Classic Albums - #2 Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

[Razzle Dazzle]

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

1. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" 2:25
2. "You Still Believe in Me" 2:31
3. "That's Not Me" 2:28
4. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" 2:53
5. "I'm Waiting for the Day" 3:05
6. "Let's Go Away for Awhile" 2:18
7. "Sloop John B" 2:58
8. "God Only Knows" 2:51
9. "I Know There's an Answer" 3:09
10. "Here Today" Love 2:54
11. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" 3:12
12. "Pet Sounds" 2:22
13. "Caroline, No" 2:51

Album number 2 is none other than "Pet Sounds" by "The Beach Boys", Written and produced by Brian Wilson, it represents the pinnacle of the Beach Boys recording career. Themes of romance, hope, insecurity and joy are all expertly interwoven throughout, on release it was only a medium sized hit but has gained in popularity over the years and is now considered a classic

So like the first album go and have a listen and post up your thoughts, comments, track by track reviews or whatever you like

enjoy

[greendemon]

good call, will get right on it when i've written my review of bowie

[o]

Nice one Daz, I'm hoping my dad has this and I can borrow it and play it to death, I do know a few of the tracks.

[Shireblogger]

Great choice daz. I know the Beach Boys well from compilations, but have never listened to Pet Sounds as an album, so this will give me a new perspective.

[raliverpool]

A great choice Daz, as it is one of those albums regarded as a classic that I don't think is a 10/10 classic for reasons I'll explain when I review it.

[thehitparade]

Yeah, I think it's potentially a more divisive - and thus in some ways more interesting - choice than Ziggy.

[Razzle Dazzle]

glad it has gone down so well, will be nice to hear all the reviews

[raliverpool]

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds





So the second Haven classic album has been ranked at number one in several music magazines' album GOAT lists, including New Musical Express, The Times and Mojo Magazine. It was also ranked number two in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Pet Sounds was the 11th studio album by the US surf-rockers the Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. Pet Sounds was created several months after Brian Wilson had quit touring with the band in order to focus his attention on writing and recording. In it, he wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, coupled with sound effects and unconventional instrumentation.

Whilst Pet Sounds was very popular in Europe, reaching number two in the UK, it charted lower in the USA than the majority of the band's previous albums, peaking at USA#10 on the Billboard 200 as it's baroque psychedelia sound was too out there for the US record buying public.

This album is clearly a musical masterpiece with its use of echo, reverb, string and semi orchestral score, and rich vocal arrangements. But I have a few problems with the album. Firstly I should add I adore Carl Wilson's voice; and to a lesser degree Dennis Wilson's voice. The problem is the youngest Wilson brother Carl only sings lead on God Only Knows www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8qZMFFDYa0; whilst drummer Dennis does not sing lead on any; in stark contrast to their later 1960s/early 1970s albums when both dominated the lead vocals as Mike Love took more of a back seat; and Brian Wilson's mental health was deteriorating faster than Lady Gaga's future career prospects. Imagine a Take That album with Howard Donald & Mark Owen singing most of the lead vocals with Gary's role diminished and Robbie left to backing vocals (obviously Jason Orange is TT's equivalent of Al Jardine) "wouldn't it be n.." .... horrible to listen to? Well the problem I have with Pet Sounds is I can't stand Mike Love's voice and Brian Wilson's lisp gets on my nerves (which is hypocritical of me when you consider I adore Rufus Wainwright's vox). Then add the abomination of a song that is "Sloop John B" and you begin to understand why I don't love this album.

Track Rating:

1. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" 7.5
2. "You Still Believe in Me" 7.0 I much prefer this cover www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVzZTCSBj94
3. "That's Not Me" 7.5
4. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" 7.0
5. "I'm Waiting for the Day" 6.5
6. "Let's Go Away for Awhile" 7.5
7. "Sloop John B" 0.5
8. "God Only Knows" 10.0
9. "I Know There's an Answer" 7.0 I much prefer the original lyrics and this fantastic cover version www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzA29tCwyR4
10. "Here Today" 5.0
11. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" 6.0
12. "Pet Sounds" 4.0
13. "Caroline, No" 8.0

If I was to recommend a similar sounding album which I think is vastly superior then I'd have no hesitation in recommending The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5mnMQlXZ6c

So my Pet Sounds album rating is 6/10

[Razzle Dazzle]

just been listening to this so will have something up soon

[o]

I've had two listens, will try a 3rd, not sure it will change anything though...

[TheThorne]

For an album with only 1 duff track and 2 fillers isnt 6/10 a bit harsh thought it would have been closer to 7-7.5/10?

[raliverpool]

Aug 21, 2013 20:13:07 GMT 1 TheThorne said:

For an album with only 1 duff track and 2 fillers isnt 6/10 a bit harsh thought it would have been closer to 7-7.5/10?

Nope.

My Album Points system:

10 86%+
9 81%-86%
8 76%-81%
7 70%-76%
6 63%-70%
5 56%-63%
4 48%-56%
3 40%-48%
2 30%-40%
1 30%-

Pet Sounds scored 83.5 from 13 tracks. 83.5 divided by 13 equals 6.423077, which in percentage terms is 64.23% fitting into the 6/10 bracket.

[Shireblogger]

Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

General Overview
What a huge disappointment. Pet Sounds is wholly over-rated. There are certainly a handful of decent songs, including one fine single, but more often than not I found the tracks unimaginative and formulaic.
2/10

Intro & Outro
First impressions count, and Pet Sounds leads off with a strong cut. The ice cream intro to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is dramatically interrupted by a single drumbeat, and off we go with a classic Beach Boys vocal, harmonies to the fore. The only sour note is when you listen closely to the lyrics. It sounds like a pair of adolescents wishing they were grown up. Brian Wilson was 24 when he wrote it. Slightly creepy. At the other end, “Caroline No” is the most interesting track on the album, with its paean to faded love. That freight train outro is quite a surprise. What does it mean ? Is it really a song about suicide ? Is it Brian Wilson desperately trying to get as clever as the Beatles ? Whatever, I like it.
7/10

Music
Many of the tracks shift between uptempo vocal parts, brief orchestral interludes, and slowed down, self-indulgent noodling. Once or twice it would work, but the approach is adopted for almost every track, and, overall, it’s a fail from me. The lush strings on the instrumental track “Let’s Go Away For A While” make for a 2 minute snooze. The kazoo solo in the middle of “I Know There’s An Answer” is totally incongruous. Aside from “Caroline, No”, the only really interesting music appears on the title track. Another instrumental, “Pet Sounds” is experimental, brave and rather out of place here.
3/10

Lyrics
Frankly, the Beach Boys’ lyrics have always been banal. “I may not always love you, but as long as there are stars above you…”. It makes you feel so bad, it makes your heart feel sad, it makes your days go wrong, it makes your nights so long…” Please. The doodlings of a 10 year-old. The best, by far, is “Sloop John B”. And guess what ? It’s a cover of a traditional Caribbean folk song.
1/10

Production & Sound
Pretty unremarkable. Credit for getting the vocals crystal clear, and the harmonies spot on. Indeed, no pop musicians have ever produced such pleasant-on-the-ear choruses as the Beach Boys, and several tracks on Pet Sounds are fine exemplars of this. There’s a nod to Phil Spector on “I’m Waiting For The Day”, and the arrangements on “Sloop John B” are lovely. But otherwise its pretty ho-hum.
4/10

High Points
The first single, “Sloop John B” plus album tracks “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Here Today”, with its pleading organ, are Beach Boys greats, which I can listen to over and over again. But the enjoyment factor falls off pretty rapidly from there.
8/10

Low Points
Nothing is catastrophically bad, but it just gets too tedious, too quickly. If I was standing in a record shop listening booth in 1966, deciding whether to buy the LP, I’d have said “no” by the end of track 4. The momentum of a strong start subsides immediately into the feeble Christmassy “You Still Believe In Me”, then the take-it-or-leave it “That’s Not Me”, and “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)”, with a melody so basic that Ronnie Hazlehurst would have been ashamed had he knocked it out in 10 minutes for a second rate BBC2 drama. God only knows why “God Only Knows” was the second single from the album.
2/10

Packaging
A dire cover photo. Who really wants to see the Beach Boys feeding a goat, regardless of its reference to the album title ? The use of Cooper Black font triggered a revival in its popularity, described entertainingly in “Just My Type” by Simon Garfield, so one point for that.
1/10

Context
I’ve loved the Beach Boys from a young age. Their 60s singles output is great for lifting the spirits, and celebrating the arrival of good weather. They placed 13 tracks in my annual Top 20s, which I retrospectively created for the 1960s. I started with a singles compilation on cassette, and upgraded to the 5-disc box set in the 90s, of which only the first two ever get played. The box set includes eight of Pet Sounds’ 13 tracks, and only “Here Today” is a notable omission. But I’d never listened to the full album before preparing this review. I hadn’t missed much, and I’m glad I was never tempted to buy it, unheard, based on critical opinion.
3/10

On balance
Pet Sounds came out just before the Beach Boys hit their artistic peak. The 3 singles which followed, “Good Vibrations”, “Heroes And Villains” and “Wild Honey” wipe the floor with almost everything on Pet Sounds. On balance, an album with a few enjoyable songs, punctuated by a lot of dull, indulgent noise. What were the critics smoking when they proclaimed it as one of the best albums of all-time ?
4/10

TOTAL SCORE
It makes your days go wrong.
35/100.

For Haven:
3.5/10

[o]

I'm glad it wasn't just me that felt that way, I wrote these comments three days ago, but was hanging on for posting them up in the hope that someone else would be negative and it wasn't just me that didn't "get" this album.

1. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" 2:25 A good solid opener 7/10.
2. "You Still Believe in Me" 2:31 Just does nothing for me 5/10
3. "That's Not Me" 2:28 Meh 5/10
4. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" 2:53 Heading rapidly downhill 4/10
5. "I'm Waiting for the Day" 3:05 Finally a bit more upbeat. 6/10
6. "Let's Go Away for Awhile" 2:18 A nice instrumental that you keep waiting to get going 5/10
7. "Sloop John B" 2:58 A song I know and have always liked. 7/10
8. "God Only Knows" 2:51 One I forgot I knew, like the sentiment. 6/10
9. "I Know There's an Answer" 3:09 Plodding along 5/10
10. "Here Today" Love 2:54 Hummm 4/10
11. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" 3:12 Losing the will to live 3/10
12. "Pet Sounds" 2:22 Another good instrumental, but it cant save the album 4/10
13. "Caroline, No" 2:51 A dreary end to a dreary album 3/10 Is the train at the end the sound of them committing suicide?
Overall 4.5/10

[smokeyb]

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

1."Wouldn't It Be Nice"
Well known catchy song which makes you feel good.
2. "You Still Believe in Me"
This track is a bit dull
3. "That's Not Me"
Sounds like an album filler
4. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"
This ones not much better
5. "I'm Waiting for the Day"
This one sounds good, big improvement
6. "Let's Go Away for Awhile"
Instrumental
7. "Sloop John B"
Another well known song, but can't quite get into it
8. "God Only Knows"
My favourite Beach Boy song of all time, sheer class
9. "I Know There's an Answer"
Dreamy song not as catchy as other tracks
10. "Here Today" Love
This one is okay
11. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"
A bit dull
12. "Pet Sounds"
Another instrumental on one album, really
13. "Caroline, No"
Can’t believe this was a single from the album, not very commercial

Like Andy, I had reviewed this a week ago or so,I'm not their biggest fan, and not a fan of their surf music per se,but I like the odd track by them from time to time. God only knows is one of my favourite songs from the 1960's.

I would rate the album 4/10 overall.

[Shireblogger]

Four reviews in, and it's not looking like Pet Sounds will be as popular at Haven as it is at the NME, Rolling Stone and several other magazine offices.

I should have said earlier, I had a good chuckle at raliverpool's GOAT reference.

[o]

Shireblogger will be doing September's Classic Album selection.
October will be Smokeyb if he reviews September's, then November should be Raliverpool, with Vas doing December, all dependent on doing the reviews of course.

[Razzle Dazzle]

As with many of you my initial reaction to "Pet Sounds" was disappointment, sure it has some great songs but having already got their "best of" album I can't help but think owning "Pet Sounds" adds nothing to the collection, Who would of thought Raliverpools 6/10 would be the highest score so far by quite some way!

As my mother taught me, if you don't have anything good to say then say nothing at all, so lets have some positives, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is a great little song, one that has stood the test of time and a promising start to the album, "You Still Believe in Me" is another nice track but its mostly downhill from there for me, after 4 filler tracks we come to "Sloop John B",  I quite like "Sloop John B", its fun and upbeat, we then come to "God Only Knows", my favourite Beach Boys song and one of my favourite songs of all time, most albums tail off towards the end and sadly nothing comes close after this song


The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

1. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" 9/10
2. "You Still Believe in Me" 7/10
3. "That's Not Me" 5/10
4. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" 4/10
5. "I'm Waiting for the Day" 6/10
6. "Let's Go Away for Awhile" 5/10
7. "Sloop John B" 7.5/10
8. "God Only Knows" 10/10
9. "I Know There's an Answer" 6.5/10
10. "Here Today" Love 6/10
11. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" 5/10
12. "Pet Sounds" 5/10
13. "Caroline, No" 6/10

Overall 6/10

[raliverpool]

Aug 23, 2013 6:50:27 GMT 1 Shireblogger said:

Four reviews in, and it's not looking like Pet Sounds will be as popular at Haven as it is at the NME, Rolling Stone and several other magazine offices.

I should have said earlier, I had a good chuckle at raliverpool's GOAT reference.

Just to confirm it was intentional.

(For those of you who don't get what we are on about just look at the Pet Sounds album cover ..... )

[thehitparade]

As it's after 11 on the last day of the month, I don't think I'm going to get a full review written so here are a few impressions:

Very much an album whose reputation precedes it now. Luckily for me my Mum bought the original CD release about 20 years ago before I knew much about that (beyond the sleeve notes of course) so I got to know it somewhat. I've bought two copies of my own since.

To me the strength of this, as the most Brian-centric completed work by the group, is in the expressive power of the composition and arrangements, the lyrics are very much secondary even though BW obviously went out of his way to hire in Tony Asher as co-writer of them. I actually don't think they're that bad - sometimes it's their very simplicity that's their power - but they're more a vehicle for the vocals in most cases. When I think of this album, I think more of musical touches like the bass "heartbeat" on 'Don't Talk', the ascending vocal melody at the end of 'You Still Believe In Me', the percussion on 'I'm Waiting For The Day' (one of the lesser tracks, TBH) and that intro. Apparently the 12-string guitar was played straight into the desk and only the drummer could hear it, so all the other musicians were surprised by the drumbeat.

'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times' is probably my favourite non-single track, because of the complexity of the melody, the cross-rhythms, the "theremin" song (not a real one, apparently) and of course the vocal arrangements. It also has a very good (if inappropriate) video, which is sadly not on YouTube.

Is it the best album ever? Probably not. Is it the best Beach Boys album? Maybe. Is it my favourite Beach Boys album? No.
But taken as a whole, I'd give it an eight out of ten.

Oh yes, and that cover is terrible. Somebody once suggested that all the best Beach Boys albums have awful covers; then somebody else pointed out all the worst ones have too. The back cover's probably better (extra points if you noticed that Bruce Johnston is only on the back).