God Only Knows What We'd Have Done Without Brian

The arts correspondent of the UK state's bastion of elite privilege, David Sillito was summoned to the airwaves yesterday to express our collective sense of grief. Surely, at such a time of profound musical loss, we could rely on Britain's greatest cultural export to organise our emotions? This, after all, is the same organisation that refers to itself, cloyingly, as 'our BBC' whilst fittingly celebrating mediocrity and cultural inanity. The state's upholder of secular religion refuses external advertising to fund its air-headed presenters' six-figure obscenities, but batters us monotonously across all platforms with a nauseating advertorial diet of smug self-promotion. All of course funded by a regressive tax (AKA the TV License) that hits the honest low-waged the hardest. 

On the news that one of the most original, innovative and influential talents in 20th century music - period - had died, Mr Sillito combined throw away references to Brian Wilson's celebrated early '60s songs about surf, sun, sand and girls, with much comment about his later mental breakdown. And that was it. 

So goodbye Brian. 

The next morning however the BBC briefly returned to the topic of Brian.... with a mention of a tweet attributed to Bob Dylan about marveling at his 'genius'. It's true that the strains of one of the greatest songs - ever - 'God Only Knows' from the Beach Boys' classic album 'Pet Sounds', did accompany the BBC's earlier 'tribute'. However not a word was said  about the song that in 1966 Paul McCartney as good as admitted he could never get close to, and that David Bowie, more humbly, later did a passable but highly respectful interpretation of. 

That mental breakdown was, Brian is audio-edited as in effect saying, triggered by LSD. But I'd guess it had as much to do with Brian's physical and psychological abuse by his father Murray Wilson. The BBC's website tribute actually says his breakdown was triggered by him realising he was not able to compete with The Beatles' 'Revolver' album. Yet the Beach Boys' answer, 'Smile', was very much the product of Brian's 'mad genius' and was arguably, when we finally got to hear it in its entirety 35 plus years later, every bit as good as Pet Sounds, Revolver or Sgt Pepper. The original unreleased album 'Smile' was as good as disowned by the other Beach Boys, even though some of its best tracks appeared on subsequent albums. In fact what the BBC had all but dismissed as an apparently quintessential '60s band also graced the '70s with some fine songs, including versions of some 'Smile' originals, Surf's Up and Heroes and Villains.

Surf's Up - the album

The song 'Surf's Up' is a mesmerising pop symphony that plainly heavily influenced Macca and serves as a wilful antidote (the clue's in the ironic title) to the boys' trademark surf 'n sun schtick. The wonderful 1971 album of the same name also contained another of Brian's greatest, 'Til I Die. In its original Beach Boys form it is sublime; peerless in fact. In its mid '90s reinterpretation on Brian's album 'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times', itself a wholly revealing and achingly emotional reworking of some of Brian's best songs, 'Til I Die becomes a white/RnB crossover hymn of overwhelming beauty. 

Play it and weep. 

We love you Brian.       

Full Moon at The Comet Hotel - The Necessary Animals

Every now and again a record comes out that restores your faith in the idea of an album, of a concentrated collection of tracks not randomly put together but having a purpose and a unifying theme. 'Full Moon at the Comet Hotel', the latest release by celebrated art rockers The Necessary Animals, is one of those. Its expression of that theme is broad: reinvented new wave, ambient jazz fusion and (almost) classic rock somehow sit together as a logical whole. This is not concept rock however. It’s more an album that induces darkness, angst, anomie and loss, and that is just from its excellent hybrid musical creations. Many of the lyrics give further voice to this vibe.

As has been observed elsewhere, this record could, in places anyway, be a soundtrack to an edgy, period movie. However it equally allows itself to breath beyond dark shadows and queasy feelings. The wonderous seven minute plus experimentation of the album’s penultimate track, ‘Psychedelic Green’, gives leading Necessary Animal Keith Rodway a sci-fi movie villain vocal treatment, placed in a musical theatre that reinvents early '70s Miles Davis with driving rock drum patterns and an other-worldly groove. Keith gets the same vocal treatment on ‘Natalie Says’, the album’s opener, which could easily be the opening scene for that movie. One you can see, hear and feel. This is not film noire however. More a thrusting, musically bold, journey through modern feelings of breakdown, but combined with hope not despair.   

Cover art c/o Necessary Animals/Aldora Britain Records

As ever, Necessary Animals draw on an impressive network of accomplished musicians. In addition to Keith’s own distinct top-end bassisms, and Amanda Thompson’s inspired keyboard treatments, Kath Alsopp on fiddle (and some vocal duties), Hutch Demouilpied on trumpet, and Marcus Sullivan on guitar are among the many valuable musical contributors. A classy production job is provided by longtime Necessaries’ partner Fritz Catlin.

There are, it has to be said, two tracks on the first half of the album that start awkwardly, almost hesitantly – ‘Daddy Saw David Lynch’ and ‘Burning Angel’. This sense doesn’t go away on repeated listens. Yet by their close these two tracks have lifted you beyond any normal listening experience, as each performance builds and creates a logic out of what initially sounded faltering.

Not to take itself too seriously, the album also presents us with the hilarious but clever ‘Multi-Story Car-Park’. This is New New Wave with a modern twist. ‘I’m just a plastic bag in a multi-story car park,’ goes the, this time, untreated Keith lead vocal. I can relate to this.

As with past Necessary Animals’ records, many of the vocal duties are shared between a range of very different female singers. Maike Elena Schmidt brings a suitably haunting quality to ‘Rosalie Song’, and Amanda Thompson and Kath Alsopp combine very effectively on ‘Henry Walks Home’. Amanda, the other lead Necessary Animal, as well as the driving force behind The Big Believe, is once again the Necessaries' vocal star. The album’s closer, 'The Last News', is one of its strongest tracks, and Amanda’s sung performance on this is a joy to hear. In fact this will surely be the album’s hit single. It has that accessible ‘classic’ quality but a musical depth and interaction that is both rock and something altogether different.  ‘Still’ is a three minute gloriously atmospheric piece, in part reminiscent of ‘Heroes’/’Low’ period Bowie instrumentals, but again, never getting lost in retro land. It’s always, like all of this record, of its time yet somehow timeless.

Surely that is the mark of a classic album isn’t it?

'Full Moon at the Comet Hotel' by Necessary Animals was released on Aldora Britain Records on November 27 2024.