Jim DeRogatis, author of a book about psychedelic music, surmised that Wilson's LSD use led him to write more introspective work, a contrast from the Beatles, who after taking LSD began addressing problems in the world around them. According to academics Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell, "Pet Sounds" has a "personal intimacy" that sets it apart from the Beach Boys' contemporaries in psychedelic culture and the San Francisco Sound, but still retains a "trippy feel" that resulted from Wilson's experimental use of LSD. 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". In 2016, Wilson said that psychedelic elements are present in a number of the songs, but believed "the album itself is mostly not psychedelic".