A new look at ‘Sounds’

THE most scintillating new element of Capitol Records’ 40th anniversary reissue of the Beach Boys’ watershed “Pet Sounds” album is on the DVD part of a deluxe CD-DVD package.

Along with “The Making of Pet Sounds” documentary and several promotional films -- the music videos of their day -- shot to accompany “Sloop John B” and “Good Vibrations” is an excerpt from “Rhythm of Life,” a previously unreleased BBC-TV interview that brings together two of the most innovative and celebrated producers of the rock era: the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and Beatles producer George Martin.

The musicological gold is the portion in which Martin sits next to Wilson in a recording studio while they roll the master tapes of “Pet Sounds,” which represented a quantum leap forward in 1966 for the Beach Boys, both in terms of the intensely autobiographical bent of the songs Wilson wrote primarily with lyricist Tony Asher as well as Wilson’s revolutionary approach to recording it.

The album’s influence on the Beatles has been widely chronicled, and here, as Martin’s fingers gently glide over the slide controls of the mixing board, bringing voices in, instruments out, Martin expresses his deep admiration for what Wilson constructed in his then-23-year-old brain. “It’s like falling in love,” Martin once said of “Pet Sounds.” “You’re swept away by it.”

As Martin adjusts the controls, changing the balance of different segments, Wilson blurts out that the man who oversaw the Beatles recordings that he so loved had just improved what has long been considered the masterpiece from the quintessential Southern California band.

The rest of the package, to be released Tuesday, brings together many elements that have been issued separately: the original mono mixes of “Pet Sounds” along with stereo versions that came to light almost a decade ago with the “Pet Sounds Sessions” 4-CD box set, and this set’s Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and Hi-Res PCM Stereo audio mixes for the audiophile-minded fan, both released on a DVD-A “Pet Sounds” issued several years ago.

The remastering makes previously available mixes sound crisper than ever, and while Wilson conceived “Pet Sounds” in monaural sound in honor of the Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” that influenced his productions so strongly, the stereo mixes allow a closer view into his arranging and production skills. It’s a bit like looking at an architectural masterwork with the walls suddenly made translucent: The massed Beach Boys vocal ensemble in “You Still Believe in Me” becomes widescreen choral explosion, the coda of “I’m Waiting for the Day” reveals a previously undiscernible descending scale in the bass line, and the bass guitar part emerges as the true star of Wilson’s innovative arrangement of the folk song “Sloop John B.”

“Pet Sounds” has been well served over the years in reissues, and die-hards will already own a lot of what’s here.

The new set isn’t so much a revolutionary look at this thoroughly documented high watermark of ‘60s rock as a highly engaging celebration that adds a couple of its own wrinkles to a moment in pop history well worth revisiting.