Pet Sounds: Most Overrated Album of All Time?

Its definitely not overrated in terms of its impact and influence at time and in terms of the innovative aspect of its production I suppose.

But I've personally always felt that SPLHCB then took things to a new level of overall success.

One of the things that the Beatles (with the help of George Martin) did to better effect than perhaps any other act ever is take elements of music and production that already existed elsewhere in bits and pieces and apply them in a new musical formula of their own that had tremendous mass appeal, hence their commercial success.

PS was a much needed radical and innovative departure for the Beach Boys from their prior work, which was very much cookie cutter and becoming dated in nature despite its merits. My impression has always been that PS is as much rough around the edges as it is refined though. The Beatles took things to a much more refined and higher level and continued to raise the bar of commercial success as well.

By the way, Abba is another act that came into their own after the Beatles that continued to move things forward and achieved huge commercial success, even though the music's content and meaning might be considered fluff in comparison to the BEatles by some.

The funny thing is if you go to Metacritic.com, Smile is the highest rated album ever (as far as their reviews go back). I have to admit it's pretty good but I don't get the "100" rating.

Not a big fan of "Smile".

It has some stellar moments but is much too erratic and disjointed to be considered a work of art or one of the greatest.

It's hardly in the same class as Sergeant Pepper, Highway 61, Let it Bleed, etc.

IMO of course.

to call pet sound's compositions 'mediocre' even after decades, is pretty bizarre. the beach boys started reaching for more with the anthem 'california girls'.as far as that album called 'smile'by brian, the original and re-worked tracks(most of which are scattered across a half dozen beach boy records)are still the way to go. the new record by brian was fun for 'one' listen for me. the modern day equivalent of a 'whiskey bottle' recording(where a vulture record company lures an artist back to re-record legendary songs, with the promise of new money, and perhaps a record of new material).it's a bit classier than that, but not much...the tunes are heavenly, but it just doesn't have that 'magic'.

Some nice melodies and harmonies with some of the most insipid lyrics of the 1960's. In fact everything the Beach Boys did was lyrically ridiculous. Little miss cheerleader on the beach? Give me a break.