Last year, the Beach Boys released an official documentary on Disney+, the main takeaway from which was that the surviving group members all have massive chips on their shoulders. Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston all conspicuously spend the doc trying to assert their importance in a group that is rightfully remembered as the vehicle for Brian Wilson's compositional genius.
When fans and critics celebrate Wilson's songwriting, they're mostly talking about 1966's Pet Sounds — an album that rewrote the rules of pop music, brought out the competitive side in the Beatles, and birthed the genre of chamber pop. It seemingly broke its creator, as the already-reclusive Wilson sunk into mental illness and drug abuse, not successfully completing the planned follow-up, Smile, until 2004.
Personally, my favourite albums ever are Pet Sounds and a bunch of other albums directly inspired by Pet Sounds; that's how deep the album's influence on pop music runs. To mark the passing of Brian Wilson, who died yesterday (June 11) at the age of 82, here are the album's 13 tracks ranked.
13. "Pet Sounds"
Despite singing about surfing and being endlessly labelled as a surf band, the Beach Boys didn't actually sound anything like other surf rockers like Dick Dale or the Ventures. Pet Sounds' instrumental title track is the exception, with its twangy electric guitar and exotica rhythms apparently having been intended for a James Bond film.
12. "Sloop John B"
If there's one song that could have comfortably been left off Pet Sounds, it's this goofy cover of a traditional folk song. A densely layered a cappella breakdown prevents this one from being a mere throwaway.
11. "Let's Go Away for Awhile"
Side A ends with a peaceful vibraphone instrumental, laden with strings and reverb-y drum rolls, making for an incredibly lovely — but not incredibly memorable — mood piece.
10. "Caroline, No"
From this point on in the Pet Sounds rankings, everything is a classic and there are no wrong answers — which is to the say that the wistful "Caroline, No" is drop-dead gorgeous but fades out right when other songs on the album would take a dazzling melodic turn.
9. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"
A falsetto lullaby that's every bit as sweet and comforting as the lyrics would suggest, it's carried by some of the album's grandest, most stately strings.
8. "I Know There's an Answer"
Originally an LSD anthem about ego death, it was known as "Hang On to Your Ego" and was disliked by Brian's bandmates. Thankfully, they compromised, with Wilson stretching his voice to a stunning peak during the song's euphoric (and re-worded) chorus.
7. "I'm Waiting for the Day"
It's both frustrating and brilliant the way Wilson saves the very best part — "You didn't think! No! / That I could sit around and watch him take you!" — for the fade-out outro, as quiet yearning gives way to rousing pleas, driven by a thundering drum march.
6. "You Still Believe in Me"
This is a romantic pledge with a sinister undercurrent, as the song's narrator alludes to "all I've done to you" and how "I can't help how I act." With bicycle bells that nostalgically evoke childhood, its central melodic figure is the kind of moment that baroque pop acts have spent the past 60 years trying to match.
5. "That's Not Me"
A coming-of-age tale tale about self-discovery, "That's Not Me" has a beautiful tension, but doesn't quite bubble over, with a chord progression that never comfortably resolves, and simmering drums that break down just when they seem like they will crescendo. It's wide-eyed and full of possibilities.
4. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"
One of the most annoying lines from that terrible Beach Boys documentary was when Bruce Johnston insisted, "Brian was lucky to have our voices to sing his dreams." Fuck off! "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" shows that, not only was Wilson was the band's composer, he was every bit as good a singer as his bandmates, his voice almost breaking with emotion as he reaches for the high notes in the masterful melody. Bonus points for the freaky, futuristic theremin.
3. "Here Today"
Hooks pile on hooks, a heart-racing pre-chorus paying off into a towering chorus, with waves of harmonies that pour over the chorus with the force of the Pacific surf. A heartbroken song directed to an ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, lyricist Tony Asher delivers laugh-out-loud, so-sad-they're-funny couplets: "Well, you know I hate to be a downer / But I'm the guy she left before you found her."
2. "Wouldn't It Be Nice"
Of all the songs on Pet Sounds, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" sounds the most like one of the band's early songs, with a teenage love story about wanting to grow up and get married. But Brian Wilson's arrangement elevates the song on every level, with key changes and tempo shifts, a galloping Phil Spector-esque wall of sound, and the group's signature harmonies. In a catalogue full of anthems about young love, it's the full realization of their signature style.
1. "God Only Knows"
Maybe the greatest pop song ever written, "God Only Knows" is a majestic symphony wrapped up less than three minutes. Every moment is carved like a perfect diamond — like the orchestral breakdown that abruptly disturbs the quarter-note groove at the 1:04 mark, and then magically transitions back less than 10 seconds later, its seamlessness pulled off like a magic trick.
The musical analysis of the song that appears on Wikipedia includes lines like, "The verses begin with a D6/4 chord, weakening the impression of an A key centre, and is followed by a B minor 6 chord, which does not strongly suggest the dominant (v) chord of E" — and yet, for all its diminished chords and dizzying musical complexity, the song is an enduring hit that's sentimental enough to play over the final scene of a rom-com. It's the ultimate expression of Pet Sounds' brilliance: bookish and brainy enough to stand up under analysis, and yet simple and satisfying in the way accessible pop music should be.