Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys can best be described by their name.   Their image is laid back and surfing.  Their songs are upbeat and happy and almost make it feel like summer will never end.   Prior to the release of Animal Sounds The Beach Boys were very pop.  Their music sounded commercial and very safe.  Brian Wilson is the cause of this.  He began writing in a very pop style with the Beach Boy basically being the mastermind of the entire image and sound.   I feel that after Brian learned that The Beatles were releasing Revolver around the same time as Pet Sounds that he changed his direction.  I think that Brian Wilson began using drugs such as LSD to try and beat The Beatles in their friendly competition.  His use of LSD influenced his work similar to the way it influenced The Beatles.  Brian Wilson began to experiment with sounds much like The Beatles do in Revolver.  Pet Sounds was released and it utilized these unique sounds along with the uncommon theremin.  The Beach Boys use of the theremin in their songs was unheard of in the popular music of their time.  Brian Wilson would also travel to multiple studios to record segments of the songs to get certain tones.  This was also unheard of in regular pop music.  I feel that Brain Wilson decided to do that after being inspired by Phil Spector.  The sound quality of Pet Sounds is not very impressive to me.  Given the budget of the project I feel that the over all quality is lacking.  The Revolver album released the same year in 1966 sounds outstandingly better.  Brian Wilson should have spent more on the sound quality in my opinion.  I also feel that the music should have just been released in stereo.  As influential as Pet Sounds is, I feel like it could have been executed better.