Beach Boys Wild Honey Is Massively Underrated

Good, but not great in my opinion. It may be pretty much unknown by the general public, so in that sense maybe it could be called underrated.

 

Confession Time: I have never heard Wild Honey...

I do remember Mark Linnet talking about remixing the catalog. and he mentioned something to the effect of 'we found a much better tape of the Wild Honey, it's just sonically a million miles better than the album master.'
...but I also heard that there are aspects of the Mono mix that don't carry over to the Stereo mix.

So my question is... is the sonic upgrade and stereo mix worth missing out on the stuff only in the mono mix.

 

You'll have to check it out for yourself and see what you think. IMO, both mixes are essential, the mono mix because of the missing aspects and the stereo mix because of the improved sound.

 

I'm a big fan of this album too. It's one their best, and hands down the best one they made after Brian stepped away from the group following the SMiLE sessions. Wild Honey and Sunflower are the only two from the "later" years that I still listen to from start-to-finish.

 

Yeah, the remix doesn't have any charm. But I listen to it sometimes just to hear the album, say, differently...

 

20/20 may be underrated. Not Wild Honey.

 

Holland is!

 

I think another issue I have with it being called 'massively underrated' is that when you at the month of December 1967 and see what else was released - look what it went up against:

Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold As Love
Small Faces - There Are But 4 Small Faces
Traffic - Mr. Fantasy
The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request
The Who - The Who Sell Out
Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Leonard Cohen
Donovan - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden
Dusty Springfield - The Look Of Love
Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle

So on one hand I do really like the album but seeing it against these that month - it was one of the best holiday seasons ever and I can't see this album being better than the ones listed. I won't even get into November 1967 which had 'Magical Mystery Tour', 'Forever Changes', 'After Bathing At Baxter's', 'Disreali Gears'. Tough time to release a small album with little ambition but it's successful at its small scope.

 

Now this is one that's underrated!

 

i don't know about the remix being "without charm," i really enjoy listening to it, even aside from the "wow, this is really well done and academically interesting" side of the picture.

the mono mixes in the 60's sometimes sound like throwaways, and that sorta' makes sense (disposable pop music), but for all the work brian put into some of his productions, he almost seems like he'd lost interest by the time it came to mixing.

if forced to choose, i'd almost always come down on the side of mono for the beach boys on capitol, but a lot of the stereo mixes get a lot of play on my radio.

(oh, and yeah - i'd throw my vote in the "this is an under-rated album" bucket...)

smitquest

 

Underrated by whom? Most BB fans have it in their Top 5-10.

 

Wild Honey, an album I try very hard to rate highly, could more accurately be described as Wild Honey and Darlin' plus other stuff. Those two songs are among the best in the band's catalog, but they are disproportionately good compared to the rest of the album.

 

I love the simple charms and soulful whimsy of Wild Honey. I’m going to seek out that green label true mono version, but I do think the 2017 stereo version was like lifting a towel off the speaker.

Same for Smiley Smile, I actually detested that one until the stereo came along and revealed greater depth and clarity. And the bonus tracks allowed me to cobble together a more satisfying playlist.

As nice as the bonus tracks are for Wild Honey, that album really is kinda perfect, as is. Short and oh so sweet.

 

Beware! I was arrested here for prefering remixes once...

 

I think they both have their charm

 

Two great tracks indeed, but I personally think "Country Air" is absolutely magical and easily their equal...

 

An excellent album, if somewhat short and slight. Kind of like a more rocking version of “Friends”, even though WH came first.

Love the cover as well.

The title song and “Here Comes the Night” are a blast, and I like Brian’s sense of humor with the surprise ending on one of the songs. Darlin’ is a perfect top 40 hit as well.

 

It's good and includes two of my top 10 BB songs, Darlin' and the title track. A big drawback - it's only 24 minutes long. Surely they could have put a couple more songs on it.

 

It's my favorite album of theirs. I prefer it to Pet Sounds by an almost immeasurable margin.

 

To me Wild Honey + Friends aren’t just chill albums, they’re THE chill albums.

 

On my Top Ten list!

 

Boooooooooing! Poof !

 

Ok, folks. I have the original mono lp and the version that's part of the twofer from 1975 couple with Friends. I've listened to both. I like much better the version in the twofer. It definitely sounds better. Now I don't have the stereo 50th version yet. I'm assuming that this one will sound different from either of these based on what I've read above. I sure wish that I could hear the 1980 green Capitol label version.

 

I have a copy on vinyl, when i realized it was mono it freaked me out, really crazy sounding album