It feels weird calling something recorded by Brian “Sunny Harmony with a Chance of Crazy” Wilson straight-up joyful. Ever since Pet Sounds, you know, changed popular music forever, it’s hard to separate the Beach Boys frontman from that slight melancholy – that final note in a chord – that helped pop the bubble of ’50s pop.

But sic a wizened Wilson on the songs of George Gershwin, and you get utter sincerity. You get joy. You get an a cappella version of “Rhapsody in Blue,” which reprises throughout Wilson’s album, that’s pretty damn majestic. Oh, and, of course, you get rhythm.

The rest of Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin is sort of like a strawberry shortcake of genius. The layers are well put-together, and it’s certainly very sweet and delicious, but you sort of have to be in the mood for that particular combination of flavors.

After all, Wilson is hardly the first to “reimagine” Gershwin’s music. The original compositions have acted as templates for artists ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to the Residents. What makes Wilson’s crack at the old standards so unique is that he was chosen by the Gershwin estate to actually complete two of Gershwin’s unfinished songs, as opposed to just covering previously unrecorded ones.

“The Like In I Love You,” as conceived by Wilson, is a slightly schmaltzy, more traditional rendition of a Gershwin tune, although lyrics like “Gliding in a starless sky/ ’til we find the inner light/ Now we can duplicate the universe,” indicate some later filling in. On the other hand, the opening riffs of the surf-y guitar on “Nothing But Love” immediately point to a wholehearted Endless Summer-ification of a classically Gershwin melody.

Ultimately, both tracks speak to the versatility of the “collaborators,” and especially to Wilson’s lack of ego in what was clearly a labor of love on the oeuvre of a respected predecessor. And, honestly, who can say no to strawberry shortcake?