Brian Wilson

On late Beach Boys classics like Pet Sounds, Wild Honey and Sunflower, Brian Wilson
created a tableau of Southern California heartbreak, the sound of footloose surfer boys
flailing through the loneliness of growing up. On Imagination, his second solo album, Wilson
revisits this same formula. Lots of Nineties bands, from Spiritualized and Yo La Tengo to Air
and the High Llamas, are finding inventive ways to build on his old sound. But if... More >

Wilson's genius has never been as indelible or universal as worshipers believe. Generating illusions of eternal sunlight or crafting frames for crackpot solipsism, he was magical; stripped by Don Was or cambered by Van Dyke Parks, he was at least interesting. Submitting to adult-contempo tycoon Joe Thomas, however, he's just what you'd fear: a middle-aged pop pro who's proud he's no longer nuts and knows even less about the world than when he was. The lead cut has a happy tune, the dark finale some dysfunctional intimations. In between, he makes too much of attendant hacks and gestures at old glories from a failing high end. (Grade: C)