Pet Sounds – Beach Boys (1966)

“Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966. … The album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson, who also wrote and composed almost all of its music. Most of the recording sessions were conducted between January and April 1966, a year after he had quit touring with the Beach Boys in order to focus more attention on writing and recording. … Collaborating with lyricist Tony Asher, Wilson’s orchestrations mixed conventional rock set-ups with elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, found sounds, and instruments never before associated with rock, such as bicycle bells, harpsichords, flutes, Electro-Theremin, trains, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, and barking dogs. Unified by a Wall of Sound-style production, the album comprised Wilson’s ‘pet‘ sounds, consisting mainly of introspective songs like ‘You Still Believe in Me‘ about faithfulness, ‘I Know There’s an Answer‘, a critique of LSD users, and ‘I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times‘, an autobiographical statement on social alienation (as well as the first use of a theremin-like instrument on a rock record). … In 1997, a ‘making-of‘ version of Pet Sounds was overseen by Wilson and released as The Pet Sounds Sessions, containing the album’s first true stereo mix. Pet Sounds is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the field of music production, introducing non-standard harmonies and timbres and incorporating elements of pop, jazz, exotica, classical, and the avant-garde. A heralding work of psychedelia, the album furthered an aesthetic trend within rock by helping it transform from dance music into music that was made for listening to, elevating itself to the level of art rock. Academic Bill Martin said that Pet Sounds represents a turning point where the Beach Boys ‘brought expansions in harmony, instrumentation (and therefore timbre), duration, rhythm, and the use of recording technology. Of these elements, the first and last were the most important in clearing a pathway toward the development of progressive rock.’ …”
Wikipedia
W – The Pet Sounds Sessions, W – Smile
W- Wouldn’t It Be Nice, W – You Still Believe in Me, W – That’s Not Me, W – Sloop John B, W – God Only Knows, W – I Know There’s an Answer, W – I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times, W – Caroline, No
Open Culture: Enter Brian Wilson’s Creative Process While Making The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds 50 Years Ago: A Fly-on-the Wall View (Video)
Rolling Stone: Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’: 15 Things You Didn’t Know (Video)
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds came out 50 years ago. It still feels fresh today.
YouTube: The Pet Sounds Sessions (FULL ALBUM), ☼SMiLE (FULL ALBUM)