Beach Boys: Wild Honey

Beach Boys: Wild Honey

1967

Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Wild Honey  2. Aren't You Glad  3. I Was Made to Love Her  4. Country Air 5. A Thing or Two  6. Darlin'  7. I'd Love Just Once to See You  8. Here Comes the Night  9. Let the Wind Blow  10. How She Boogalooed It  11. Mama Says

The Beach Boys drop surf-rock and modular psychedelia and recast themselves as an R& B pop band, and they actually pull it off beautifully! I've loved this record since I first picked it up in the late 90's... I used to put this CD in my car stereo whenever I had a day off of work and drive down  the Michigan countryside during the Summer, just blasting "Darlin'" with the windows down...It's that kind of record...

You can see Brian receding somewhat from his previous leadership role...The album is produced by the entire band and there's a lot of new names popping up in the songwriting credits...even Al Jardine gets in on the songwriting action with the infectiously nerdy "How She Boogalooed It."

The record doesn't have the famous big, warm, and fuzzy production of their prior albums, but the sound is replaced by a buoyant soulfulness. The band sounds psyched just to be doing this type of music, and the whole thing sounds fun...The only time they really slow down and catch their breath is on  the building ballad  "Let the Wind Blow," but even the winding vocal interplay on that one keeps it lively.

Their idiosyncrasies seem slightly downplayed, too...Perhaps it's just a side effect of listening to it back to back with the bizarro  "Smiley Smile... The only truly strange material on here is the acapella "Smile" outtake "Mama Says" which reminds us to brush our teeth, eat a lot, and exercise, and  "I'd Love Just Once to See You" which is so mundane that it becomes surreal as Brian outlines eating, drinking, doing dishes and wistfully asks the question, "When's the last time you baked me a pie?"    I won't ruin the song's surprise punchline for you...You just have to hear it...

I really love playing this record and have no problem mentioning this in the same breath as "Pet Sounds" and "Smile." I think it was absolutely the right move for the band...This new direction didn't exactly set the word  on fire commercially-speaking, but we all know artistic success has nothing to do with commercial success, right?  If not...Soak in the sad sight of Joey Lawrence's Gold-certified debut album...

....and realize that it's merely the 90's version of Drake...

Anyway, enough taste-shaming...Let's check out "Wild Honey" by the Beach Boys...Cos it has a cool organ solo...