Critics Richard Goldstein and Nik Cohn noted a disparity between the album's music and lyrics. Cohn suggested that "Pet Sounds" was composed of "sad songs about loneliness and heartache; sad songs even about happiness." "Rolling Stone" editor David Wild compared the lyrics to the songs of Tin Pan Alley: "intelligent and moving, but they're not pretentious." Journalist Seth Rogovoy said that "Pet Sounds" "upends and overturns every Beach Boys cliché, exposing the hollowness at their core." He compares the group's past celebrations of adolescence and teenage romance to "Wouldn't It Be Nice", which "starts right out with a 180-degree turn – 'Wouldn't it be nice if we were older.' What? Really? ... The songs pile up in this vein."