STACK NZ June 2016 Issue 74

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T here are two reasons to be excited
about the 50th anniversary box set of
the Beach Boys' classic album Pet
Sounds. The first is that it exists at all – a
whopping 104 tracks across the five-CD version
which includes mono and stereo mixes,
instrumental backing tracks and live versions –
and we can hear how Brian Wilson's mind
worked in the studio.
The second reason is there aren't a dozen
versions of Sloop John B.
These days Pet Sounds is considered one
of the great albums of the rock era, but it had
a ho-hum reception on release in May 1966. It
just scraped into the US top 10 and was one
of the few Beach Boys albums in America not
to go gold on release (although it went to #2 in
Britain).
At the time, most rock writers (of whom
there were very few) were indifferent about it.
In fact, eight years after its release Stephen
Davis writing in Rolling Stone went to great
lengths to describe it as the first rock record to
be a concept album (the vagaries of love and
relationships was the theme, aside from Sloop
John B) and hail it as soulful, lovely, and “by far
the best album Brian has yet delivered."
By that time Pet Sounds had been recognised
as a glittering star in the musical cosmos, and
the album which made The Beatles up their
game. Paul McCartney has frequently said God
Only Knows is his favourite song and
– after the step-change of Revolver
which they were working on at the
time – The Beatles responded with the
even more elaborate Sgt. Pepper's.
But where Sgt. Pepper's remains embalmed
in the era of hippie psychedelia, Pet Sounds –
by being more poppy, soulful and heartfelt – is
still fresh today, and its innovations (layering
of vocals, orchestration, sonic effects from
theremin, bicycle bells and so on) opened the
door on how to create pop in the studio.
These days Pet Sounds frequently tops Best
Albums Ever lists – as it did in this year's 200
Greatest Albums of All Time in Uncut – or at
worst is in the top five (although perversely, in
the post-grunge/post-Britpop era, Q magazine in
2003 had it at a lowly 99 out of their top 100).
Its purity of emotion, gorgeous vocal effects
and symphonic qualities remain timeless, as do
the sentiments of maturing love on That's Not
Me , the warmth of companionship on Don't Talk
(Put Your Head On My Shoulder), and how love
can wither as people grow apart on Caroline
No: “Where did your long hair go, where is the
girl I used to know, where it that happy glow...
who took that look away...?”
Instrumental pieces like the subtle Let's Go
Away For a While and the surfer-dream title
track – courageous inclusions from a band
whose vocal harmonies were their signature
– stand as the equal of songs like I Know
There's an Answer , which sounds like Wilson's
transition from pop writer to masterful creator.
Wilson didn't leave the slightly sickly pop
sentiments of love songs behind (Here Today)
but he put them in a new context where the
ideas were more thoughtful (I Just Wasn't
Made For These Times) and elevated them.
The reissues – various iterations from a
single CD re-release, through vinyl to the
massive box set – confirm Brian Wilson's
genius, and also that of the Wrecking Crew
musicians he used on these sessions which
lasted four months.
The big box is only for obsessives (count
me in) because most people can live without
a seven minute stop-start run-through of
Wouldn't It Be Nice with Wilson interrupting
until the musicians are on the money. But if
you're curious about how genius works then
Pet Sounds is the album which is worth pulling
apart.
And, as they say, God is in the details...
After this Brian Wilson delivered the peerless
Good Vibrations single then had his emotional
meltdown, and his next project SMiLE – which
he described as “a teenage symphony to God”
– never happened in the way he envisioned.
But for Pet Sounds his vision was intact.
Terrible album cover though.
Graham Reid goes on a marathon Pet Sounds bender,
half a century after its release.
For more interviews, overviews and reviews
by Graham Reid see:
Its gorgeous vocal
effects and symphonic
qualities remain
timeless
visit MUSIC FEATURE
20 JUNE 2016
MUSIC
tHE SOuND OF
POP GENIUS