Rec
Jan 30, 2024
Related Recs
Rec
💎in particular this review of belle and sebastian: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/631-fold-your-hands-child-you-walk-like-a-peasant/
real cultural criticism ....
real cultural criticism ....
Rec
Ive been having trouble coming up with the things I want to post on here, but recently a friend sent me an Instagram reel with a song in it that I just couldn’t put my finger on. After asking everyone around me, just playing it over and over it in my mind, I realized it’s “Let’s Go Away for Awhile” by the Beach Boys. One thing led to another and now I want to start doing reviews for classic and new albums-that I like. I don’t want to be a dick.
After more thinking I realized there’s not much new to say about it. The consensus on Pet Sounds is that it’s sonically one of the most impressive albums of its era, and influenced pop in a multitude of ways. Some say it’s what made the Beatles want to start being taken more seriously as artist.
But as someone who grew up in a post Pet Sounds world (very, might I add), it’s hard to draw the connections because pop music is so far away from this sound now. Still, it doesn’t date itself, either in instrumentation, lyricism, composition, or other ways. It feels incredibly fresh, and feels like the biggest pop artist of the current century could decide to make it tomorrow, and it would pop off.
The lyricism is a sort of longing that makes me think of Jeff Buckley, or it might make you think of a first love that you ruined because of inexperience and inability. It’s quite simple, but it’s the idea that he’s saying “all the right things”.
On the other hand, both with the combination of how the instruments and Brian and Carl Wilson (I had to look that up, thought it was just Brian for so long) or Mike Love‘s voices, the album sounds still very impressive. Im not sure I have the vocabulary for it, but both from the quite sparse songs like “Don’t Talk” to the lush ones like “Here Today”, everything feels meticulously constructed to fit the lyrics and where it’s actually placed in the album.
It’s a 10, because of course it’s 10, but it’s important to go back and appreciate why it’s a 10. I enjoyed doing so, even after remembering the songs that made me think of my first girlfriend lol.
After more thinking I realized there’s not much new to say about it. The consensus on Pet Sounds is that it’s sonically one of the most impressive albums of its era, and influenced pop in a multitude of ways. Some say it’s what made the Beatles want to start being taken more seriously as artist.
But as someone who grew up in a post Pet Sounds world (very, might I add), it’s hard to draw the connections because pop music is so far away from this sound now. Still, it doesn’t date itself, either in instrumentation, lyricism, composition, or other ways. It feels incredibly fresh, and feels like the biggest pop artist of the current century could decide to make it tomorrow, and it would pop off.
The lyricism is a sort of longing that makes me think of Jeff Buckley, or it might make you think of a first love that you ruined because of inexperience and inability. It’s quite simple, but it’s the idea that he’s saying “all the right things”.
On the other hand, both with the combination of how the instruments and Brian and Carl Wilson (I had to look that up, thought it was just Brian for so long) or Mike Love‘s voices, the album sounds still very impressive. Im not sure I have the vocabulary for it, but both from the quite sparse songs like “Don’t Talk” to the lush ones like “Here Today”, everything feels meticulously constructed to fit the lyrics and where it’s actually placed in the album.
It’s a 10, because of course it’s 10, but it’s important to go back and appreciate why it’s a 10. I enjoyed doing so, even after remembering the songs that made me think of my first girlfriend lol.
Rec
Someone rec’ed this as a front to back listen through album. S/O for that and for reigniting my Rilo Kiley kick
