The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Vinyl LP Mono
Capital Records
The mature masterpiece from The Beach Boys, or one should say Brian Wilson. While the band toured the world, Wilson slaved in a studio with the top L.A. Session players in making a work that is both emotional with that 'gee-wizz how great is that' type of feeling. If there was ever a white blues sound from the suburbs , Brian Wilson should have patented it, because the angst has never felt so dreamily personal and one-so-of-a-kind.
What works and totally fascinating to hear is the many layers and parts that's this record. On one level you have the great melodies, and on another is the arrangements that seem to be complicated but effortlessly done, and third, the brilliant and beautiful voices of The Beach Boys. What we have here is perfection which is technical but has a lot of feeling and tenderness. Very rarely does one hear a sound that is technically perfect in an aurally sense, but the emotion behind it is just a wow. The only thing I can compare it to is Bach. For the reason that Bach seems to add layers, and each layer builds and builds. Or supports another layer. Brian Wilson does that with this album.
For those who are obsessed with the sound of this album there is the Pet Sounds box-set which obsessively documents each take or layer that is put on this LP. Never boring because each piece itself is beautiful. So listening to it is very enjoyable.
Everyone should at least hear this album from the beginning to the end. Hating it is not a sin, but not to acknowledge its greatness is weird to me. It is like seeing a beautiful work of architecture and admiring the structure and how one feels inside that environment. That's Pet Sounds in a nutshell.
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