That’s Why God Made The Radio ended with that suite of ballads that was a really good way to end the Beach Boys, even if that album only had about two other good songs on it.

No Pier Pressure ended with The Last Song, which isn’t a classic or anything, but makes sense as the last song on his last album of new material. I checked that album out a few months back and it’s better than I thought. It kicks off with about the most embarassing dance pop song imaginable, which for a long time was the only song I’d heard from it. But a lot of it is actually pretty decent, even some of the collaborations.

Then “At My Piano” sounds like an epitaph even though he was still alive.

And then he put out a couple of new songs on that movie soundtrack. Which actually aren’t bad even though his voice is even more shot than usual.

I still hoped he’d manage to put out something new even though that seemed highly unlikely in recent years.

The good thing about Brian and the Beach Boys is there’s so much unreleased stuff in the vaults that there should still be a fair bit of ‘new’ stuff to come. Supposedly Adult Child is finally getting released this year! And I hope one day they’ll release all the Paley Sessions stuff in one place, some of his best songs are hidden away there:

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In a way we were lucky coming of age when all these legends were still alive and doing new stuff. But we’re really entering the end times for that generation now!