Midnight Sunshine

After Brian Wilson's notorious 30-year lost weekend, few could have expected this decade to be so triumphant for him. But after the successes of his Pet Sounds tours and his 2004 Smile album, Wilson is poised to release his first collection of truly new material since his much-lauded comeback. Listening to Lucky Old Sun, it's difficult to separate Wilson's backstory from the typically lush sonics. Indeed, his personal turbulence is addressed with unflinching candor on songs like "Midnight's Another Day." But coming from a man who wrote "I Guess I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" at his commercial and artistic peak, this shouldn't surprise. Melancholy is as much of a Wilson trademark as sun-and-fun California mythologizing, which is also on this new album in spades.