An early concept album, it consists mainly of introspective and semi-autobiographical songs like "You Still Believe in Me", about a lover's unwavering loyalty; "I Know There's an Answer", a critique of LSD users; and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", about social alienation.

[11] In October, Wilson and his wife, 17-year-old singer Marilyn Rovell, moved from a rented apartment in West Hollywood to a home on Laurel Way in Beverly Hills,[12] where he said he spent the subsequent months contemplating "the new direction of the group".

[107][nb 15] They attribute this to Wilson's "eclectic mixture of instruments, echo, reverb, and innovative mixing techniques learnt from Phil Spector to create a complex soundscape in which voice and music interweave tightly".

[107] In the belief of cultural historian Dale Carter, the album's psychedelic qualities are proven through rich "sonic textures", "greater fluidity, elaboration, and formal complexity", "the introduction of new (combinations of) instruments, multiple keys, and/or floating tonal centers", and the occasional use of "slower, more hypnotic tempos".

[110] Musician Sean Lennon opined that "psychedelic music is a term that pretty much refers to these sort of epic, ambitious long-form records", and that listening to Pet Sounds in its entirety can feel like "entering another world" temporarily, much like an LSD trip.

[113][114] Writing in The Journal on the Art of Record Production, Marshall Heiser observed that the album's music distinguished itself from previous Beach Boys releases in several ways: By contrast, musicologist Daniel Harrison contends that Wilson's advancement as a composer and arranger was marginal in relation to his past work.

[120][nb 16] Many of the instruments were alien to rock music, including glockenspiel, ukulele, accordion, Electro-Theremin, bongos, harpsichord, violin, viola, cello, trombone, Coca-Cola bottles, and other odd sounds such as bicycle bells.

[126] Arranger Paul Mertens, who collaborated with Wilson on live performances of the album, believed that although there are string sections on Pet Sounds, "what's special about that is not that Brian was trying to introduce classical music into rock & roll.

"[50] According to AllMusic reviewer Jim Esch, the opening track "Wouldn't It Be Nice" inaugurates the album's pervasive theme of "fragile lovers" who struggle with "self-imposed romantic expectations and personal limitations, while simultaneously trying to maintain faith in one other.

"[149] Comparing the group's past celebrations of adolescence and teenage romance, journalist Seth Rogovoy felt that Pet Sounds "upends and overturns every Beach Boys cliché, exposing the hollowness at their core.

"[59] The front sleeve depicts a snapshot of the band – from left, they are Carl, Brian, and Dennis Wilson; Mike Love; and Al Jardine – feeding pieces of apples to seven goats at the San Diego Zoo while dressed in coats and sweaters.

"[273] Johnston referred to it as the "worst cover in the history of the record business",[274] while author and biographer Peter Ames Carlin opined that the backside of the LP was "perhaps an even worse design idea than the goat shot".

[299] Thanks to the connections of London-based producer Kim Fowley, a number of musicians, journalists, and other guests (including John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Keith Moon) gathered in their hotel suite to listen to repeated playbacks of the album.

"[317][318] According to Carlin, Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who was also the Beach Boys' publisher in England,[319] took out a full-page advertisement in Melody Maker in which he lauded Pet Sounds as "the greatest album ever made".

"[309][nb 43] In other issues of Melody Maker, Rolling Stones member Mick Jagger stated that he disliked the songs but enjoyed the record and its harmonies, while John Lennon said that Wilson was "doing some very great things".

[300][nb 47] In his 1969 Pop Chronicles series, John Gilliland stated that the album was almost overshadowed by Revolver, released August 1966, and that "a lot people failed to realize that Brian Wilson's production was as unique in its own way as the Beatles'".

[327] In his 1971 reappraisal of the Beach Boys for Melody Maker, Richard Williams wrote that although Pet Sounds had "defied criticism" and "dwarfed all the rest of pop music put together", whatever continued recognition Wilson would have received was immediately diverted to the Beatles' Sgt.

[330] Ben Edmonds of Circus wrote in 1971 that the "beauty" of Pet Sounds had aged well against "the turbulence of the past few years", adding that "many consider it not only the Beach Boys' finest achievement, but a milestone in the progression of contemporary rock as well.

[378] In 1994, Pet Sounds was voted number 3 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums, a book which surveyed the general public alongside hundreds of critics, musicians, record producers, songwriters, radio broadcasters, and music enthusiasts.

[383] In Music USA: The Rough Guide (1999), Richie Unterberger and Samb Hicks deemed the album a "quantum leap" from the Beach Boys' earlier material, and "the most gorgeous arrangements ever to grace a rock record".

[386] In Chris Smith's 2009 book 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music, Pet Sounds is evaluated as "one of the most innovative recordings in rock" and as the work that "elevated Brian Wilson from talented bandleader to studio genius".

"[285] Music critic Tim Sommer, referencing other albums that are often labeled "masterpieces", such as Thick as a Brick (1972), The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and OK Computer (1997), commented that "only Pet Sounds is written from the teen or adolescent point of view.

"[391] Nordstedt lamented the negative aspects of its influence – namely, the "overproduction" exemplified in the music of the 1980s – as well as the record's inoffensive aesthetics, the lack of "visceral charge", and the fact that it had been co-written by a jingle writer ("it offends every notion of truth that I hold dear about rock 'n' roll").

Tidal contributor Ryan Breed cited the album's "non-rock instrumentation (strings, brass, Theremin, harpsichord, tack piano), dizzying key changes and complex vocal harmonies" as features that informed progressive pop.

[439] In the mid-1990s, Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo and Jim McIntyre of Von Hemmling founded Pet Sounds Studio, which served as the venue for many Elephant 6 projects such as Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,[440] and the Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk at Cubist Castle[441] and Black Foliage.

[47] Jason Guriel of The Atlantic, writing about the record in 2016, drew comparisons with the albums of Michael Jackson, Prince, and Radiohead, and said that Wilson "certainly anticipated the modern pop-centric era, which privileges producer over artist and blurs the line between entertainment and art".

[446] Referencing the album's newfound popularity in 1998, journalist Paul Lester reported that "today's most interesting acts – The High Llamas, Air, Kid Loco, Saint Etienne, Stereolab, Lewis Taylor – are using the Brian Wilson songbook as a resource for their forays into the realms of electronic pop.

[450] Hip-hop producer Questlove recalled that for "black teenagers coming of age in the 1980s", the Beach Boys were out of fashion, and that in the late 1990s, he was ridiculed by "J Dilla, Common, Proof, and a whole bunch of east-side Detroit cats" for enjoying Pet Sounds.

According to cultural theorist Kirk Curnett in 2012, the panel "remains one of the most iconic in Doonesbury's forty-three year history, often credit[ed] with helping humanize AIDS victims when both gay and straight sufferers were severely stigmatized.

[citation needed] In the late 1990s, Carl Wilson vetoed an offer for the Beach Boys to perform Pet Sounds in full for ten shows, reasoning that the studio arrangements were too complex for the stage, and that Brian could not possibly sing his original parts.