Pet Sounds

[Jason]

Replace 20/20 with Carl and the Passions.

[I. Spaceman]

Damn, I was debating that.

[RobtheNobleSurfer]

Let me guess.
SMiLEY, Honey, Love You, Sunflower, Friends, 20/20, Surf's Up, Today, Summer Days, All Summer Long.

Those are the obvious ones, I would have guessed.

[artie]

I cannot understand how anyone claiming to be a Beach Boys fan could like Surf's Up or Carl and the Passions over Pet Sounds. That's like saying you'd rather eat a piece of sh*t instead of a prime rib.

[Chris D.]

Maybe they just get sick of everyone focusing on Pet Sounds.  I play it more now than ever, but for a long time I didn't put it on nearly as much as the other stuff.

[Sir Rob]

I have to confess I also feel that those who say they can name umpteen BB albums they prefer more than Pet Sounds are just being wilfully perverse.  One or two perhaps (allowing for personal taste) but 10!  I can't help thinking this is more to do with familiarity and media hype breeding a form of contempt.  Imagine that you'd never heard Pet Sounds and then the whole thing was suddenly discovered on some kind of long lost bootleg.  I reckon the superlatives you would find to heap upon such a discovery have not been invented yet!

[Sir Rob]

Replace 20/20 with Carl and the Passions.

That's outrageous!  Carl and The bloody Passions!   

It's like saying you prefer Mind Games to Revolver!

Aaargghhh!!!

[Chris D.]

One or two perhaps (allowing for personal taste) but 10!  I can't help thinking this is more to do with familiarity and media hype breeding a form of contempt.

Point taken there, I definitely get that, but come on guys -- don't flip out just because someone likes something else more.  This site would be so boring if each thread was "What do you like most about Pet Sounds?" "Which Pet Sounds song are you?" "Any new thoughts on a story in Pet Sounds?"  I think focusing mostly on Pet Sounds reenforces, at least subtly, the idea that it's still all Brian really did.  In the Beatles threads we argued over Sgt. Pepper and Beatles for Sale, but no one really thought liking one over the other was unbelievable.  With the Beatles it's okay to accept one phase over another, but why not with the Beach Boys?  Brian has done lots of cool, different music.  I like Love You more than Pet Sounds, and I don't say that to be perverse or just because it's personal taste.  Reactions like that are exactly why people are going to resent Pet Sounds.  Why don't you ask him why he places it so low?

[Sir Rob]

I like Love You more than Pet Sounds, and I don't say that to be perverse or just because it's personal taste. 

Er, so why do you prefer Love You if it's not your personal taste or your perversion?

Jason, why do you place Pet Sounds so low?

[artie]

One or two perhaps (allowing for personal taste) but 10!  I can't help thinking this is more to do with familiarity and media hype breeding a form of contempt.

Point taken there, I definitely get that, but come on guys -- don't flip out just because someone likes something else more.  This site would be so boring if each thread was "What do you like most about Pet Sounds?" "Which Pet Sounds song are you?" "Any new thoughts on a story in Pet Sounds?"  I think focusing mostly on Pet Sounds reenforces, at least subtly, the idea that it's still all Brian really did.  In the Beatles threads we argued over Sgt. Pepper and Beatles for Sale, but no one really thought liking one over the other was unbelievable.  With the Beatles it's okay to accept one phase over another, but why not with the Beach Boys?  Brian has done lots of cool, different music.  I like Love You more than Pet Sounds, and I don't say that to be perverse or just because it's personal taste.  Reactions like that are exactly why people are going to resent Pet Sounds.  Why don't you ask him why he places it so low?

Fair point...execpt for one major flaw. From Please Please Me through to Abbey Road, the Beatles were John Paul George and Ringo. John and Paul made significant contributions, to say the least, to every album. George tossed in some REAL beauties, and Ringo, although he only wrote 2 tunes and co-wrote 2 more (What Goes On and Dig It, for you completists), was a major part of the sound.

You mention Brian in your response...exactly...The Beach Boys WERE Brian until after Wild Honey. One can like Please Please Me more than Abbey Road, or vice versa, and that is a fair comparison. But comparing Pet Sounds to Carl and the Passions or Surf's Up is like comparing Revolver to Ringo's Rotogravure. Post Beach Boys Brian is, in reality, a different group.

For the record, I have Love You right after Pet Sounds...

[Jason]

I've become so enamored with Pet Sounds that it's made me appreciate the other albums even more so. For me, the band didn't begin and end with Brian Wilson, note that a lot of my favorites are from after 1967.

If you folks have a problem with this, well, that's on you. My taste isn't yours, let's keep it that way for everyone's own good.

[OLD GREGG]

I love Pet Sounds pretty much as much as any number of the Beach Boys albums, Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends and Sunflower to name a few after and All Summer Long, Today! and Surfer Girl before. Every Beach Boys album has a distinct flavour to it, and should be taken on it's own merits, I personally love Smiley Smile over anything the Beach Boys did but its close and my tastes change. I dont see the wide chasm of creative success that some do between something like Smiley and Pet Sounds. Smiley Smile is just as impressive an album, if not more so, and just as emotionally powerful, as is Sunflower and Surfs Up, in a big big way.

[I. Spaceman]

 

[jazzfascist]

For me this is kind of the record, that is the mother of all the Beach Boys records, both the records that came before and after, like the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey ". It's like the Beach Boys sound totally unfolded, a picture of Brians musical soul. I think it's a little like Marvin Gayes "What's Going On" in that they are both very emotional spiritual records. "Don't Talk" and "Wholly Holy" actually sound very alike. Both records are also a little flawed, maybe because they are so idiosyncratic. So it's not everything I like on Pet Sounds, for instance I dont really like "Sloop John B" and some of the music is a little too contrived classical sounding, still you are drawn back to that sound and I think, that it's probably very much all Brian's little sound pictures, that stay with you and keeps you coming back and also makes you appreciate the rest of the BB's music on another level.

Søren

[Matinee Idyll]

I have to confess I also feel that those who say they can name umpteen BB albums they prefer more than Pet Sounds are just being wilfully perverse.  One or two perhaps (allowing for personal taste) but 10!  I can't help thinking this is more to do with familiarity and media hype breeding a form of contempt.

I just don't think the media hype is justified... I can't judge what I can't hear, and I just don't hear "the greatest album of all time" when I listen to it.  I don't even hear the best BB's album (Today!).

[TV Forces]

Smiley Smile is just as impressive an album, if not more so, and just as emotionally powerful, as is Sunflower and Surfs Up, in a big big way.

Hold on!  What??   "Smiley Smile" is just as emotionally powerful as "Pet Sounds"?? 

[Chris D.]

Er, so why do you prefer Love You if it's not your personal taste or your perversion?

'Cause it's better and it's a fact.   

Hold on!  What??   "Smiley Smile" is just as emotionally powerful as "Pet Sounds"?? 

Definitely.

[I. Spaceman]

Absolutely correct.

[TV Forces]

Hold on!  What??   "Smiley Smile" is just as emotionally powerful as "Pet Sounds"?? 

Definitely.

Hahahahahahahaha!!

[Chris D.]

Those aren't just the "f***ed up" years to me.

[I. Spaceman]

Hold on!  What??   "Smiley Smile" is just as emotionally powerful as "Pet Sounds"?? 

Definitely.

Hahahahahahahaha!!

Laugh away, fat boy.

[Jeff Mason]

Notice that no one said which emotions were powerful.  PS is very melancholy, while SS is, well, frightening in a way, plus it sends one on the edge.  In that way it produces almost as strong an emotional response from a listener as Pet Sounds.  It's just that for the average person, that sort of reaction is not necessarily pleasant, not what they want from music.  It's very visceral, very much under the rational side of the emotional spectrum.  PS is all brainy, while SS digs deep into the soul that the mind tends to ignore.  In that sense, I agree with Bugul.  SS is not my personal fav album and I do prefer PS, but I totally get the reaction that Ian and Bugul have as well.

Of course, for this listener, Sunflower tops them all.   

[TV Forces]

Hold on!  What??   "Smiley Smile" is just as emotionally powerful as "Pet Sounds"?? 

Definitely.

Hahahahahahahaha!!

Laugh away, fat boy.

Hahahahahahahaha!!

[analogdemon]

Mono, stereo or 5.1 surround?

I find myself listening to the Advanced Resolution mono track on the DVD-A the most, followed by the 5.1 surround.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I listen to the music, not the equipment.