Pet Sounds

12 impossibly lush songs that replace The Beach Boys' earlier high school ramalama with the unease and inner hurly-burly of early adulthood.

These lush, symphonic and baroque pieces were as far removed from the good-time surf ditties the band was known for as they could possibly be. For all the band knew, these tunes could’ve been beamed into Brian’s brain from another planet. And for all we know, they probably were.

Nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much. It is by far the best album Brian has yet delivered, and it paradoxically began the decline in mass popularity that still plagues this band.