Do I need Pet Sounds?

batmon

Ive been mad curious for years.

And which version do i need.

Regular vinyl
Deluxe Box
Special Edition CD
Rent from ITunes

Just listen once and take it in and then decide if ill return?

4YearGraduate

You need Smile

RAJ

Overrated

Spacecho

Regular vinyl. It came out in mono originally though that might be pricey. YOu can get it on CD pretty easy.

The_Non

Need? No. If it's cheap someplace how? Sure, pick it up. I like God Only Knows. You really need to be into the softserv vocal harmonizing style they bring to the table. PS and Smile are 2 of their least cheesy/most accessible albums, and I say their best song is Don't Worry Baby, which is on neither album.

SIRUS

The_Non said:

You really need to be into the softserv vocal harmonizing style they bring to the table.

i respect the work, but yeah, this. have never owned bb recs/cds.

batmon

ive read too much on the forward thinking production. is it that next level for its time?

i was reading an issue of Sound & Vision and these dudes are stuck on some old white dude classics talmbout dark side of the moon and shit, and they got into SMiLE new box set.

But there was some intersting comments by Wilson where he said smile is meant to be heard mono.
The Stereo steez at the time wasnt fully fleshed out and was a gimmick to attract record buyers at the time.

karlophone

batmon said:

ive read too much on the forward thinking production. is it that next level for its time?

i was reading an issue of Sound & Vision and these dudes are stuck on some old white dude classics talmbout dark side of the moon and shit, and they got into SMiLE new box set.

But there was some intersting comments by Wilson where he said smile is meant to be heard mono.
The Stereo steez at the time wasnt fully fleshed out and was a gimmick to attract record buyers at the time.

Yeah, it was very next level for its time - not in the "studio tech" sense so much, but in the arrangement sense. No one really understands how Brian had this stuff in his head all sorted out. Mozart level music ability.

i recommend the mono LP. either a clean original or the reish (which has a stereo and a mono LP)

you dont "need" the box sets with 400 little outtakes, thats for guys like me that like being a fly on the wall at the sessions.

holmes

yeah, I have the CD with a couple bonus tracks & am satisfied. you at least need to hear it at the very least.

pickwick33

I own Pet Sounds and love it. And I'm not even normally a Beach Boys fan. But Brian Wilson & co. got it right that time.

Mjukis

Pet Sounds is a peak album of it's "style" - clean cut early-to mid sixties vocal harmony pop. If you like that sort of thing to begin with, it's What's going on level of awesomeness. Not political but personal and sentimental, and just a perfectly arranged super-coherent album.
But I get people who think it (and Beach Boys overall) sound to much like a well-groomed barbershop choir singing songs for a teaparty full of middle-aged women.

I also love Free Design, but I can see why some people hate them too.

StoneHands

Mjukis said:

But I get people who think it (and Beach Boys overall) sound to much like a well-groomed barbershop choir singing songs for a teaparty full of middle-aged women.

I also love Free Design, but I can see why some people hate them too.

I cant undestand that at all - Pet Sounds always sounded super melancholic/eerie to me. One of the best records..

Junior

StoneHands said:

Pet Sounds always sounded super melancholic/eerie to me. One of the best records..

Yeah same here, I find the overall mood of the album extremely melancholic. Songs such as I Just Wasn't Made For These Times are a mixture of that classic beach boy harmony sound with a production sound and lyrics tinged in darkness. The album even ends on a beautiful but incredibly depressing ballad that fades out as a half finished thought. To me the whole thing is a picture of isolation and urban loneliness. It's impossible to say whether that view is affected by the knowledge of Wilson's own mental state at the time but it's never an album I would put on to cheer me up.

I would agree that the best songs on Smile are the greatest work Wilson ever did but Pet Sounds as an end to end album is hard to beat (I remember a lengthy Forever Changes Vs Pet Sounds discussion on here once and don't think I could ever bring myself to fully go either side of the fence).

The_Hook_Up

It is overrated in a sense, as a rock/pop record it is merely "good" bordering on "great"...however what I find fascinating is listening and trying to discern what is making each note...it is next level in its arrangement...Brian did some amazing stuff in combining instruments to make sounds that never really exsisted before but meld seamlessly with recognizable sounds to the point that they seem like they always existed. This is why as a casual listen it seems good but not mind blowing as the hype would lead you to believe. That is its major fault IMO is that what is truly remarkable about it is kind of hidden, like a masterpiece painting hanging in the background of a movie set. Also, once you have had your obsession with it, you seem to cling to a couple songs you really like for their traditional charms and you don't really ever find yourself listening to it as an album again. At least that was my experience.

DocMcCoy

Without wanting to divert this into a broader discussion on The Canon, it's worth considering it context-wise as one of those records you got quite often during the 1960s, where its creators took a bit of an unexpected left whilst inadvertently challenging the prevailing orthodoxy of what a pop record could be (see also; Music From Big Pink, Sweetheart Of The Rodeo). It still sounds like a Beach Boys record, but it also sounds like something a little less easy to nail down, something that people weren't really too familiar with - at least, not coming from the Beach Boys. Of course, there are the big hits - Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows, Sloop John B - and they're fine, and it works perfectly well on that level. But there's also this nagging, unavoidable sense of loss and disillusionment to so much of it, as if it foretold what the sixties had in store for all those people who thought they were on the brink of a brave new world. All this at a point when The Dream had yet to be declared Over, and from the mouths of people who were never seen as The Voice Of A Generation.

Whether or not you need it depends upon how you feel about things like this and some of the other points folks have raised. I'd suggest listening to it at least.

yuichi

RAJ said:

Overrated

a tad bit, but hits the spot when you are lonely.

YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE, BATMON.

djwaxon

I ride for Pet Sounds big time


It's definitely worth listening to, but hard to say how easy it would be to enjoy given all the hype. Kind of like when someone sits you down and says "listen to this", you can't objectively listen to/assess it.

Mjukis

Junior said:

StoneHands said:

Pet Sounds always sounded super melancholic/eerie to me. One of the best records..

Yeah same here, I find the overall mood of the album extremely melancholic. Songs such as I Just Wasn't Made For These Times are a mixture of that classic beach boy harmony sound with a production sound and lyrics tinged in darkness. The album even ends on a beautiful but incredibly depressing ballad that fades out as a half finished thought. To me the whole thing is a picture of isolation and urban loneliness. It's impossible to say whether that view is affected by the knowledge of Wilson's own mental state at the time but it's never an album I would put on to cheer me up.

I would agree that the best songs on Smile are the greatest work Wilson ever did but Pet Sounds as an end to end album is hard to beat (I remember a lengthy Forever Changes Vs Pet Sounds discussion on here once and don't think I could ever bring myself to fully go either side of the fence).

I agree - some songs on Pet Sounds seem to be more about nostalgia and rememberance of youth whereas stuff like "I just wasn't made for these times" is very heavy and melancholic - definitely one of my favourites on the album. But if you REALLY can't stand the earlier, more cheerful Beach Boys stuff then I'd understand why Pet Sounds might not sound like a contender for GOAT pop album. Pet Sounds and Smile goes way beyond the teen-heartbreak-and-surfing-style of early Beach Boys (even though there's great songs on those albums too, In my room comes to mind) but there's still similarities.

Much like if you hate Dylans voice, you probably won't go goo goo over Blonde on Blonde. And it's easy to be underwhelmed when something has "BEST ALBUM EVAR"-status among Mojo-men.

HarveyCanal

No, you don't.

Beyond the songs you already know, mad eh.

Jimster

HarveyCanal said:

No, you don't.

Beyond the songs you already know, mad eh.

I agree. Never pressed the buttons for me. I guess it's a slice of Americana that works best for folks who grew up living that dream?

HarveyCanal

Pet Sounds is for people who can't just accept the Beach Boys for what they have always been, a bubbly radio staple. Instead they've gotta manufacture some way to make them out to be more sophisticated ala treating Pet Sounds like it's Dark Side of the Moon or some ish. I think they're really just gay for the goats.

downtownrobbrown

HarveyCanal said:

Pet Sounds is for people who can't just accept the Beach Boys for what they have always been, a bubbly radio staple. Instead they've gotta manufacture some way to make them out to be more sophisticated ala treating Pet Sounds like it's Dark Side of the Moon or some ish. I think they're really just gay for the goats.

Well I guess then in the context of everything I'm Richard Simmons.

rape_donkeys

embarrassing thread

pickwick33

Agreed about the melancholy mood of the album.

Both Pet Sounds and Walter Jackson's Greatest Hits were spot-hitters whenever I was feeling low.

Not in a suicide-enabling way, understand - more like "I've been there and feel your pain."

DJ_Enki

StoneHands said:

Mjukis said:

But I get people who think it (and Beach Boys overall) sound to much like a well-groomed barbershop choir singing songs for a teaparty full of middle-aged women.

I also love Free Design, but I can see why some people hate them too.

I cant undestand that at all - Pet Sounds always sounded super melancholic/eerie to me. One of the best records..

My dad was way into the Beach Boys when I was a kid, so this album (and Endless Summer) got lots of burn. At first, I thought it sounded really happy-dappy, what with the barbershop harmonies and whatnot. The older I got, though, the more melancholy it seemed, especially as I understood the lyrics more.

pcmr

i found a great copy and I filed it as a grower record
it's historical importance meant more than my needle drops but i am really enjoying it more now