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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:

www.elsewhere.co.nz

Its gorgeous vocal

effects and symphonic

qualities remain

timeless

visit

stack.net.nz

MUSIC

FEATURE

20

jbhifi.co.nz

JUNE

2016

MUSIC

tHE

SOuND

OF

POP GENIUS