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

I'm not sure why the word objective should enter a conversation about ratings.

 

It requires you to know the story, the background, kind of a manifesto to really appreciate it.

As time goes on, more and more music fans come along who couldn't give a tinker's dam about the manifesto.

Like when i go to a postmodern art exhibit and i'm expected to read something to "get it"... my patience is limited...

The work will have to stand on its own. Since i know the story and feel sorry for the guy, I really can't judge this great album for stand-alone-ability.

 

Like most people I'm not a film professional or a motion picture historian. I watch movies for enjoyment. Citizen Kane was a non-enjoyable snooze fest for me. "It was boring" trumps any advancement in film technique for most movie watchers and that seems proper and sensible.

On the other hand Pet Sounds is an advancement in pop music production that is not at all boring. It's just not as exciting as some other Beach Boys albums to me.

 

I read through this thread yesterday and got out the year old re-master, judging by it being in the original inner, I never bothered to clean. I never owned any Beach Boys before, the group being merely a Car Radio thing in the past, but acquired it after viewing Love And Mercy and apparently gave it little attention.

That was a mistake. Pet Sounds really does live up to the hype for the way Brian Wilson orchestrates the diversity of sounds and wonderfully carries off taking the music of his mind to tracks on record.

I did get to thinking, however: would his creation have more credibility as a serious musical endeavor if the vocal tracks were done by other voices? To my ears, that so distinctive Beach Boys sound was sometimes not in sync with the seriousness of Wilson' composition. I'm looking forward to hearing the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors show to hear if there's something to that.

 

Lyrically, I suppose that’s true, and it’s certainly true I’ve never heard the album without at least some of that insight.

Musically, though, I think it’s pretty universal, and it’s just gorgeous. It may not be some people’s bag, but I’d think there is plenty to appreciate about this album even if one ignores the lyrics entirely.

 

One of the things I find amusing about “God Only Knows” (one of my very favorite songs and recorded tracks ever) is that, in the midst of this beautiful orchestral-and-vocal-harmony passage, we get a honky “BAH BA-BA-BA-BAH BAAAH BA-BAAAH BABABA-BAAAH!”

It’s perfect, though, IMO. It reminds you this is still the Beach Boys, in a way.

 

Perhaps - shock horror - the conversation is taking place in person, with people actually speaking to one another, you know, the way we used to do it, rather than online? Emojis don't apply there.
You'd have to do something different, like, I don't know, smile or frown.

Incidentally a number of people have missed the point of this thread. I don't believe it was supposed to be about your personal opinion of Pet Sounds. Nor was it supposed to be about rating the Beatles' albums (believe it or not, I think that's been done elsewhere). I think the point was: what do you do if someone trashes an album that's a favourite of yours. It could be the Beach Boys, or it could be anything, even a Bad English album.

 

If I remember correctly The Thing and The Hulk did indeed duke it out in an old Fantastic Four comic.
Can't remember who - if anyone- won but they tore up New York City.

 

When I read that post, I actually first thought of the John Carpenter Thing, which I don’t think would be a fair fight at all.

 

thanks! this is an album that can get very personal, one should attack wisely.... I haven't a few times for sure...

it will forever speak to the very introverted me, especially when i need to recharge...

it is permanently locked into my 60s top ten album list

 

"how to respond nicely to someone who says pet sounds is the most over rated album in the world"

I hope you enjoy your Spice Girls MP3 files.

 

Certain topics always generate a lot of traffic - the 'contentious' ones. It's like the Monty Python Argument Clinic sketch.

 

Ah yes - the 'twist the knife' approach.

 

lot's of us nurse an affinity with Brian...

 

Open your mind. Seriously, the problem is that when everything you’ve heard about an album is said, it prevents the art from living up to that inflated expectation. It’s what people being to the work not the work itself necessarily; it exists the same way suspended forever as a fixed point in time. People don’t and they’ve had the disadvantage of hearing everything after it that was influenced by it. It lessens the experience.

 

My response in the OP's scenario - "that might be a little strong, but I generally agree with you".

 

Bring up Sgt. Pepper then he’ll focus on that.

 

Ah yes, the "You had to be there" syndrome.

I am always sceptical when people say this about some album, film, play or whatever. It seems to be a tacit admission that the work does not stand on its own merits.

 

Some people think they’ve been abducted by aliens, have a poultergeist living in their attic or subscribe to any number of more current yet equally idiotic notions. I’m well practiced at smiling sympathetically and walking away to prevent any brain cell loss. I really like but do not love Pet Sounds.

 

perhaps re-read my post.

I never said that.

I said the work exists regardless of preconceptions you bring to it. I don’t believe inn”you had to be there syndrome’. People bring expectations to the work based on what they’ve heard about it and the influence that permeates other artists. That isn’t ‘had to be there syndrome’ and I said nothing of the sort. I also said the work exists independent of expectations which is exactly allowing it to stand on its own merits.

 

Surround their abode with magnesium flares, put on night vision googles and call in an air strike. Or maybe that's too reserved a response.

 

The OP's question specifically mentioned Pet Sounds, but not if the other person's opinion was in print or face to face. That's how I read it.

 

I have always suspected that is one of the issues in how many perceive Pet Sounds. The lyrics, melodies, production, and concept are a universe away from what the Beach Boys had done before. Yet it is still unmistakably the Beach Boys. So if you attempt to explain how this was such a progressive move for them, many people have little notion of what you talking about.

If you played With the Beatles and then Revolver for a Martian, he would be astounded that it was the same band. Not so with Surfer Girl and Pet Sounds.

 

I bought Pet Sounds about ten years ago even though I was alive when it was released. Took me lots of decades to 'get it' so I imagine that there is a lot of people that won't give it the consideration the OP is asking for, and that's their loss. Don't know why it matters if someone doesn't agree with your personal music canon, but my response would be come over and listen to it with me, I'll cook a meal, serve up drinks, let you hear it through my system... and yes I am assuming the conversation is the old fashioned, face-to-face kind.

 

The OP is probably feeling like me when rubbernecking in the Rolling Stone top albums and songs threads. I can’t look away even though people are going in and hearing bands I love like Pixies and Mazzy Star for the first time and calling them drivel and asking if they can rate them with negative numbers.