THE 50(ISH) GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
Pet Sounds (e.g. ‘Woof’)
Album #49 : Beach Boys — Pet Sounds
As with every year, we have somehow slipped into December and, as with every year, it is a complete and total shock to everyone. DECEMBER! At this time of year?! Unheard of.
As a result, though, I have started to think about what has happened this year, good and bad, and how my life has changed since the start of 2021. Well, for starters I am now married (although, as everyone will tell you, your relationship doesn’t change once you’re married — so really that’s just the same happy existence as normal). What else? Well, we’re not (currently) in lockdown anymore, so that is a nice change — but really again that is just putting things back to normal again.
So, what has changed? Well, one thing is very, very different. We now have a dog. His name is Otis and he is brilliant and stupid and daft and full of joy and we love him very much.
Sometimes we aren’t actually sure we got a dog — sometimes he is a cat (sat on the arm of the sofa looking out the window), sometimes he is a meerkat (jumping up on his hind legs to sniff out other dogs in the park), sometimes he is just a massive hairy slug lying across the floor.
When he is being a dog, though, he is definitely our dog. One of the things that I love the most about my wife is that she makes me laugh every single day — and I try to do the same for her — Otis is the same. A friend of ours came round a while ago and described him as ‘goofy’, which I think is the perfect word for him. In what at times can be a depressing world (for examples, please see the news) Otis is a constant source of joy. I am sure your dog is the same. Being welcomed home by him is one of our favourite things — we all want to be the people our dogs think we are.
That said, it hasn’t been an easy ride the whole time — it shouldn’t be news to anyone that puppies are little bundles of inexhaustible energy with actually quite sharp teeth — but one thing that we have noticed is that, as time goes on, he’s calmed down considerably. With each passing month it has become easier — he has become less bouncy and I in particular have become much less stressed. Would it be too pretentious to suggest that is a neat analogy for the year as a whole? Probably, but I have written it and you’ve read read it, so no going back now.
Let’s change the subject, what about this album? Well, you don’t need me to tell you that is it one of, if not the, greatest records of all time. It is easy with the Beach Boys to get caught up in the early, extremely poppy hits but this record is a masterpiece. Beautiful songs beautifully written and beautifully performed. Beautiful.
Also, God Only Knows may well be the best love song ever written. (No, I haven’t really thought about it but I’ve written it now and you’ve read it, so no going back now).
What else is there to say? At this end of this album you can hear Brian Wilson’s dogs barking — Otis had been lolling about and sleeping for the whole of the record and then, as soon as he heard the dogs, sprang awake, ran off to his perch near the window and barked at what he thought was an intruder…
So, y’know, he’s still pretty daft. But we wouldn’t change him for the world.
Thanks for reading — over the course of 2021, I’ll be reviewing 50(ish) of the greatest albums ever recorded. You can see the list here:
There is also a playlist featuring the best song from each album here.
