The word genius is overused. Especially in music criticism. However, music has been fortunate enough to capture several true ones in its lifetime - even the still youthful Rock N'Roll. As a business, music successfully kept their artists separated from the technical wizards who made huge advances in the process. Yet it helped to have a person who understood life on both sides of the studio booth glass. Mitch Miller moved from conductor into a position of signing and developing artists (A&R - Artists & Repertoire) before developing Columbia Records into a Pop juggernaut. While Miller even managed to corral his own arrangements into hit records, he angered Frank Sinatra and turned down Buddy Holly, Elvis, and The Beatles.
Hawthorne, CA's Brian Wilson grew up around the beach and its culture. It was only fitting that he and his brothers Carl and Dennis (under the guidance of their father Murry) would translate their love of Rock N'Roll and Doo Wop harmonies into music that celebrated the South Bay world around them. Signed to Capitol in 1962, Brian Wilson became the first member/writer/producer. The label hoped that Wilson could give them a monolithic sound (and control) over the bustling subgenre of Surf Music. Brian Wilson had something far more creative in mind.
Inspired by the "Wall of Sound" production of Phil Spector, Brian set out to make not only hit records (amassing 28 Top 40 hits before 1966,) but music that was incomparable to its sources and suitable to hang upon a gallery wall. When the British Invasion swept the nation in 1964, The Beach Boys delivered their most successful year yet. It was not enough that Wilson used spring reverb to give the early records their surfy twang, or even double-tracked the vocals to make them the focal point of listening. Wilson saw the big picture. 1963's "Surfer Girl" brought in strings and the first use of outside studio pros (the famous Wrecking Crew.) It was followed up by "Little Deuce Coupe" - what many consider Rock's first "concept album." Wilson stepped away from touring and slowly steered the group away from songs about Surf culture. By 1965, with Wilson mainly functioning in the studio, "The Beach Boys Today!" hit upon the concept of one side featuring uptempo songs, with the second side devoted to ballads.
Then IT happened. Between January and April 1966, Wilson had a musical awakening where all of his ideas came together into one layered, multi-harmonic, autobiographical sequence. Putting the patchwork together needed every previously used resource as well as the invention of far more. "Pet Sounds" was to live as a recording - defying any ability to be performed live. Writing with lyricist Tony Asher and conducting a battery of the best musicians, "Pet Sounds" set out to best The Beatles "Rubber Soul" only to wind up influencing Rock N'Roll, Jazz, and even Hip-Hop albums for years to come. When it did not quite produce the numbers of previous Beach Boys records (4 Top 40 singles and Gold certification,) Wilson's newly "fragmented" style of composition, recording, and production delivered the landmark single "Good Vibrations" in October 1966.
With the band on the road revelling in success, Wilson was back at home with a new collaborator, Hattiesburg-born Van Dyke Parks as his lyricist. The pair (and a coterie of others living almost communally) were molding his "teenage symphony to God," "SMiLE" was scheduled to be released in January 1967. Dozens of books have been written on this album's epic journey to landing as the most celebrated unreleased record ever. Parsing those memories would likely haunt Wilson for years to come. Nonetheless, when you listen to the elements today, they still sound fresh and almost Neoclassical in composition and sophistication. After 85 sessions and the disapproval of the band - again, his family - "SMiLE" was abandoned and essentially reformulated into what Wilson described as its "homespun" version. "Smiley Smile" was released in September 1967, well after the famed "Summer of Love."
Up the coast from the beaches of Southern California, Sylvester Stewart had made a name for himself in the nation's new epicenter of culture, San Francisco. Like Wilson, Sylvester was a musical prodigy playing every instrument he could get his hands on. As a disc jockey, he spun records at R&B station KSOL where he slipped in songs from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. As a producer on the staff of nearby Autumn Records, he learned the art of recording, signing artists, and eventually playing keyboards for everyone from Dionne Warwick to The Righteous Brothers. After a fifth-grade classmate misspelled his name, Sylvester became Sly. When Sly merged his band, The Stoners, with his brother Freddie's band, The Stone Souls - the multiracial, cross-format Pop/Rock/Soul group Sly and the Family Stone solidified in November 1966.
Signed to Epic, Sly recorded the band live in the studio delivering "A Whole New Thing" in October 1967. With four singers, brass, and a new take on R&B, Sly & The Family Stone were initially overlooked. Executive Clive Davis encouraged them to go back to the studio and deliver something with a more "Pop" sound. Sly, against his wishes, thought the easiest path would be a "party record" where they essentially broke down the sounds that the band combined. When horn player Cynthia Robinson shrieked "All the squares go home,!" 1967's "Dance To The Music" would begin 1968 as their first Top Ten hit. Newly dubbed "Psychedelic Soul," Sly and The Family Stone went from aping Motown to influencing the label for years to come.
The same "conflict" that inspired "Dance To The Music" led Sly and the band further into musically joining the wild energy of their live shows with a subtle means of inducing further change. A year after "Dance," "Everyday People/Sing a Simple Song" melded a Pop-ready call for equality with Sly's first true incorporation of Funk as its B-side. With the world spinning out of control, 1969's "Stand" attempted to make sense of it all (the uplifting closer "You Can Make It If You Try") while calling for listeners to get more out of their melange of music ("Stand!/I Want to Take You Higher," with the B-side galvanizing the audience at Woodstock that year.)
The embrace of "conflict" gave Sly a lot of space to create within. However, internal and external forces were hampering his ability to do it. Drugs and pressure gave the world only one single ("Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/Everybody Is A Star,") from late 1969 to 1971. Sly's mistrust of people led to missing shows and enmity toward his bandmates. A deal for his own label under Atlantic Records led to his production of Little Sister's cover of his "Somebody's Watching You" being the first to use a drum machine. That rhythm box would inspire the most successful song of his career, 1971's "Family Affair." However, where "Dance To The Music" featured all the members of The Family Stone showing off, "Family Affair" would be mostly Sly with help from Rose and heavy hitters Billy Preston and Bobby Womack. "Family Affair" was no indicator how dark and different their output was about to become. 1971's woozy, druggy, "urban blues" "There's a Riot Goin' On" was only the precursor to original band members leaving and Sly taking full control of all aspects of recording.
Pressured to make the perfect record on his own, Sly & The Family Stone's early method of recording live became Sly's obsessive habit of overdubbing and remixing the masters until it endangered the physical release. To the critical world 1973's "Fresh" was a "masterpiece." It was so amazing to Miles Davis that he made his group listen to "In Time" five times in a row. Commercially, Sly even squeezed out another fantastic single "If You Want Me To Stay." Using what remained of his band, Stone made the pure Funk record that he may/may not have always been after. However, it would never be the same. 1974's "Small Talk" bades goodbye to Sixties activism ("Time For Livin'") and hello to officially going solo (the next album "High on You" under his name sees him part ways with the final remaining Family Stone members, Cynthia Robinson and his brother, Freddie.)
Though they both led chaotic post-success personal lives, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone earned their standing as geniuses by breaking through creative tension and the lure of consistent commercial success by writing, producing, and playing in opposition to guiding forces. While these were costly, their influence on countless musicians, artists, filmmakers, writers, and others continues today. And yes, their solo works are no comparison to their landmark early years. However, if you listen closely to their flops and failures, you can still hear it.
NEW MUSIC THIS WEEK
BENSON BOONE - American Heart [RED/WHITE/BLUE LP/CD/CS](Night Street/Warner)
Pop stars have a lengthy path to stardom. To be honest, even when they arrive, it is a tenuous perch. Post-American Idol/post-TikTok success Benson Boone has ascended the ladder. Ask the 2.2 billion that have spun "Beautiful Things" to the point where one cannot utter the words "please" and "stay' in a row without conjuring up his impassioned delivery. Outside of the back flips and the glam suits, Boone does possess quite the theatrical voice. So for his followup, Boone draws from Bruce Springsteen and Eighties Pop ("Mystical Magic" quotes Olivia Newton-John's classic "Physical.") Thankfully, he remains earnest on songs that sound like Adele ("Momma Song") while looking to try new textures (the ELO-reverence of "Mr. Electric Blue.") Unfortunately, Boone really needs new production and collaborators who would steer him away from shoehorning him into formula writing like "Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else."
HAIM - I QUIT [BLUE 2LP/CD](Columbia)
The most promising sisters to upend Pop in a decade continue to grow closer toward nondescript music even as they improve lyrically. Their fourth album shows some maturation, but the phalanx of brilliant writers they bring in (Tobias Jesso, Jr., Claire Cottrill a/k/a Clairo, and Justin Vernon a/k/a Bon Iver) do not really add to their experience. "Down To Be Wrong" stays raw around the edges which unveils the album's best feature, Danielle's near raspy vocals. With producer Rostam Batmanglij, "I Quit" sounds like early Vampire Weekend. "Take Me Back" crackles with similar hints of revenge and recoloring the past. The question is where do they go. You feel for the pouring over Danielle gives you in the response to her singing "Everybody's Trying to Figure Me Out," as she hangs on the "Ohhhh" before twisting the manner of saying "that's alright." However supported she is by her sisters on the repetition of "Relationships," its mid tempo bounce does not counterbalance her pensive/angry questions ("Why do I have a guilty conscience?/I've always been averse to conflict.") Like all HAIM albums so far, there are a lot of moving parts that work. To their credit, the honesty from "Women in Music, Pt.III" stays intact. Yet, "I quit" feels indistinguishable from the rest.
LUKAS NELSON - American Romance [LP/CD](Sony Music Nashville)
Unifying two progeny of the greatest Country artists ever, Lukas Nelson goes solo with Grammy-winner Shooter Jennings in the producer's chair. With Promise of the Real on a break, Nelson simplifies his writing ("Ain't Done" is some good traditional Nashville craft) so that Jennings can expand on his use of space. "Born Runnin' Outta Time" recalls the best of mid-period Tom Petty, Sierra Ferrell duets on "Friend In The End," and the album closes with the first song Nelson ever wrote (at 11) "You Were It."
YUNGBLUD - Idols [CLEAR LP/CD](Locomotion/Capitol)
A smart artist will move away from one style to another without much pronouncement. Simply billing Idols as a "rock" album, Yungblud puts it all out there for all to see. Glossy but heart-filled, "Idols" works because Yungblud has the voice to fit with his words of confusion-into-uplift. "Hello Heaven, Hello" is his big opener. Before he kicks into the driving arena-ready fist-pumping verse/chorus, Yungblud revels in its whirling Oasis-ness and then soars into the high register. "Zombie" is the real surprise. With strings and a stomping early Radiohead-ish guitar figure, the power ballad blows up with an Arctic Monkeys-ready chorus.
CRYPTOPSY - An Insatiable Violence [LP/CD](Season of Mist)
Canada's bleak Tech/Death Cryptopsy know how to maximize their bludgeoning effort on their ninth album. "Until There's Nothing Left" recalls the bass antics and guitar shred of their classic "None So Vile." Twenty-plus years later the tip of their attack is razor-sharp, cutting in the untapped madness of "Dead Eyes Replete" and slashing their way through the stop/starts of the martial portions of "Malicious Needs."
PENTAGRAM - Relentless [LP/CD](Peaceville/The Orchard)
American contemporaries of Black Sabbath, Bobby Liebling earned yet another life this year as the bug-eyed, long-hair-blowing-all-around-him meme. Still, Pentagram only occupies a hallowed place among the Big Four of Doom Metal. Liebling's history with Pentagram goes all the way back to the early Seventies. Their recorded history starts with this independently-funded thunderous work from 1985. At the precise moment where Thrash Metal, the "Death Row" era incarnation dropped an album that would have gotten them signed ten years earlier. Recorded in 1981 and 1982, "Death Row" is still some serious power-chord assailment. "Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)," "The Ghoul," and the double-guitar swollen "20 Buck Spin" are lost classics from a lost classic.
FULL OF HELL - Broken Sword, Rotten Shield [BLACK/WHITE LP/CD](Closed Casket Activities/The Orchard)
Powerviolence and Grindcore under the same Maryland roof is a dangerous mixture of Metal. Full of Hell have never shied away from making noise (their collaborations with Merzbow and The Body show the depth in their ideas.) This brief almost Hardcore EP takes some serious swerves. "To Ruin and The World's Ending" is a sludgy Powerviolence epic. Unrelenting and gripping throughout, "Broken Sword" packs some serious riffs ("Lament of All Things") and blastbeat/Grindcore madness (the title track switches to a brutal 6/8 playground nightmare to a pungent 4/4 drive that opens the album like waking a ravenous beast.) However, Full of Hell comes thrillingly close to a single with the buzzy shrieker "Knight's Oath." Over its three-minute span, they manage to check off all the drum and vocal boxes of Death and Grindcore - yet it never loses the Hardcore structure or momentum of a late-hour Headbanger's Ball addition. For a five-song EP with a pair of creepy atmospheric interludes, Full of Hell combines it all in their quest for Death/Doom/Black/Noise reconfiguration.
