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The Beach Boys Pet Sounds Average Rating: 
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| Customer Reviews 1-5 of 349 | NEXT >> |
2008-10-31A couple of weeks ago a guy at my work was playing Endless Summer and It was nice to hear the Beach Boys again. Growing up my dad always played the Boys while working in the garage or while cleaning the house. After listening futher I desided to get some of the albums on CD for myself. I talked with my dad first to see if he had them which he does not. He does however have all of the LPs, and I made him swear that they are mine when he passes. I asked him what was his favorite and he told me Pet Sounds. I remember him playing it a bunch as a kid as well as Smiley Smile and a few others. He told me to research this album as the whole world revered this album. Review after review and even Sir Paul's reviews left me thinking this was the pinnacle of pop music. It was even added to the National Recording Registry?! I doubted very much the Beach Boys could do that. I thought they were just surfing and girls and cars. Well, I ordered this album and Smiley Smile and Endless Summer. Locally I picked up a couple of more at the used CD place. When this came my anticipation was off the deep end. I waited untill the kids went to bed and popped this in to the player and just relaxed. It played through in mono and then went into stereo. I do not have the words to describe this experience. The closest I have was being a little kid and watching Star Wars for the first time. There is nothing I can add that hasnt already been said. Other then the goofy cover art, this is flawless. Brian Wilson is the rarest of talents. This is that rare album that is timeless. If you haven't listened to this, you have lost.
2008-10-19Realesed in 1966 Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is loved by criticists and well anyone who likes the Beach Boys. Pet Sounds is one of those albums that are just not able to created ever again. By this time Brian Wilson who had suffered a nervous breakdown while on tour with The Beach Boys now remains in the studio writing and recording new material. Pet Sounds shows the bands growth from there humble begginings to more complex songs and much more greater album compared too there earlier ones... Highly influentail album that has even influented the Sgt. Peppers. Such classics as, "Sloop John B", and "God Only Knows", remain classic songs too this day. Albums like this come around once in a lifetime. Pet Sounds is a pop, rock, and psychedelic album and explored Brian Wilson's exploration of the drug LSD. So what are you wating for the only Beach Boys album you will ever need buy Pet Sounds today
You wont be dissapointed
2008-10-11Pet Sounds. This is where the group's mastery of the technical came to the forefront like never before. There are so many vocal layers, and such a rich symphonic sound that by this point it was clear, the Beach Boys had something pretty special happening. However, it has all been said before. And my guess is you're probably pretty sick of hearing about it. Pet Sounds is a classic so universally recogized that it seems silly for me to even bother reviewing it. But the fact remains, some of the Boy's greatest tunes adorn this album. Also, some of the most sweetly naive and almost childlike lyrics on Pet Sounds color this period of the sixties permenantly with the heartbreak of a nation's collective loss of innocence. "Wouldn't it Be Nice", "Don't Talk", "Sloop John B", "Caroline No"...These have all become part of the American musical landscape of the twentieth centruy, but that doesnt mean they shouldnt still be apprieciated for their almost hymnal beauty. And "God Only Knows" still stands as probably the greatest achievment in Brian Wilson's storied carreer. Even though many contamporary musicians claim that the Beach Boys were a major influence on their music, I beleive albums like Sunflower and Surf's up actualy sound more like modern pop than Pet Sounds does. The influence of the spirit of the late 60s Beach Boys though, and their interminable drive to push the musical envelope was great indeed. The Beach Boys of this period pretty much perfected pure pop, so unless the spirit of the music is once again channeled, todays groups are just retreading old ground...and I'm not intrested.
2008-10-10As a landlocked kid growing up without ready access to beaches or a car, I had a hard time relating to the Beach Boys. Their celebrations of sun, surfing, and hot-rodding were too removed from my own experience. It wasnt untill I got older that I apprieciated them. Songs that had once sounded frivolous suddenly revealed multiple layers of emotions which had previvously eluded me.
Mind you, that wasnt true of every Beach Boys song. But classics like "Surfer Girl" and "Don't Worry Baby" were wistful and beautiful evocations of love and longing - both questioning and reassuring.
Brian Wilson then outdid himself with his compositons for the landmark 1966 album "Pet Sounds" - their apex and finest acheivment - and arguably the greatest record ever released by an American band. Paul McCartney has said that if you haven't heard it, your musical education isnt complete. He futher said it inspired the Beatles to make "Sgt. Pepper". I don't really hear "Pet Sounds" influence on that record, but I do on "Abbey Road" - especially on tracks like "Because" and "Here Comes The Sun King".
This CD contains the full album in mono and stereo. Wilson's musical and vocal arangements still sound stunning to this day. If for any reason you've resisted buying this, you shouldnt. At the very minimum, any serious music fan should own "Pet Sounds" and a good collection of their hits such as "Sounds Of Summer" (2003).
Wilson's solo carreer has also been of intrest. "Brian Wilson" (1988) was a good one. So was the belatedly completed "Smile" (2004), which was orginally intended as the follow-up to "Pet Sounds" - wherein he proved himself to be a latter-day Gershwin. "Smile" collaborator Van Dyke Parks and Wilson had previvously released the excelllent "Orange Crate Art" (1995). Recently, Wilson issued "That Lucky Old Sun" (2008), another innovative song suite in the style of "Smile" - and it's fine. All are highly recomended.
Whether you live in California or not, don't miss out on the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson.
2008-07-29It's really difficult to overrate 1966's "Pet Sounds". Aside from its influence on other musicians ("God Only Knows" spurred on Paul McCartney, for example, in the game of one-upmanship between the Beatles and the Beach Boys durring the late '60s), it remains, quite simpley, one of the most enjoyable pop albums ever released--like your favorite cold beverage on a very hot day. Even the two instrumentals, "Let's Go Away For Awhile" and "Pet Sounds", fit into the sequencing perfectly. The other Boys may not have grasped exactly where Brian Wilson's head was at (there's not a single car or surfing song on the entire record), but they deliver vocally--listen to Carl Wilson's lead on "God Only Knows", and Mike Love's backing on "Wouldn't It Be Nice." (If you want to spend a few more bucks, buy the "Pet Sounds Sessions" box, which contains outtakes demonstrating Brian's total controll in the studio.) Not only the best album by this vital group, but, quite simpley, one of the very best pop albums ever made.
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| Editorial Review |
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: BEACH BOYS
Title: PET SOUNDS
Street Release Date: 02/05/2001
Genre: ROCK/POP
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
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