A classic Sixties pop album. Not sure what else can be said about this that hasn't been said already. Some great songs, and those harmonies...so good I played it twice (Spotify has the mono and then the stereo version in one reissue). Caroline, No was the surprise here, having passed me by before. Love the ambient sound at the end. Very evocative.
The opening chords for Wouldn't It Be Nice are joyous. The album then loses the urgency for me. I've never understood why Pet Sounds is held up in such high esteem. It's good, but not great. Maybe the context of listening to it for the first time in 1966 added to the elevation. The singles so strong leading you to expect the rest of the album will follow a similar path. The songs get lost in studio experimentation. Style, substance etc.