How to respond nicely to someone who says Pet Sounds is the most over-rated album in the world?

Worth noting to people that didn’t already know this, I guess. I’m not one of them.

 

Well, was just illustrating that you weren’t far off since they were kind of partly Beach Boys records technically. Never mind then.

 

How to respond nicely to someone who says Pet Sounds is the most over-rated album in the world?

Any way you like, they can't hear you.

 

I don't dislike Pet Sounds. I think it's a very, very fine album. Yet, the constant effusion it has received, especially in the last 20 or so years, can really get tiring. Especially when these sources are just regurgitating what has been said before. So, in that sense, it can be a bit over-rated, when considered against all other pop/rock albums.

And by the way, Citizen Kane and Catcher In The Rye are both over-rated, in my opinion. Both fine works of art, but, really, not top contenders for pure genius. I think time plays a big factor in what art is lionized and deemed timeless or great.

The Beach Boys Today, ( January, '65?) has always topped Pet Sounds as my favorite.

 

I love Pet Sounds. I've loved The Beach Boys since I discovered the band for myself more than 50 years ago when I was ten. But I didn't much care for Pet Sounds until I was at university roughly a decade later. Then it really struck me, both for the mood and for the sound.

Having said that "greatest album of all time", "underrated", "overrated" are all noise to me. It is a milestone in so many ways and that is documented throughout hundreds of pages of reactions by other musicians, analyses, gatherings to praise the record, etc., etc. So "overrated" comes into question on that score. But use of the word is just a signal that says "I don't like it" or "I don't understand why so many people like it," which is fair enough. I don't think people who say that even like The Beach Boys. Conversely, dedicated fans are wont to go overboard with their praise and sign on to 'greatest' and 'underrated.'

I think Pet Sounds is a great album, a landmark, a game changer and a beautiful piece of work that never fails to move me. In that sense I don't think it's overrated. But 'greatest album of all time'? Nah. I don't even know what that is or even could be. I can't even imagine how you get to come to a conclusion like that. It always seems to be by dint of votes by select cohorts, some set of criteria and all of those are contingent on the time, the era, and those things change. Pet Sounds sold respectably when it was released but was nothing like the hits The Beach Boys had before, including their previous album The Beach Boys Party!, which goes to show you how grievously underrated it was at the time to the point it was thought as a 'failure' (as I recall subsequent research shows it sold enough to reach gold by mid-or-late 1967, but it wasn't certified till much later). But, then, you had musicians (Paul McCartney and even outliers like Clapton) taking note and praising it and even loving it, you had other pop acts picking up on aspects of the album -- production and sound, snippets of melody, etc. -- and demonstrating the influence it had on them. Even Bobby Vee tried a cover of Here Today and Del Shannon recorded the better part of entire album with Andrew Loog Oldham referencing the sound and production of Pet Sounds. (you want underrated -- poor Shannon's wonderful work didn't even get released until 1974 -- seven years after being recorded -- when part of it got onto a comp album).

Then the doldrums, for me anyway, until the circa 1980 US Capit0l reissue. Funny -- I bought the Carl and The Passions / Pet Sounds two-fer reissue when it came out (early '70s IIRC) and barely listened to either and sold it sometime later. But even when I 'rediscovered' it I didn't realize it was supposed to be such a great album, but at 20 the mood of it, the depictions of failed love and expectations, hit home and the sound -- even mono -- entranced me. Like people have already posted, I wasn't really aware of it being 'landmark' or 'greatest' until the '90s. And when it falls off that pedestal it still won't make any difference to me. I'm sure I'll still like it as much as I do now.

 

I would politely tell them that they are slightly off the mark on one point, and there are far more overrated LPs in the world than Pet Sounds, and they are waaay off the mark on their other point, although possibly have just been listening to the wrong songs

 

One could argue that Beach Boys records -- starting with The Beach Boys Today! -- were kind of party Jan & Dean records, or at least party inspired by them, since Jan Berry more or less mentored Brian Wilson on production techniques and the use of the Wrecking Crew during the spring and summer of 1963 (and presumably later as Berry and Wilson appear to have been in fairly regular contact). That sort of seems like that was the trade-off -- Jan & Dean adopted The Beach Boys vocal approach (and collaborated with Brian on some songs) and Brian Wilson took on Jan Berry's style of the use of orchestration and reliance on the Wrecking Crew while the band was touring. You can especially hear that on two Jan & Dean certain tracks from albums released in the second half of 1964 -- Ride The Wild Surf and The Little Old Lady From Pasadena, and perhaps the track It's Easy As 1,2,3 from even earlier whose instrumental backing track always makes me think of the backing track to Let Him Run Wild.

A fault with that line of thinking, however, is the fact that Jan & Dean were meandering toward that Beach Boys-like vocal sound in 1962 (Surfin' Safari) when The Beach Boys hadn't really developed their signature sound with Brian Wilson's falsetto yet. Jan & Dean's cover of Barbara Ann and their hit Linda are signposts on that road, though I rather think Linda was inspired by The Four Seasons...

Jan Berry appeared in a magazine interview in late 1964 I read a long time ago where he was asked about the sound similarity between The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean records and he said yes and the main difference was something like The Beach Boys records sound much more natural and organic while Jan & Dean records make far greater use of horns and production (that would soon change with The Beach Boys, though).

Beach Boys and Jan & Dean records did sound similar enough in the day to the casual listener that this local reporter mistook The Little Old Lady From Pasadena as a Beach Boys record (at 3:11):

 

Tell them you agree to disagree and ask them what their favorite album is. No matter what it is, tell them its extremely overrated.

 

I said I was hurt? Whoa! When did that happen? Sorry, just kidding, but no, I am no where near that thin skinned!
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Wow- so weird this thread is still going (I would love to have a dollar for every response ), and so weird some of the interpretations about my feelings on all this. Fascinating!

 

See my last post above.

 

Give them better alternatives for most overrated album ever.

 

To quote EdogawaRampo above, "..."greatest album of all time", "underrated", "overrated" are all noise to me."

 

A little off topic but Citizen Kane is definitely not overrated at least when it comes from a technical standpoint. There are a ton of matting and editing techniques in that film that really pushed the medium forward at the time. In hindsight it may have appeared to be nothing but really it wasn’t. The movie was genius.

 

Just tell them you happen to like it (assuming you do). No point in stressing about it.

Above all, don't get the idea in your head that it's your duty to convert someone to your favourite album. Think how you would react if the boot was on the other foot and he was trying to get you into some modern band that you thought was crap.

 

“I’m not too sure what the name of the song was that he was playing when I came in, but whatever it was, he was really stinking it up. He was putting all these dumb, show-offy ripples in the high notes, and a lot of other very tricky stuff that gives me a pain in the ass. You should’ve heard the crowd, though, when he was finished. You would’ve puked. They went mad. They were exactly the same morons that laugh like hyenas in the movies at stuff that isn’t funny. I swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes though I was terrific, I’d hate it. I wouldn’t even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I’d play it in the goddam closet. Anyway, when he was finished, and everybody was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy, besides being a terrific piano player. It was very phony—I mean him being such a big snob and all. In a funny way, though, I felt sort of sorry for him when he was finished. I don’t even think he knows any more when he’s playing right or not. It isn’t all his fault. I partly blame all those dopes that clap their heads off—they’d foul up anybody, if you gave them a chance.” Salinger, Catcher in the Rye.

 

It's the ignorance thing again, though, isn't it? I personally adore Citizen Kane, but it's ok to call it overrated if one happens to think there are more important films out there ... but one needs to have a reason for thinking that, beyond "it was boring" which is the standard response of most people who call Citizen Kane overrated.

 

This thread is 22 pages. Man, I love this album.

 

Why is 22 pages a testament to how great an album is? You could have the same amount of pages dedicated to Gary Glitter and his pedophilia. Is that supposed to make his album “Touch Me” any better?

 

You're strange for bringing Gary Glitter and pedophilia into this. You could've made your point using anything other than that and it would've fared better.

 

Don't think it was supposed to be 'directed' at you

I was trying to speak in general terms on and of what could get you into deep water 'round these parts and why that really should not matter. Because it all boils down to personal taste. So, it was more that I agreed with you than something of an attack on your statement(s). After a few months here, I just find the endless harping on what is supposed to be canonical records and artists a tad annoying. It is, as I wrote in the post after, almost a parody. Stay on these roads, brother/sister/other.

And whatever gets you a 'like' from Vangro, is okay with me. He is the only person here I've found toxic enough to put on ignore

 

Kid Kudi, actually

 

You’re strange if you think that 22 pages devoted to any subject is significant. That’s all that I’m saying.

 

Millennial, thankyouverymuch

 

The fact that that was the first thing that entered your mind after reading my post says it all.

 

Again, the merit of technique is not objective. And it's not objectively better to do something unique, influential, etc.