Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is one of the most influential albums in pop music history. Released in 1966, it became a major influence on The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Of course, Pet Sounds would never have happened if it weren’t for The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, released in 1965.
What must be considered The Beach Boys’ best album has been reissued countless times over the years in a variety of formats. While Brian Wilson favored the mono mix of the album, it has also been issued and reissued in various stereo mixes. In 1997, 2006, and 2016, fulsome box sets of the album on CD, with bonus material, were released to commemorate the album’s 30th, 40th, and 50th anniversaries, respectively. Several new reissues to mark the 60th anniversary have been released, with a heavy focus on vinyl. The two we will focus on here are the Vinylphyle double-album, black vinyl reissue, and the Pet Sounds Sessions Highlights double-album, black vinyl.
In less than a year, there have been fourteen Vinylphyle reissues. This particular release includes both a mono and a stereo version of the album. Brian Wilson favored the mono mix, but he also remixed the stereo version in 1972 because he wasn’t happy with the original stereo mix.
That version has been referred to as the Artisan Sound Recorders EQ’d tape and alternately as the Reprise tape, as it was for the 1972 reissue of Pet Sounds packaged with a new album entitled Carl and the Passions So Tough that was released through the group’s own Brother Records, distributed by Reprise/Warner. The stereo version here is from an assembled master reel from 1996 and is not the Artisan EQ’d tape/Reprise tape, and does include a digital step. The mono album is from the original 1966 mono mix analog tape.
While it’s normal to focus on the album’s exceptional studio production audio fidelity, especially for 1966, there is so much more to the overall musical soundscape that makes this such a watershed release. It’s the incredible songs (eight of which Wilson co-wrote with Tony Asher, who primarily wrote the lyrics) and the singular blend of the vocal harmonies that first and foremost make this album such a timeless classic.
Wilson’s arrangements, his command over the esteemed crew of studio aces (the famed Wrecking Crew), and the blend of pop songs with baroque and orchestrated instrumental touches make this a heady, nearly peerless pop music album experience. While the album does include Beach Boys classic pop hits such as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B.,” “God Only Knows,” and “Caroline No,” it’s the album as a whole that is so groundbreaking and the quintessential California summer music album of the time and maybe forever.
This limited-edition Vinylphyle release is a 180-gram pressing made at RTI that sports the Capitol Rainbow label and comes in an archival sleeve and gatefold package, with an OBI strip, a plastic outer bag, and a four-page insert featuring studio session photos, tape-box photos, and liner notes. This is an excellent reissue and double the fun, as both a mono and a stereo album are included, though the mono is the best way to hear this iconic recording.
Another 60th anniversary commemorative release is also a double-album set. Pet Sounds Sessions Highlights is a two-vinyl album set of 25 tracks drawn from the 1997 4-CD box set. The out-of-print box, in the HDCD format, included a stereo and mono mix of the album, bonus session tracks, what was called stack-o-vocals, and two wonderful books: a 38-page, CD-longbox-styled book and a massive, indispensable, CD-sized 128-page book.
The tracks included here from the 1997 box set include vocals-only takes, alternate mixes, highlights from tracking sessions, and alternate vocals, along with various stereo tracks, backing vocals, vocal snippets, stereo backing tracks, and takes at original speed, all available on vinyl for the first time.
The gatefold package includes the vinyl, with the original Capitol rainbow label in archival sleeves and a four-page insert with liner notes and studio session photos. While not as indispensable as the Pet Sounds Vinylphyle release, it’s the perfect companion to that release and nice to have, given the original 4-CD box is out of print.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Pet Sounds Vinylphyle Edition
A
The Pet Sounds Sessions Highlights
B+
