Pet Sounds Live

Performer: Brian Wilson (Pop)
Artist: The Wondermints
Engineer: Mark Linett
Producer: Brian Wilson
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Brian Wilson (vocals, keyboards); Jeffrey Foskett (vocals, guitar); Scott Bennett (vocals, keyboards, vibraphone, percussion); Jim Hines (vocals, drums); Taylor Mills (vocals, percussion); Andy Paley (guitar, percussion); Paul Mertens (flute, alto flute, clarinet, harmonica). Wondermints: Probyn Gregory (vocals, guitar, trumpet, French horn, keyboards, tannarin); Nick Wallusko (vocals, guitar); Darian Sahanaja (vocals, keyboards, vibraphone). Recorded live at The Royal Festival Hall, London, England in January 2002. Includes liner notes by David Leaf. Personnel: Brian Wilson (vocals, keyboards); Probyn Gregory (vocals, guitar, trumpet, French horn, keyboards); Jeffrey Foskett, Nick Walusko (vocals, guitar); Scott Bennett (vocals, keyboards, vibraphone, percussion); Darian Sahanaja (vocals, keyboards, vibraphone); Jim Hines (vocals, drums); Andy Paley (guitar, percussion); Paul Mertens (flute, alto flute, harmonica, clarinet, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone). Audio Mixer: Mark Linett. Liner Note Author: David Leaf. Recording information: Royal Festival Hall, London, England (01/2002). Photographer: John Anderson . Unknown Contributor Roles: Probyn Gregory; Brian Wilson . In early 2002, during his first solo tour of Europe and England, Brian Wilson included complete performances of his masterpiece Pet Sounds which attempted to re-create, in a live setting, one of the greatest feats of studio wizardry in rock history. He recorded the music heard on Pet Sounds Live over four nights at London's Royal Festival Hall before a crowd packed with luminaries (simply read the liners for a lengthy who's-who list of intelligent pop musicians in attendance). Though he has trouble taking some of the leads he or brother Carl originally sang some 35 years earlier, the backing harmonies are surprisingly good (even in comparison to the nonpareil Beach Boys), and the ten-piece band is marvelous at summoning the necessary range of emotions, following the arrangements closely ("Let's Go Away for Awhile" alone must have taken days to perfect), and adding innumerable little touches for the benefit of those possessing a near-total familiarity with the original. To all this praise, however, must be added the considerable caveat: Wilson's stage presence is still problematic, if not completely bizarre. He still sounds tentative and forced when pressed to live performance, at one point interjecting "Hooray for the audience!" into a blank void; later, it's difficult to tell whether he's joking when he twice announces, "Here's an instrumental, with no voices, okay?" Those who've seen a Wilson concert before won't be surprised at the push-and-pull between clever musicianship and embarrassing showmanship, while curious Pet Sounds fans will find only scattered bits to intrigue them. ~ John Bush The Beach Boys' 1966 opus, PET SOUNDS, proved to be one of the most significant pop records of the 20th century, its influence growing exponentially with subsequent generations of musicians enamored of its sunny-but-sophisticated West Coast sound. More than 35 years later, after decades of fractious Beach Boys history, PET SOUNDS mastermind Brian Wilson performed the album in its entirety for a wildly appreciative audience, backed by a skilled and sympathetic group of younger musicians. Virtually no detail was overlooked in arranging this mighty masterpiece for the concert stage. Intricate layers of horns, keyboards, percussion, and guitars are laced together with the utmost amount of craft and care. Naturally, Wilson's trademark vocal harmonies are in the foreground, their complex, elegant tapestries carrying the songs aloft with transcendent grace. Wilson's own voice is a tad rough around the edges, but that element just adds an endearingly human quality to these pristine musical landscapes.

Rolling Stone (7/11/02, p.112) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Even with the weight of so much history, there's a spontaneity to these renditions from the album...shedding light on their mournful studio counterparts. You haven't heard Wilson sing this well in decades..." Uncut (1/03, p.95) - Ranked #34 in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year" Uncut (9/02, p.123) - 3.5 stars out of 4 - "...there's no denying the sheer wonder of witnessing, reborn, magnificent music once deemed too complex for live reproduction." CMJ (7/1/02, p.34) - "...Thirty years in the making, but we finally have a live version of one of rock's most influential albums..."

As leader of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson was largely responsible for their revered 1966 album, PET SOUNDS. His subsequent two-decade-long submersion in drugs, mental problems, and controversial psychotherapy has become the stuff of legend, but he cleaned up and returned to recording in 1988 with a steady stream of albums that combined his flawless melodic sensibility with a restlessly experimental vibe. In 2004 he finally released the legendary album SMILE, whose initial production fell apart in 1967 as Wilson's excesses and mental illness took their toll. Since then he's been performing live regularly (often with daughter Carnie Wilson on backing vocals) and has assumed his rightful place as one of the grand old masters of pure pop perfection.

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