Believe it or not, you don't have to buy an exhaustive box set in order to appreciate an album. She's said she's a fan of the band many times prior to this, if I recall correctly.
I don't know about you but I can't stand hyperboles like "I
love this album". Love is a strong word, and music listening is a strange sociology. If somebody is ambivalent, so-so, or simply fond of a work, that's fine by me for them to admit. I would never tell anybody that I love Pet Sounds if the only tracks that I deeply felt from it were Wouldn't It Be Nice and Sloop John B. It's a 40-minute piece with a lot of meat; anybody who enthuses the main course ought to be demanding the chef for dessert. And I didn't appreciate Pet Sounds at all until I heard Sessions a couple of years ago. It's not just some box set.
Meh. Love takes on many forms and goes to many extents and you're really splitting hairs. Expressing what you get out of music with language is always gonna tell about 1% of the story, if that. I realize it's "not just some box set", but I like (a lot) or love every single song on Pet Sounds and, to me, that's absolutely enough to justify saying "I love Pet Sounds" or "Pet Sounds is an influence on my life". I'm not sure why it's assumed she only likes two songs from the album. A couple other people I've talked to want to (not you) turn this into some kind of "That dumb bit
ch didn't even know about the Pet Sounds box!" dick measuring contest.
A dick measuring contest of any sort is about the last thing an art form needs. You like it, you like it. You love it, you love it. If it makes you feel good, there's no need to over-think it or try to validate your appreciation of it over someone else's. f*** that sh
it forever and ever. Katy Perry comes up to me and tells me she loves The Beach Boys, I say "Cool" or "Hey, me too, let's talk about it", not, "Psh, you c
unt, your music's terrible, have you even f
ucking
heard take 3 of 'Trombone Dixie'?"
I agree with you one million percent.