"Gettin' In Over My Head" (Grade: A)

Brian Wilson Recaptures Musical Genius
By Larry Aydlette

Brian Wilson's continuing artistic renaissance puts the lie to F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous dictum about no second acts in American lives. Wilson is on his third or fourth transformation -- surf-rock king, sandbox-dweller, drug-addled zombie and now stilted, recovering musical genius.

Yes, he still has the vacant glaze of a man under heavy, steadying medication. But bolstered by a loving family and the enthusiastic embrace of fans, Wilson has gamely put himself on the line -- revitalizing his pop masterpieces in concert, recording new works, accepting industry tributes and filling in the gaps of his lost musical legacy.

For those who still get weak remembering the Beach Boys founder performing his iconic Pet Sounds album onstage a few years back, the news coming out of Wilson's camp recently is almost too much to digest.

On Tuesday, he releases his third solo studio album, Gettin' In Over My Head (BriMel/Rhino), an uplifting bon-bon of bright, Wilson-esque pop -- musically sophisticated and lyrically sentimental -- with guest appearances by Elton John, Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton.

Wilson has also gone into the studio to complete a new recording of Smile, the aborted Pet Sounds follow-up that was to cement his reputation as America's answer to The Beatles. Instead, Wilson's well-documented mental problems and drug use, plus ugly squabbles among The Beach Boys, turned the album and Wilson's career into one of rock's sad, unfinished promises.

Now, with help from Smile collaborator Van Dyke Parks and an excellent touring band, the disc is scheduled for release in September. The original recordings have been bootlegged for years, and this "reimagining," if you will, may offend Smile fanatics, who parse the old tapes as if they were fragments of rare antiquity. But Wilson has already performed Smile live to gobsmacked crowds in London, and there's heavy anticipation for an American tour, which hits Florida in October.

But first, there's Gettin' In Over My Head, which comes as a total shock, since his previous studio discs, 1988's Brian Wilson and 1998's Imagination, were so disappointingly uneven. The new album is nothing short of miraculous -- it's the marvelous solo work long anticipated by his followers.

No, don't expect a new Pet Sounds, Sunflower or Beach Boys Today! But it's the first true Brian Wilson disc, without interference by Svengali therapists and helpers, since 1977's underrated The Beach Boys Love You.

Of course, even for hard-core fans, every new Wilson work is a trial of faith. Can you overlook memories of his '60s brilliance and accept him for who he is today -- an older singer with a rougher vocal quality but a still-awesome ability to create satisfying melodic shifts and breathtaking layers of harmony?

The man definitely isn't hip, not in the au courant sense of the word. He's still worshiping Phil Spector, still happily stuck in a jukebox time warp of the late '50s-early '60s, especially in his simple, unfettered lyrics of romantic hope and disillusion.

But Wilson's studio magic produces some kind of alchemy, pop into gospel, that transports listeners to higher ground. And Gettin' In Over My Head provides 13 stunning examples of this hallelujah testimony.

The first song, How Could We Still Be Dancing, is about old-school rockers surviving past their prime. ("How can we still make music after MTV?") Wilson's spirited retort begins with lovely a cappella harmonies, shifts to a croc-rockin' lead vocal by Elton John (best thing he's done in years) and ends up as a joyous, old-fashioned stomper.

Throughout the disc, Wilson drops in hints of past musical glory, from the classic Christmas song Little Saint Nick to defining albums such as Pet Sounds and Friends.

Desert Drive, for example, is a revved-up flashback to Wilson's hot-rod classics, while Soul Searchin' should bring a sigh to every Beach Boys fan. A '50s-style, R&B-laced number, it uses an old, aching vocal by the late Carl Wilson to bring the brothers together one more time in sweet harmony. If only Dennis were there on drums.

Rounding out the guest lineup, Clapton contributes ragged, gritty guitar runs to the up-tempo City Blues, the disc's only modern-sounding track (although many of these songs were written in the early '90s). And McCartney sings harmony on A Friend Like You, which will bring on comparisons to Ebony and Ivory. Yep, it's kind of cheesy. But it's also touching, if you know the story of Wilson's reverence for his Beatles counterpart.

Putting aside lyrical quibbles, Wilson's musical footing has never been surer. He's once again master of his studio domain, peppering songs with oddball instruments -- harmonicas, high-pitched whistles, sci-fi keyboards, car horns, rocking violins, soaring flutes and honking saxes. On the intro to Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel, there's even a swirling orchestral snippet that recalls the elegant pop arrangements of Burt Bacharach and Thom Bell.

Unlike Imagination and his recent concert discs, Gettin' In is seamless, with nary a clunker. Several songs may vie as instant classics -- especially the smooth title track ballad and Saturday Morning in the City, a bouncy, quirky ode to weekend revelry that brings to mind his Friends-Sunflower-era compositions. And The Waltz, the disc's final song, is a wry Wilson-Van Dyke Parks slice of high school heartache that also nicely paves the way for their Smile in September.

Younger listeners beware: This is definitely an old man's rock album. Wilson is 61, and he's still got the beat, but it's a tad slower than his heyday. The disc's retro sound is not trendy by a mile.

Will it appeal only to the faithful? For years, press flack have overpraised Wilson's solo output, whipping up a tsunami of "comeback" hype that led to disappointment. (Cousin and fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, often cast as the evil schemer in their Shakespearean surf saga, even wrote a song called Brian Is Back.)

But this time you can believe it. Brian Wilson really is back.

And he's got the perfect summer soundtrack to prove it.

Grade: A

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