The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds - 1966

This was, of course, the big one for The Beach Boys, coming only a few months after still putting out songs like Amusement Parks USA and Barbara Ann, the troubled but manically inspired Brian Wilson managed, somehow, to cobble together his Spectoresque idea of manifold musicians playing as many instruments as they could get their hands on and, multiple takes later, they came up with this, his meisterwerk. 

It is far more of a Wilson solo album than a Beach Boys one, although the rest of the lads' fantastic voices and harmonies are integral to the album. Also present, instrumentally, are layered strings, keyboards, saxophones, bells, whistles, harpsichords, flutes, Hawaiian instruments, the Theremin electronic synthesiser, car horns.... Wilson has them all in there, like a huge wall of sound even greater than Spector's. Just how he conceived of this seemingly out of nowhere is barely comprehensible. This was a year before Sgt. Pepper, remember. While this didn't directly inspire Pepper, what it did was push the boundaries of popular music right over the edge. Anything was possible in the studio now. 

On to the songs. Wouldn't It Be Nice is actually a classic Beach Boys teen romance song that would have fitted quite nicely on previous albums. It has a superb keyboard intro though. It is simply a piece of pop perfection. I never, ever tire of it. The vocals, the harmonising, the refrain. Top quality. It is, though, possibly the album's only throwback to the carefree, romantic teen pop days. It all gets very introspective thereon as Wilson gets more and more angst-ridden in his room. 

You Still Believe In Me was, I am sure, written by Wilson for his long-suffering wife, Marilyn, who saw him through what had been a difficult time for him, his fractured relationship with his father and, at times, bandmate Mike Love saw him close to a breakdown, along with his self-inflicted pressure trying to make what he wanted to be "the greatest album of all time". The song is classically-influenced in places and has a yearning vocal, and a honking car horn at the end, for some reason! 

That's Not Me has Wilson again looking into himself, talking about leaving "for the city" over some immaculate, melodic backing. This is a slow growing, catchy song that sticks with you after a while. Both these are mature, thoughtful songs that showed a songwriter willing to meet increasing adult problems head on. Pop music was changing its emphasis.

Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) is another typical Beach Boys slow ballad but, as with the others, it is the massive orchestrated backing that makes it different to something like Surfer Girl, for example. On this album, Wilson takes the group's old, often barber-shop type vocals and backs them with the most experimental, inventive music, turning it into something really quite remarkable. It was almost symphonic in places. 

A bit of a change to the mood arrives briefly in I'm Waiting For The Day, which had a rousing Sgt. Pepper-style drum backing in places, a year before The Beatles went there. George Martin and Ringo Starr must have been influenced by this, they really must. 

Let's Go Away For A While is a jazzy cacophony of an instrumental, featuring more big, tympanic drums. This really was ground-breaking stuff. Also notable on the album is the afore-mentioned shift from all songs being teenage love songs to many being earnest, philosophical, self-analytical numbers. 

Now for a sea change, so to speak - the uplifting, singalong Sloop John B was a last minute addition. No matter. Its great. Always has been. Some feel it sits incongruously. Not Me. I love it being there. Whatever anyone says, it is The Beach Boys at their irresistible best.

Then comes Paul McCartney's favourite song of all time, the sublime God Only Knows. Is there a more perfect love song? I doubt it. I Know There's An Answer sees Wilson getting cynical and questioning about human behaviour  - and, notably, drug-taking - over a lively backing that has hints of Then I Kissed Her meeting Phil Spector once more about it. It is one of the album's lesser-known good ones. 

Here Today is another typical Beach Boys song given the big treatment, which lifts it from being a pretty ordinary song into something a bit more interesting. Again, there are Spectoresque vibes here. Some of the album's songs would just have been regular slow numbers on previous albums. On here the inventive backing turns them into something altogether different. I guess that is where the whole "genius" thing takes root.

I Just Wasn't Made For These Days is an intense, self-analysing piece from Wilson. The words are actually very sad and you realise what a miserable time he was going through, while creating this wonderful piece of work. Pet Sounds is actually an intriguing instrumental, saxophone-enhanced, but with all sorts of other sounds in there too. Caroline, No is a straight-up lovely song. No need for the kitchen sink in it, just a bit of addictive percussion and a few Ringo Starr drums before he started playing them like that. 

What was a shame was that after this creative hit of an album, we had the absolute nadir of the appalling, puerile and idiotic indulgence that was Smiley Smile. From the sublime to the ridiculous indeed. It would never get this good again for Brian Wilson, ever. All that said, despite all the praise over the ground-breaking instrumentation, there is still something in me that finds Pet Sounds to be an album made up of Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, God Only Knows and Caroline, No. 

The rest, although featuring some unique musical experimentation are, dare I say it, unremarkable and even boring. I listen to barber shop with a theremin songs like Here Today, I'm Waiting For The Day, (Don't Talk) Put Your Head On My Shoulder and That's Not Me and, beautiful as they may be in places, I long for something like Sloop John B. 

There you go - heresy, no doubt, for 99.9% of music aficionados, but while I know where people are coming from with Pet Sounds, I stop considerably short of promoting its untouchability. They'll probably tell me that I just "don't get it". So be it. They also all say that "give it several listens and you'll get it", and, I have to say that this is also true. Maybe.