The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

Now I don’t think The Beach Boys need any introduction for how iconic they are but most people I would think would struggle to name an album of their’s unless they actually listened to one in whole. Pet Sounds is The Beach Boys’ 11th studio album which is honestly packed with some of their more recognizable songs like, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” and “God Only Knows,” but this album only really exploded in the UK at the time. This album features elements of Classical music blended with Pop which would either mean its Baroque Pop or Chamber Pop, but explaining the difference between the two is really hard for me so the straight answer is that this album is more Baroque than Chamber. Short of it is that Baroque sounds melancholic in nature and placed in the foreground of the music.

Now so far this is the only Beach Boys’ album I’ve committed to, and this will be the case for A LOT of albums that might end up here, but this was a pleasant surprise. I would have thought it would have been some Surfer Pop/Rock like from their debut and some albums afterward and I probably would’ve disliked it, but it ended up not being the case. Even now, I probably wouldn’t mind the Surfer genre with how much I’ve broadened my horizons on music. The opening track like I said was “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” which is arguably one of the most recognizable Beach Boys songs you can think of. The instrumentation heard is more or less the instrumentation that defines the Baroque sounds in this album, with a splash or animal noises, because of course the album title would mean nothing without them. Further in is, “I’m Waiting For The Day,” which features some bouncy uplifting sounds, and while this is the most joyful since the title track, it doesn’t mean that most of the album is a downer because its Baroque. In fact, even if most of the tracks are seemingly melancholy, they’re in fact quite cheerful with all the instrumentation. After all, the Beach Boys probably wouldn’t have sold well if they made a sad album. The next bigger highlight is probably “God Only Knows,” which is probably one of the other songs most people would pick out from the album. Probably the slowest track up to this point in the track list due to the somber instrumentation and subject matter. Now towards the end of the listing is the title track which is really only an instrumental. Although its only just instrumentals, it’s a very joyful congregation of sounds.

Overall, this was a very great Pop album that I can vividly remember thanks to most of the songs being so enjoyable by themselves.