Day 0061 - Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" (1966)

Superb album, I can't even imagine what it was like hearing this when it came out. Not only are there some super strong songs that managed to strip away the surfer boy veneer in favour of giving the vocals space to breathe over baroque pop; but the production is just gorgeous.

According to the book, the title 'pet sounds' came from Brian's use of a bunch of his favourite or 'pet' sounds in the production. 

The record company hated the album, many of their fans hated it (though they'd find new fans too), Brian lost his confidence and went mad trying to create the 'perfect' pop album, Smile. 

Day 0060 - Revolver

The Beatles "Revolver" (1966) - got it

According to the 1001 Albums book, this album had working titles including "Abracadabra" "Magic Circles" (sounds like an indie band name) and "Beatles on Safari".  All in all, I think they made the right choice with "Revolver".

I find it funny that Rubber Soul and Revolver are so often grouped together; in some ways the two albums are polar opposites. where RS has a kind of diverse uniformity to it (yes I know it's an oxymoron, but then that's the nature of the Beatles) Revolver is all over the place.

There's the brassy Motown of "Got to get you into my life", the 'George-4-India-4-eva' vibe of "Love you to", and, though John is generally my favourite songwriter in the band, I have to admit that Paul's beautiful pop of "For no one" and "Here, there and everywhere" gives him a run for his money.  John counters with 'Dr Robert', 'I'm only sleeping' (a personal favourite of mine) and 'Tomorrow never knows', which the 1001 albums book jokes, with its sound collage approach and eastern flavour has pretty much been the basis for the Chemical Brothers' entire career.

Day 0059 - My Generation

The Who "My Generation" (1965)

This seems like it must be one of the weirder Who albums.  Apparently they were being pushed and pulled all over by the place by their record company who wanted to market them to the mod audience, yet there are moments of heart-rending James Brown-esque soul and noisy hints of the rock band they had within them.  With every other song, no matter how restrained they are trying to be you can still hear the band (Moon in particular) straining to get out of that box.

I've never really hooked into the Who but this album was alright... not mindblowing or amazing, but fun with decent songs and and so much potential.

Day 0058 - Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan "Highway 61 Revisited" (1965)

Another Bob Dylan album that I found listenable and enjoyable well enough.  It's still probably not something I have a huge desire to revisit (no pun intended) after this but it ticked along nicely.  The ridiculously epic "Ballad of a thin man" is a highlight. 

Day 0057 - Mr Tambourine Man

The Byrds "Mr Tambourine Man" (1965)

It's a good enough album; a good selection of songs with nice vocal harmonies, but for some reason it didn't quite 'blow my mind'.  Possibly it's because the songs all sound a bit too similar or they needed to share out the lead vocals a bit more?

Day 0056 - Bert Jansch

Bert Jansch "Bert Jansch" (1965)

Recorded on borrowed equipment and guitars in the producer's flat, and sold to the record company for £100...humble beginnings.

Seems like something of a mixture of full songs, and fragmented instrumentals.  Jansch's emotive and fluid guitar style defines the album. Admittedly this was a bit of a slow starter for me, but the songs "I have no time" and "do you hear me now" won me over.

Day 055 - Rubber Soul

The Beatles "Rubber Soul" (1965) - got it

Wow, 1965 was obviously a decent year for music (not like smelly old 1961), including as it does, this... contender for best Beatles album?

It manages somehow to be hugely varied, yet it still feels like it has a kind of uniform sound.  Possibly the only weak song is the country cover with Ringo on vocals.  Even that's not 'bad', and kind of makes a nice counterpoint to the baroque pop and increasingly psychedelic mod rock that makes up much of the rest of the album.  So many brilliant songs, I was going to list the great ones but it's pretty much all of them.  My one gripe (and it's only a small one) is around sequencing: "In my life" would have made a great album closer, rather than being jammed in the middle of the second side.

Apparently this was one of the first albums released in the US to not feature the artist's name on the cover... I guess at this point, they didn't have to.  It also adds to the enigmatic vibe of the album.