All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Slant Magazine

In many ways, Wilson updates his style, while still paying tribute to the things he loves.

Read Full Review >

PopMatters

That Lucky Old Sun, then, is easily Wilson’s best collection of new material since, well, the original SMiLE sessions.

Read Full Review >

Mojo

That Lucky Old Sun is easily Brian Wilson's most consistently enjoyable, moving solo albums; indeed you have to go back to "Surf's Up" itrself to hear a Beach Boys long-player as good. [Spe 2008, p.99]

Uncut

There are very few other albums this year with as much force, verve, and sheer musical imagination as That Lucky Old Sun. [Sep 2008, p.84]

Billboard

After taking care of some unfinished business in recent years, Brian Wilson shows he still has the stuff of conceptual brilliance on his eighth solo album.

Read Full Review >

Boston Globe

What makes the record work, though, is Wilson's ability to create melodies that blend the childlike and enthusiastic with the melancholic and nostalgic.

Read Full Review >

Rolling Stone

That Lucky Old Sun lacks the magnificent shock of SMiLE, Wilson's 2004 completion of that '67 album. But it has a natural, hopeful flow that leaves you warm all over.

Read Full Review >

Spin

Sweetly and unmistakably, That Lucky Old Sun limns the sunset of Wilson's career, while still showing how California is at its most beautiful through his eyes.

Read Full Review >

Pitchfork

"But now I'm back." And he is, with his finest non-"Smile" album since the golden age of the Beach Boys. Lucky us.

Read Full Review >

Austin Chronicle

Whereas 2004's epic completion of "Smile" allowed the Beach Boy to rewrite (and right) history, his follow-up plays like the ultimate product of that self-examination.

Read Full Review >

Entertainment Weekly

The sunniness can feel strained, and 'Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl' is as unnecessary as sequels get. But when Wilson is on his game, you feel lucky to still be soaking up his rays.

Read Full Review >

The Onion (A.V. Club)

The album pays wistful, hopeful tribute to the place he's long called home, and in spite of hard years and losses, now wants to enjoy for a while.

Read Full Review >

cokemachineglow

Though absent any truly great songs, That Lucky Old Sun is the most engaged and consistent effort from pop’s lonely genius in decades.

Read Full Review >

Dot Music

Not only an opportunity to look back, then, but a joyous reminder that, when at his lowest, Brian Wilson stepped up and did the unthinkable.

Read Full Review >

Hartford Courant

His sun-and-fun lyrics can be saccharine and anachronistic, but his complete lack of artifice helps to sell the sticky likes of 'Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl.'

Read Full Review >

The New York Times

For all its determined optimism That Lucky Old Sun ends up as more an affirmation of Mr. Wilson’s legacy than an expansion of it.

Read Full Review >

All Music Guide

That Lucky Old Sun rarely approaches the subtleties of the classic Beach Boys sound. What it evokes instead is the driving '70s productions on latter-day Beach Boys albums like "15 Big Ones" and "Love You."

Read Full Review >

Observer Music Monthly

The concept of LA as a 'Sunblessed City of Angels' is trite, co-opting another's song for the theme tune lazy, and much of what follows resembles a Beach Boys tribute band.

Read Full Review >

musicOMH.com

That Lucky Old Sun is a brave but failed attempt to add a new chapter to the ongoing story of a pop legend.

Read Full Review >

Hot Press

This album leaves no doubt that the former Beach Boy is now fully recovered from the 1967 nervous breakdown that effectively stalled his career for decades.

Read Full Review >

Blender

Sadly it's undercut by music that tirns Brian Wilson into merely another Brian Wilson imitator. [Sep 2008, p.85]

Read Full Review >

The Phoenix

Brian Wilson and his karaoke-smooth backing band the Wondermints have instead given us something on par with 1970s Beach Boys--kinda bloated, kinda silly, mostly out of date, but with enough earnestness and pop intuition to be so, so, so puerile that hating it would be like hating Raffi.

Read Full Review >

NOW Magazine

It appears that Wilson came up with a couple of tunes about his own troubled life but realized it might be too much of a bummer, so he tacked on a few happy-sappy Beach Boys throwbacks to make for a sunny little song cycle about a magical place filled with sun, sand and surfer girls.

Read Full Review >

Prefix Magazine

Some of it works--'Southern California' 's honey-harmony’d and piano-led wistful look at the history of the Beach Boys in specific and SoCal in general is rather touching. But the rest of the album, especially the overwrought spoken-word interludes, remains a series of harmonized thuds and (however pretty) blank-eyed lobotomy-pop.

Read Full Review >

Tiny Mix Tapes

Wilson continues to rehash southern California culture with increasingly less perspective, further eschewing the untamed adolescent aesthetic by including stuffy musical theater elements and a top-down point-of-view that’s more clumsy analysis than sincere memoir.

Read Full Review >

The Guardian

Every single note feels forced, in hock to a sound and a set of attitudes that date from a time before many of us were born.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kent G. gave it a10:
Easy to listen to........updated, reflective semi beach boy sound...........real nice to hear new stuff from Brian Wilsin.

John L. gave it a10:
This may actually deserve a "9", but I'm upping it to a "10". "SMiLE" was all it was cracked up to be, and as great as the work those original Beach Boys did on it in the 60's (I've heard loads of bootlegs), but...it was a work, even though completed & gorgeously executed recently, that is truly from the 60's. "Brian Wilson", his solo effort from 1988, is his last great work of original material, & it suffered from productions issues. The two albums since then have suffered from production issues but been pretty lousy. "Imagination" is better than "Getting In Over My Head", but they both are well below par. "That Lucky Old Sun" carries with it the fine production feeling that was present on "SMiLE". It has 10 bon fide new original songs on it, and 7 are incredible, with the remaining three very good; so good that they would have been absolute highlights on either of his two sub par albums. The narratives are well written, and brief with fine musical backing, & the musical links that are less than complete songs, are even better than the narratives. I love the concept, and the carry out of the project even more. "Surprise" by Paul Simon remains my favorite album of the decade (& "SMiLE" would be up there too, even though it's truly an old album), and Paul McCartney's later career renaissance has spawned two great albums this decade (Chaos & Creation In The Backyard, & Memory Almost Full). This new Brian Wilson is his greatest new original work in 20 years, and it compares pretty favorably to those Macca efforts (though maybe not quite that great). Baring a barrage of great releases in the next two years, it will most probably be one of my ten favorite albums of this decade, and maybe one of my top five. A beautiful album indeed!! Blessings Of Love & Light!!

Sandra K. gave it a10:
full of the Brian Wilson melodies and harmonies that we all love. Wonderfully fresh and appealing.

Bill T. gave it a10:
Sure, it's pop. But it is beautifully produced, pushes all the right emotional buttons and just plain old makes me feel happy listening to it. Especially driving along the PCH with the windows open.

Murray P. gave it a3:
Am I the only one here who thinks this album is a lame duck? It sounds like Beach Boys "B" sides! I mean, I'm the first guy to agree with Brian Wilson's genius, but this ain't it folks. Just the spoken word parts alone are so cheesy and infantile it's hard to believe that Van Dyke Parks penned them. It sounds like Mr. Wilson is trying to re-capture some former glory, but instead, captures (an akward) nostalgia that really shows us that there is nothing left of the creative man who gave us Pet Sounds. There's no challenge here, no inspiration, just a driver who set the controls to auto pilot.

Brendan D. gave it a1:
Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. Brian has, unfortunately, lost his ability to produce. Since his third comeback began around 1996 with the awful Don Was documentary "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times," Wilson's sound has become sanitized and boring, as if his orchestral overtones are being channeled through Oxycontin rather than LSD. The lyrics are, to be nice, tepid. The spoken-word interludes are embarrassing. The music has been done better by Brian, let alone about eighty other bands currently out there trudging along every day. It is a shame that Brian and WilsonCo. continue putting out record after record of schlocky, over-produced, nostalgia-laden manure like this. I'm thrilled that Brian has been able to overcome such adversity and mental illness; he's a great guy and one of the true heroes for any modern musician. But this record is crap.

Jeff G. gave it a10:
Brian Wilson has demonstrated his ability to create another masterpiece at age 65. The support and collaboration of his younger disciples like Scott Bennett and Darien Sahanaja has enabled him to approach the quality of Pet Sounds and Smile in the new millennium. Doubters just need to watch the DVD studio performance of "Good Kind of Love" to be blown away by twenty musicians performing a "pocket symphony"!

Music

Upcoming &Recent Releases

That Lucky Old Sun

Album Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

Upcoming &
Recent Releases