I'm a Beatles connoisseur. A die-hard. I've walked across Abbey Road (with a cigarette in hand, though it was too brisk to go barefoot), quaffed pints in the Reeperbahn, and could point out fifty "Paul is Dead" clues. I've burned through a bookshelf of biographies about the band and I noticed that the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds is continually mentioned whenever the end of the Beatles' touring days and the start of their `studio years' is discussed. With its 40th anniversary looming I started to wonder about Pet Sounds.

I always dismissed the Beach Boys as a half-baked band who parlayed a bunch of sunny tunes into a bubblegum legacy. While Brian Wilson could be considered the group's only gifted musician, but the boys could definitely sing. Gorgeous harmonies filled their 45s, but their words were always about things which were alien to me like surfin' and California sunshine. So, why the hubbub surrounding Pet Sounds? "No one is educated musically until they've heard Pet Sounds...It is a total classic record that is unbeatable in many ways", Paul McCartney proclaimed. Wow. Powerful, yet not as bold as what Beatles Producer George Martin said: `Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened... Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds." What the hell made Beatle Paul, Sir George Martin, and countless other music luminaries bow to 1966's Pet Sounds? I was about to find out.

The other night I dug out my copy of Pet Sounds, which I half-heartedly listened to a few years ago before tossing it to the back of my collection, and I listened to it...and listened again. My original lukewarm judgment of the album mirrored the American record buyers of 1966 when LP peaked at #10 and failed to go gold. I spent the evening playing and replaying the album. A hearty auditory diet of Pet Sounds followed for the next few days. It became the soundtrack of my driving, my meals, and even my showering and shaving. The songs grew on me like a suntan-and I became more and more engulfed in its richness and splendor with each listen. As Pet Sounds connected with me through my earphones, I thought about how striking the sounds were and how naive I was to have dismissed them years ago....

After suffering two nervous breakdowns, twenty-three year old Brian Wilson stayed home in L.A. while the Beach Boys (with Glen Campbell filling in for Wilson) continued to tour in autumn of 1965. He suddenly had time to work on his new project- a project that was to show his newfangled musical vision- but was unsure of his direction until the Beatles' Rubber Soul became the catalyst for his new mission. "Rubber Soul was a collection of songs ... that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I said, 'That's it. I really am challenged to do a great album." Fueled by barbiturates and good vibrations, Brian Wilson diligently worked through January and early February 1966 with lyricist Tony Asher penning songs with lyrical themes which evoke both the passion of newly born love affairs and the disillusionment of futile romances. Brian looked beyond the conventional guitars and keyboards when he hired and recorded some of the industry's best session musicians to play the backing tracks for the new material. Breathy saxophones, rolling accordions, piping flutes, Baroque harpsichords, pounding tympanis, regal English and French horns, and even some melodious oddities like Coca-Cola bottles, bicycle bells, and a ghostly sounding theremin are all interwoven into the album's rich fabric. When his band mates returned from their three-week tour of Japan and Hawaii, they laid down the immaculate vocals that blanket the record.

The result is an astonishing and harmonious orgy of sound. Wilson painted a dense and melodic landscape whose hills far out number its valleys. Pet Sounds is a gem from the opening blissful guitar plucks of the youthful anthem Wouldn't it be Nice to the crestfallen sounds of the barking dogs and passing train of the dirge Caroline, No. Brian's buttery voice on You Still Believe in Me and Don't Talk (Put your Head on my Shoulder) sends shivers down my spine. The heavenly God Only Knows, with its wintry sleigh bells and clip-clop percussion, melting vocals and marriage of horns and strings, make this an album highlight. Brian hands younger brother Carl the lead and the band recorded one of the loveliest and most divine songs ever heard on a pop album. " It's a favorite of mine...very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me," McCartney said of the song. The song's unorthodox opening line of "If I should ever leave you," is the cherry on top of the sundae for me. Perfection.

Pet Sounds is the crest of Brian Wilson's wave. He was able to use inspiration from across the pond and thread it into a richly textured and intricate piece of stunning pop. It was his vision, his baby, his masterstroke. His soul breathes through the vinyl.

Just wanted to post a correction to the last review. The CD in the new set is not the same as the 2001 edition. The mono album has been remastered from a much better original source tape resulting in a great improvement in the sound if the original album. In addition the bonus track has been changed to the more finished version of "Hang On To Your Ego" which fans have been asking for. Sadly the credits for the disc omitted this info by mistake. While a hi-res 5.1 mix would sound better than the dolby digital , the vocals are not just in the rear speakers. In fact they truly surround the listener.

Mark Linett- engineer/ producer

It sounds silly to say this, but the Beach Boys really did change my life...I'm not sure when exactly I discovered that they were more than the fun songs I heard on the oldies station when I drove somewhere with my parents.

But, reading an editorial in my local newspaper one day, I noticed they mentioned that Brian Wilson was a musical genius. This greatly intrigued me, and I just had to discover who this Brian Wilson guy was...then I continued reading and found that he was the leader of the very familiar band, The Beach Boys. I immediately found the one Beach Boys c.d. that my dad had and put it on, this time listening deeper than I had ever before listened to The Beach Boys. I found that whoever wrote the newspaper editorial was correct...Brian Wilson was a musical genius...amazing vocal harmonies...outstanding instrumental use...a different and creative sound...and simply great songwriting!

This epiphany occurred about two years ago, and has left me obsessed with Brian Wilson ever since...which is no easy thing to say when you're eighteen years old and everyone else around you is listening to Fall Out Boy and The All American Rejects...and I actually really like both of those bands...they're fun to listen to and I like them, but I can admit that it's not great music. And sometimes, when I'm listening to bands like them, I wish that bands did it the way they used to...more about the music and less about the image. Nowadays, it seems like vocals is not a big part of music...because, in most current bands, the drummers and guitarists are pretty good and the singers sound like crap...I miss hearing good voices...such as the sweet soaring sound of Brian Wilson's falsetto, and the sounds of other harmonic groups, such as The Mamas and the Papas...The Association...The Grass Roots...Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young...the Beatles.

Anyway, I'm well aware that I am very off-track here...I'm supposed to be talking about how awesome Pet Sounds is, not how I feel about every musical group ever! So, Pet Sounds...what can I say that hasn't already been said? It's an amazing album...I don't feel that any words can do it justice.

I've read a few reviews on this album that state that people just like Pet Sounds and say it's the best album of all time because that's what they've heard the "intellectuals" say. Ummm...no. I could really care less what these alleged "intellectuals" have to say...I feel that Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time because listening to it makes me feel indescribably happy...that's all...it soothes me...takes my problems away...reassures me that everything's going to be okay...that's how I know that it's the greates album of all time. It may not be some people's kind of music, but that's fine...everyone has their own opinions...but if you're eighteen and you love The Beach Boys just as much as I do, even though none of your friends and peers can understand why, don't worry...you're not alone...you're in a very elite club full of the most awesome people on earth...just kidding...but honestly...be reassured because there are a few others out there.

Surely one of the great albums of all time, Brian Wilson used his troubled genius to unsurpassed effect, pouring heart and soul into this collection of 13 masterpieces. In the Beach Boys he had at his disposal an incredibly skilled vocal group whose voices could blend and mix in the empathetic way that only comes from a family group who have grown up singing, and who were also perfectly capable of recreating the core of the album's sound in live performance.

Brian Wilson had worked hard for the group for several years, composing many of the songs, singing lead, arranging the harmony vocals, playing bass guitar and piano and honing his production skills, which were greatly inspired by the work of Phil Spector. He used the same pool of musicians and occasionally the same studio in Hollywood, and like Spector he was an innovator and pioneer who could brilliantly combine unusual pairs or multiples of instruments to create a unique single sound.

It all came together on this album, by which time he had retired from the touring group to concentrate on his composing and record-making. The beautiful melodies and the "pet sounds" he created were matched by some exquisite lyrics that were written in collaboration with Tony Asher and other writers. Brian Wilson had been inspired by hearing Rubber Soul and was fuelled by an ambition to match it in which he was wholly successful. In turn, Pet Sounds inspired the Beatles to go on to create Sgt Pepper. It was this spirit of competitive creativity that led to his unfortunate burn out during the creation of Smile, his response to Sgt Pepper.

Although not exactly a concept album, everything was recorded specifically for the album apart from the traditional song Sloop John B, which had already been released as a single and was included on the insistence of the record company. It does not sound too out of place. The first single from the album was the heartfelt God Only Knows (What I'd Do Without You). This got to number 2 in the UK, but suffered in America from lack of radio exposure by nervous radio stations, who began playing the flipside instead. This resulted in Wouldn't It Be Nice, surely an A-side in its own right anyway, reaching the US Top Ten.

The title song Pet Sounds is an instrumental that was originally called Run James Run, inspired by James Bond, and when heard with this in mind takes on a whole new meaning for the listener. The closing track, Caroline No, ends with more pet sounds: Brian's puppies Banana and Louie barking as the song fades. This had also come out on a single before the release of Pet Sounds, but under the name Brian Wilson, and without the beagle and weimaraner or other sound effects.

Of course, the original album already resides on everyone's CD shelf in mono. Brian Wilson was deaf in one ear and so preferred to work monaurally, again like Phil Spector. He also felt that he could present the sound to the listener in exactly the way he wished, without interference from any stereophonically knob-twiddling listener. 

However, a stereo edition was produced and engineered by Mark Linett in 1997 for the Pet Sounds box set, created under the close supervision of Brian Wilson himself, and this edition follows the original album with this scrupulously remixed true stereo version. Not only are these versions often slightly longer, the additional clarity afforded by the sound separation adds a whole new dimension to hearing them, and takes away absolutely nothing. Technological improvements since 1997 have meant that the new stereo mix of Wouldn't It Be Nice on this edition is less different from the original mono mix than on the box set

A caveat - the 5 stars are for the music. 4 stars for pressing!

Re: Pet Sounds and OK Computer Capitol vinyl reissues:

These are better than the abysmal (imo based on disraeli gears and tea for the tillerman) "back to black" reissues.

both the capitol reissue of ok computer and of pet sounds that i bought today are dead quiet and neither suffer from obvious digitalis. they do not sound as if they were recorded using the cd as the source, which many people have felt about the b to b pressings.

the lead vocal on pet sounds is a tiny bit on the bright side (though it may simply be more revealing of whats there - and my system is extremely revealing and cuts no slack in this direction), but it's not brittle like tea for the tillerman is in places in the b to b series. comparing this mono pet sounds to the generally well thought of 1999 mono cap reissue i am hearing slightly better defined detail and slightly increased bass. the more distinct detail may proove to be an improvement or a detrement in the long run. i have to get used to it before i'll be sure which i prefer; but i sure as heck prefer the silence of this vinyl to every pressing i've ever owned of pet sounds. its just great to hear no distracting noises during the oh so many sublime moments that Brian Wilson created for us!

this pressing of ok computer is more dynamic than my uk parlaphone which til now has been my preferred pressing. i have never been wowed by any vinyl or cd of ok c. it aint a sonic pleasure like the radio head lps that have come after it. this does not reverse that assessment of its sound quality (the recording quality of ok c is what it is), but this does seem to be an improvement, at least a bit.

certainly compared to the huge bummer that the back to black series offers, and especially as many of us have been afraid that it foretold that this was all the big record companies were prepared to offer, this comes as a positive tasting of the capitol reissue waters.

so, at first listen i'd say these will at minimum fill the void for those not having quiet (or any) copies of these titles and perhaps bring some small improvements for those lacking pristine wlp's or first pressings. of course the rest of this series may be all over the place by comparison. this is a very hopeful 1st sampling though.