Team Player

Brian Wilson
Gettin' In Over My Head
****

Sentimentality shouldn't be a sin when it comes to popular music, and even an album that flounders in its choppy surf shouldn't be a pardonable crime, particularly in the case of Brian Wilson. The deeply troubled architect of the California dream, those dogs that would shit in his sandpit years, and all the rest ... in this context it is frankly inhuman to dislike a song such as "Saturday Morning In The City" on Gettin' In Over My Head (which pre-empts this autumn's release of a long-belated studio version of Smile).

"I see some young people washing down their cars, they're heading down to the matinee to see their movie stars," Brian sings blissfully, and blissfully ignorant of the fact - as it would seem from the perspective of this country, and heaven knows, even further afield - that since at least the release of the Beach Boys first number one 40 years ago, California has never been simply the land of milk and honey. But who's better off, those with our knowledge, or Brian with his visions of innocence?

What, indeed, have we lost if we can't enjoy a Brian Wilson album? He produced this one, too, and while the work doesn't really go anywhere new for him, there are some magnificent moments. Even an Eric Clapton guitar solo on "City Blues" doesn't make you want to gorge on your own spleen by the time of its sixth play. I think a song with Paul McCartney called "A Friend Like You" is a touching thing. An in London last weekend, at least one household reverberated to a chorus of "It's time for us to rise and shine and have a fun day!"

Casper Llewllyn

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