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Released in 1966/1967 (review written February 8, 2024)
Rating: 10/10 and 9/10 Most of my childhood, I thought the Beach Boys was dumb surf music that I'd heard on TV shows and commercials. I never thought that I could I actually connect to their songs emotionally until my best friend Torrin, around early 11th grade, told me to listen to "Here Today", and from there... it's history. 1. Wouldn't It Be Nice - Everyone knows this song. It's a solid love song, very hopeful and positive and forward-thinking. I used to sing to it a lot as a kid when I'd listen to my dad's music collection. 2. You Still Believe in Me - This is where the songs start to get more melancholy, with a sound of longing. It makes me think of this girl I really liked in 11th grade, Stephanie, and how when I got in trouble and was sent far away to live in a group home, I never saw anyone from high school again for a long time. Stephanie was the first girl in my entire life who actually spent time with me, who listened to me, and while she didn't say much I felt a strange connection. I had seen her in a dream before even talking to her the first time, and it was the dream that lead me to her. So being forced away from her was very difficult and I wondered if she "still believed in me", or ever did. 3. That's Not Me - And this is another song about me being away at the group home. We were being taught lots of independent living skills with these things called "scout books" but no matter how well I behaved they wouldn't budge on simple things like walking to your bedroom on your own or being out of eyesight. I'd lay in bed and listen to this on my iPod all day and couldn't cry no matter howmuch I wanted because they put me on high dose antidepressants and antipsychotic medication, chemical lobotomies if you ask me. 4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) - I could feel her sitting next to me... to be honest, I also listened to this album a lot when I played WoW, before the group home, and I didn't like this song as much because it brought down the mood even more. 5. I'm Waiting for the Day - This is the song I think of when I see the Pet Sounds album cover. It just feels right. I never could relate to the lyrics but it's a pretty song. 6. Let's Go Away for Awhile - This would be a glimpse into the future of what the Smiley Smile sounded like, especially that Hawaiian/tropical sound that shows up with the lap steel guitar. A good reprieve, like an instrumental ought to be. 7. Sloop John B - I 've no idea what this song is about. Are they pilgrims in Plymouth, eating corn and wanting to go back home to England? This would've been better placed on the Smiley Smile album if you ask me, but it does break up the melodrama of this one. 8. God Only Knows - Here is a song I remember distinctly when playing WoW. The very first dungeon I ran was the purple crystal section of Mauradon and this album was playing, and this song was around the point past those 4 pillars. The group called me out for being shit at the game but I was still a huge noob. In Wrath, since Azeroth zones were so empty and dungeons were full of heirloom levelers, there was no one to learn things from so what choice was there? 9. I Know There's an Answer - This song means more to me now than it used to, because I am borderline agoraphobic and rarely leave the house. I barely did, from 2012 onwards. And I do, indeed, trip through the day and waste my thoughts at night! It really feels like it calls me out. I wonder if my friend Torrin listened to this song, frustrated at how lazy and isolated I was, when I could be out having fun with him... I'm sorry, but "that's not me". 10. Here Today - And here it is, the best song ever made! I do not make that statement lightly. It is truly perfection, and while the song warns about building a girl up into something more than she is, this hopeless romantic cannot help himself. I've been doing this my whole life, since as far back as I can remember. The song really expresses the hypnotizing aspect of love and the subsequent breaking of the spell. It makes me unbearably sad now when I hear it because of not just Stephanie, but all the loves of my life! Maya, Emily, Jenna and Mico and Audra and Jacqui... love is here today, and it's gone. 11. I Just Wasn't Made for These Times - This was on my friend Torrin's Youtube history before he died, so he had listened to this not long before he "died" (real or not). Neither of us were made for these times. I've never had a "crowd" to fit in. The theremin in this song is absolutely heartbreaking. It melts me into a puddle and I wish it was more prominent. 12. Pet Sounds - Not much to say other than the percussion is really fun sounding and this song is probably a big reason why I first enjoyed Walter Wanderley's "Brazilian Blends" album. What style would you call this? Bossa nova? Beguine? 12. Caroline, No - The album ends in such a somber way. All I used to think about was a girl named Caroline who played either the flute or trombone in a summer concert band camp I went to at the local university between 7th and 8th grade. She had dark brown/black hair and pale skin, was thin and a bit taller than me, and I wanted to kiss her so fucking bad. Anyways, listening to the lyrics now, it's about some girl becoming a feminist and how sad that is. 1. Heroes and Villains - Another very popular song that I'm sure I heard somewhere before, in a commercial or cartoon perhaps. I like the banana peel slipping sound effect the most. For some reason I never noticed the harpsichord until now and it's truly beautiful. Harpsichords were heavily used for that 60s "baroque pop" sound and it really elevates the music for a dream-like quality. 2. Vegetables - Somewhere I read that the chomping and eating sound is supposed to be Paul McCartney. Weren't the Beatles soft "rivals" with the Beach Boys? Well, if they're all CIA/MI6 agents working for the Phoenicians, then it doesn't really matter does it? I love this song. It never fails to make me hungry for some veggies, maybe some carrots and baby arugula. I remember playing this song for my friend Ray who worked at the group home and how he liked it. Ray was a cool dude, played WoW too and would always talk to me about it since there were no computers at the group home. 3. Fall Breaks and Back to Winter - It makes me picture a calendar and the days slowly being crossed out, counting down from fall to winter. 4. She's Goin' Bald - Funny song about a woman losing her hair which is supposed to be rare. I think girls can go bald due to PCOS or something like it. 5. Little Pad - This song is so warm. It's so toasty it makes my cheeks flush. Whenever I'd show this album to my parents or other people, they never made it far enough to hear this little beauty because the previous songs were "too weird"; their loss! 6. Good Vibrations - Another hit everyone knows, nestled in the middle of the album. I remember first hearing it on the Chevy Chase movie "Vegas Vacation", an awful comedy by the way. Nothing like Christmas, European, or plain Vacation. The theremin goes WILD and even if the song is cliche at this point (not in 2025, zoomers and alphas don't know it), I enjoy it for the theremin at least. 7. With Me Tonight - I never fail to bawl when I hear this. I used to think of Stephanie at my group home and try to make some sort of psychic connection to her. Now when I hear it I think of all the people in my life who died, such as my dad, my dogs, my grandparents, and my best friend. So it's just a song of loss reunited in general now. Someday we'll all be together again, and on special occasions we are able to meet again in this world, usually in dreams. 8. Wind Chimes - Simultaneously the most relaxing and disturbing song I've ever heard. I read somewhere that it was Brian Wilson trying to make music to guide someone's LSD trip, gentle and friendly. That seems insane because you'd lower their guard with this song, then ACK! You scare the shit out of them. Pure evil. 9. Gettin' Hungry - Not my favorite song. It's a bit too loud and brash sounding. I ususally love electric organs, whether they're traditional Wurlitzers or Moogs, Perrey or Mort Garson or Lenny Dee or Wanderley or Ronnie Foster or Lonnie Smith, doesn't matter, I love organs! But the sound on this song is kinda obnoxious for some reason. 10. Wonderful - This gave me ASMR feelings long before that was a common or popular term. The close whispering song still sends shivers down my spine. It's unbelievably soothing. I always thought the one falsetto voice during the party section says "don't think you're God" and the song was a message from angels/archons telling me specifically that I'm not God. 11. Whistle In - I have no idea what this song is about. Couldn't even begin to figure it out. The whistling is very different from the kind I can do. Sounds like how my dad whistled, with the mouth wide instead of in an O-shape.
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