Battle: Pet Sounds vs. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Which is the more COMPLETE album? Front to back every song is a banger. All meat, no filler

  • Pet Sounds

    Votes: 12 54.5%

  • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

    Votes: 10 45.5%
  • Total voters
    22
mattafett

mattafett

New game. Battle of the albums. I'm going to take two records that are connected in some way, and pit them against each other. There can only be one winner. Who survives????

In 1965 The Beatles released Rubber Soul, which Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys declared the most perfect album ever. Inspired by its sound, it's writing, and its recording technique, Brian wanted to write the greatest rock n roll record of all time. The record needed to be cohesive from song to song, but still stand out on their own. But most important, no fillers. The songs had to be strong. But how to write the perfect record??? Psychedelics of course. Lots of psychedelics. Out of this process came Pet Sounds, one of my favorite records. Released in May 1966.

But then the are The Beatles. In 1966 The Beatles were touring nonstop and were tired. Revolver (1966) was killing it on the charts, but Their arch rivals The Beach Boys released an album that caught John and George completely off guard. They were already very interested in music from India, and this rival masterpiece fueled their fire. But how to one up Pet Sounds? Take drugs and write of course. Out of the cloud came Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1967.

So which record is the winner? And most important - Why?
Poll closes in 7 days
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While Pet Sounds is top notch great and I fully understand the argument it is possibly more consistent I have to vote for Sgt Peppers as its home runs not only leave the park quicker they are majestic moon bombs.


Have the honor to have good vinyl copies of both and they are most certainly in my top ten played. In fact probably 3&4 only behind Animals and Astral Weeks which get slightly more rotations.
 
Pet Sounds by a fairly significant margin, but the better comparison would be Rubber Soul vs Pet Sounds in my opinion. And while that’s a much much closer race, and I think Rubber Soul might even have the best two songs overall, Pet Sounds would still win.

Also, fuck this.
 
kbuzz said:
Pet Sounds by a fairly significant margin, but the better comparison would be Rubber Soul vs Pet Sounds in my opinion. And while that’s a much much closer race, and I think Rubber Soul might even have the best two songs overall, Pet Sounds would still win.

Also, fuck this.
Click to expand...
I actively thought about that comparison as well. But decided that the psychedelic aspect of Sergeant peppers and Pet Sounds was more significant
 
Pet Sounds for sure. Both albums are wildly experimental, but I find that the depth and subtlety of Pet Sounds makes it an album that I still listen to often. Sgt. Pepper's aim was for outre experimentalism, throwing their avant garde impulses in your face, and when it works, it's definitely cool. Unfortunately, there are lots of little experiments on there that never really rise above the level of experiment and are not particularly rewarding listens. Pet Sounds, on the other hand, is so densely packed with sound that there are always new things to find in the mix, while being filled with some of the most gorgeous, timeless music ever made.

So yeah, Pet Sounds is timeless and Sgt. Pepper is very of-its-time and thus one is still an incredible listen today and another is an excellent artifact of its day.

Also, let's not forget that for all of the "OMG EXPERIMENTAL" that Sgt. Pepper gets, it came out the same year as the Velvet Underground and Nico. One of those albums is far, far more avant garde than the other.
 
Unlike MordorMongo I do not have these on vinyl. I do have the absolute definitive versions of each. The 50th anniversary Pet Sounds remastered in mono with bonus track Hang On To Your Ego, and on cd 2 the remastered stereo version. For The Beatles the 2009 17 disc box set, regarded as the best remaster job EVER.

It’s going to be tough to expand on bramsdell review, but here goes.
In 2nd place The Beatles.
This is just not a cohesive record. It opens with 4 typical strong Beatle pop songs. Track 5 swerves a bit to experiment, but I want more. Within You Without You is the most experimental song on the record, but doesn’t fit in its track slot. Really it doesn’t belong at all. It belongs on The White Album. Then it’s more pop songs until perhaps the best closer in history (if they cut that last fucking minute off 😡) A Day In The Life.
Obviously having the ability to look back and understand what they were trying to do is a bonus, they just fell short.

Pet Sounds on the other hand did everything Brian wanted it too. It was a complete departure from the formula that built them. They only song that is even close to surf rock is Sloop John B. And it is so much more than that. The wall of sound has been discussed, but how they did it is important. They redefined how to use the number of tracks (up to 8) and created vocal techniques that have NEVER been reproduced. Beyond the technical prowess we have arguably the single most beautiful song in all of music God Only Knows. I don’t even know how to describe it but it’s a damn miracle. When I listen to a record I want to be a story from start to finish. And this is exactly what Pet Sounds is. It’s a story from start to finish.

I listened to Pet Sounds 4 times yesterday and today, and Sgt Peppers 3 times today.
 
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