Imagination

06/16/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Chris Morris

Inevitably, two schools of thought will prevail in discussions of this album by the former Beach Boys maestro: Super-fans will hail it as a new high-water mark, and skeptics will make invidious comparisons to Wilson's certifiable '60s classics. My opinion falls somewhere smack in the middle.

While it's still a undeniable pleasure to revel in Brian's glorious, still affecting multi-tracked harmonies and formidable melodicism, much of the material on Imagination (penned by such unlikely collaborators as Carole Bayer Sager and Jimmy Buffett) lacks the powerful emotional tug of "Love And Mercy" or sheer ambition of "Rio Grande" on Wilson's decade-old solo debut. Only the nakedly emotional "Lay Down Burden," a tribute to Brian's late brother Carl, packs a knockout punch here. And one has to wonder if the inclusion of three Beach Boys remakes on an 11-track, 39-minute album isn't a tacit admission that the well of inspiration is not as deep as some would like to believe it is. Wilson adorators will clasp this to their bosoms, but more casual fans will probably spin it less enthusiastically, and find themselves revisiting glories past.