known as the "godmother of punk", contributed a review in Hit Parader that was written in the form of a poem. Melody Makers reviewer decreed, "This album can appear insubstantial on early acquaintance, but further attention yields many riches." Casual listeners generally found the album's idiosyncrasies to be a detriment, while some of the group's fans considered the rough vocals and production distracting. Peter Ames Carlin, then a junior high school student who had eagerly anticipated the album's release, recalled of his reaction, "This was his big return — all original songs; a complete Brian production. And you listen to it and you were like, What the hell is this?' It's so different." Wilson himself reviewed the album in the May 1977 issue of Crawdaddy!. His conclusions: "I like the new album better than the last one... It's a cleaner album; the tracks and the songs seem to come off cleaner." One of the few negative reviews of the album, written by Michael Tearson, was published in David Leaf's fanzine Pet Sounds. In another negative review, by a writer for Audio, the album was named "a real disappointment... patronizing and disastrous, the kind of record to get out of a contract with. And that they have done." The writer accused other critics of writing inauthentic positive feedback toward the album, and praised Tearson for being "the only record reviewer who told it like it is. It took guts." Retrospective In the decades since its release, Love You has remained divisive among fans. It has developed a cult following, and it is regarded by some as one of the band's best albums. Writing in his 2017 book The Words and Music of Brian Wilson, Christian Matijas-Mecca called it "extraordinary in its sheer originality and its rejection of contemporary trends in popular music", likening it to "the Smiley Smile of 1977". Matijas-Mecca added that Love You was "the most unexpected album" of 1977 and unlike anything else released that year, concluding that it "remains as surprising and refreshing today as it did upon its original release." AllMusic reviewer John Bush praised the album and believed that "The Night Was So Young," "I'll Bet He's Nice," and "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" form a suite during side two that possesses a breadth of emotional attachment to rival Pet Sounds. Musician magazine's Geoffrey Himes wrote in 1981: "In the bargain bins [the album] collected