Books like this contain hundreds
of albums considered classics. Generally speaking, they cover
the last 60 years of music and attempt to uncover some of the albums that
changed the musical landscape. But to me, there's one album that is the blueprint for
everything else in this book. It's very hard to say that any piece
of music is better than anything else. We all like different things, and that's what makes music so great. But the way Pet Sounds was
created is quite unique. I've spoken before on this channel about how music is this process of trying to communicate an idea or an emotion from the musician to the listener. This seems simple enough. A composer or a songwriter has an idea or something that they want to say, and they write that into a piece of music. And by performing that music, they're communicating that idea. But it doesn't always work so well. There are things that can
disrupt this communication. Think of an audio signal. Just the simple sound of me playing guitar. By the time it's been through different cables, a few pedals, an amp, an interface, a preamp, a workstation, a compressor, an EQ, and then exported to an mp3, uploaded to YouTube and
played through the earphones, a lot of that original signal has been lost. Don't get me wrong, some of
these things along the way help this signal and improve the music, but often they don't. It's kind of like a bottleneck. Another example that I've spoken about before is bad technique and how this can really get in the way of a good performance. And the same thing happens when making music. If we rely on technology too much, we can lose the human elements from the music. Think of autotune. Sure, it makes us singing perfectly in tune, but it sounds too perfect. And people as well can get in the way of this communication. If a songwriter writes a song and then gives it to the record label, it's been worked on by a number of producers. By the time it's actually
made into a final product, so many people have altered the song or put their own ideas onto it, that a lot of the original idea of
the songwriter may have been lost. Well, Pet Sounds was a masterpiece in that it captured an idea from a beautiful mind and communicated it perfectly to the audience. Technology didn't overpower
the production of the record. Instead, this album stands at the
intersection of art and technology, an example of how modern technology can help innovate music. The album came about because Brian Wilson, the creative force behind The Beach Boys, wanted to create an album like no other, a record that captured joy, the spirit of love, and what it meant to be alive in the mid 60s. "I was going for something that I wanted to hear and I wanted to feel. A feeling of joy. A great feeling of great joy." I wasn't nearly alive back then, but when I listen to this album, I'm transported so vividly back in time. Perhaps there's a record of
a song that you can think of and when you listen to it, it's kind of like a photograph. You can see exactly in your mind where you were when you were listening to
this song for the first time. With Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson has managed to capture this moment in time so vividly, and this record is like a time
capsule back to the 1960s. It's both timeless and a crystal clear snapshot into the mind of a young Brian Wilson. He was actually struggling quite a bit with his mental health at this time. So much so that in 1965, he decided to stop touring
with the rest of the band. He would stay back in the studio
and work on the new record whilst the rest of the bands went out on tour. And when they came back, the record was pretty much completed, other than their vocal parts, This meant that Brian was free
to create any music he wanted. There'd be no arguing from
the other members of the band over what things were good
and what things weren't. This was purely one idea from the mind of Brian produced into one complete record. He worked with a number of
top musicians at the time called The Wrecking Crew, who had worked on a number of his
favorite records with Phil Spector. This record was a rare moment in
history where everything aligned and there was the opportunity for a young musician to create a musical piece of art which perfectly reflected the time they were in. Going back to the idea of
how there are so many things that can disturb this communication of an idea. This was very much at the peak of when an idea could be captured so perfectly. Before it was common for pop stars
to sing songs by other songwriters or to fill out an album with
filler just to promote the single. After this, in the decades that followed, the idea of creating what's known as a "concept album" became really popular. And many people would say that there are better albums than Pet Sounds from this time. But as time went by, music became much more diluted again. At the time of filming this, the most popular album right
now is Equals by Ed Sheeran. Now, it might be your favorite album ever, and that's great if it is, but that album was produced by ten people. It's Ed Sheeran's album, but nine other people have put their stamp on it. It makes for catchy tunes, I can't deny that. But the idea of this record being a capture of what Ed Sheeran really
feels or wants to write about has surely been lost because so many other people
have shaped it in their own way. Pet Sounds had just one producer: Brian Wilson, and there was no autotune, no quantizing. His direction of the musicians was the only influence on how they played. And there was no producer coming along afterwards and saying: "That sounds a bit flat." "Let's go and fix that." So I can't sit here and say
this is the best album ever and I can't say it should be your favorite album, but it is one of mine and there is, of course, music out there today that is really honest and original. But this album stands as a time capsule from the mind of Brian Wilson.
