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Wow. Choosing the album to cover for 1966 was daunting. Bob Dylan released his seminal Blonde and Blonde. The Beatles dropped Revolver on us, which features songs like “Eleanor Rigby” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Those are classics. And yet, I didn’t choose to write about either of them. Instead, I felt like I had to go with Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. Even in this incredible year, it’s the quintessential album from 1966.
Pet Sounds is considered Brian Wilson’s masterpiece. It changed pop music. It changed the Beatles. Many people consider it one of the all-time great albums. You can routinely find it in the top-five of all-time album lists. Even Pitchfork called it the second-best album of the 1960s. It’s so influential. It’s so popular. Pet Sounds is a vital piece of music history.
The Beach Boys were already successful by this point, though they were mostly making vocals-heavy surf music. They sang about sun and fun and going to the beach. It was fun music. Those vibes are still present in some songs on Pet Sounds, like album opener “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and the traditional “Sloop John B.”
Brian Wilson is considered a music genius, and the album to point to regarding that is Pet Sounds. It sounds like no other album. The sound of Pet Sounds is so lush. Some songs sound truly beautiful, including “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” The feeling of the album is basically “What if a surf pop group decided to make the lushest, richest album ever?” It’s also more serious in terms of content. “God Only Knows” or “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” don’t fit in with, say, “Surfin’ USA.”
I mostly listen to indie rock, and I don’t listen to a ton of music prior to the 1980s. That being said, I’ve listen to Pet Sounds. I’ve listened to it in its entirety. It’s a great album. The sound is distinct and the arrangement is impressive. Even lyrically it’s a step up for the Beach Boys, a band that has always been more about sound than content.
Pet Sounds is as beloved as it was influential. Listen to it once and I think you will fully understand why. Revolver is a very good album, but it’s just another Beatles album. Pet Sounds is a music-changing zeitgeist definer.
