Customer Reviews

Do It Again : A Tribute to Pet Sounds

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I cannot leave this album as a one star review, based on the only comment posted so far. If you are looking for a tribute type band, attempting to recreate the sound of the original album, then go no further. This is not for you. If you are looking for a bunch of extremely talented musicians who want to put their own spin on a classic album, step right up. I've only played the first 7 tracks and already am blown away. Wonderful stuff! I'm off to listen to part two, or do I go for delayed gratification and wait until tomorrow? God only knows.

Namely, beautiful vocals, harmonies and intricate craftsmanship, with such attention to detail that you can hear them many times and still find something new. Very few to none of these renditions have any of those ingredients (or frankly any alternate qualities to redeem them).

I'm afraid I have to agree with the one star review. This was almost painful to listen to at points (in particular the hatchet job on "God Only Knows," which may be the most angelically beautiful Beach Boys song of them all ... was it INTENTIONAL that this rendition was so off key and unmelodic? I hope so, because I think I could sing that song better in the shower drunk than what you hear here, and I am a TERRIBLE singer!)

The only songs that were pleasant to listen to here IMO were "I Know There's An Answer," "Pet Sounds," "Caroline No," and "Here Today." Unfortunately though, "I Know..." is too close to the original, so it mostly just comes off as a straight cover that is inferior to the original (not a surprise, who can top the aural beauty of the Wilson Brothers at their peak?). So I'm not left wanting to hear it again -- frankly if I want to hear a slightly different rendition, the BB demos, alternate versions, etc, on the box sets out there are better. Caroline No is different, but I find it uninteresting -- almost overpoweringly dirge-like (which I don't think fits the spirit of the song). So that leaves only two songs I'd want to hear again, Here Today and Pet Sounds. They are enough to save this from one star from me -- but only barely (their interesting, but not THAT interesting). Indeed, "God Only Knows" was so over the top AWFUL that it was all I could do to not penalize the rest of the collection for its sins ...

One '1 star' review and one '5 star' review so far; who should you believe?

I say the 5 star. The whole point of a cover album is that the songs should NOT sound like the original. I've always loved the songs on Pet Sounds but have always hated the Beach Boys sound. What's a girl to do? Here's the answer!

The songs are all really artfully crafted, and they all have a tinge of madness. Which is weird, because everyone knows how stable Brian Wilson was...

I am a huge Daniel Johnston fan and felt lucky to meet him. I thought I would only like his cover, but actually it's one of the weaker presentations UNLESS you know him. You can really hear the influence the Beach Boys had on Daniel Johnston as well, it sounds like any of the songs could have been written by him.

The treatments from all of the bands on this disc are solid and beautiful. Get ready to hear Pet Sounds the way I think it was intended to sound- creepy and sad.

If the artists could sing (they can't - they're almost to a man completely atonal), if they had any familiarity with, or understanding of, the music (they don't - many melodies are unrecognizable), and if they performed the music with more than a 30 second rehearsal (they didn't even prepare that much), this album would still the musical equivalent a snuff flick.
The artists must be a culling of crack heads from the recording studio's back lot. Many of the songs are unrecognizable, and the "minimalist" arrangements are not even up to the level of simply strumming the chords.
Thank God for the two instrumentals - at least no one "sings" on those.
The only vocal on this album worth even the first listen was Sloop John B, and that is nothing more than a simple campfire folk rendition.

I hope by now that you get my drift - this album is the musical equivalent of an enema. If Amazon allowed a zero star rating, even that would be too much.