The Smiley Smile Message Board

Mr. Jarhead suggested I make more of these polls so here's another one.

This one will be tough. I haven't heard Friends or 20/20 yet. Hopefully the two-fer arrives in the mail tomorrow :). So at the moment it's Wild Honey.
Edit: It arrived and I've listened to it for a week and here's my rankings.

1. 20/20
2. Friends
3. Wild Honey
4. Smiley Smile
Post your favourite.

04. Smiley Smile.
03. Friends.
02. Wild Honey.
01. 20/20.

I don't care if 20/20 is a filler album, it's got I Can Hear Music, Be With Me and All I Want To Do. Those 3 songs alone along with the other tracks make 20/20 my favourite BB's album of the late-60's.

Throgh really all four albums are some of the best the BB's ever made, along with Pet Sounds, The SMiLE Sessions and their early-70's albums!

1) Friends
2) Smiley Smile
3) Wild Honey
4) 20/20

20/20, hands down.  I know it's sacrilege around here but the three post-Smile albums are my three least favorite albums by the band until Love You (which I know is just as hard for most people around here to believe). 

The reason Smile wasn't finished was simple:  Brian cracked; in as much as he'd lost his confidence (which led to him being unable to "crack the code" in how the parts fit together, which is the ONLY reason Smile was scrapped).  The three post Smile albums, as well as Lei'd In Hawaii, were the band still following Brian who, having given up on his old approach decided to take the band in a new, and totally different direction.  Gone were the lush arrangements and dense instrumentation.  Instead, he focused more on the band's talents as a vocal group; in a way, pulling himself out of competition with the Beatles and the Stones, etc, by putting him and the Boys in an entirely different kind of category of music.  Stripped way down, instrumentation was almost an afterthought to his new arrangements, as were lyrics.  Now more than ever to this point, Brian really started producing "feels", with an strong emphasis on almost chant-like vocals.  And all of that is fine and dandy but it's just my cup of tea (which by the way also happens to be fine and dandy). 

With 20/20, it was no longer "Brian's band" (in the same way that it was) but Carl, Dennis, Al, and even Bruce stepped up in terms of production and brought the band back, closer to the sound the public liked them for in the first place.  Why did the band's popularity take a nosedive in the late-60's?  Listen to "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Good Vibrations", and "Heroes And Villains" and compare them to "Gettin' Hungry", "Friends", and the studio version of "Wild Honey".  Lennon may have been moving further and further away from "clean" Pop when he started riding the white horse but he still had McCartney there with him to "trick" the public into thinking everything was still par the course, making Lennon's stuff sound like an additional sound in their arsenal, rather than a different one than what the fans had liked before.  During this time, when the Beach Boys DID have success ("Do It Again", "Darlin'", etc.) it was stuff that sounded much more like Brian's old style.

I don't fault anyone for liking the other three albums but "MY" favorite Beach Boys stuff is Today through Smile and *I* prefer cleaner, more polished production over the stripped down sound of the immediate post-Smile stuff.

This ain't a tough decision for me!  Wild Honey was music for Brian to cool out by.  Think I'll have some right now........in stereo of course!

Friends

once Brian cooled out he was able to make this mellow masterpiece. nothin' like it.

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Contrary to Phoenix, this is my favorite era of Beach Boy albums.

1. Friends - Quite an easy choice for me. Love every track dearly, from start to finish.
2. Wild Honey & 20/20 - Hard to pick one over the other. May be a bit of a cop out, but I'll have to lump 'em together.
3. Smiley Smile - The album I listen to least from this era. It's a great album, but the other ones are better.

Friends for me then Wild Honey.

Wild Honey, although Smiley Smile is very close behind.

I love all four, but Friends has always been my favorite Beach Boys album from any era.

1. Friends
2. Wild honey
3. 20/20
4. Smiley smile

Really, #2,3,4 are so close that I could easily switch them around every day

A couple years ago I might have gone with 20/20, but I think Friends takes it now.  Little Bird, Friends, and Busy Doin' Nothin' all are indispensable additions to the catalogue.  The production may still be low-fi on some tracks compared to its successor, but the aural space and especially the vocals go a long way.  Speaking of the vocals, I mentioned in another thread how it feels like at this unique point in the band's history, every member's voice seems to be at or near the top of its game.  All good albums from the lesser heard late 60's Beach Boys.

1. Friends (1968)
2. 20/20 (1969)
3. Wild Honey (1967)
4. Smiley Smile (1967)

1. Wild Honey
2. 20/20
3. Friends
4. Smiley Smile

If this included 1970, it would be Sunflower by a huge margin for me!  Wild Honey is the one I listen to most often out of these four.  It's groovy and it rocks!  Still waiting for the stereo version.

20/20 is pretty disjointed, but it has a high percentage of good songs and the sound is pretty good overall.

Friends is all potential--a very cool cover, great stereo sound, nice warm vibe--but for me it's a letdown and I get bored with it right after Wake the World. 

And Smiley Smile is......well, Smiley Smile.   

1. Smiley Smile (by a lot)
2. Wild Honey
3. Friends
4. 20/20

Top 2... 1} 20//20   2} Wild Honey

1) Friends
2) 20/20
3) Smiley Smile
4) Wild Honey

I just adore Friends--head and shoulders above the others for me, and while I love Wild Honey, I find 20/20's eclectic mix and Smiley Smile's inventive vocal arrangements to create a more superior listening experience for me

Like I said, different strokes...   :drunks

1. Wild Honey
2. Friends
3. 20/20
4. Smiley Smile

Honey!

The Wilson/Love writing team at their best....

1) Smiley Smile - A great "WTF album".  From the great (GV, H&V), to the pretty (Little Pad, With Me Tonight), to the whimsical (She's Goin' Bald, Whistlin'), to the bizarre (Wind Chimes, Woodpecker).  Honestly, if "The SMiLE Sessions" didn't exist, this would probably be my favorite Beach Boys' album...maybe.

2) Friends - Such a cool listen; love the 3/4 waltzes!

3) Wild Honey - Though stripped down and a bit off-sounding at times, it feels completely unique in the Beach Boys canon.

4) 20/20 - There are a few stellar tracks on this album, but the total lack of cohesiveness is very off-putting.

Smiley Smile. Beautiful vocals. Very soothing.

I know 20/20 is not cohesive, but it has some great songs on it.

This was a really tough one.
1. Smiley Smile
2. Friends
3. Wild Honey

4. 20/20

Friends
Wild Honey
20/20
Smiley Smile

I'm not even 100% sure. All four are great.

I added Friends and 20/20 to my rankings.

1. Smiley Smile
2. Wild Honey
3. Friends (I have yet to "get" this album)
4. 20/20 (fourth because of "All I Want To Do")

The first two are interchangeable. I put SS first because it needs my vote more. 

Smiley. The most interesting and fun album on the list

The very best Smiley Smile.