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

Sundlower is better

 

I think the earlier music by them is much better.
I'd hardly call The Beach Boys' music "children's music" though. And though I think Pet Sounds overrated, I'd never call it "most overrated album in the world."
How to respond nicely if someone said that it is?
Just shrug and say "okay." I mean, why care?

 

I'd ask them what they think of "Lemonade" and/or "Born In The U.S.A."

 

“I agree, I don’t see what all the fuss over Pet Sounds is all about. I think God Only Knows is an absolute masterpiece. I don’t really care for anything else on the record. They are nice harmonizers but I am not into that style of music. I don’t hear any of this album rubbing off on the Beatles”

 

5D get short shrift because they're pop R&B (so was Dionne Warwick but no criticism there).
Marilyn McCoo is severely underrated as a singer and the group was great live (Summer of Soul).

 

Really? I have been on a bit of a Pet Sounds kick lately, so I’ve listened to it a few times in the past several weeks. There are parts that certainly sound a lot like they influenced some of McCartney’s Beatles work thereafter.

 

Tell them that some of the best studio musicians of that era are playing most of the instruments on it?

 

“Why are you talking about music that was made 60 years ago?”

 

i'd play them the beatles

 

In case anyone is wondering why I would say what you quoted, my full statement was this:

"So how do you respond to someone who says, in all seriousness, that they think Pet Sounds is the most over-rated album in the world (in the world!) and that Beach Boys music sounds like awful children's music?"

Wow, amazing that this thread popped back up. I believe I was still a young man when I started it!

 

Your enjoyment of and connection to Pet Sounds is greatly dependent on the age at which you first encounter the album. If you weren’t at that ideal point in life (let’s say 16-20 years old), it’s probably not going to sink its teeth into you. An album as specific in its subject matter and target audience as this just isn’t going to carry the same emotional resonance if you come to it later in life.

 

Its an album that I admire more than play...

 

Brian Wilson was 24 when it was released, FWIW.

It’s very enjoyable and connectable as a piece of music regardless of the lyrical content, IMO, anyway, at any age.

 

Pet Sounds doesn't work quite as well as a "Bitter-Late-Middle-Aged Symphony To God".
Glad I got into it as a teen.

 

Don't talk. Put your head on my shoulder.

 

You’re entitled to your erroneous opinion.

 

Okay, that made me laugh.

 

"You're absolutely right. There are 2 or 3 good songs surrounded by a bunch of forgettable filler."

 

I find your commentary insightful and It makes sense to me. I remember well listening to my dad’s LP of Days Of Future Past as a teen and being utterly bored with it. But, I grew up and matured. Now I enjoy it immensely. Nothing against Pet Sounds, but it’s nothing special. It’s pleasant enough though.

 

Perhaps you should listen to your grandchild's copy of Pet Sounds.

 

One should consider the album for what it is, in 2023. But also for when it was released. And the kick on the ass it gave to the Beatles as well as, eventually, popular music.

I think 7 of the songs are stellar, 5 are bettered in the context. And if "Guess I'm Dumb' replaced the annoying and mood breaking and thematic compromising 'Sloop John B' this thread wouldn't exist.

It was like replacing a 'Day in the Life' on Sgt Pepper with 'Red Sails in the sunset'

 

The same holds true for the first Violent Femmes record, although with a much different message. Every kid should be gifted that album on their 15th birthday as evidence that they’re not as alone in the world as they feel. If Pet Sounds is a starry-eyed dream of adolescent love, Violent Femmes is the angst-ridden reality of its absence.

The thesis statement is boiled down to perfection in the non-album single ‘Gimme the Car’. The anti-Pet Sounds.

 

The popular narrative Pet Sounds is one of the greatest albums of all time. However, music is very subjective and spent one whole listen on Pet Sounds and didn't get the appeal despite what Paul McCartney has said. That being said I would much rather listen to Revolver and Fifth Dimension than Pet Sounds.

I think "Eight Miles High", Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Eleanor Rigby" was much more groundbreaking than basically a progressive version of what Phil Spector was doing that is Pet Sounds.

 

I’ve tried multiple times to get into Pet Sounds and just don’t get it. However, I think some of The Beach Boys singles are awesome. Not saying the album is bad, but it just goes to show ya that not everything is for everyone.

 

I remember a few years ago at a party a friend of mine asking me about Pet Sounds because he didn't know the album.

I told him that a lot of critics consider it one of the best albums ever made.

A couple of my friends jumped in who were listening and said "no, it's not one of the great albums of all time, it's not that good etc".

A kind of jumped on them and told them it was a critic's choice not particularly mine.

I was surprised though the negativity they showed so quickly when I talked about Pet Sounds being regarded as a classic.