Libera Dreams

A better image, in the wait for a real HD visual of the cover.

When trying to pre-order the options appear to all be for streaming services rather than download services, unless I'm mistaken. Amazon has changed their entire music buying interface, making it more confusing to actually purchase downloads as it tries to steer you towards a paid monthly streaming service subscription similar to Spotify.

I did a "Pre-Save" to Amazon so we'll see what happens on the day, but how annoying! I know that streaming is the more modern way of accessing music, but there are so many times when these streaming services decide to suddenly delete access to various music....and what happens if the service goes belly up? For me until I have a FLAC or MP3 file on my own device where corporate claws can't touch it I'm always wondering about that. It's happened many times that an album I downloaded for purchase on places like Amazon is no longer available just a few years later. I encountered it several times when looking for maybe the album art or a file got corrupted and I wanted to redownload one or two tracks....nope...gone!

My rant about streaming services aside, does anyone know which of those services has a paid download option? I know Amazon does and Apple music sometimes does, but the rest are purely streaming services right? I did Google the question lol and it appears so, I just want to confirm.

Well, "God Only Knows" was certainly a delightful listening experience. It may not seem as 'serious' as other music, but I think it is. It's a really well-crafted piece of music which perfectly captures what the lyrics are expressing. I also like the contrast between the voices of Luca (brighter) and Daniel (melancholic). I can forgive them for not trying to match the quirky instrumentation of the original. Here is a quote from Wikipedia which lists the instruments used:

"Wilson produced the record between March and April 1966, enlisting about 20 session musicians who variously played drums, sleigh bells, plastic orange juice cups, clarinets, flutes, strings, French horn, accordion, guitars, upright bass, harpsichord, and a tack piano with its strings taped".

Here it is!!!

When I saw that they put ‘God Only Knows’ on their repertoire, I immediately thought of this video from 2009. The boys sang ‘Love and Mercy’ for Brian Wilson at an award ceremony and he commented on the boys’ singing (at 0:50 and 3:20):



I had always wondered whether they would take his words to heart, and now they did

‘God Only Knows’ is delightful and charming and the lads seem to really have fun with this one. The song has a kind of breezy quality to it. I’m not sure whether the lyrics fit the ages of the singers, though. It sets a rather different mood than most of their other songs. I’m looking forward to find out how fans will respond to this song.

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:55 am">2 years ago</span> Well, "God Only Knows" was certainly a delightful listening experience. It may not seem as 'serious' as other music, but I think it is. It's a really well-crafted piece of music which perfectly captures what the lyrics are expressing. I also like the contrast between the voices of Luca (brighter) and Daniel (melancholic).

I also love that contrast between their two voices, and the bit where they sing together at 2.05 is marvellous!

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:55 am">2 years ago</span> plastic orange juice cups

Surely they could have managed those at least?

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:55 am">2 years ago</span> Well, "God Only Knows" was certainly a delightful listening experience. It may not seem as 'serious' as other music, but I think it is. It's a really well-crafted piece of music which perfectly captures what the lyrics are expressing.

Perhaps it's just me being sentimental but I like to think they are singing this to Rob. Not just the current boys but Sam, Steve & all the previous generations too. Actually tears me up a little thinking of it.

Yorkie wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:35 am">2 years ago</span>

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:55 am">2 years ago</span> Well, "God Only Knows" was certainly a delightful listening experience. It may not seem as 'serious' as other music, but I think it is. It's a really well-crafted piece of music which perfectly captures what the lyrics are expressing.

Perhaps it's just me being sentimental but I like to think they are singing this to Rob. Not just the current boys but Sam, Steve & all the previous generations too. Actually tears me up a little thinking of it.

In retrospect, it's apparent that Robert made a conscious decision to avoid songs about love because they don't seem genuine at this age. However, with this one, we can imagine the lyrics describing a platonic kind of love. Thinking back, almost all of Robert's songs are either sacred or existential in nature - sometimes both!

Luckdragon wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:11 am">2 years ago</span>

Yorkie wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:35 am">2 years ago</span>

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:55 am">2 years ago</span> Well, "God Only Knows" was certainly a delightful listening experience. It may not seem as 'serious' as other music, but I think it is. It's a really well-crafted piece of music which perfectly captures what the lyrics are expressing.

Perhaps it's just me being sentimental but I like to think they are singing this to Rob. Not just the current boys but Sam, Steve & all the previous generations too. Actually tears me up a little thinking of it.

In retrospect, it's apparent that Robert made a conscious decision to avoid songs about love because they don't seem genuine at this age. However, with this one, we can imagine the lyrics describing a platonic kind of love. Thinking back, almost all of Robert's songs are either sacred or existential in nature - sometimes both!

Yeah, I was thinking about how fun it would be for them to do an arrangement of "Good Vibrations" until I read the lyrics and realized that would be a bad idea.

I like the song; and, as others have stated, the combination of the solo parts, as well the choir of course, have put a real Libera spin on it. Interestingly they replaced some of the percussion parts from the original Beach Boys song with strings.

It definitely has a catchy ear worm quality, but in a good way.

Yorkie wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:35 am">2 years ago</span>

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Dec 09, 2022 5:55 am">2 years ago</span> Well, "God Only Knows" was certainly a delightful listening experience. It may not seem as 'serious' as other music, but I think it is. It's a really well-crafted piece of music which perfectly captures what the lyrics are expressing.

Perhaps it's just me being sentimental but I like to think they are singing this to Rob. Not just the current boys but Sam, Steve & all the previous generations too. Actually tears me up a little thinking of it.

I agree and I think that motive has driven much of what this Libera has done in the past 2 years. In a way they're answering the questions asked in "Once An Angel".

I just noticed something when listening to "God Only Knows". It says "2022 Universal Publishing Ltd" below in the credits. I don't see that in the "If" album, for example.

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Mon Dec 12, 2022 6:36 am">2 years ago</span> I just noticed something when listening to "God Only Knows". It says "2022 Universal Publishing Ltd" below in the credits. I don't see that in the "If" album, for example.

I wonder if that is because the company in questions has some manner of ownership over the original composition and is licensing it in this way. Notice that it's not a © but a ℗ which is not the same; one licenses the composition (i.e. the sheet music) and the other the recording only. Could be that a condition of Libera using the Beach Boys song was exactly this sort of licensing and subsequent royalty payment.