2026 Pet Sounds Releases

[Dan Lega]

So no one has started a thread about the new 2026 Pet Sounds releases?!

Or should I say re-re-releases?

Putting some of the sessions on LP is fine, as they've never been on vinyl.  But why is there no new material at all?  Apparently they only want to sell it to people who haven't bought the original box set, or the re-release of that box set?!

I don't understand this company at all!  They spent ONE HUNDRED MILLION to TWO HUNDRED MILLION dollars for The Beach Boys' catalog, and the best they can manage is a straight rehash of already re-released material?  Why in the world did they spend all that money on the catalog if they didn't expect they could sell it and make tons of money from it?!  Is their plan to sell songs for use in TV and movies and get their money back that way?  Will that be enough to get their investment back?  They don't seem to have any faith in their box set program, as shown by the debacle of a release that was We Gotta Groove.  They put it out in a pricey format (LP/CD only) which infuriated many of the band's fans.  Then they didn't print enough to meet their pre-order demands, and thus made many fans wait six weeks to get their box set -- and probably in the process lost many sales from those who don't want to wait and so just decided to skip it instead.  I did finally get mine, but I'm not thrilled with it.  It seems very short!  I mean, it's a box set that covers three albums, and it only consists of 3 CD's.  I bet they could have easily done a 3 CD set for each album!  And that's what I'm seeing other bands doing left and right, they're putting out box sets of 3+ discs for one album!  Why does this company think something like that won't sell for The Beach Boys?  And again, if they think that won't sell, why did they buy the catalog in the first place?

And this Pet Sounds set is ridiculous in that it has no new material at all!  But wait, I got an email from them saying I could click on a link and hear a new version of Sloop John B with Carl singing one of the verses!  Now why isn't that on the new set?  And, just as important, why, when I clicked on the link, could I not find this Carl-version of Sloop John B?  All I could listen to was the original mix of the track.  They said there were two other versions I could listen to, but, by God, I couldn't find them!

Look... as for me personally... I would buy a box set that has every session take on it!  I mean, at the very least sell me a 12 disc box, one disc for each song, for $300!  I'd buy that!  Take advantage of what's there in their extensive catalog!  Why are they just sitting on this stuff?!

This bodes horribly for the SMiLE set next year.  I was hoping there'd be some new stuff on it, but now I'm expecting it to be an exact rehash of what we already have.  Very disappointing.  And another thing, while the Durrie Parks acetates originally appeared on the market before Iconic took over, that The Beach Boys enterprise didn't secure the Durrie Parks SMiLE acetates both times they were up for sale is just incredibly short-sighted!  Criminal, in a way, that they didn't secure the rights to these recordings for their own archives.  (Was the second sale after Iconic took over?  It may have been, now that I think about it.)

And what's up with the new Pet Sounds 2 CD set having the exact same track listing as the 2 LP set?!  You can get a lot more on a CD, why leave so much empty space?  And to top that off, what's up with the exact same version of a song appearing twice in each set on both of the CD's and both of the LP's?  Did someone screw up the mastering of the set, but it wasn't noticed until the thing was manufactured, so the company just said "screw it, we ain't fixing it, we'll just put it out as is!?"

I have lost a lot of faith in Iconic to do things as befits America's greatest rock band!  I'll still buy the sets, but I expect there will be a ton of missed opportunities, and just plain old mistakes!

I'm still flabbergasted as to how so much of "Feel Flows" and "Sail On Sailor" were sonically inferior than previous releases.  How did the same team go from the great sound on "The SMiLE Sessions," and the digital only releases of the late 60's albums, to those two box sets?   Especially, how could they release a LIVE version of "Back Home" that was a fake live version?!?!  How do you do that?  Who forced these terrible decisions on the engineering team, or did the engineering team just all of a sudden come up with terrible ideas themselves?  As to the new team, why must this new box set be "brickwalled?"  Why wouldn't the engineering team want to present it more closely with how it was originally meant to be presented?  Yeah, this new set sounds better than a lot of the last two sets, but still, that's a very weird decision to say you're going to present the album as originally intended, and then proceed to do the opposite and artificially inflate its "loudness!"

The booklet is very nice, and Howie's essay is fantastic, way better than the ones in the other booklets, which were quite nice, but this one goes into really nice detail about the period.  Kudos for the essay, and finally again, a sessionography!  But then, have you looked at the eyes of the Boys in the fold-out of the CD holder album -- they've apparently been totally screwed up by A.I. -- and I'll never get that mangled picture out of my head!  Who could let such a botched job like this go through?  (Seriously, though, if you haven't noticed it, don't look for it, because it will get burnt into your brain forever!)

The new Pet Sounds releases aren't all bad.  Colored vinyl is nice for those who like it, as are audiophile pressings.  I even received a later email stating that there's also a more expensive audiophile vinyl repressing using the tape that was used when repressing Pet Sounds for inclusion with Carl & The Passions So Tough!  That's a nice touch.  Would have been nice to include that in the space left over on the two CD set!  Or perhaps a SACD or DVD version of it?  But to only release sessions that have already been presented is such a cop-out.  Give us long-time fans something to REALLY look forward to!  PLUMP the DEPTHS of the archives!  And if you must, do a Kickstarter like pre-order so that you'll know how many to press, if that's what you're worried about, so you won't have the risk of lots of unsold units hanging about!  But, please, start to take REAL ADVANTAGE of the incredible music catalog that you thought was so great you purportedly paid $100 MILLION to $200 MILLION DOLLARS for!!!

I'm really sick of this wishy-washy attitude Iconic has brought to this great music.  It makes no sense.  You BOUGHT it!  Now go and make some REAL money from it!!!

[Don Malcolm]

Thanks, Dan. I think I can speak for others in saying that we really appreciate your passion, and it's a more colorful distillation of the more elaborate grumbling that is prevalent elsewhere.

Howie might be able to tell us more about the decision-making process that resulted in the various PET SOUNDS releases--it does seem rather haphazard and too tilted toward the gimmickry that seems to plague much of what we see these days in "heritage releases"...

I think our best (only?) hope in the future is that Howie and James Saez can convince Iconic to revive the Beach Boys Central concept, where the entire digitized archive becomes available for purchase either as separate downloads or a series of curated bundles. That may be the only way to achieve the kind of utopian notions you are espousing here (echoing those who devised that idea originally).

As for me, the audiophile Pet Sounds is the only item in this most recent set of releases that appeals to me. I've enjoyed We Gotta Groove in the format arrived at by Howie, James, and the semi-nameless folk who seem to have placed a thumb or two on the scales; I tend to think that more material from this part of the vaults would likely have been overkill.

Please keep on swinging, Dan--the energy in your posts is sometimes controversial (a good thing...) and always engaging!

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

Yeah, tend to agree. I was all in on We Gotta Groove for a bunch of different reasons. Like, I don't even have the previous Pet Sounds sets, but with no obvious "hook" to this new one I can't say I'm super jazzed... We'll see.

The one thing I will say in their defense is that they kept the price point way down on the 2CD set. That's... not nothing! Maybe they see this selling to a much wider pool of casual fans.

[Rocker]

FWIW here are three Slopp John B.-tracks that were currently uploaded in connection with the new release:


Sloop John B (Carl Sings First Verse)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNWD4Tq8XoM




Sloop John B (Stack-O-Vocals)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLuJCNPdMq0




Sloop John B (Stereo / Remastered 1996)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bED2EFv-_yk

[Dan Lega]

Thanks for the links! 

Now... is the Carl version something new that we haven't heard before?  Because that's the way I read the email at first glance.  But now I have a sneaking suspicion that I have heard it before, and of course, most likely on the previous PS box sets.

But... again, if it is new, why was it not included on the new re-re-release?

Carl sounds very good on the opening lines, but then delivers his last lines way too laid back for my taste.  Mike's vocals on that version also sound too laid back.  I don't think his vocal here is the same as his vocal on the final version.  Was not able to make my mind up about Brian's last verse, though.  It could be the same, it could be different.

[Ninten]

It's not new. It was on the Pet Sounds Sessions box set.

Pretty lackluster what they did here. I didn't buy any of the releases off the Beach Boys site. I already have the Pet Sounds sessions and multiple version of the album on vinyl. What I did buy was the One-Step pressing, mostly because it uses and has the art from the 1972 version, which I've always wanted.

That being said, I'm wondering what else they could have logistically done. Is there anything they can give us that we don't already have?

But yeah, I hope we get something better for Smile. And as grateful as I am that we got *most* of the Adult/Child songs, I have big issues with the We Gotta Groove set. Kind of messed up when my most-anticipated release for like 15 years barely has me coming back to it. Especially when we got the whole proper album in HQ in the leak that followed, which was far more exciting than having to cobble together my own version with the M.I.U. Hey Little Tomboy and other releases of Games Two Can Play and H.E.L.P. is on the Way.

[rab2591]

TBH I am just happy that this anniversary release has given us the '97 boxset on streaming services. It is by far the best boxset they have ever made (maybe barring the GV 30 Years set), and it absolutely deserves to be widely available in modern formats. I think about the first time I heard it, after buying the set on Ebay almost 2 decades ago, and the joy it brought me. It's exciting to think some new fans will be hearing this for the first time themselves with this release (if they haven't stumbled on these mixes via YouTube already).

And honestly I also have no idea what else they would do with Pet Sounds - that anything was done in the first place is pretty cool. The vinyl releases look like they were put together with care/attention. And given today's market (where everything seems to be streaming/Tik-Tok/etc, I feel like we're lucky to get anything at all - considering the amount of releases this album has already gone through.

In my dream world, I would love for The Beach Boys to make a website/app solely dedicated to the music: where you could be your own sound mixer (where you have a sound board, and 4-8 tracks from each Pet Sounds song, and you can adjust to hear different vocal tracks, different mixes, adjust different instruments depending on the Mic/track). I would 100% pay for a subscription to such a thing.

[Pet Sounder]

While I'm excited about the new anniversary releases this year, I've always hoped we'd get expanded sessions someday. The highlights are great, but I'd love to have the entire sessions available (they could still be briefly edited in case there is some dialogue they'd prefer to not release to the public). For instance, I've always wondered how the tag for IKTAA developed from the early takes to the final. Was it all Brian, or did one of the session players make a suggestion, like Don Randi did for GOK? Releasing the multi-tracks is another thing I'd love to see, if that's even possible.

[Dan Lega]

In my dream world, I would love for The Beach Boys to make a website/app solely dedicated to the music: where you could be your own sound mixer (where you have a sound board, and 4-8 tracks from each Pet Sounds song, and you can adjust to hear different vocal tracks, different mixes, adjust different instruments depending on the Mic/track). I would 100% pay for a subscription to such a thing.

Yes!  That would be so awesome!  C'mon, Beach Boys!  Be trail blazers again and be the first to make something like this happen!  I also still think they could, and should, have made a much larger box set, providing much more studio sessions, more tracks that perhaps only have parts of the instrumental tracks so that we may hear the different parts with even more clarity.  And there are other artists out there who are doing box sets with 8 to 12 discs in them.  Sure they won't sell as many of those, but they'll make more money on each set, so it is financially viable.  Especially if you go a step further in your marketing and do a Kickstarter type of thing, where you present a price point that will make you money, and if enough people don't sign up, then you don't do it, and you've lost no money essentially.

Also, I was just on YouTube listening to the March 24 "Live Audiophile Roundtable: Pet Sounds AAA Mono Deep Dive/1972 Brother Records," which is very interesting!  It's about the $100 Pet Sounds vinyl that is taken from the tape used for the Pet Sounds LP that came with Carl & The Passions, which they say is much better than the original master.  (Unfortunately the free shipping option they mention is gone now.)

I have a question for you Audiophiles out there about something they brought up, which is, if you have a Mono record then you should listen to it using only a Mono cartridge. They also said there were a few things you could do to mitigate the problems of using a Stereo cartridge if you don't have a Mono one.  However, those solutions sort of went right over my head!  But then I mused, could I simply just unplug one of the Stereo speakers?  Would that solve any possible problem?  Anyone here know the answer?

[zaval80]

Don't know the technicalities of a mono cartridge, in theory it may be dealing with a mono groove in a slightly different way than a stereo cartridge. But if you just unplug one of your stereo speakers when listening to a mono record, you'll still be hearing the same, it does not give any advantage.

[Dan Lega]

They said if you play a mono record with a stereo cartridge you'll introduce some unwanted noise, some "rumble."  Then they said something about splitting off the signal with a Y cord.  And I forgot, but they also said you should really listen to mono with only one speaker, too.  But they didn't say that would solve the problem of unwanted noise generated by using a stereo cartridge on a mono record.  So I guess I sort of answered my own question?  I should just look it up on the old interweb, it has all the answers!