The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Released - May 1966

Genre - Pop

Producer - Brian Wilson

Selected Personnel - Al Jardine (Vocals); Bruce Johnston (Vocals); Mike Love (Vocals); Brian Wilson (Vocals/Piano/Organ); Carl Wilson (Vocals/Guitar); Dennis Wilson (Vocals/Drums); Hal Blaine (Drums/Percussion); Carol Kaye (Bass); Barney Kessel (Guitar); Mike Melvoin (Harpsichord); Jay Migliori (Saxophone); Leon Russell (Piano)

Standout Track - God Only Knows

For whatever reason, while I've been highly aware of the Beach Boys since I was a kid, and have of course been familiar with all their best-known songs, it wasn't until earlier this year that I actually felt any compulsion to listen to a Beach Boys album from start to finish. My opinion, on balance, is that the Beach Boys are highly skilled purveyors of lightweight pop but they don't do a great deal to really challenge or excite the listener, merely to provide a lot of pleasant sounds, which is no bad thing. The reason why I start this post with this vaguely condescending caveat is that listening to Pet Sounds is an experience that comes with a lot of pressure and legacy surrounding it - this is a record that's been heralded as the album that changed music forever, that was one of the most influential and important albums of all time, championed by everyone from Paul McCartney to Roger Waters. The weight of something's legacy is always a difficult thing to ignore when listening to music, and it's always best to try and blank it out entirely, to focus solely on what this music does for you. For that reason, I initially found the Beach Boys' 1965 release The Beach Boys Today! much easier to love, and it's only with time that I've gradually come to the conclusion that Pet Sounds is the better record.

The truth is, the passage of time has made it difficult to really pay much attention to the hype that surrounds Pet Sounds. Its "innovations" are ones that were embraced and adopted so wholeheartedly by other artists and by the music industry as a whole that it no longer sounds innovative or unusual as it must have done at the time of release - if anything, it sounds principally like a gradual evolution from, and refinement of, the Phil Spector Wall of Sound technique pioneered in the early 60s, of which Brian Wilson was a huge advocate. In contrast to the innovations introduced by the progressive rock movement of the late 60s and early 70s - innovations which never found their way into mainstream music, and therefore still sound surprising and unusual today - Pet Sounds can appear relatively tame and safe to the modern ear, in contrast to what the hype would have you believe about it. It's therefore best to try and really focus in on what does work about this record, which is its mastery of upbeat or emotional pop songs.

The album represented a shift in writer-producer Brian Wilson's approach to recording, which had been gradually evolving over the previous years. He had recently retired from touring as a whole, leaving the entire sphere of live performance to the other Beach Boys so he could focus on his preferred area of work, the studio. Wilson therefore took a stronger control over this album than on any of their previous work, and was heavily inspired by the Beatles' 1965 release Rubber Soul. Wilson felt that album was the first record he'd ever heard that didn't contain any filler material but worked entirely as a consistent object (something I'd debate, but there we go, you can't please everyone), and was therefore driven to try and create the "ultimate rock record," something that was not only consistent in its quality but also in its techniques and its emotional story. As such, although there is no narrative as such, Pet Sounds is heralded as the first "concept album," with every song being a thorough exploration of Wilson's state of mind, from songs that touched on his experiments with psychedelic drugs ("I Know There's an Answer,") to tender love ballads rife with self-doubt and questioning ("God Only Knows.") Of course, there are other examples of earlier albums where the songs are unified by some sort of emotional theme, but Pet Sounds was the first time this idea really resonated with the music world.

Wilson's other great innovation for the album (which, again, has been diluted by years of people doing the same thing but going much further with the idea) was his single-minded vision to put the idea of faithfully representing a live performance as far away from the finished product as possible. Pet Sounds represented the opportunity to create musical landscapes that couldn't be replicated onstage, and Wilson decided to throw in as many things as possible to fulfil this vision - layers upon layers of vocal harmonies on top of the performances of session musicians alongside less conventional musical components including bells, whistles, animal and train noises, flutes and harpsichords. This wasn't music that he necessarily wanted people to immediately understand on hearing it, but rather it was music to channel a particular emotion or mood via as rich a soundscape as possible. Today, electronic music has pushed the idea of music written in and for a recording studio rather than a concert hall to such an extreme that Wilson's experiments here sound tame, but their influence is difficult to ignore.

Even in the course of this review I've drifted from my initial intention of just focussing on the music and have had to acknowledge the wider musical context of this album, but what it really represents is a collection of really great pop songs. "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" has to be one of the most effortlessly joyful and celebratory album openers of all time, and "God Only Knows" still stands up as one of the most beautiful songs ever written, its trembling sense of self-doubt and fear often overlooked by people who take it to be no more than a simple love song. The final moments of "I'm Waiting For The Day" are another triumphant, valedictory moment that stands up alongside "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" and "Caroline, No" is a gorgeously wistful way to round off this sunny gem of an album. The other great standout, surprisingly enough, is one of the album's two instrumental tracks, a rare feature for a band so fixated on vocal harmonies, entitled "Let's Go Away For A While." It's an opportunity for Wilson to really indulge his dream of creating unusual and lovely soundscapes without having to worry about melody and harmony, and is one of those occasional instances of an instrumental and a title coming together in just the right way to create a thing of true beauty.

So do your best to ignore everybody who insists that you listen to this album, because listened to with the expectation that it'll be one of the most innovative and sublime listening experiences of your life, it's liable to disappoint. Listened to with the simple expectation of hearing a beautifully simple pop album that can deliver in half an hour more distilled joy and optimism and wistful hope than a lot of other bands manage in their entire discographies, it'll deliver every time.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher except where noted

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice? (Brian Wilson; Tony Asher & Mike Love)

2. You Still Believe In Me

3. That's Not Me

4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)

5. I'm Waiting For The Day (Brian Wilson & Mike Love)

6. Let's Go Away For A While (Brian Wilson)

7. Sloop John B. (Traditional, Arranged by Brian Wilson & Al Jardine)

8. God Only Knows

9. I Know There's An Answer (Brian Wilson; Terry Sachen & Mike Love)

10. Here Today

11. I Just Wasn't Made for These Times

12. Pet Sounds (Brian Wilson)

13. Caroline, No