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Brian Wilson's 1997 remix of Pet Sounds lets us finally hear this immortal album in stereo. Hang on to your ego for a total of 27 tracks!
Amazon.com essential recording
If you need some pointy-headed pundit to sell you on the merits of Pet Sounds, your money might be better spent on an ear specialist. Brian Wilson's gift to 20th-century music elevated this pop album into a beguiling musical and emotional cogency that still operates outside pop culture's fickle space-time continuum--and limited critical lexicon. There's never been another record to compare (Rubber Soul, its inspiration, is close; Sgt. Pepper's, its response, misses the point), and certainly no album has been as dissected, overanalyzed, and predigested for public consumption. In 1997 Capitol Records devoted an entire four-disc box set, The Pet Sounds Sessions, to its thorough deconstruction. The techno-marvel centerpiece of that project--the album's first true stereo mix, painstakingly conjured out of multitape session sources by producer-engineer Mark Linett (under Wilson's supervision)--was at once heresy and revelation. Now the label has gratifyingly seen fit to offer both mixes on a single disc (along with alternate versions of "Hang On to Your Ego," the original title of "I Know There's An Answer"), an idea that should please the orthodox and heretics alike. And while the album has always clearly been The Brian Wilson Show featuring the Beach Boys, David Leaf's concise new notes attempt to be more inclusive of a wider band perspective. The result (three of the five band members claim credit for the album title) sometimes resembles Rashomon. If Pet Sounds forever crystallized the band's various creative (in)differences, it also became Wilson's grand karmic joke on his band mates; its burgeoning reputation (Mojo magazine's panel of pop experts once elected it greatest album of all time) guaranteed they would sing its songs--and praises--until the end. And if putting two different versions of the same album on one disc seems like overkill, look at the bright side: it's a perfect excuse to listen to the glorious Pet Sounds twice. --Jerry McCulley
Pet Sounds Reviews
Pet Sounds Reviews
| 139 of 145 people found the following review helpful:  Discivering Wilson's Pet, By This review is from: Pet Sounds (Audio CD) I'm a Beatles connoisseur. A die-hard. I've walked across Abbey Road (with a cigarette in hand, though it was too brisk to go barefoot), quaffed pints in the Reeperbahn, and could point out fifty "Paul is Dead" clues. I've burned through a bookshelf of biographies about the band and I noticed that the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds is continually mentioned whenever the end of the Beatles' touring days and the start of their `studio years' is discussed. With its 40th anniversary looming I started to wonder about Pet Sounds. I always dismissed the Beach Boys as a half-baked band who parlayed a bunch of sunny tunes into a bubblegum legacy. While Brian Wilson could be considered the group's only gifted musician, but the boys could definitely sing. Gorgeous harmonies filled their 45s, but their words were always about things which were alien to me like surfin' and California sunshine. So, why the hubbub surrounding Pet Sounds? "No one is educated musically until they've heard... Read more 44 of 48 people found the following review helpful: The Beach Boys changed my life, By Emily Black "Bets" (Erie, PA USA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Pet Sounds (Audio CD) It sounds silly to say this, but the Beach Boys really did change my life...I'm not sure when exactly I discovered that they were more than the fun songs I heard on the oldies station when I drove somewhere with my parents. But, reading an editorial in my local newspaper one day, I noticed they mentioned that Brian Wilson was a musical genius. This greatly intrigued me, and I just had to discover who this Brian Wilson guy was...then I continued reading and found that he was the leader of the very familiar band, The Beach Boys. I immediately found the one Beach Boys c.d. that my dad had and put it on, this time listening deeper than I had ever before listened to The Beach Boys. I found that whoever wrote the newspaper editorial was correct...Brian Wilson was a musical genius...amazing vocal harmonies...outstanding instrumental use...a different and creative sound...and simply great songwriting! This epiphany occurred about two years ago, and has left me... Read more 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: Surely one of the great albums of all time, By This review is from: Pet Sounds (Audio CD) Surely one of the great albums of all time, Brian Wilson used his troubled genius to unsurpassed effect, pouring heart and soul into this collection of 13 masterpieces. In the Beach Boys he had at his disposal an incredibly skilled vocal group whose voices could blend and mix in the empathetic way that only comes from a family group who have grown up singing, and who were also perfectly capable of recreating the core of the album's sound in live performance. Brian Wilson had worked hard for the group for several years, composing many of the songs, singing lead, arranging the harmony vocals, playing bass guitar and piano and honing his production skills, which were greatly inspired by the work of Phil Spector. He used the same pool of musicians and occasionally the same studio in Hollywood, and like Spector he was an innovator and pioneer who could brilliantly combine unusual pairs or multiples of instruments to create a unique single sound. � It all came... Read more |
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