MoeFOH's Album of the Week... Week #15

[MoeFOH]

MoeFOH's Album of the Week 🎶

Same as the movie thread, each week we're going to spotlight an album... be it a classic, new release, hidden gem, or outright turd... and open it for discussion: i.e. post up your favourite tracks, clips, lyrics, experiences if you saw live, etc... or dive deeper and give us a critique on why you think it's great, overrated, or a complete train wreck... And finally score it for us...  

All contributors go into a monthly prize draw for a 3-cigar sampler! 

PM me with suggestions if there's an album you want to nominate for next week's discussion. 

 

Week #15: Pet Sounds

Wiki says: 

Pet Sounds is the 11th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966 by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. In the United Kingdom, the album was lauded by critics and reached number 2 on the Record Retailer chart, remaining in the top ten for six months. Promoted there as "the most progressive pop album ever", Pet Sounds garnered recognition for its ambitious production, sophisticated music, and emotional lyrical content. It is considered to be among the greatest and most influential albums in music history.

Over to you...

Who's a fan? How highly do you rate this album?

Thoughts, memories, experiences, favourite tracks...? 

Post em up!

Score it out of 10!

[MoeFOH]

 

[Chas.Alpha]

Oh hell. Didn't I already do this one?...🤔

[Chibearsv]

I’ll wait to pass on this album so I don’t get yelled at too much. 😝

[Greenhorn2]

Never really listened to the Beach Boys much so I'm out on this one.

[JohnS]

Acclaimed Music has this listed as the No.1 album of all time, Rolling Stone Magazine have it at No.2 (they have had different No.1s). Invariably, nearly all music media currently and in the recent past have this album in their Top 10, most at No.1 or 2. The question is why?

The answer does not lie in opinion of the public, because after all this was not a best-seller upon release. The reason is because this album has had the most general influence on other musicians in pop music thereafter. And I'm talking about Paul McCartney acknowledged indebtedness to this album in making Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to other artists such as Eric Clapton, Elton John, Lindsay Buckingham, the DeLeo brothers from Stone Temple Pilots etc. That's just 'off the top of my head'...there's many, many more.

What started as an homage to Johan Sebastian Bach has arguably become the equal to his work in the modern age. I could go on how Brian Wilson, the genius behind writing, arranging and producing this album infamously could not follow it up. As a Beach Boys fan, I lament that; however, I'm grateful for this great album we have.

[joeypots]

4 hours ago, JohnS said:

The answer does not lie in opinion of the public, because after all this was not a best-seller upon release. The reason is because this album has had the most general influence on other musicians in pop music thereafter. And I'm talking about Paul McCartney acknowledged indebtedness to this album in making Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to other artists such as Eric Clapton, Elton John, Lindsay Buckingham, the DeLeo brothers from Stone Temple Pilots etc. That's just 'off the top of my head'...there's many, many more.

 

Well said. The album is a recording innovation triumph. If one believes the hype, everyone in popular music was awe struck by the recording. It’s almost as if Wilson used the recording studio as an instrument taking advantage of the newest technology available. Pop albums were recorded in a matter of days in ’63; Pet Sounds took ten months in ’66 and it’s influence is undeniable. There are a couple of good songs but most of the tunes are not to my taste. 

[bassistheplace]

If one listens to Sounds similar to a symphonic composition, then the real genius of Wilson is clear. Wilson was able to get what he heard in his mind "onto tape". This was the album that pushed the Beatles to re imagine studio recording. SEVERAL icons in music cite God Only Knows as the greatest pop song recorded. A watershed event in popular music

10/10

[sageman]

Love & Mercy was an interesting depiction of their story. I'm really only familiar with the two songs from this album that make it onto soundtracks or mainstream "oldies" radio, but I think understanding where the music was coming from added a level of appreciation. But I still only like two songs on the album! 4/10! 

[Chibearsv]

Ok, that's it!  I hear y'all that this album is considered the best or second best album of all time due to its influence on musicians and musical history and this song is so important to so many pop musicians, yada, yada, yada. 

I'm not rating it's relevance in the history of the world, I'm rating my enjoyment of it - it's a 1 on a scale of 1-10

For me, if all that I could listen to was performed by either Bob Dylan or the Beach Boys, I'd probably give up on music entirely.

[Ford2112]

Bear in mind that Rolling Stone Magazine had Kurt Cobain listed above Alex Lifeson in their list of top 100 guitar players. They are the Cigar Afficianado of music publications.  

 

That said I will give this album a clear listen because I know it's highly rated. 

[bassistheplace]

From Wiki

Many songwriters, including Paul McCartney and Jimmy Webb, have cited "God Only Knows" as their personal favorite song.[80]

McCartney proclaimed that it was "the greatest song ever written".[91] His own "Silly Love Songs" (1976) incorporated a build-up of vocal counterpoints in the same style as "God Only Knows".[90] Wilson felt uncomfortable with the praise and said in 1976 that if McCartney's "greatest song" assertion was true, "[then] what was there left for me to do?"[92][nb 7] In 2002, Wilson and McCartney performed the song as a duet at the Adopt-A-Minefield Benefit Gala in Los Angeles. McCartney later said that he was so overwhelmed by Wilson's presence that he "broke down" during the soundcheck rehearsals.[94]

Bono remarked that the string arrangement was "fact and proof of angels."[95]

Barry Gibb said that it "blew the top of my head off ... My first thought was, oh dear, I'm wasting my time, how can I ever compete with that? We've [the Bee Gees] been competing with that ever since."[95]

Margo Guryan said that the song inspired her to pursue a career in pop music instead of jazz piano. She said, "I freaked [when a friend played me the song]. I thought it was just gorgeous. I bought the record and played it a million times, then sat down and wrote 'Think of Rain.'"[96]

John Lennon, according to Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner, "said he really dug [the song] and the world perked up".[97]

Pete Townshend said, "'God Only Knows' is simple and elegant and was stunning when it first appeared; it still sounds perfect".[95]

[Rhinoww]

There is a documentary, Laurel Canyon, that touches on the making of this album as well as others from a very specific neighborhood- a canyon road really - on the cost near LA. A worthwhile flick if you like music of that vintage and realize that many of the artists of that time lived in normal houses near each other, hung out, and did odd things like having truckloads of sand brought into the living room where their piano was located to get a beach vibe. 

[Edicion]

I know it's not the right album but I just had to ...

[La_Tigre]

10/10. Masterpiece from Brian Wilson

[Bijan]

I always remember it as:

Wouldn't it be nice if we were older, then we wouldn't have to be so young.

And wouldn't it be nice to live together, then we wouldn't have to be so far.

And that's my favourite song from the album... So yeah not my cup of tea.