That's Why God Made the Radio provided a bittersweet coda to
the Beach Boys' career but the soothing sounds of the 2012 reunion didn't linger long before they were soured by the internal fighting endemic to the band. Mere weeks afterward,
Mike Love announced
Brian Wilson wouldn't join
the Beach Boys for any dates after the summer 2012 tour, leaving
Brian free to capitalize on the good press of
That's Why God Made the Radio. He headed into the studio with guitarist
Jeff Beck and producer
Don Was in 2013 with the intention of cutting a full album but that collaboration quickly fell apart, leaving
Wilson to re-team with his longtime collaborator
Joe Thomas to turn these abandoned sessions into what turned out to be
No Pier Pressure. Caught halfway between a back-to-basics move along the lines of
TWGMTR and a star-studded extravaganza,
No Pier Pressure is all sand, sun, and Saturday night nostalgia, a sensibility goosed by the addition of
Al Jardine,
David Marks, and
Blondie Chaplin -- the part of the
Beach Boys camp that threw in their lot with
Brian -- who help give their numbers ("What Ever Happened," "The Right Time," "Sail Away") a bit of the classicist AM pop sheen that made
That's Why God Made the Radio so soothing. Elsewhere, the album relies on guest stars to give it a bit of showbiz sheen.
She & Him breeze in to deliver some Caribbean camp on "On the Island,"
Sebu Simonian of
Capital Cities gives
Brian a dance club makeover on "Runaway Dancer," and
Kacey Musgraves graces "Guess You Had to Be There." By the time
Nate Ruess of
Fun. shows up for "Saturday Night," a throwback that seems to belong the early-'80s soft rock glory days of
Carole Bayer Sager and not
American Graffiti (and is the better for it),
No Pier Pressure seems a fusion of
Wilson's classic sunshine instincts and modern Hollywood pop. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine