In 2015, The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson released his tenth solo studio album, No Pier Pressure. The album was Wilson’s first to consist of all original material since 2008’s That Lucky Old Sun, and it included a series of notable collaborations. Original Beach Boys members Al Jardine and David Marks featured on the album alongside former band member Blondie Chaplin. Elsewhere, Wilson invited guests including Sebu Simonian of Capital Cities, Kacey Musgraves, She & Him, M. Ward, Nate Ruess of Fun and Peter Hollens.
On top of these collaborations, Wilson had initially invited Lana Del Rey and Frank Ocean to appear on a couple of the tracks for vocal contributions. Following the announcement that he was planning to invite the likes of Ocean and Del Rey to sing on his upcoming album in 2014, Wilson instantly drew criticism from some of his devout fans.
At the time, the Beach Boys songwriter countered such arguments imploring listeners to “wait until the album comes out” before judging the decision. “I think you just might dig it as much as I do,” he added.
Wilson had been extremely excited about the prospect of working alongside some younger musicians from different musical backgrounds. He even beat the official press announcement of the proposed collaborations with a quote posted on his website from an interview with Rolling Stone before it was due to be published. “This project blows my mind,” the quote read before citing the list of collaborators “in contention”.
Despite his excitement, Wilson’s fans didn’t seem quite so enthusiastic. One fan commented on Wilson’s Facebook page: “To me, these collaborators represent exactly the type of pop fodder that is the very antithesis to what I associate with a genius like [Brian].”
Other comments described the project as an uninspired “cash in” and insisted that “everything is ruined”. Wilson’s fans felt that his inclusion of modern pop artists was either a bid for financial gain or for renewed exposure that would ultimately serve to tarnish his legacy as an eminent songsmith.
In a direct response to the backlash from fans, Wilson wrote a follow-up post. “It kind of bums me out to see some of the negativity here about the album I’ve been working so hard on,” Wilson wrote. “In my life in music, I’ve been told too many times not to fuck with the formula, but as an artist, it’s my job to do that – and I think I’ve earned that right. I’m really proud of these new songs and to hear these great artists sing on them just blows me away. I love what we’ve done. I would think that after making music for more than 50 years, my fans would understand that I’ll always do what’s in my heart – and I think that’s why you are my fans.”
When it came to the announcement of No Pier Pressure’s official release date in 2015, the two biggest names, Ocean and Del Rey, had disappeared from the list of collaborators. At the time, the artist’s absence was ambiguously attributed to a conflict in scheduling. This led to speculation that Wilson might have omitted them because of the backlash the year before.
However, a few weeks later, Wilson further clarified the absence of the two artists. He explained to Vulture that “Lana Del Rey, uh, she just cancelled out on us.” Meanwhile, Ocean was removed from the project due to creative differences. “Well, Frank Ocean didn’t want to do the song,” Wilson told Vulture. “He wanted to do rap, so we cancelled him.”
Listen to ‘Guess You Had To Be There’ from the 2015 album, which features Kacey Musgraves, below.
