"Pet Sounds" has since appeared in many "greatest records of all time" lists and has provoked extensive discourse regarding its musicianship and production. Writing in 1997, "The New York Observer"s D. Strauss said that the album's quality and subversion of rock traditions is "what created its special place in rock history; there was no category for its fans to place it in ... But placed within the Easy Listening genre-i.e., elevator music-it becomes a historically grounded, if incredibly ambitious, release." 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".