User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 522 Ratings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 398 out of 522
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Mixed: 39 out of 522
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Negative: 85 out of 522
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- Most helpful
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ToddSMay 9, 2009Absolute perfection!
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SethG.Jul 13, 2009I've listened to this album so much. At least once a week, sometimes much more. It's so good!
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TiagoA.Sep 18, 2009A great album, this have soul and it's brilliant.
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AdamSSep 8, 2009Sounds like a good album, but 97! I think this score may have been boosted by critics nostalgia trips.
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DriJan 15, 2010Classic album of a genius.
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RobertB.Jan 8, 2010I love this album. He makes it all seem so easy. Don't think I have ever listened to a pop record that is this far ahead of the game.
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AnthonyLMar 26, 2010Best album ever.
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Mr.XOct 17, 2006So Andy McD must think the crap that those retard rappers and pop artists put out is music. Today's music is such a de-evolution when it comes to musical progress that it makes me sick! It is a good thing I have Brian Wilson's Smile as my medicine. What an excellent album! Great musical and vocal arrangements.If you want to hear real music purchase this album.
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RichardKDec 15, 2006This album is good, but how it got its ranking I'll never understand. I'm obviously missing something. On the other hand, why do some people give 1's and 2's? Is it just to offset the misplaced 10's? Metacritic's ratings always tend to the extreme.
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DaleBSep 23, 2006When you listen to the arrangments, not just the music, but the vocal arrangments, this album towers above any other piece of pop music I have heard. You really need to watch the DVD concert video to take in all that is going on with this musical materpiece. SMiLE is brilliant! And to think Brian and Van Dyke did this at age 23? Mindboggeling!
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RobertASep 24, 2006So good!
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stephjJan 19, 2007music does not get better than this. kudos to Brian Wilson. If only there was music of this caliber today.
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SanderVMar 17, 2007Altough the original tapes sound warmer, the real winning point for this version is its cohesiveness. I never thought it could be pulled of, but it works and it's brilliant. It's a trip, from beginning to end.
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chirsMay 25, 2007are you people insane? this album is amazing. it's wonderfully weird and genius.
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DaveMJul 12, 2007BRILLIANT!!!!! It took me back twenty years, then forward the same. A true work of art. It definitely left me with "Good Vibrations".
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PeterDJul 21, 2007An American classic. Like psychedelic Gershwin.
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SophieJul 31, 2007A really wonderful album, with some very slight faults. If only we had the original with us.
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PlatoSDec 23, 2008
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YaronS.Oct 6, 2008
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ThomH.Apr 26, 2008This is the single most important work of musical art that has ever been produced. Thank you Brian Wilson.
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MikeL.May 31, 2008Godhead!
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JonathanF.Jun 18, 2008Such a beautiful wondrous album so different to pet sounds yet strangely familiar and instant classic in 2004 although i fear it may be released for many year people giving it 0 out of ten im sure would not have if this was released in 1967 and i wish it was as i think pop music today would be a little (if not alot) different.
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JonathanW.Sep 19, 2008No originality? Maybe I'll post more later, but for now I'll just listen to "Surf's Up" one more time, i.e. my favorite song.
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PhilipD.Sep 22, 2008
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MikeA.Nov 20, 2009A true masterpiece of sound and emotion. It was well worth the wait!
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JamesH.Nov 7, 2009This is probably my favorite album to turn to at any time. I just love the songs and how they roll from one to the next. I can just hit play on the iPod and have an hour of total indulgence.
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BillWDec 31, 2009I think it's the album of the decade. I love it more as the years roll on. I listen to it more now than ever. When I hear people dis it I get confused, how can this music not move you? THis is not even "my kind of music" yet when it's on I am in a semi-meditative state and it's one of the few peices of music that can stop my in my tracks.
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DavidH.Jul 27, 2009A perfect composition.
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ShivaM.Aug 25, 2009Well worth the wait. It is definitely one of the best albums of the decade. Anyone not affected by this piece of art is probably just a 20 year old idiot with no taste at all.
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GlynnM.Jan 18, 2010Reignited my faith in music and rediscovery of the Beach Boys.
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JohnYJan 19, 2010
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KamilKFeb 23, 2010"SMiLE" is the best album of 00`s & One of the greatest off all time. Definitely.
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BrianEMar 26, 2010Perfection in Sound
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JackHOct 23, 2006Simply the best album since Abbey Road.
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danhJan 11, 2007This album is better than pet sounds. It is amazing but would have been better if the other living beach boys were on it.
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MichaelT.Nov 3, 2007This album more than lives up to its own hype. The only slight dissapointment is I don't think the vocal harmonies are as good as the original Beach Boys whould of been but I think his new group do a stella job anyway.
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AbrahamR.Nov 8, 2007
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RickFeb 19, 2007
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EliEMay 29, 2007Any flaws you could point out in Brian's vocals compared to the original tapes are drastically outweighed by the faithful attempt at reconstructing this greatest of lost pop albums.
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EvanWJun 16, 2007
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kevinkJun 22, 2007all of to say is pretty much what the last three people have said except the exact opposite. in the world of pop music brian wilson is god SMiLE is the bible
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liorsJul 13, 2007it's really wonderful , buy this album if you have listened to "pet sounds" before, buy this album if you are willing to give "smile" a chance to be finished and not stay an inflated myth. do not buy this album only because it got a good rating on metacritic , music is a matter of taste not grades.
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JoséLuisSJul 28, 2007The best of the best... Brian Wilson is a true genius!!!
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LeeC.Sep 23, 2007i think, this is better than 'pet sounds'.
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CarlPNov 7, 2008
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AlexTFeb 12, 2008
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TimothyM.May 28, 2008The best American album ever.
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ChrisSJan 12, 2009
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JoeS.Jul 18, 2009'Tis very good, yeah!
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EvaBNov 29, 2006
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JustinBDec 29, 2007Wondrous!
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ruggeroruggeroNov 16, 2009
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Jan 24, 2011
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Mar 21, 2011The greatest album of all time. Without a doubt. Despite being 37 years old, and with Brian's voice not being anywhere near what it used to be... it's is still astonishing. A tapestry of sounds, imagery, words, ideas and spiritual energies. You have to be fairly bright to "get it".. but my god, if you do.
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Sep 29, 2011
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Oct 22, 2014
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Sep 2, 2021Really emotional, a brilliant masterpiece. Take a moment of your time to listen this album, donĀ“t listen this album as your background sound, you will miss a lot of excellent stuff and ruin your entire experience.
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Jun 11, 2022It took a while for me to really "get" this album, but when it did I was speechless.
Better than Seargent Pepper? Absolutly, this is a masterpiece.
Way better than I thought it would be, I am stunned.
Awards & Rankings
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Smile is quite simply the greatest triumph in the history of pop music.
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Smile's post-adolescent utopia isn't disfigured by Brian's thickened, soured 62-year-old voice. It's ennobled--the material limitations of its sunny artifice and pretentious tomfoolery acknowledged and joyfully engaged.
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Los Angeles Times"Smile" emerges as a beautiful and cohesive work, at times deeply moving, at others oddly whimsical, at still others eerily disturbing but celebratory. [27 Sep 2004]