AAA Vinyl

The best album with one of the worst covers ever (well, at least of that era), has only grown in stature since it was first released in the Spring of 1966.

This record was the lynch pin around which the recent Brian Wilson bio-pic "Love and Mercy" spun. I highly recommend that movie to anyone who is a Wilson or Beach Boy fan.

This record has so often been written about and reviewed that all I want to do here is get to the sound of this recent reissue mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tape, and compare it to previous issues.

So, I spent the better part of last evening comparing this latest mono mastering by Kevin Gray at his Cohearent Audio mastering facility, with: 1) a mint original Capitol issue, 2) the Brothers Records "twofer" with Carl and The Passions' So Tough (2MS 2083), 3) The Brothers Records stand-alone reissue (MS 2197), 4) The DCC Compact Classics reissue mastered by Steve Hoffman (cut by Kevin Gray) and the Capitol reissue of a few years ago.

Fortunately, this is a record I never tire of listening to! The track upon which I concentrated was "Let's Go Away For Awhile." Why? Because it has monumental bass, a thunderous, reedy bass saxophone, wood blocks and other elements that add up to a sonic spectacular difficult to musically pin down, and even more difficult to master and reproduce at home.

The album is "psychedelic" only because of its eclectic mix of acoustic and electric instruments, sound effects and musical structures that roam from Martin Denny exotica to rock to jazz—you name it.

Wilson spent almost a half-million 2015 dollars producing the record to his definition of musical and sonic perfection, mixing it to mono, his preferred format, in part due to his hearing in mono.

I went into this listening session believing that the Carl and the Passions "twofer" offered the best sound. I came away thinking that this new one from "Analogue Productions was overall the very best, though in a few small ways the Carl and the Passions "twofer" was at least as good in some ways, better in some and not as good in others.

The original has the right spirit but lacks the distinct instrumental layering and image focus found on both the Brother Records' twofer version and the new one from Analogue Productions. The bass is also somewhat soft.

The more recent Capitol edition mastered by Ron McMaster definitely captures the spirit of the original, but the bass is soft and squishy and the distinct instrumental layers are softened and mushed together.

The Brothers single LP version is the same mastering as the one included in the Carl and The Passions twofer, but the wood blocks on "Let's Go Away For Awhile" are softer and everything seems weaker, which could be the result of a tired set of stampers. I know this sounds like a lot of picayune navel-gazing bullshit, but what's resolved on the twofer edition and especially on this new one from Analogue Productions adds immeasurably to the listening pleasure.

Yes, I once declared the DCC Compact Classics edition best but I think that was before I heard the Carl and the Passions twofer! Now it's no contest.

Overall though, this new reissue is the best sounding of all. The bottom end has more weight and solidity and the instrumental separation and front to back layering is nothing short of astonishing compared to the pleasing mush offered up by the other editions.

The stereo version lovingly mixed to analog by Mark Linett is very well done but for me, the original mono mix is the most sublime of all and has the greatest overall power (by the way, that's Linett playing the part of engineer Chuck Britz in the bio pic "Love and Mercy"). If you go into listening thinking mono is a limitation, you'll come away thinking otherwise.

Pet Sounds belongs in every serious rock record collection and if you're going to have but one version this one from Analogue Productions is the one to have.