David said:

>None of this changes the fact that putting his
>lead vocals on top of that magnificent music is like painting a moustache
>on the Mona Lisa.

While I agree that Brian's voice is not close to what it was, it doesn't
detract from either the new cd or live listening experience for me.  Jeff
Foskett covers most of the really high parts both live and on the cd. The
other voices fill in the gaps as well. Brian's voice is optimized on the cd,
probably using the best performances of several takes and perhaps some
autotune.  He has a more "mature" sound these days with a deeper rensonance,
but I think he's done a fantastic job on the cd, and is doing just fine with
his live performance.

I was at listening party at Chez Jay in Santa Monica last night and one guy
sitting at the bar, a fan, said that sometimes Brian now sounds like Buddy
Hackett....I thought that was amusing...:)  The WEA guys there were really
cool and total fans of Brian.  The packaging looks great; Nonesuch has done
a great job so far although I don't think I'll be shelling out $100.00 for
the deluxe "shadowbox" edition.

I don't remember which piece it was in particular, but I remember thinking
at this live performance that Brian hit some falsetto notes and NAILED them.
I don't remember him going as high for the Pet Sounds performances.

Brian