I would have never come up with the idea for this album, because I had no idea that there would be enough songs about Brian Wilson to make up an entire album. I knew of the song "Brian Wilson" by Barenaked Ladies, since that was a hit back in the 1990s, but that was about it. But Fabio must be a really big fan, because he found so many songs that we had to cut some out to keep the album from getting too long.
The album starts with a rare demo written and sung by Wilson himself. It also ends with two more written and sung by him, including a rare live version of "Love and Mercy." Fabio explained the reasoning for this in an email, which I liked. I'll just paste in his explanation here:
"The Wilson tunes are bookends, as they serve to introduce and close the 'main event' (all the tracks written to him or about him) while bringing a personal Brian touch to the collection. The first song, a 1975, demo works as a prelude (acknowledging Brian's fragility and strength both simultaneously contained in his voice), 'The Last Song' is the epilogue, and 'Love and Mercy' is a coda."
Regarding the rest of the songs, what Fabio calls the "main event," tracks 2 through 13, are basically divided into two parts. Tracks 2 through 8 are direct tributes to Brian. That's obvious by their titles, but it's not just that: the lyrics and musical style ooze reference and admiration for the man. That's followed by tracks 9 through 13, which are indirect tributes to Brian, or direct tributes to things related to him (the Beach Boys, his health shop, girls, his genius, family), all mentioning him either in the title or lyrics.
So, a big thanks to Fabio from Rio for coming up with the idea for this album and then finding and selecting the songs. As you could guess from the name, he's Brazilian, and hopefully in the future he'll be able to assist in sharing more music from Brazil. I like a lot of music from Brazil, despite not speaking Portuguese at all. I haven't really shared any music from Brazil until now, because I don't have worthy rarities. But he does, so look forward to that in the future. He also has some other plans, including creating one or more albums as a further tribute to Wilson that will consist of songs in a Beach Boys style composed by other musical acts.
Fabio has also taped a great number of concerts in Brazil. You can find some of them on his YouTube page, here:
https://www.youtube.com/@musicadequalidade2020/videos
This album is 58 minutes long.
01 In the Back of My Mind [Demo] (Brian Wilson)
02 The Love Songs of B. Douglas Wilson (Splitsville)
03 Mr. Wilson (Hormones)
04 Dear Brian (Chris Rainbow)
05 Brian Wilson Said (Tears for Fears)
06 Brian Wilson (Barenaked Ladies)
07 Mr. Wilson (John Cale)
08 Brian Wilson (Queers)
09 Crazy = Genius (Panic at the Disco)
10 Radiant Radish (Pearl & the Oysters)
11 Brian Wilson Is My Dad (Breakup Shoes)
12 Minnesota Girls (Shackletons)
13 Since God Invented Girls (Elton John)
14 The Last Song (Brian Wilson)
15 Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/Kn42WH9u
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/EMCkcQ343EW7g0m/file
The cover photo shows Wilson in 2007. I added the font colors and type to match those used on the cover of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album.
Room for 'Voice of America' by Asia?
ReplyDeleteHi, Fabio from Rio here! I didn't select that particular song because, although it is dedicated to Brian Wilson as stated by composers John and Geoff, thia is not obvious by title or lyrics. Also, it sounds like aomething that would play at an american political party convention, so I felt it was a bit out of line with the other tracks.
DeleteYeah, I'd never heard the song before, but I listened to it just now. The lyrics are very generic - it could be a tribute to just about any kind of music from a decade or so prior to the release of it, since the lyrics are very vague. And the music doesn't sound anything like a Beach Boys tribute either. So it would be a bit out of place.
DeleteThat is why I didn"t even considered it for inclusion (specially since there were more than 30 other tracks to choose from)
DeleteThanks. Nice photo of Brian, he seems happy.
ReplyDeleteAnother really nice one is Jesus Loves You, Brian Wilson
ReplyDeleteby Lost Dogs
That one was included at my initial tracklist, but I decided to cut it after finding out that Lost Dogs is a christian band, and so, when they sing that Brian is "crazy" and "insane" and only praying to God could save him, it is not a joke, they really mean it. After that, the song seems more offensive to Brian then a tribute.
DeleteFabio from Rio here. I would like to thank Paul for letting me be a guest at ATSE and for the feedback and tips (if it wasn't for him, the album would be 98 minutes long, a bit too long even for hardcore Brian fans...)
ReplyDeleteAs Paul mentions, there are surprisingly many songs written about Brian or as a letter to Brian (the Barenaked Ladies tune is just the most famous). The ones I cut would fill up a second album. But instead of doing that (since many of these songs are interesting, but not great ) I intend to try something different as a second Brian tribute, hopefully in time for Paul to post it by next friday (June 20, that would have been Brian's 82nd birthday). Stay tuned!
Also, a brief correction about my youtube channel mentioned by Paul. I don't post there the concerts I tape here in Rio or elsewhere, but instead I share some videos I make at the same concerts (using my smartphone or a semiprofesional camera, depending on the venue's policy on filming). There is some overlaping, but the vídeos are gererally just samples (I usually film two or three songs, sometimes more, but rarely the entire performance). I do tape the entirety of the audio from a given performance when not forbidden by the venue, but these have rarely been shared (It may change soon). So, if you like a particular video or would like to listen more from a given concert at my channel, let me know and if I have the full audio recording I may share it in the future with help of Paul.
DeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteI was listening yesterday at my car to the "Songs in the Key of Brian" disc, and it really felt like a *real* tribute album (as it is expected from all the posts at ATSE blog :-) ) Anyway, that made me think how such an album would be reviewed by a musical magazine like Uncut, Mojo or Rolling Stone, if it indeed existed and was officially released.
ReplyDeleteWell, thanks to AI magic, now we can actually read such a review! I fed ChatGPT with the tracklist and title of the album, and asked it to write an honest review, as if it was written by a musical journalist from one of the magazines I mentioned. I found it funny and interesting! I'll copy-and-paste the results at my next comment.
All the best, Fabio from RIo
Album Review: Songs in the Key of Brian – Remembering Brian Wilson - by an imagined reviewer for MOJO, July 2025 ________________________________________
ReplyDeleteIn the wake of Brian Wilson’s passing, Songs in the Key of Brian arrives not as a polished industry tribute, but as a curated, often curious, emotional mixtape – part homage, part psychological study, and part fan letter. Spanning four decades and wildly divergent genres, it doesn’t try to imitate Wilson’s genius; instead, it wanders through the shadows and echoes he left in the minds of others.
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Tribute albums tend to fall into two camps: the overly reverent and the tonally chaotic. Songs in the Key of Brian lands somewhere in between — not so much a definitive homage to Brian Wilson as a cross-section of how different generations and genres have tried to understand him. It’s compact (15 tracks), surprisingly varied, and occasionally brilliant in its odd juxtapositions.
It opens with a whisper. The demo version of “In the Back of My Mind” is a stark and moving start — rough, hesitant, and emotionally exposed, offering a glimpse into the vulnerable architecture behind Wilson’s more baroque productions. It reminds us that long before mythologizing began, there was just this: a fragile falsetto and the tremble of doubt.
From there, we move into Splitsville’s “The Love Songs of B. Douglas Wilson”, a highlight in tone and concept. Equal parts satire and sincerity, it pokes at the public’s obsession with Brian’s “damaged genius” persona while simultaneously embracing his melodic fingerprints. Like the best tracks here, it shows that loving Brian Wilson means grappling with contradictions.
(to be continued)
The compilation cleverly balances the obscure with the iconic. Tracks like Chris Rainbow’s “Dear Brian” and The Hormones’ “Mr. Wilson” are relatively little-known but soaked in pathos, approaching Brian with the reverence one might reserve for a spiritual leader. But then comes Tears for Fears' “Brian Wilson Said”, a lush, widescreen production that doesn't imitate Wilson so much as responds to him — a panoramic 1980s reflection on influence and idealism.
DeleteYes, Barenaked Ladies’ “Brian Wilson” is here, and while it risks overexposure, it still works. Its self-aware framing and mental-health allusions give it lasting weight, even if its alt-rock production now feels dated. The Queers’ punky “Brian Wilson”, by contrast, is all sneer and distortion — an affectionate eye-roll rather than a bow.
Some of the more recent tracks reveal how Brian’s ghost haunts younger, weirder acts. “Crazy = Genius” by Panic! at the Disco is a hammy, brass-laden cabaret-rock number that name-drops Wilson with more theatricality than insight — but it’s fun, and maybe that’s enough. Pearl & the Oysters’ “Radiant Radish”, a kitschy synth-pop nod to Brian’s brief venture into health food retail, is wonderfully absurd — like a forgotten jingle for a Beach Boys cereal commercial.
If there's a sleeper gem here, it's “Brian Wilson Is My Dad” by Breakup Shoes — slacker indie-pop that feels deceptively breezy. Beneath the goofy title is something more affecting: a genuine longing to be part of the lineage, to belong to that sun-drenched musical DNA.
Then comes “Minnesota Girls” by the Shackletons, a regional riff on “California Girls” that swaps sunshine for Midwestern resignation. It’s raw and unpolished, but it sticks — not a tribute so much as a kind of cultural footnote, proving that Brian’s blueprint made it far from the West Coast.
DeleteElton John’s “Since God Invented Girls” closes out the tribute section with a line that now feels elegiac: “Now I know what Brian Wilson meant…” — a lyric that once seemed throwaway now reads as an epitaph.
But it’s the final pairing that elevates the whole project. “The Last Song” and “Love and Mercy” — both sung by Brian himself — bring us back to the source. The former is heartbreakingly subdued, a late-career Wilson cut filled with resignation and strange beauty. The latter, recorded live, is more than a song: it’s a benediction. In its simplicity, it says everything this album tries to say — kindness, sadness, survival, and music as the only real language that lasts.
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DeleteVerdict
Songs in the Key of Brian doesn’t aim to summarize Brian Wilson’s career — and wisely so. What it does is map his shadow, across indie rock, synth pop, punk, and soft rock; across reverent notes and ironic winks; across generations of artists trying to decode what made the music shimmer, and what made the man falter.
Brian Wilson wasn’t just a man — he was an idea, a sound, a wound, a blueprint, and a lighthouse. This compilation doesn’t canonize him so much as converse with him, through old cassette letters, YouTube-era love songs, and indie-pop postcards from 20 years of bedroom studios.
Not every song is essential, but the collection as a whole has a real heart. It listens like Brian’s own story: messy, sweet, strange, and ultimately generous. Taken as a whole, this collection feels like the way Brian Wilson lived in the world: scattered, misunderstood, brilliant, and always somehow singing.
★★★★☆ (4/5)
A sideways, sometimes scrappy, but deeply human portrait of the man who taught us that love and mercy are still worth singing about.