What were the great pretenders to the "Pet Sounds" throne?

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Obviously around the late-60s and into the future there was a glut of music that took it's cue from this landmark album by the Beach Boys. Listening to the Zombies "Odyssey And Oracle" (itself a reinstated classic in it's own right), it struck me that I may be missing out on a lot of great music.

More obscure releases like the batshit crazy "Intercourse" by the Tokens and later acts like the Raspberries are in high rotation on my player. So what else could have been as big or as good as Pet Sounds? Thunderclap Newman? I dunno. Help. I'll go now.

No really, I'm going.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

How about that Billy Nicholls record on Immediate where he was backed by various Small Faces, I think I remember reading somewhere that it was touted as the British version of Pet Sounds?

― Rob Ash (Louie Strychnine), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

There was this obscure British album called Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Can't remember offhand who the group was.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

Some people seem to like this Harry Nilsson record called The Point, which has some of the same musicians, but I think it's for kids.

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:38 (nineteen years ago)

Also, The High Llamas have made a career of meticulously replicating the various elements they have found in their copy of Pet Sounds, in the same way the aliens led by Vic Tayback learned to act like Chicago gangsters of the 1930s from a left-behind book on Star Trek TOS.

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)

Forever Changes is usually mentioned in the same sentences as Pet Sounds...

Thread derailer Alert: I think a Lost In Space episode had that same Star Trek plot...

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

Nilsson Sings Newman

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Thursday, 15 June 2006 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not going to say it is a contender for any awards, and I haven't heard it in over 30 years so I can't remember much, but The Four Seasons' Genuine Imitation Life Gazette was Bob Gaudio's attempt to make the Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper leap. They worked on it for over two years -- an unheard-of recording gap for a pop group at the time. It flopped, of course, but I remember thinking it was listenable and interesting.

― Vornado (Vornado), Thursday, 15 June 2006 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

Something/Anything?

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Thursday, 15 June 2006 13:12 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.bigomagazine.com/cdcvrs/images44/HNpopeye/HNpopeyeFr.jpg

― ∂ (duff), Thursday, 15 June 2006 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

It's worthwhile checking out the Left Banke.
People often mention Euphoria's "A Gift From Euphoria" as being in a similiar grandiose vein.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 15 June 2006 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

The Millenium/Curt Boettcher

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 15 June 2006 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

Euphoria is expensive LA-session muso grandiosity, true, but I don't think it sounds anything like Pet Sounds. Neither does Billy Nichols, really. (tho both are great on their own merits!)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 15 June 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

The Bee Gees 67 album
The Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball album is better than you'd expect.

― PappaWheelie 2 (PappaWheelie 2), Thursday, 15 June 2006 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

The Free Design albums.

― emekars (emekars), Thursday, 15 June 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

I'll second that Millennium "First" mention.
Also Lou Christie's "Paint America Love" is orch pop genius in action.
And as much as I love Pet Sounds (hooray "Here Today"), you gotta
admit it gets awfully whiny sometimes.

― walkathon (walkathon), Thursday, 15 June 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

In terms of taking a Tin Pan Alley approach to pop composition filtered through California sunshine and consciousness expansion via drugs, I suggest the Beau Brummels' Triangle, Jan & Dean's Save for a Rainy Day, Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle. None of these sound like Pet Sounds, but they are -- to a certain extent -- coming from a similar space/time/mindstate.

I recently got into Judee Sill, and that first record -- to these ears -- also has some druggy California pop-shine to it.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Thursday, 15 June 2006 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

hard to say; the Billy Nicholls record isn't really too much like Pet Sounds; his later "Love Songs" is sorta like a more powerpop Elton John or something, or like Rundgren in spots. A good record in its way.

I dunno, what about 10cc's records, which are like the Beach Boys' but nastier and drier?

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 15 June 2006 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

Van Dyke's _Song Cycle_ is a critically acclaimed record,
and I can see why. The songs are fantastically well-written,
but I could never

Roy Wood' s _Wizard_ has some cheesy sped-up vocals and
sound effects, but it's a remarkable tribute to Brian Wilson.

The Left Banke wrote some brilliant pop songs ("Walk Away Renee",
"Desiree", "Pretty Ballerina", "Shadows Breaking Over My Head",
"Barterers & Their Wives" the last one strangely folk-sounding
but good) but they also wrote a bunch of boring shit and songs
that sound like ripoffs of whatever was in the top forty at
that time.

A more recent band, Jellyfish, released _Spilt Milk_,
a throwback pop album reminiscent of the Beatles and the
Beach Boys, but way too creative to come off as a wannabe.
Jason Falkner has done some great stuff too (allgedly
he's even helped Paul McCartney write some songs).

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:14 (nineteen years ago)

the beau brummels country rock stuff was a big disappointment to me. maybe there were better a psych.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

!?! what about "Deep Water"? "Are You Happy"? later period Beau Brummels is some great shit! But not very Pet Sounds-ish (even if they were drawing on some of the same influences, players, and industry connections)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

Also, The High Llamas have made a career of meticulously replicating the various elements they have found in their copy of Pet Sounds

High Llamas sounds more like Smile, to be honest.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

Although High Llamas instrumentals sound like the song "Pet Sounds."

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

Sagittarius, obv. Their version of "My World Fell Down" was brilliant btw.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, and that's about it! Such a pointless, one-note career. I've always felt the High Llamas took only the most obvious studio-muso/arrangement cues from the Pet Sounds/Smile era and then watered it down even further and excluded any interesting vocals. Booooooring.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

I only have one Sagittarius song ("The Truth is Not Real") but its great! Super-spooky.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

Morning Mist (a Cashman-West pseudonym, iirc), "California on My Mind" is kind of an approximation of the sound, but I don't think they did an entire album under that guise/style.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

Shakey, I think it's a shame to write off the High Llamas so
casually. They are not afraid to wear their influences on their
sleeves, but still they're not at all lacking in creativity.
_Beet, Maize, & Corn_, for example, mixed lush, easy listening
with improvizational norlins jazz.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

shit, I'd love to hear that Sagitarius song! I've read about 'em for years.

I am a big fan of the Left Banke, pop shit and all.

And a fan as well of "Spilt Milk," except for me it sounds more like Jimmy Webb or something like that, or Queen. Not much like the BBs.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 15 June 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)

late-era Gastr Del Sol in a way...

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 15 June 2006 23:36 (nineteen years ago)

Believe it or not, you can hear the PET SOUNDS influence all over Paul Revere & the Raiders' REVOLUTION! album. It's subtle, but it's there ("I Hear A Voice," "Wanting You"). Apparently, when psychedelia hit, Raiders' lead singer Mark Lindsay felt they should be right in there with the rest of the biggies, but Revere himself insisted that they should keep grinding out cute pop tunes for the teenies, so most of the Raiders' albums between 1967-69 were a "psychedelic bubblegum" compromise.

(They later went whole-hog psych on 1970's COLLAGE elpee, but that's a whole nother thread...the Raiders' attempted psych period is as equally interesting as the Temptations'.)

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Thursday, 15 June 2006 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

The answer is Mu.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Friday, 16 June 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

not nearly as good, naturally, but: Moon?

― marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 16 June 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

The 1967 Buckinghams release of Portraits did fair business, I would say almost exclusively due to the crowd pleasers (the abridged version of) Susan and Hey Baby They're Playing Our Song. But the rest of the album is loops and fades galore, experimental sounds and crowd noises, with some pretty mentionable BB-esque harmonizing. 1st thing that came to mind for me.

Also

Monkees - Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones
Association - Waterbeds In Trinidad (someone please find me this (hint-hint)

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 16 June 2006 01:12 (nineteen years ago)

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