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I have always thought the Band did a solid job on sequence of tracks on their albums. A lot of oomph of the bat on albums like Today!, Love You, even MIU.

And though perhaps bad karma to start fiddling with greatness, does anyone think the track sequence could have been a little different on Pet Sounds? I rank She Still Believes in Me as one of my faves, but you come out of the gate very up tempo with WIBN...maybe keep it going with Sloop? SSBIM in 3rd position. End with the stunning beauty of Let's Go Away For Awhile.

Side 2. I'd move Caroline No into 3rd slot, keep everything else as is.

Noooooooooooooooooooooo, it has to end that way....

Interesting ideas, but I think the tempo is varied very well on the Pet Sounds album.  I think the uptempo Sloop John B is perfectly placed between Lets Go Away for Awhile and the beautiful God Only Knows.  

The only thing I might change is the placement of the title track.   Although I've always thought the title track is a bit of a square peg on the album, so to be honest, I'm not sure where I'd put it.  

I might end the album with I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.  To me, the title track and Caroline No are sort of anti-climatic after IJWMFTT.  

I like ending the album with IJWMFTT. Ya then where to put Pet Sounds??

No clue.  Maybe Just move IJWMFTT to the end, and have Pet Sounds after Here Today? 

The dichotomy between the hopeful optimism of WIBN to start the album and the mournful bitterness of Caroline, No as the end to the album is masterful and underscores the theme of the album - be cautious, don't get your hopes up, look over your shoulder because heartbreak and darkness are always ready to pounce.

So, I wouldn't change a thing.

Amen, sir.  This is one of the best things I've read on this board in a long time.

Don't f*** with the formula :D

Good thoughts, Juice.

Not just with Beach Boys, but with most albums, I'll play around with the sequencing. However, Pet Sounds is tough one, a really tough one. First, I can never come up with the perfect opening track. Lyrically, to me anyway, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is an AFTER the relationship gets going song, not exactly at the beginning. Second, I tend to view the songs on Pet Sounds as either "relationship" songs or "searching/self-exploration" songs, and I find myself wanting to group them together. But third, the biggest problem is that, after listening to the album for 40+ years, it is ingrained in your head, and any alternate track listing sounds...not quite right.

But that didn't stop me from trying. ;D Occasionally, just for the fun of it, I'll play an alternate track listing. And, I cheated a little bit...

Side 1

01  Good Vibrations
02  Here Today
03  Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
04  Wouldn't It Be Nice
05  Let's Go Away For Awhile
06  God Only Knows
07  I'm Waiting For The Day

Side 2

08  You Still Believe In Me
09  I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
10  That's Not Me
11  I Know There's An Answer
12  Sloop John B
13  Pet Sounds
14  Caroline, No
  

Why fiddle with perfect would be my opinion.

Best way to make the album perfect, IMO:

- Keep the track order the same
- Swap out the sped-up Caroline, No with the original speed version
- Swap out Wouldn't it Be Nice with the Brian bridge version
- I'd kinda prefer Hang Onto Your Ego as opposed to I Know There's An Answer, but I could go either way on that.

Anyway, then it would be really, really perfect, as opposed to 99.5% perfect as it currently is.

I'd switch the positions of the instrumentals Let's Go Away for Awhile and Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds is a pretty upbeat song and it sounds so out of place in between IJWMFTT and Caroline, whereas LGAFA fits there much better.

You could change it a hundred different ways (I've never been good with math) and they'd all sound fantastic. But the track listing is truly perfect the way it is: "Brushes of euphoria, brushes of melancholy..." Some people find the transitions between tempos jarring, I am of those who find it telling. I just listened to this masterpiece the other day from beginning to end in a very escalated state of consciousness. Some of the uninitiated cannot understand why people would ever refer to this album as 'psychedelic'. I cannot stress how highly I recommend giving it a-go if you're ever in the neighborhood.

  It's "You Still Believe in Me", Juice. 

  I've considered swapping out "Sloop John B" for "The Little Girl I Once Knew" a time or two, but best to leave as is.

Having "You Still Believe In Me" second is an early announcement that this is no ordinary Beach Boys album.

  Indeed. It certainly caught my attention upon first listen in 1982.

Ha ya bit of a brain fart there.

It is brilliant...probably my favourite song on the album.
Thinking of the times though, it's such a remarkable leap forward (the album) I just wonder if putting Sloop in as track 2 would have given fans at the time an easing in to what lay ahead.

This thread has offered insight into the album that's really interesting.

Back to IJWMFTT as an end track, I do like that. As mentioned the theme of the album is a tug of war between Hope and Optimism, Worry and Regret. That song is insightful, yet no happy ending is possible. Prophetic.

I would leave the running order such as it is, but open with Trombone Dixie (maybe retitled). it would make a perfect 'ouverture' since it suggests quite a few of the melodic themes found throughout the album(?)... And to slow things down before WIBN kicks in, add 'unreleased backgrounds' [again (re-)titled] as a beautiful  acapella interlude - try it on!

fwiw,  i always have felt side B is superior to side A...almost like they sandbagged the good stuff for the second half.

i don't know what an alternative order would be since i have come to appreciate PS for the masterpiece it is

that said, my least favorite tracks on PS are That's Not Me and Waiting for the Day and besides WIBN, the first side (imo) loses steam going from YSBIM>Waiting for the Day. I absolutely love YSBIM and Don't Talk, but having these so early in the tracklist has always felt a little odd to me.

Because it's fun? Besides, it's "perfect" because we knew it this way. If the tracklist was different, I bet it'd still be "perfect". Don't doubt one bit that if smb. wrote exact same tracklist as of current Pet Sounds, many of you like here would say,  "No, I'd leave it as is".

Interesting idea since Sloop doesn't really fit thematically with the rest of the album, and Little Girl does.  But it kind of repeats the lyrical theme of Caroline No.  Which isn't a bad thing necessarily.

Isn't TLGIOK the opposite theme of Caroline No. 

In TLGIOK, the protagonist sees a girl he didn't have eyes for until he sees how beautiful she is. 

Caroline No is basically the opposite where the protagonist looks at the girl he loved, but doesn't have the same feeling.

Given that, these two songs could've perfectly bookended Pet Sounds. 

I think removing Sloop John B improves Pet Sounds by making it a more thematically cohesive album. I also like to place Trombone Dixie after 'Don't Cry'.

You wish Trombone Dixie would be better on Use Your Illusion?

Oops! I meant 'Dont Talk Put Your Head On my Shoulder'. Rookie mistake. :thud

I rather like the order as it is (like every album ever made----because that's the way it was made).   

As for the title track, I regard it as the album's climax----where it's all been leading. *searches frantically for coat*

For decades, I've always thought that the transition from GOK to IKTAA is too jarring.  I'd switch it with LGAFA, and sequence it as follows:

WIBN
YSBIM
TNM
DTPYHOMS
IWFTT
IKTAA
SJB
GOK
LGAFA
HT
IJWMFTT
PS
CN