superb, being an optimistic song driven by a particularly loud drum kit and featuring a brilliant stabbing piano intro. This re-recording is well suited to Springsteen with its slightly bombastic approach. Springsteen’s voice sounds fine on the chorus, but on the verses – where he trades lines with Davies – it sounds huskier than ever and clearly sounds like he’s struggling. Davies’s vocal, on the other hand, features as much wistful charm as ever. Overall, the end result is okay, despite Springsteen not being in the best of voices. [For a superb cover of this number, check out the version recorded by Dar Williams for her 1997 album ‘End of the Summer’.]

The Kinks’ original version of ‘Celluloid Heroes’ is a gorgeous, slightly melancholy affair featuring lavish harmony vocals against a piano-rock base. The recording included here features none of the originals piano greatness, but surprisingly doesn’t suffer for that. Jon Bon Jovi and his right hand man Richie Sambora make this their own; Jon’s voice has real presence and Richie offers some classic sounding, soaring guitar lines. Ray Davies’s harmony vocals round out the sound to make this one of the album’s greatest moments. I have very mixed feels about the version of ‘You Really Got Me’ featured here. I have a great amount of respect for Metallica – and naturally, the original Kinks riff was one they could easily beef up. However, I’m not entirely sure that making it ten times heavier is an improvement. James Hetfield’s distinctive growl feels a little heavy handed too. On the plus side, with the slightly quicker pace the track has been given here, Davies sounds really energized when it’s his turn at the microphone.

After an intro featuring a few bars from ‘Days’, Mumford and Sons lend their folk-rock chops to ‘This Time Tomorrow’, a track originally featured on the ‘Lola vs Powerman’ LP. The original Kinks version is delivered with a stomp and with a heavily accented twang, so it’s a natural choice for Mumford. Davies takes more of a back seat for this number, but Mumford and Sons fans should find plenty of entertainment as Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett’s raggedy vocals tear through a rather spirited performance of this lesser-known Davies composition. For ‘Lola’, Davies chooses to share vocals with Paloma Faith, who’s old-styled, slightly wobbly voice sounds superb here. The band in turn gives this famous Kinks’ number a rather forthright arrangement, with rumbling bass and a (most welcome) heavy leaning toward the piano. Kinks enthusiasts may be interested to know that Faith chooses the cherry cola line in her vocal, as per the Kinks’ single release, as opposed to the “proper” coca cola line from the original album recording. [It’s still amusing that in 1970 the BBC were more concerned about the song advertising a product than they were about it featuring a man falling in love with a transvestite].

‘Waterloo Sunset’ is one of those Kinks songs you’ve heard so often that it’s become part of our British musical heritage. While The Kinks’ 1967 original will always be the absolutely definitive version, the duet here with Jackson Browne is just superb. Featuring Davies, Browne and two acoustic guitars, the intimate nature of this recording captures both musicians in great form. With absolute professionalism, hearing Davies in close harmony with Browne just highlights what a beautifully written and arranged number ‘Waterloo Sunset’ is. While ‘Long Way From Home’ was never really one of my favourites, Ray’s duet with alt-country performer Lucinda Williams is somewhat dreary. I must confess, I’m not a fan of Williams’s heavily affected, drawling voice and the pace of this track just makes it worse. Her voice is really high in the mix too, almost drowning Davies out in the process.

Power pop legends Big Star recorded a storming version of ‘Till The End of the Day’ in the early 1970s as part of the sessions for their ‘Third/Sister Lovers’ album. Here, Chilton has been given the opportunity to perform that classic Kinks number alongside Davies. Naturally, Chilton’s delivery sounds supremely confident. The band are suitably punchy too: the drums loud and energetic, the organ work (although low in the mix) comes in heavy swirls. In addition, an angular guitar solo and a couple of complex bass runs help recreate the energy of the early Kinks sound. If you’re a Chilton enthusiast and like the Big Star rendition of ‘Till The End of the Day’ from ‘Third/Sister Lovers’, you won’t be disappointed. As a rather sad footnote, Chilton passed away a few months before the release of this album. While his death was far too premature, I’m sure he would have been delighted at being one of this album’s featured guests.

A take on ‘Dead End Street’ with Amy MacDonald is best described as ordinary. While the bar-room piano is quite fun, generally, little has been done here to add anything to the original performance. The warmth of the recording just doesn’t have the same vibe as the Kinks’ trebly 1966 recording and a spoken exchange between Davies and MacDonald at the close of the song is guaranteed to grate after a few listens. I can’t help but think this could have worked out better with KT Tunstall instead…

Since The Kinks’ 1965 single ‘See My Friends’ has a droning, psychedelic vibe (often credited as being one of the first releases to incorporate Indian raga sounds), it’s a perfect vehicle for the alternative rock band Spoon, whose own work features a strong basis of jangly vibes and lo-fi quirks. With lots of reverb, Britt Daniels’s vocal meshes with Davies’s against a wall of ringing guitars. The musicians involved choose (rather wisely) to play things as faithfully to the original as possible. Nothing here sticks out as being exceptional, but if you’re a fan of Spoon, you’ll probably want to check out this collaboration. During ‘This Is Where I Belong’, the guitars chime and the drum provides a solid backbeat. Black Francis’s very distinctive vocal is the main feature here, but he’s offered suitable backing harmonies from Davies. Factor in the slabs of organ work and this is very well suited to Black Francis, the sound here very much in keeping with the more rootsy styles he experimented with in the mid-’00s.

Ray Davies’s voice is the only real saving grace with regard to a re-working of ‘David Watts’, featuring Californian indie-rock band The 88. While the great piano part from the original is given plenty of volume in the overall mix, when combined with staccato guitar work and the general oomph The 88 insist on playing with, it’s really tiring. [For the definitive cover version of this, look no further than The Jam’s respectful version from 1978]. Following The 88, ‘Tired of Waiting’ sounds incredibly…tired. Snow Patrol’s frontman Gary Lightbody joins Davies here and while the track is tackled at a similar pace to the Kinks original, it just seems to sag under the weight of Gary Lightbody’s uninspired vocal.

While ‘All Day and All of The Night’ is a Kinks number familiar to all, it’s 1981 semi-reworking ‘Destroyer’ will possibly not mean a lot to many of you. In an attempt to be edgy in a post-punk way, Davies reworked ‘All Day…’s influential riff into a song which features a partly spoken word delivery. The level of anger on that original recording of ‘Destroyer’ may have sounded a little unnatural in the hands of The Kinks, but reproduced here as a duet between Davies and Smashing Pumpkins mainman Billy Corgan, it sounds great. Corgan’s guitar work concentrates on the simple chord pattern and his loud, nasal vocal style is an effective contrast to Davies. Davies, in turn, when delivering the spoken word parts, sounds better here than he had back in ’81. Corgan replaces the original pre-chorus from ‘Destroyer’ with the famous lyrics from ‘All Day and All of the Night’ to create a very effective medley, ending the disc on a high note.

As you may expect given the selection of featured performers, ‘See My Friends’ is a mixed bag. In some places, it sounds more like an album of people covering songs by The Kinks as opposed to an album of Ray Davies performing duets. In that respect, it’s almost certainly been geared to entertain fans of the guest performers rather than fans of Davies himself. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. If those listeners enjoy this album, that’s great. If it means they get exposed to Davies’s songs and then choose to explore The Kinks’ back catalogue…even better.

See the official EPK for the album here.
See Ray with Mumford & Sons on ‘Later…With Jools Holland’ here.
See Ray interviewed by Jools Holland here.
See Ray talking about the album on BBC News 24 here.

November 2010

ERIC CLAPTON – Clapton

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It’s funny isn’t it? For an artist who has always strived to be so closely associated with the blues, Eric Clapton seems to have spent a large part of his solo career exploring non-blues music. In the mid 70s he showed a fondness for reggae, in the late 70s country, and during the second half of the 80’s he achieved huge success in the adult rock/pop field. Granted, there’s always been some blues along the way (in the case of 1994’s ‘From The Cradle’ and 2004’s ‘Me and Mr Johnson’, he even managed to deliver a couple of albums devoted completely to the genre), but with such a broad musical palette, it’s difficult to pigeonhole Clapton as a blues musician, even though that’s what he so desperately craves.

For this, his nineteenth solo studio release, Clapton offers a mix of covers and a couple of newly written numbers (Clapton himself only contributing one track – and even then, it’s a co-write with producer and general right hand man, Doyle Bramhall). As expected, ‘Clapton’ (the album) features a few decent blues numbers and a couple of okay other tracks. Probably what you’re not expecting, though, is for so much of the disc to feature versions of jazz standards from the 30s and 40s.

A rendition of Lil’ Son Jackson’s ‘Travelin’ Alone’ opens the album with a blues workout where Clapton’s guitar duels (but gently) with the dirtier tone of Doyle Bramhall. The grumbling blues is punctuated by bursts of yelping Hammond Organ, courtesy of Walt Richmond. Meanwhile, Clapton’s vocal is okay, but lacks the soufulness of some of his past performances. It provides some decent opening bait, but that promise is quickly ushered aside by the arrival of the first of ‘Clapton’s easy listening numbers. A laid-back rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Rockin’ Chair’ is led by gently brushed drums (subtly played by Abe Laboriel Jr), a piano (courtesy of Richmond, once again) and some really tasteful blues guitar played by Derek Trucks. While the lovely guitar work and piano flourishes have their moments, this is unchallenging even by Clapton’s standards. I may have been more forgiving had it closed this album, but to wheel this out as the second track?

A JJ Cale original, ‘River Runs Deep’ fares much better. While still rather easy on the ear, Cale’s style of roots music has a timeless quality, and hearing the man himself back Clapton is something always welcomed. While this track never pushes itself beyond twangy meandering, its six minutes never drags. The introspective warmth of the performance is given extra depth by the presence of sparingly used organ and brass. This could have easily found a home on Cale and Clapton’s ‘Road To Escondido’ release from 2006 and is almost guaranteed to please fans of that disc. Cale’s other contribution ‘Everything Will Be Alright’ is also one of the album’s best numbers. Busier than ‘River Runs Deep’, here, Clapton fronts a soulful number which features a smooth jazzy solo, a string section and horns, topped with Hammond Organ work from Paul Carrick. While it may not have the introspective spookiness of some of Cale’s best work, its classy arrangement makes this an album standout.

Irving Berlin’s much covered ‘How Deep Is The Ocean’ allows Clapton to deliver an easy, relaxed vocal against gentle orchestration and his hard-plucked acoustic guitar. As good as Clapton’s performance on this track may be, it’s not as good as his similar performance on Ray Charles’s ‘Hard Times’ (as featured on Clapton’s 1989 LP, ‘Journeyman’). Like ‘Rockin’ Chair’, I wouldn’t necessarily choose to listen to this if it weren’t part of a bigger mix of music, and while Clapton, no doubt, is playing music he enjoys, it’s possibly not going to be completely embraced by his huge fanbase.

A cover of ‘My Very Good Friend The Milkman’ (a tune best associated with Fats Waller) may have been given an air of New Orleans authentication by the presence of the legendary Allen Toussaint, but that – along with jazz man Wynton Marsalis guesting on trumpet – isn’t enough to save it’s three minute shuffling from being more than a bit bland. In a similar vein, Clapton’s treatment of Waller’s ‘When Somebody Thinks Your Wonderful’ just doesn’t sit right. While the music is tight, with Allen Toussaint’s piano work shining and the brass section really evoking the New Orleans jazz sound of the 1930s, hearing a fairly smooth voiced man from Surrey deliver the vocal just doesn’t seem right. I can imagine Dr John having a decent stab at this, but it’s not right for Clapton.

A solid rendition of Little Walter’s ‘Can’t Hold Out Much Longer’ brings this album a decent blues performance. It’s a number which features one of Clapton’s more classic sounding vocals, intercut with tiny bursts of his great blues guitar work. For this standard blues workout, he’s backed sparingly by Jim Keltner on drums, Willie Weeks on upright bass and Kim Wilson playing some dirty sounding blues harp, held together by Walt Richmond on the piano. Equally enjoyable, a run through of ‘That’s No Way To Get Along’ (originally by Memphis bluesman Robert Wilkins) is given a shake-up via a New Orleans influenced boogie. While this tune will be familiar to most people in its re-titled, bare-bones arrangement ‘Prodigal Son’ (as covered by The Rolling Stones in 1968), this rendition, featuring Clapton and JJ Cale in a vocal duet, is one of the album’s best numbers (isn’t it interesting that all three of this album’s most interesting numbers all feature Cale rather heavily, either in performance or song writing?). While Walt Richmond and Jim Keltner do a top job on piano and drums respectively, this busy arrangement is given extra charm by bluesman Derek Trucks guesting on slide guitar.

A duet with Sheryl Crow, ‘Diamonds Made From Rain’ is very slick. Both vocalists sound good together, though Clapton’s vocal dominates, rather surprisingly. The song itself is well written, but it’s rather ordinary arrangement means it doesn’t quite have the chops to make it a classic in either artists back catalogue. Clapton’s featured guitar solo has his trademark sound and is an equal match for his best late 80s work; it’s a comfort to know he can still play in such a way… Listening to huge chunks of ‘Clapton’, you could be forgiven for thinking he’d given up, having handed so much responsibility to his guest players.

The gentle acoustic blues of ‘Hard Time Blues’ allows Clapton to exercise the softer edges of his vocal style, but since the best guitar playing on the track comes from Doyle Bramhall’s timeless slide work, this seems to be another track which Clapton glides through on autopilot. A treatment of Snooky Prior’s ‘Judgement Day’ is presented here in an effortless rendition. While Clapton’s vocal is pleasing, it’s the counter melody from the backing vocal which lifts the piece. Clapton’s musical input here is negligible too, since most of the lead work comes courtesy of Kim Wilson’s harmonica.

The Clapton-Bramhall composition ‘Run Back To Your Side’ features a slight JJ Cale-esque feel (likely to please fans of Clapton’s classic 1974 outing ‘461 Ocean Boulevard’) as well as hints of Robert Johnson’s ‘If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day’. The whole band finds their groove – even Clapton himself sounds like he’s slipped on an old pair of shoes, musically speaking. A backing vocal from Nikka Costa, Lynn Mabry and Debra Parsons helps give this the kind of rousing send-off that Yvonne Elliman and Marcy Levy would have back in the old days.

Returning to similar territory as ‘Rockin’ Chair’, the jazz standard ‘Autumn Leaves’ closes the disc. While Clapton’s hushed baritone could be kindly described as pleasant, this song sounds like elevator music delivered by a tired old man. Granted, Clapton’s post-Derek and the Dominos career may not have always had much fire, but it has rarely sunk to this level of easy listening. He may be backed by a rather classy selection of hired hands, but that doesn’t make his renditions of the jazz standards any more interesting. Rather interestingly, the number of covers on this disc, coupled with a fondness for easy listening material calls to mind another 2010 release – a release from one of El Clappo’s closest peers – ‘Emotion and Commotion’ by Jeff Beck.

This album certainly brings plenty in the way of star performers, and ‘Clapton’ isn’t a really bad record by any means (and it’s certainly far better than the aforementioned Jeff Beck release). But, that said, it’s not great either – its gentle approach means most of it drifts past without making too much impact. Repeated listens uncover a few hidden depths, but it’s still one of Clapton’s most lightweight offerings.  It is generally not a record you will return to time and again, as you possibly will have done with some of EC’s classics.

Many Clapton die-hards will undoubtedly sing his praises and he may even bring in a few new listeners (especially those who enjoy easy vocal jazz). For most of Clapton’s more casual listeners, though, there are a good few of the man’s albums they need to check out before even considering acquiring this one.

October 2010

BRIAN WILSON – Reimagines Gershwin

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Having one of pop music’s master craftsmen arrange and record an album of tunes by one of the world most celebrated pre-pop songwriters is a bit like one of those social experiments where twelve children are fed a bunch of E-numbers and then left to play together. It was never likely to be boring, but there was always the possibility that it could get a bit out of control.

With the help of his trusty band, Brian takes classic Gershwin numbers (including two unfinished by Gershwin at the time of his death) and twists them into his own image; on a basic level, you’ll probably have a grasp of what it’ll sound like, but the big question is: is it any good?

Bookended by a chorale arrangement of ‘Rhapsody In Blue’, naturally, ‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ will never top Wilson at his absolute sharpest – and is unlikely to be as fondly written about as ‘Pet Sounds’ or the much documented ‘Smile’ – but there’s more than enough material here worthy of investigating. More importantly, this album stands as proof that Wilson is still a truly gifted arranger, even on those occasions when the material doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Of the two new songs, ‘The Like I Love In You’ is a gentle ballad, with a beautifully arranged vocal; by Wilson’s standards it’s not too “kitchen-sink”. While the vocal is the high point, a special mention must be given to a tasteful string and percussion arrangement, using the triangle and Wilson’s beloved woodblocks. Overall, this track is a little bit Disney-esque, but sets the mood for album quite nicely and is likely in keeping with a style Gershwin would have enjoyed. It’s less likely Gershwin would have enjoyed the other new number, ‘Nothing But Love’ quite as much. Here, in contrast to ‘The Like I Love In You’, Wilson grabs the opportunity to create something more complex. Sleigh bells, baritone saxophones and washes of harmony vocals drive something which could have been written by Wilson alone, and could have graced his 2008 outing ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ quite happily.

Arguably Gershwin’s most famous composition, ‘Summertime’ is probably one of the album’s weak links. This has much to do with Wilson’s vocal not always quite being as sharp as it could be. However, the inclusion of strings and brass help smooth out any overt raggedness, while a fantastic xylophone chips in for atmosphere. Similarly iffy in places, ‘I Loves You Porgy’ meanders a little, but is saved by tasteful strings and trombone work. Things then pick up with a sprightly instrumental rendition of ‘I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’’, where Wilson’s arrangement goes off the deep end. With a Southern canter, at first driven by harmonica and what sounds like temple blocks, it’s upbeat style provides a welcome difference to both ‘Summertime’ and ‘I Loves You Porgy’. The jaunty rhythm is then augmented by superb brass and strings, to create one of the album’s standouts.

A slightly bluesy take on ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ – featuring a wall of strings and brass and then topped with harmonica – provides another high point, since it doesn’t rely so heavy on choirs of vocals to fill everything out. Even Wilson himself sounds far more comfortable in his role of lead vocalist. The end result sounds both warm and inviting; the louder moments taking on the epic nature of a sixties film theme. The shuffling samba of ‘’S Wonderful’ also finds Brian in a more restrained mood, his arrangement here surprisingly similar to Diana Krall’s 2001 rendition of the song. While Wilson has avoided any temptation to reconstruct this number completely in his own style, there’s a multi-layering of vocals which adds a great depth and a jazz flute solo which sits rather well.

‘I Got Rhythm’, on the other hand, gets completely Wilson-ed. After an intro taken from ‘Rhapsody In Blue’, Brian and co launch into a Beach Boys-esque piece of doo wop, with slight surf overtones. The sax breaks echo late 50s rock and roll, while a chorus of backing vocal ‘oohs’ come straight out of Brian’s famous formative years. Fantastic…just fantastic. With a harpsichord at the heart, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ also ends up sounding like something from the Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ sessions – ‘You Still Believe In Me’, in particular – a feeling strengthened somewhat by the inclusion of upfront (yet gentle) bass work. Once you’ve thrown in a string quartet and the ubiquitous sleigh bells and clip-clop percussion, this was certainly created with a knowing nod to ‘Pet Sounds’, and as such, seems as if it was meant for Wilson all along. For ‘I’ve Got a Crush on You’, Wilson opts for a simple stabbing piano, complimented by strings and harmony vocals. While not as interesting as some of his re-workings, the subtle guitar work, with lots of echo, is particularly pleasing.

For those who dislike light opera, musical theatre and its ilk, the idea of Wilson tackling Gershwin may not appeal in theory.  In practice, however, most of this comes off very well indeed.   This album comes with so much of Brian Wilson’s signature stamp all over it, it’s almost impossible to dislike.  Surely, that’s a big enough seal of approval?

September 2010