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Beach Boys:Pet Sounds (DVD Audio)
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | | If you need some pointy-headed pundit to sell you on the merits of Pet Sounds, your money might be better spent on an ear specialist. Brian Wilson's gift to 20th-century music elevated this pop album into a beguiling musical and emotional cogency that still operates outside pop culture's fickle space-time continuum--and limited critical lexicon. There's never been another record to compare (Rubber Soul, its inspiration, is close; Sgt. Pepper's, its response, misses the point), and certainly no album has been as dissected, overanalyzed, and predigested for public consumption. In 1997 Capitol Records devoted an entire four-disc box set, The Pet Sounds Sessions, to its thorough deconstruction. The techno-marvel centerpiece of that project--the album's first true stereo mix, painstakingly conjured out of multitape session sources by producer-engineer Mark Linett (under Wilson's supervision)--was at once heresy and revelation. Now the label has gratifyingly seen fit to offer both mixes on a single disc (along with alternate versions of "Hang On to Your Ego," the original title of "I Know There's An Answer"), an idea that should please the orthodox and heretics alike. And while the album has always clearly been The Brian Wilson Show featuring the Beach Boys, David Leaf's concise new notes attempt to be more inclusive of a wider band perspective. The result (three of the five band members claim credit for the album title) sometimes resembles Rashomon. If Pet Sounds forever crystallized the band's various creative (in)differences, it also became Wilson's grand karmic joke on his band mates; its burgeoning reputation (Mojo magazine's panel of pop experts once elected it greatest album of all time) guaranteed they would sing its songs--and praises--until the end. And if putting two different versions of the same album on one disc seems like overkill, look at the bright side: it's a perfect excuse to listen to the glorious Pet Sounds twice. --Jerry McCulley | | | | Le disque de référence pour tout vrai amateur de pop music. Paul McCartney l'a d'ailleurs offert à chacun de ses enfants, c'est dire ! En 1966, les Beach Boys sont les rois de la musique surf mais leur leader génial, Brian Wilson, jaloux des Beatles et de leur album Rubber Soul ne se satisfait plus de cette suprématie plutôt vaine; il laisse le groupe tourner sans lui et se consacre à la composition de véritables symphonies pour adolescents. "Caroline No", "God Only Knows","You Still Believe In Me" : toutes ces merveilles sont à des années lumière des chansons à succès de l'époque, elles doivent plus à des compositeurs comme George Gershwin et Burt Bacharach ou au producteur Phil Spector qu'à Chuck Berry, l'influence initiale des Beach Boys. Après avoir chanté la plage et les voitures, Brian Wilson aborde de nouveaux thèmes, plus adultes et plus spirituels : la place de l'artiste, Dieu, la durée d'un amour... même une chanson anodine et légère comme "Sloop John B", classique du folklore américain, atteint des sommets de perfection, embellie par des harmonies vocales et des contrepoints orchestraux d'une rare finesse. Tout concourt à faire de ce disque un chef-d'œuvre indispensable. --Hubert Deshouse | |
| Custom Reviews: | |
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| Brian Wilson's Greatest Accomplishment | |
| | This is Brian Wilsons best work. I have had this album on vynil, cassette and finally CD. It is as fresh sounding and relevant today as it was almost 40 years ago.
Although people like Mike Love are trying to take credit for some of his work, this is definitely an all out effort by Brian to surpass the other great albums of the time (Beatles Rubber Soul etc.). He put all his creative energy into this album and when it was finished, he seemed to just run out of steam and was never able to duplicate this body of work. Smile is a great album, but it pales in comparison to this.
It is a matter of personal taste on which album is the best of all time, but in my view this is it.
| | reveals more with each listen | |
| | Initially, I was fond of this album but tended to skip around and listen to particular songs. After I listened to it about 100 times, I became very fond of it and generally listened to the entire album throughout. In the liner notes to the first cd version of this album, Brian Wilson makes a comment about praying with his brother Carl just before Carl sang the vocal for 'God Only Knows'. The significance of this comment was lost on me until I listened to this album about 500 more times. By that point I had the mono+stereo version and would generally listen to it twice at one sitting. Eventually, I reached the point where I am at present: this album has a quality that simply is not repeated anywhere else in popular music--the best way I can find to describe it would be a pure, spiritual innocence. Whether that makes it the greatest album or better than the Beatles' middle period is irrelevant. Buy it and listen over and over and over....
| | As Good as Pop Music Can Be | |
| | "Pet Sounds" is a high quality album, but it is 'pop' music and, as the classification suggests, is temporary by nature. I find nothing ground breaking or sublime here, just more of what was being done at the time. Such is pop music. If you're looking for great rock and roll, try Traffic, Jefferson Airplane, or CS&N on for size. For a truly exceptional auditory experience, I suggest Pink Floyd, ELP, or Radiohead. For real production wizardry on a shoestring, Boston stands alone. For lyrical drama, stick with Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. Though it demonstrates all of these characteristics, "Pet Sounds" goes pop, and I doesn't quite manage to "operate outside pop culture's fickle space-time continuum."
| | | Well, Pet Sounds may not be the best album of all time, but the best isn't the Beatles' Revolver either. There just aren't enough good songs on Revolver to stand up to Wouldn't It Be Nice, Don't Talk, God Only Knows, Caroline No, and the great harmonies of Sloop John B. At the other end of the spectrum, Pet Sounds has nothing near as bad as Yellow Submarine. So, the argument just doesn't add up. Oh, and, neither does it work for Sgt. Pepper (gag) or Rubber Soul (yawn).
| | Why "Pet Sounds" isn't the greatest album of all time | |
| | First of all, I would like to preface that I am a big fan of this record, and to this day am absolutely blown away by Brian Wilson's innovative production and profound songwriting. The music is wonderful, no band ever did harmonies better than the Beach Boys. The gulf between their early "fun in the sun" recordings and this masterpiece is a wide, deep chasm.
I will not dwell on the technical merits of this album, although there are many, and will only pinpoint a few songs. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is a powerful, instantly addictive album opener, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" is a dreamy piece with exceptionally moving and beautiful lyrics. And "God Only Knows" is, well...enough said - the subtle instrumental layers behind the chorus tantalize the listener until the harmonies kick in at the end in a marvelous climax.What is disturbing to me is this strange glorification of "Pet Sounds" as the BEST album of all time. It all apparently stems from this major competition between the Beatles and the Beach Boys in the mid-60s. Still, I find it absurd and close to infuriating when the Amazon reviewer dares to characterize "Sgt. Pepper" as "missing the mark." Since when do bands make records to please music pundits' dogmatic characterizations? Should we judge every album based on how close it comes to the "perfection" of "Pet Sounds"? Of course not. The main reason why I think "Pet Sounds" can never be the greatest album of all time is that both Brian Wilson and the staunch defenders of the album continue to reference the Beatles. Always, even six or seven times in the liner notes, it's all about how they are better than or inspired by the Beatles, even a lengthy quote by Paul McCartney extolling the virtues of "Pet Sounds." The reason is simply a deep insecurity about the title of "greatest album of all time." Greatest albums stand on their own, and do not justify their greatness by constantly comparing it to albums of a rival band. It is strange and a bit silly. And since I know I will get many votes by offended Beach Boys fans and reactionary anti-Beatles, might I take this chance to offer my choice for the best album of all time, the one that escaped the loop of competition between Wilson and McCartney. The story goes like this: "Rubber Soul" inspires Wilson to do "Pet Sounds," which in turn inspires McCartney to suggest "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." In the meantime, outside of all this madness, the Beatles made THE recording of history, "Revolver," which in terms of musicianship, variety, experimentation, lyrics, and especially production beats any album from any generation and any popular music style. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I love "Pet Sounds," but I simply find the intense determination by its loyal devotees to have it crowned a subjective and irrelevant title to be slightly paranoid and certainly very much overdone.
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