Brian Wilson

No Pier Pressure ★★★

Contemporary schmaltz as memory refresher. It’s kind of become the stock- in- trade of the once- genius, still revered Beach Boy in his later years. It’s seen him continue to release albums that are more about our past associations with him than actual new works, ones that could make it on their own. It’s something that’s underscored and bolded on the punnily, unfunnily titled No Pier Pressure. The 11th studio “solo” album from Wilson is a bloated, overblown collection of 16 songs — with two bonus tracks on some versions — that seek to remind what was, while hoping you forgive what is. To help in that matter, it also features a host of guest artists all willing to bow down at the altar of the man behind generational recordings, generations ago, including She & Him, fun’s Nate Ruess, Kacey Musgraves and fellow Boy Al Jardine. There are moments when it works, such as the sunny, quite lovely country- pop outing led by Musgraves, or, on a kitschy level, the Kokomo bossa of the S& H pairing On the Island. But for the most part, the collaborations are merely cut- and- paste, such as Our Special Love, which starts gorgeously then devolves into atrocious boy bandism thanks to vocalist Petter Hollens, and the flat- out embarrassing abomination that is the middle age disco of Runaway Dancer featuring Sebu from Capital Cities ( seriously, it’s either the funniest thing you’ll ever hear or the saddest). Left to his own devices, or rather his, but backed by a stellar band featuring Don Was and Kenny Aronoff, Wilson can still pull off a pretty number or two ( Somewhere Quiet, One Kind of Love), but they’re merely shadows of where he has already taken us, where we all — perhaps especially Wilson — wish we could go again.