A Landmark Pop Statement: Beach Boys Pet Sounds Is Universally Acclaimed as One of Five Best and Most Influential Albums Ever Made

Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition Hybrid SACD Boasts Reference-Quality Sonics: Mastered from Original Stereo Mixes Created by Brian Wilson 

Few albums come more vetted than the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Universally renowned for its groundbreaking songs, majestic arrangements, landmark production, emotional lyrics, and bold creativity the 1966 record forever altered the pop-culture landscape and how everyone experiences music. Hailed not only by the international press, the set also remains prized for its impact on countless artists that changed their approach after beholding its sheer scope and genius. Household-name musicians including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, and Bob Dylan cite Pet Sounds as being among their favorite LPs and for influencing their direction. Now, it’s time you heard the best-possible version ever made available.

Mastered from original first-generation analog stereo mixes by Brian Wilson and Mark Linett, Pet Sounds sounds positively brilliant on this numbered-edition hybrid SACD. Recognizing the stature and importance of the album—particularly to audiophiles and Beach Boys fanatics—Mobile Fidelity engineers treated this project with utmost reverence, extracting previously buried information and obscured details that add to the music’s meaning, enjoyment, mood, and breadth.

Famous for its use of multiple layers of unorthodox instrumentation, harmony-based choruses, ensemble refrains, blended reverberation, and recurring echo, the record’s sonic pastiches arrive with unrivaled airiness, immediacy, transparency, width, and depth. Even those that swear by the mono version will find their minds (and heads) blown. Enhanced, too, are Brian and Carl Wilson’s spiritually informed high-register vocal performances, now unbound by any connection to artificial ceilings or veiled frequencies. Prepare to swoon.

Encompassing psychedelic, pop, baroque, and even prog-rock styles, and distinguished with eminently personal lyrics that delve into themes of love, innocence, hope, and loneliness like few records before or since, Pet Sounds’ brilliance cannot be exaggerated. Neither can its sway. Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson weaves organs, harpsichords, Theremins, dog whistles, bells, exotic strings, and just about every other imaginable sound effect amidst traditional instrumentation in sculpting rich symphonies marked by some of the most innovative, heartbreaking melodies ever composed. Flush with multi-colored soundscapes, the lush arrangements open up to seemingly impossible worlds of sound that still leave listeners agog.

It’s easy to go on at length about Pet Sounds’ legacy—the masterwork inspired the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, remains the touchstone for all serious pop music, and stands as a standard-bearer of near-perfect record production—but we’d rather steer you to securing this remastered collectible edition and hearing what’s in store. 

"The first true stereo version had to wait until 1997, when a true stereo set was released on CD as The Pet Sounds Sessions, followed a couple of years later by a stereo LP release. Mobile Fidelity now gives us the first audiophile grade release of Pet Sounds in stereo...this new issue, even in its CD layer easily makes the 1999 LP sound [deficient]... So color this release brilliant."
—Dennis Davis, Hi-Fi+