Left of the Dial |
Brian Wilson: What I Really Want for Christmasby Mark Norris |
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2005 was a pretty good year for legendary Beach Boy leader Brian Wilson. His lost 1960s opus, Smile, perhaps the most famously unreleased album in rock history, finally saw the light of day and was performed live on tour, no less. With his youthful new backing band, Wilson managed to successfully recreate—and significantly re-imagine—his infamous opus to America’s culture and music. A cynic might look upon this achievement as a way to shadow the fact that Wilson’s original material of late is a pale imitation of his former work. Last year, ol’ Bri released Gettin’ In Over My Head, the most unintentionally astute album title since Eric Clapton (whose guested on the recording) put out Me and Mr. Johnson (an easy title to pick on considering the fact that Slow Hand’s solo career has been fairly self-gratuitous and masturbatory for the last 20 years or so). At this point, Wilson’s musical career is on auto-pilot and guided by a group of well-intentioned if overly forceful family members, fans and bandmates. Wilson is no longer the musical string-puller but rather the puppet who falls to the floor when left unaided. Which brings us to his new holiday offering, What I Really Want for Christmas. A collection of holiday standards and a few new originals, the disc provides fans with Wilson’s first yuletide recording since The Beach Boys released its classic Christmas Album over 40 years ago (although a scrapped album from the late-1970s was finally issued on the Ultimate Christmas CD a few years back). Furthering the state of hyper-reality currently surrounding Wilson’s career is the re-recording of such Beach Boys material as “Man With All the Toys” and “Little Saint Nick” heard here. The performances are pretty much faithful reworkings of the original material which, for my money, lands them full into the “Why bother?” category. Of the new material, Wilson’s collaboration with famed songwriter Jimmy Webb, “Christmasey,” provides the best glimpse of the old magic, musically speaking. Recalling the wall-of-sound production, off-kilter rhythms and layered harmonies of his best work, “Christmasey” proves that there may be a little light left in the old boy yet (even if its lyrics are impossibly laughable: “It’s almost time to light up the candles/The church bells chime/It’s a song of Handel’s.” Wow, that’s brutal!). Many of the traditional holiday songs heard here (a jazzy take on “Deck The Halls,” for instance) seem unnecessary at best and irritating at worst. Yet, by the album’s end, Wilson and company manage to issue a rather moving rendition of “Joy to the World” that nearly saves the day. As far as holiday albums go, What I Really Want for Christmas is a mixed bag that is recommended for hardcore Wilson-philes only.
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