Pet Sounds is one of the greatest albums of all time.
That's what they say. Other than Good Vibrations and couple others, I just don't agree "of all time". Maybe I just didn't get Brian Wilson's softer stuff. His so called masterpiece "Smile" is boring. Give me the Stones any time. They are still on honky tonk jukeboxes to this day. Yeah okay, Sympathy for the Devil is a 3+ chord song. Besides Gimme Shelter, it has been used in more movies than just about anything. Some things rock, some things are interesting.
Actually, the key to Pet Sounds was the Tony Asher lyrics - far more mature than Brian Wilson's bubble gum crap.
Additionally "Sloop John B" was an old folk song.
Brian's music & production was excellent...BUT he needed a LARGE helping hand from Tony Asher and the Wrecking Crew - both are largely ignored in the praises of Pet Sounds.