That Lucky Old Sun (album)

That Lucky Old Sun was commissioned by the Southbank Centre for its 2007 opening season. The work debuted in a series of concerts at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England during September 2007. In January 2008, it also performed at the State Theatre in Sydney, Australia for the Sydney Festival.

Wilson described the piece as "consisting of five 'rounds', with interspersed spoken word".^[2] The work's main theme is celebration of life in Southern California and repeats the themes of Wilson's earlier work with the Beach Boys. "California Role" and numerous spoken interludes such as "Cinco de Mayo" and "Between Pictures" celebrate the culture of Venice Beach, the Los Angeles film industry and numerous Californian landmarks including the Capitol Tower and Hollywood Bowl. Rolling Stone called it a "musical love letter to his native Los Angeles".^[3]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[6]
Entertainment Weekly	B[7]
Mojo	[8]
Pitchfork	7.8/10[9]
PopMatters	[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]
Slant Magazine	[12]
Spin	8/10[13]
Uncut	[14]

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Early demos of the tracks "Midnight's Another Day" and "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" were released on Wilson's official website in August 2007. Live bootlegs and studio demos of the complete work also circulated on the Internet.^{[citation needed]} Released in September 2008, That Lucky Old Sun entered the UK Albums Chart at number 37 and the Billboard 200 at number 21; the album had sold 65,000 copies in the U.S. by 2015.^[15] Based on 26 reviews, it has a score of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[4]

In 2009 a limited edition box set of That Lucky Old Sun was produced in England by Genesis Publications. The set was a collaboration with artist Peter Blake, and included twelve serigraphs by Blake each illustrating a song from the album as well as three facsimile sheets of music, a VIP pass and “one of the first pressings” of the That Lucky Old Sun CD.^[16]

From the album's liner notes.^[17]

• Brian Wilson – lead vocals, keyboards, piano

Brian Wilson Band

Additional musicians

• Tommy Morgan – harmonica
• Peggy Baldwin – cello
• Phil Feather – woodwinds
• Peter Kent – violin
• Bruce Otto – trombone
• Cameron Stone – cello
• Jessica van Velzen – viola

Production staff

• Paul Von Mertens - conductor (strings and horns)
• Mark Linett - engineer