I was surprised that Chuck Britz called Holland a piece of crap in that 1993 interview available on YouTube. Ok, from a mastering point of view, I hear some inconsistencies on the California Saga suite f.e., but otherwise, I don't know what his problem was.
Although I enjoy HOLLAND, it is one of the worst-sounding Beach Boys releases from an engineering standpoint (which probably colored Britz's view of it). SMILEY SMILE and WILD HONEY are in that boat, too, but HOLLAND sticks out because it came after three excellent-to-good releases, engineering-wise. I assume the whole "building a studio in Holland" was to blame, but the album's muddiness can be off-putting. The vocal mixing is especially bad ("California" is about the best; "Funky Pretty" the worst). Even the most recent CD reissue has the right channel dropping out at several points during the early portions of the album (although this could be due to simple tape decay). I suppose the haziness of everything has a certain charm, but it's a long way from the sonic brilliance of SUNFLOWER just three years earlier.
those are tape dropouts caused by deterioration of the master they used on the 2000 CD reissue. the dropouts appear sproadically through "Big Sur" and "Beaks Of Eagles". the original vinyl does not have this issue. not sure if the 1991 CD reissue iss affected or not. 1970s-era tapes are notorious for having "sticky-shed" syndrome, which is essentially the backcoating of the tape turning to liquid. the tapes then have to be baked in order to be played through and are fairly fragile from that point on. This occurred with Ampex 456 (as well as some others), which was industry standard. i don't know what brand tapes were used for HOLLAND.
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