After the Smile sessions shut down, the Beach Boys became much more of a band than they had been in the mid-'60s. They began playing most of their own instruments on record for the first time since 1963, and Brian Wilson was no longer nearly as dominant a production mastermind. The problem was, as Wilson increasingly withdrew from a leadership role (and, subsequently, from the real world altogether), the Beach Boys were revealed as a group that, although capable of producing some fine and interesting music, were no longer innovators on the level of the Beatles and other figureheads. Wild Honey had a looser, funkier feel than any previous Beach Boys effort, at times approaching a kind of bleached-out white soul. The resulting music was often quite pleasant, for the great harmonies if nothing else, but the material and arrangements were quite simply thinner than they had been for a long time. The record does feature a nice Top 20 hit in "Darlin'" (even if it was a rewrite of a song that had been composed four years earlier, and recorded by Sharon Marie). The small hit single "Wild Honey," with its seductive theremin lines, was also a highlight, and "Here Comes the Night" (a group original, not the Them hit) also had a lot of appeal. But much of the rest was pleasing but inessential. A 1990 Capitol CD combines this and Smiley Smile onto one disc, adding previously unreleased in-progress versions of "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains," the a cappella B-side "You're Welcome," a 1967 version of "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring," and an excellent outtake, "Can't Wait Too Long."
(by Richie Unterberge, AMG)
And, so begins the second great era of Beach Boys music. This is unlike any album they've recorded before or since. It's a special album in it's own right, however. The production of 'Pet Sounds' and 'Smile' has gone completely, these are mostly live performances, rhythm and blues songs and going back to the roots of what excited Brian Wilson about music in the first place. He plays wonderful boogie piano all over this record. The piano and the melodies in general are so inventive and strong, they go way beyond what is normally required for a rock album. No less an authority than Jim Morrison of The Doors expressed a love of this 'Wild Honey' album, a strange thing given their previous un-hip striped shirt image. These guys were hip! Okay?! Anyway, 'Wild Honey' with it's creaking Theremin sound opens the album and it's surely no 'Good Vibrations'. Very raw musically, and long term Beach Boys fans must have been scratching their heads over the song. 'Aren't You Glad' is simply wonderful though. Brian leads from the back with the piano melodies. The vocals are both soft, expressive, raw and brilliant, all at the same time. Carl's vocals on the record as a whole are a thing to behold, he sounds like he's enjoying himself. They all do actually. 'I Was Made To Love Her' is a Stevie Wonder song, doesn't sound like one here, though. Again, the piano holds it together. Bass, little shuffling percussion.... great vocals! All this, and 'Country Air' too. Now this really is special. The singing just soars through the air the listener is inhabiting. Little whistle parts that make you smile, Brian's melodies again. None of these songs are 'productions', none are ambitious works of art. All are simple, enjoyable and really just rather wonderful. None more so than 'Country Air', actually. 'A Thing Or Two' is a less enjoyable, a faster number, it loses it's beauty as it goes along.
The second half of the album opens with 'Darlin' - a top twenty hit when they'd all but stopped having hits. A Carl vocal tour de force, the best group vocals of the entire record and a very good song too. 'I'd Love Just Once To See You' doesn't work and seems a left over from the 'Smiley Smile' sessions. Done in 'Wild Honey' style it really sounds, well, odd. 'Here Comes The Night' is funky! It would later be re-done as an attempted disco classic, this is the original recording and it's rather fine. 'Let The Wind Blow' contains one of the finest melodies Brian ever wrote, again his Piano is everywhere. It's hard to credit that this one song contains more melody in fact than some entire groups albums do. No, really, it does! Very subtle and soft sounding melodies with great echoed vocal effects. 'How She Boogalooed It' was a group composition minus Brian, the first like that they ever did and 'Mama Says' closes the album displaying good group harmony parts. It's a very short vocal work-out, nothing more. It works well as album closer, though. If none of the songs here are all time Beach Boys classics, the album as a whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Always rewarding, always entertaining.
(Adrian Denning)
