The “coolest” album of all time, according to Brian Wilson
Everyone has their own pick for the “coolest” album of all time. Classic rockers might go for The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, which is cool both in concept and sound. Punks may make a case for The Clash’s London Calling or the Ramones’ self-titled debut, while Beatles fans might be left arguing between Revolver and Abbey Road. But if we’re talking coolest in terms of production, there are few records that could compete with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys’ magnum opus, Pet Sounds.
In the earlier part of the 1960s, the Beach Boys had been committed to a specific image. They had become California’s poster boys, singing songs about surfing waves, chasing girls, and basking in the sunlight. But by the midpoint of the decade, Wilson pushed his bandmates in new directions, experimenting with studio production and strange instrumentation, the result of which was Pet Sounds.
The record spawned some of the most impressive and iconic songs in the Beach Boys’ discography, including ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and ‘God Only Knows’, the latter of which is considered by many to be the greatest of all time. But it was more than a collection of great songs, it was an album in the truest sense of the word, an impressively coherent project that proved the Beach Boys were more than just sun and sand.
But Wilson’s idea to create an album so complete and coherent actually stemmed from his first listen to the Beatles’ Rubber Soul in late 1965. The Beach Boy listened to the record stoned and was left completely stunned, even considering it to be the coolest album he had ever heard. It’s certainly a worthy shout for the title.
Just as Pet Sounds pushed the Beach Boys into new sonic directions a year later, Rubber Soul marked the Beatles’ first ventures into experimentation and the art of the album. They pulled in a sitar on ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, a song that also showed off increasingly abstract lyricism, while ‘If I Needed Someone’ showed off George Harrison’s talents with a pen.
The record represented a transitional moment in the Beatles’ career, gradually pushing them away from their shiny, suited earlier sound and into the psychedelia and experimentation that would characterise their studio years. It’s certainly one of the coolest albums in their catalogue and, if we’re to side with Wilson, perhaps the coolest album of all time.
Rubber Soul is undoubtedly a cool album, the kind of album that makes you feel cooler just for listening to it. But the album is made even cooler by the impact it had on artists in the 1960s. It didn’t just push the Beatles to be better, leading them to even more sonic experimentation on records like Revolver and The White Album, it also affected their rivals.
If Wilson hadn’t hit play on Rubber Soul that day, discovering the beauty of the album while stoned, we might never have gotten another of the most important pop albums of all time. The coherency and cool of Rubber Soul left Wilson desperate to create something just as artistically important, pushing him and the rest of the Beach Boys into the studio to create Pet Sounds.
Even if you don’t think Rubber Soul deserves the title of coolest album ever made, there’s no denying that it’s legacy and impact is pretty unbeatable.
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