If asked to name one pop star who truly deserves the title of genius, most music critics would unhesitatingly name the troubled Beach Boys' supremo Brian Wilson. By the same token, Pet Sounds is widely regarded as one of the greatest pop album ever made. So a recording of this fragile man-child reproducing his ultimate achievement at London's Royal Festival Hall earlier this year was bound to be, if nothing else, of immense historical value. Thankfully, however, it's much more than that - the accompanying orchestra do a great job of recapturing the original album's lush arrangements and Wilson's own palpable sense of joy at the audience's ecstatic reaction is genuinely moving. While his voice is inevitably a little fragile after so many years spent in rehab, it only seems to give such timeless celebrations of Californian adolescence as Sloop John B and God Only Knows an added poignancy. Given what the man has been through, the very existence of this album is a minor miracle - but don't buy it out of nostalgia, buy it because it's a superb recording in its own right.
