Pet Sounds

I’m at a 5.

Obviously, I suspect that the randomizer was just a tad bit rigged in light of Brian Wilson’s death, but even a few days ago, when I was looking back at the bands we had gotten so far, it struck me as a surprise we’d only gotten the Beach Boys once so far, especially knowing that this album would be coming down the pipeline eventually. “Surf’s Up” clicked with me really nicely, so I figured if this one was the one with the massive acclaim, it would also hit like that.

Yeah… yeah, it did. It’s not at a 10 level for me, which feels a little disappointing, but there’s not a single bad track here – it is every bit as good as it’s been advertised & more. I reserve the big 10 for whenever something just hits me at the deeper levels, or when my brain especially clicks to the point of pure disbelief. I never got there with this one on a first listen, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get there someday, because this is immediately entering the rotation. It’s my first time listening to this album in full; it’s my first time hearing a lot of these tracks, really. Obviously, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is the monster commercial hit, but past that, the rest of the album was a mystery to me.

Generally, when my brain still thinks of The Beach Boys, it conjures up the poppier stuff, like “Surfin’ U.S.A.” or “Good Vibrations”, & even after listening to Surf’s Up a few times, my brain still just doesn’t connect the wires. That said, this is the perfect antithesis to that poppier stuff – not necessarily in the instrumentation, but just in the delivery & lyricism. A lot of these tracks are imbued with sadness, indicative of something deeper & more melancholy. Even for something like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, my brain only realized the slight level of sarcasm present throughout the track on this listen. Hell, apparently “God Only Knows” is one of the first pop tracks to evoke the word “God” in that sense, ignoring spirituals & whatnot. The depth that this album presents itself with is what gives this album its place in musical history – if you don’t get here, you probably don’t get to the deeper, richer stuff that would slowly emerge from both the Beach Boys, The Beatles, and several others in an “iron sharpening iron” sense. Sgt. Pepper’s is apparently pretty directly inspired by this album. Hell, you probably don’t get to something as eternal as “Songs in the Key of Life”, but we’ll get to that when it comes up.

I wish I could type more in-depth here, but I just don’t think I can really type up a storm about the tracks themselves. The compositions, lyricism & delivery will leave far more of an impact than whatever I might write. It’s a damn good album, and everyone in the band deserves all the credit in the world for this one, even Mike Love, as begrudgingly as I have to give it to him. Brian Wilson, though… flowers, balloons, slices of cake, stacks of cash, piles of presents; the whole 9 yards, really. His production work on this, in addition to his writing & instrumental work, is remarkably good. Hell, even the mono mix doesn’t feel like mono at times, managing to pull off a better “wall of sound” effect than Phil Spector did on basically everything I’ve heard the guy touch.

So, yes, R.I.P. to Brian Wilson, and let this album live on forever as a sort of magnum opus for the Beach Boys. It’s a very easy 5, and one day, it’ll probably click in THAT sense where I can say “easy, easy 10”. An excellent album, and a cornerstone piece of music.

I'm listening to this on June 12, 2025. Brian Wilson died yesterday and will be sorely missed.

Aside from my emotions associated Wilson's very recent death, I'm overcome by much of the music on this album. The dense musical layering, atypical song structures, incredible harmonies and other vocal layering, and unbelievable production make this a very special artwork to me. Additionally, the themes of simple love, self doubt, nagging feelings of not belonging, and heartbreak all touch me more than a lot of other music that tries really hard to be profound.

Thank you, Beach Boys for putting up with Brian's craziness to make this album (and all the others, really), and thank you Brian for being exactly who you were.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Really set the bar for music production innovation on a pop album.
'Wall of Sound' really comes through with everything so densely layered.
Just never really liked the barber quartet style of singing and the cheesy harmonies so it loses a point purely on that.
Songs like God Only Knows are pure magic though.
4/5.

pff. undeniable. part of me thinks it’s annoying. it consistently shuts that part of me up.

has the hooks to have on in the background, and the arrangements for a deeper listen.

No way is this 1001 generator is random: getting The Beach Boys the day after Brian Wilson's death! (Narrator: it wasn't random.)

Feeling quite sentimental about it, such a great album! (I'm blissfully ignoring the lazy fade outs.)

I already liked the idea of this album even before I knew it had goats on it! What a delight. Also, "Pet Sounds" is a great name because both of those words can be a noun or verb. A lot of these tracks were the first songs I downloaded when I got my own computer, and they still hold up. I guess they're a little samey, and certainly old-fashioned, but also very poppy and harmony-y and, dare I say, emo, with some funny little instruments thrown in. In a way, it reminds me of a slightly more normie Magnetic Fields. I was not expecting 2 instrumental tracks -- the first one didn't really hit for me, but they're pleasant enough, and written-for-a-Bond-movie 'Pet Sounds' does seem like it was written for that. I don't particularly like some other Beach Boys hits I know ('I Get Around', 'Good Vibrations'), but this album was cohesively flawless. I was going to give it a 4, but looking at my highlights list, maybe it deserves a 5(!!)

Highlights: 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' (featuring a "12-string mando-guitar"), 'You Still Believe in Me', 'I'm Waiting for the Day', 'Sloop John B' (one of the most mysterious song titles of my lifetime; where's Sloop John A?), 'God Only Knows', 'Here Today', 'Caroline, No' (a mishearing of "Carol, I Know"! that's Mike Eindetitle), 'Hang On to Your Ego' (this isn't on the original version, but still)

jako fora. neke su pjesme izvrsne, a neke su trunčicu lošije jer su tipične ljubavne pjesme. al ipak vrhunski izvedene

Back in the day, this must have been revolutionary. But now you hear all the vanilla flavors of pop music time and time again on the radio, so needless to say, it didn't quite grip me.

Better than Coldplay.

5 stars might not do it

Bukvalno isto kao onaj beatles album samo kao da je malo više namijenjen odrasloj publici. Ništa bolji ni gori. Mrzim ovakvu muziku.

First listen on this list! Vocals really didn't gel with me, and they stopped me from appreciating the instrumentals. Might have to listen again just for that.
Standouts: Let's Go Away For A While • Pet Sounds, precisely because there were no vocals. These reminded me a bit of Takanaka, in that tropical summer dreamy vibe. Other than that, kinda meh for me.

This is one of those albums that it's kind of mad I'd never listened to before now. It's such a well-known, iconic album. It's actually way more sedate than I thought it would be, based on other songs of theirs. In general, I preferred the more well-known songs like God Only Knows and Wouldn't It Be Nice. I liked the variance in instruments though, and the more orchestral bits. Overall, it's a nice time. Elsewhere, I had the realisation that Frank Black covered 'Hold On To Your Ego'.

The write-up on this is fascinating, and I hadn't had any of that context before now. I feel like I've grown as a music appreciator, even if this one didn't completely hit for me.

3.5 rounded down.

Perfect. I played it over and over, all day. Such a comforting sound. The Beach Boys captured something magic with Pet Sounds.

It really is that good. Though it kinda creeps me out. Both because the lyrics and general vibe are kinda stalkerish and because the production is spooky as if it’s somehow haunted.

It's iconic, but I'm not impressed.

One of my favorite albums of all time. I just can't find any real fault with it and there is so much to enjoy. It's so textural and fun.

I frequently see this album listed as one of the all time greats. And so I have listened to it several times over the years.
I just don’t get it. I can appreciate that for 1966 it was technically advanced and different. But as a listener I just don’t enjoy it all that much. It’s too saccharine? Sorry, I’ve tried many times to like this!

Wouldn't it be nice to like this more?

I can appreciate that there's a reason it's a highly regarded, classic album, but it just doesn't align all that well with my tastes.

Absolute masterpiece of an album.