Mega64 Record Club Ep. 12 - The Beach Boys - Wild Honey (#410)

Beach Boys is one of those huge cultural blind spots for me, and this record was not a great introduction. Hearing Shawn talk about how this record was made confirmed most of my misgivings after one listen.

I love the Beach Boys and even their worst albums are very listenable. This album was clearly rushed out with half finished tracks but despite all that, it has aged well and the gems like Wild Honey and Darlin show Brian Wilson's genius songwriting is still there despite all the mental issues.

FYI this episode doesn't have the "Record Club" tag on here currently. Youtube comments were doing some wonky stuff earlier so I'm gonna repost here - Thanks for mentioning the tool I sent you! I've backfilled the last few picks, let me know if you need any tips or changes. Guest episodes open up great discussion, and Jennie brings some solid wit to the table, but the solo episodes help keep the runtime down and make the guest eps feel special, so I think it's important to have a mix.

HONAYYY!

Wild Honey was alright, I enjoyed the first couple of songs and then it just got bogged down by meandering nonsense. Wilson was losing it and you can tell with this album. Whipping Post rules.

I like this show :)

Its crazy to me that they cite Stevie Wonder as an influence ive never felt like an album was lacking rhythm like this one did. Really mediocre to me, smile did this wacky schizopop better.

Personally I love the beach boys. If i were to rank them Wild Honey would probably be like my 5th favorite of theirs. It's good but not quite as significant as some of their more substantial albums (Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, Sunflower, Etc.).

Oh wow! Getting Emma on will be sick.

Yo shawn, check out Friends by The Beach Boys (and Pet Sounds, of course, if you haven’t already) - seriously some of the most beautiful music ever written

get emmaaaa ; solo is fun but two people every episode would kill it, jenny rules

Gotta disagree, I loved this album! At least 3 Pieces. Though I will say while the whole A-Side is solid, I lose interest in the second half. But Darlin' is good enough to lift the rest of the album up, what a banger! I would love to see you do a Shawn's Pick album once or twice a year or something, where you pick a personal favorite album (that isn't already on the list) to cover! Would love to hear you talk about something you're more familiar with and genuinely love every once in a while (even if that's not what the point of the series is).

The Allman Brothers Band rules, glad you've been getting into their music! My dad had the greatest hits cd growing up, but its hilarious now that I own their albums.. the greatest hits is like all of their songs, cause they only dropped bangers. A quintessental American Rock Band. Very tragic the stories of Duane Allman & Berry Oakley. To think they were able to make such a lasting impact before reaching 25 is remarkable.

I've never been able to get into The Beach Boys. 💿(𝟏)/𝟓 1st two tracks were not bad, Wild Honey was my favourite, Mama Says was the type of cringe you don't want to get caught listening to and have to explain. Your Allman Brothers review was great, I'm really glad you found a new fav' song and a band you can do a deep-dive on! This is huge. Can't believe we already got Taylor! As a mark for her I'm very excited. 💕 also The Chatfield takeover continues.

I actually thought this record was decent but that’s mainly carried by how good Darlin’ is imo. I really liked that song a lot. Overall this album sounds more generic than The Beach Boys usually sound but I kinda don’t love the classic beach boys sound so that was a welcome change for me. But yeah I thought it was decent, 3/5 and also Whipping Post rules too. Let’s go 99!!!

Disclaimer: haven’t watched the episode yet … Darlin’ Wild Honey and Country Air are my favorites though. Question for fellow Record Clubbers: Would anyone be interested in participating in a Music League to break up their Record Club listening? (It’s free and uses Spotify to generate the playlists - everyone submits a song and people vote on the tunes. It can be a lot of fun!) ETA: I’ll take this part out if not allowed