Music Listening Session #6 – The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966)
Details
Pet Sounds is the 11th studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released in 1966 and largely conceived by Brian Wilson as an ambitious departure from the group’s earlier surf- and car-themed music. Drawing on orchestral pop, jazz, and experimental recording techniques, the album features lush arrangements, unconventional instruments, sophisticated harmonic structures, and introspective lyrics exploring coming-of-age themes. Over time the album has come to be regarded as one of the greatest in music history and has been extensively analyzed for its musical and production innovations. It helped elevate the recognition of popular music as an art form and albums as cohesive works, and contributed to the development of genres like orchestral pop, psychedelia, and progressive rock. Publications such as NME, The Times, and Uncut have ranked it as the greatest album of all time, and since 2003 it has consistently ranked 2nd in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". (Wikipedia)
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New-ish series! At each session, we'll get together to listen to and discuss some of the greatest and most important albums of all time across different genres and eras. After each track we'll pause for a short discussion where we can share our thoughts and reflections or what the music has meant to us personally.
I'll have synced lyrics displayed via Zoom's screen share.
For our 6th session let's listen to The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, possibly one of the greatest albums with the worst cover art ever (if that's a genre).
Albums we've previously discussed:
- Nirvana's Nevermind (1991)
- Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska (1982)
- Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush (1970)
- Radiohead’s OK Computer (1997)
- Joni Mitchell’s Blue (1971)
Potential future listening sessions:
- Marvin Gaye
- Stevie Wonder
- Bob Dylan
- Pavement
- The Strokes
- Wilco
- The Beatles
- David Bowie
- Sonic Youth
- Kraftwerk
- Massive Attack
- The Velvet Underground
- Patti Smith
- Aretha Franklin
- De La Soul
- Prince
- Lauryn Hill
- Aphex Twin
- The Pixies
- Sex Pistols
- The Clash
- The Smiths
- Joy Division
- Primal Scream
- DJ Shadow
- Public Enemy
- Talking Heads
- Fleetwood Mac
- Arcade Fire
- Kendrick Lamar
- Dr. Dre
- Sly and the Family Stone
- The Streets
- Built To Spill
- R.E.M.
- Bjork
- Nine Inch Nails
- Sufjan Stevens
- Dusty Springfield
- Otis Redding
- ETC...