often refer to the second side of the record as a precursor to the 1966 album Pet Sounds. Writing for PopMatters, Bolin called Today! "an important artifact, with its sound forming a link between the Beach Boys' doo-wop-influenced beginnings and the lush and orchestral Pet Sounds. Interrante wrote that it was "an exciting album" that showed early signs of Wilson "blur[ring] the lines between ballad and uptempo songs", and that in contrast to Pet Sounds, "Today! is about the optimism, not the sadness, of leaving adolescence." Less favorably, biographer Steven Gaines criticized Today! as "not one of Brian's best works, consisting mostly of a melange of uninspired car tunes ..." Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger declared that it was "strong almost from start to finish." Similarly, Schinder wrote that it "would have been the first Beach Boys LP to be sublime from beginning to end, were it not for the closing track". Interrante said of "Bull Session with the 'Big Daddy'", "one seriously questions why it was included at all. ... I think we can all agree that the album would be better off without it." Bolin decreed that "it can be hard to separate Today! from the masterpiece it led to – so much so that Today! can feel like a rehearsal for Pet Sounds, with its themes and ideas repeated and perfected in the later album." However, she also states that "to hear it only in relation to Pet Sounds would be to undermine what a strange and original work Today! really is." Today! regularly appears on "top album lists" conducted by publications such as Rolling Stone. In 2005, it was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2007, The Guardian included it among "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die". In 2012, it was ranked number 271 on Rolling Stones list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", with the entry stating, "Brian Wilson was already a genius. He writes sweet California tunes here, and the haunting 'She Knows Me Too Well' hits Pet Sounds-deep." On the list's 2020 edition, the record's position descended to number 466. , it is listed as the 997th-highest rated album on Acclaimed Music. Impact and influence With Today!, the Beach Boys established themselves as album artists rather than just a singles band. Schinder credited its "suite-like structure" with presenting "an early manifestation