So how do you expand on perfection? Well, you add a couple of new tracks that we’ve never heard before. Then you don’t re-mix the album, but you take the original mono recordings and update them into digital form.
Pet Sounds is perhaps one of the greatest albums ever released. For the uneducated, Pet Sounds was inspired by the Beatles’ genius album, Revolver. The Beatles weren’t aware of this, however, and were eventually inspired by Pet Sounds to write one of the greatest albums ever, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.
You are saying to yourself, “My mom and dad listen to the Beach Boys,” and from that perspective alone, you think the Beach Boys are lame, undeserving of a listen. I’m far from being your mom and dad’s age, and I’m here to tell you to forget that nonsense. The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds is perfection from beginning to end. Brian Wilson was at the pinnacle of his talent in musical creation at this point. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “You Still Believe In Me” are timeless, just absolutely breathtaking to behold. “That’s Not Me” is the same. Back to back to back classics. No holes, no flaws, no dead air, nothing but over forty minutes of entertainment.
Then there is my personal favorite, “I’m Waiting For The Day”. The drum intro leads into mellow verse that temporarily sooths your soul, until the chorus crashes into what is the Beach Boys at their best, and at their closest to being as rough and tumble as the Rolling Stones. Then they shrink back into their Beach Boys’ skins, and just as you think it’s all over, they kick you in the ass with the coda.
I’ve come to really enjoy “Sloop John B”, but I always find myself going to the next track out of my inability to resist its power. “God Only Knows” is perhaps the most beautiful song your ears will ever be graced with. I’ve no words to describe how this song makes me feel or just how blown away I am each and every time I hear it.
If you are at all familiar with Brian Wilson and his trials, you will understand where his head was at when he wrote “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”. Aside from his feelings and thought process, this song defies the years. One of the bonus tracks is also one of the best, “Hang On To Your Ego”. It gets me out of any funk I might be mired in; I have to start singing out loud, it doesn’t matter how out of tune I sound or who may hear it.
The harmonies are as strong throughout this release as on the original release that made them famous. Pet Sounds is one of those albums that has brought me through tough times and allowed me to close my eyes and leave the world behind. In reviewing it, I just can’t seem to find the right words, the ability to adequately express my passion. As a whole, Pet Sounds is perhaps the greatest illustration of modern music ever committed to record. Time will fade before this album’s appeal does.
+ charlie craine
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