Pet Sounds - classic or dud

oh god reading this shit made me so depressed. does anyone around here likes this album? its so beautiful. all this hate seems so reactionary

It is absolutely glorious and fantastic througout. Beautiful melodies, beautiful vocal harmonies.

The Beatles were better than Beach Boys generally, but they never made an album as fantastic as this one.

yes i agree with this, i've always felt that the beatles are superior but never made a record as consistent as Pet Sounds which is way more consistent than say sgt. pepper's both sonically and songwise. it has that same solid gold feel throughout... presumably this is due to the fact that Beatles albums are compilations of the songs of three different songwriters and this album is Brian's vision alone. although it's not like any of the solo Beatle albums are as good as this either...

someone mentioned odessey and oracle upthread.... I think that record has the same consistent feel. I have never really compared that record with Pet Sounds though. I have no idea which is better

second thought - "god only knows" probably gives this album an edge over other contenders in this category. it's just perfect

it is somewhat overrated, but its a great pop album and god only knows is perfect

"Odessey & Oracle" is another album that I consider better than anything by The Beatles.

Their only other album, "Begin Here" is considerably weaker though.

wait are we talking about the zombies?

it's always a good time to talk about the zombies IMO

I think one of the reasons Pet Sounds' reputation is so huge as opposed to similar LPs is because it supposedly influenced The Beatles, I mean McCartney has raved about it and many other pop stars. Radiohead have talked about it and referenced it as well

It is absolutely glorious and fantastic througout. Beautiful melodies, beautiful vocal harmonies.

I don't loooooooooooove the Beach Boys from their heyday period like many others here do. But I agree with Geir about this album.

all this hate seems so reactionary

Weird album in that I both love it and think it's overrated.

it's sort of "overrated", sure, but against what?

it's not as good as pet sounds

not asking to be a dick, but I think it's curious ... what are those rock albs that are so clearly superior to this second-tier 'Pet Sounds' ?

http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/119/119099_cda_f.jpg

'Revolver', sure I could get that

actually I think the essence of 'Pet Sounds' diminishness lies in something like "Highway 61 Revisited"

because "Highway 61 Revisited" is clearly better than 'Pet Sounds'

:) but this obviously comes down to preconceptions about what "rock music" should "do"

i personally think it should "do" what Dylan did on 61, but I love and live 'Pet Sounds' until my dying day.....

god, somehow that post got all f'd up

oh well

every album in this thread rocks ... not sure about Ian's last gap BB rec though!!

er, iatee, i mean

"Odessey & Oracle" I like FAR better than Pet Sounds. Same with "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". Same with "Revolver" and "White Album". I need to hear Pet Sounds in stereo though, I have only ever heard it in mono. Also it's been a long time.

I remember the first time I heard it, it was so hyped up for me that it couldn't possibly live up to it. I still really loved it but in particular the instrumental tracks seemed like 101 Strings BS. Later when I heard them they were some of the trippiest and most fun parts of the record!

Never cared much for "O Caroline". Never got the huge love for that track. It's kind of boring and sappy.

I like Brian Wilson's "Smile" better than "Pet Sounds" come to think of it.

Neither.

I love "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times." it's so plaintive in a really personal way. it's like a musical self-portrait of Brian

A lot of overrated albums are still classic. But this one is not even overrated.

Except for Sloop John B, which gets a pass because of an injoke with my cousin involving hoisting my, erm, rather large grandmother's underwear in the air on laundry day and running around screaming "Hoist up the john b sails!" over and over. So, yeah. Anyhow.

― Ally, Wednesday, May 2, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

Figured this for an lj post.

TWO instrumentals? This album did not need two instrumentals.

i love the beach boys. i don't really have anything else to add. sorry

― gareth

^^^^this

"Wouldn't It Be Nice" came on oldies station today and I just imagined being in the room they recorded it and tried to picture all these people playing multiple pianos and jingle bells and tympanist and vibraphones and etc etc. Was it recorded live? Wow what an amazing sound Brian got!

I've been listening to it on repeat for the last few days and one thing that's struck me is that 'I'm Waiting For The Day' is the album's unheralded masterpiece. Does anyone else agree?

― Alba (Alba), Friday, July 8, 2005 11:46 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

Yes

If it had some ripping frazzled psyche guitar solos, it'd be a much better album.

Certainly worked for the Zombies.