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mattrabpc's review against another edition
3.0
This book was about average for this series. This one is written like a Wikipedia article, very long and lovingly written. It's two greatest strengths become it's two greatest weaknesses however. The first is the storytelling, it does a good job at framing the circumstances that lead to this album, but sometimes the depth goes beyond what a casual fan like myself really cares about. The second being how the author points out little touches that make this album so wonderful. The author does point out a few really interesting touches that are easily missed, but there was quite a few passages of talking about chord progression that seemed kind of useless to someone who doesn't know much about music theory and some pretty obvious breakdowns of songs where he ends up just describing the song which seemed pointless.
stephoto604's review against another edition
3.0
Andrew picked this up at a used bookstore when we were travelling in Boston and since it's about a quarter of the size of a typical paperback I decided to read it while commuting on the bus. I definitely gained insight on Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, and specifically the Pet Sounds album, although will admit a fair bit of the dissection of music arrangement was lost on me!
kerryanndunn's review against another edition
3.0
I love this book series, but this one was a little disappointing. The author spends too much time dissecting the songs as they go from B flat in the chorus to A sharp in the verse and blah blah blah. As I'm not a musician, that all means nothing to me. Also, there's very little new or insightful about Brian Wilson here that you couldn't learn on Wikipedia. I enjoyed when the author got personal. And his thoughts on the lyrics and meaning of the songs were enlightening for me so that I will definitely listen to this album with new ears. Wish I had it on vinyl.
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