Favourite, least favourite, overrated, and underrated Beach Boys album

[Lonely Summer]

His words absolutely nail the deeper appeal of The Beach Boys. What listening to albums such as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends and Love You is like. This is not normal music by not normal people (as if there’s such thing as normal). These albums are unique and outsider and I thank the stars above for that. This band is like no other and Bangs nailed just why. Thanks Lester.

I wouldn't put Love You in the same category as Smiley, Honey or Fiends. Those three albums feature some of the most beautiful vocals ever recorded.
I knew the first time I listened to Smiley that it wasn't going to be Smile, that a lot of people hated it. It's almost an accapella album. I love it, and I don't even imbibe.

[Summer_Days]

I put Love You in the same category as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends because they’re strong examples of where The Beach Boys, especially Brian, were musically generally out of step with everyone else in pop music and were uniquely brilliant. One could argue that Love You is an even better example of this because it’s the biggest, most different oddball out of all.

[Doobidoo]

I put Love You in the same category as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends because they’re strong examples of where The Beach Boys, especially Brian, were musically generally out of step with everyone else in pop music and were uniquely brilliant. One could argue that Love You is an even better example of this because it’s the biggest, most different oddball out of all.

Beautifully spoken Summer_Days

[Bicyclerider]

Favorite: Sunflower
Least favorite: Summer in Paradise (I don’t consider Stars and Stripes a Beach Boys album).
Most overrated:  Surfs Up
Underrated: MIU Album

[Lonely Summer]

I put Love You in the same category as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends because they’re strong examples of where The Beach Boys, especially Brian, were musically generally out of step with everyone else in pop music and were uniquely brilliant. One could argue that Love You is an even better example of this because it’s the biggest, most different oddball out of all.

I have to disagree on Love You being uniquely brilliant.

[Summer_Days]

Figured somebody would’ve. It’s very divisive and I totally understand those who have difficulty with Love You. It’s not as grand as Sunflower, it’s not in the same ballpark, no scratch that, it’s not in the same hemisphere as Pet Sounds. It’s not that kind of brilliant. Nothing is as brilliant as Brian’s untouchable masterpiece. I wouldn’t call Love You a masterpiece at all actually. It’s just a peculiar, memorable, endearing, enduring, sweeter than candy peek into Brian Wilson’s heart and soul. That’s what makes Love You it’s own kind of brilliant in a delightful, offbeat way. Your mileage may vary.

[All Summer Long]

I put Love You in the same category as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends because they’re strong examples of where The Beach Boys, especially Brian, were musically generally out of step with everyone else in pop music and were uniquely brilliant. One could argue that Love You is an even better example of this because it’s the biggest, most different oddball out of all.

I have to disagree on Love You being uniquely brilliant.

I'll probably agree on Love You but disagree on Smiley Smile. Obviously GV is good.  Same with H&V and Vegetables.  There are some songs/parts of songs I don't understand and never will and others I flip-flop on.  I think I've only heard the entire album fully a handful of times. Love Wild Honey, and haven't had a chance to buy a copy of Friends yet but I like what I've heard so far.

[Lonely Summer]

I put Love You in the same category as Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends because they’re strong examples of where The Beach Boys, especially Brian, were musically generally out of step with everyone else in pop music and were uniquely brilliant. One could argue that Love You is an even better example of this because it’s the biggest, most different oddball out of all.

I have to disagree on Love You being uniquely brilliant.

I'll probably agree on Love You but disagree on Smiley Smile. Obviously GV is good.  Same with H&V and Vegetables.  There are some songs/parts of songs I don't understand and never will and others I flip-flop on.  I think I've only heard the entire album fully a handful of times. Love Wild Honey, and haven't had a chance to buy a copy of Friends yet but I like what I've heard so far.

I'm sure that Smiley sounds better on marijuana or LSD, but I don't know, having never tried either. I just think the vocals are so amazing - strip away all the production the Boys had been using for the previous 2 or 3 years, put the focus solely on thos beautiful voices.
And Love You probably sounds better on Prozac.

[Summer_Days]

@All Summer Long if you have a smart phone and have either Google Play, Apple Music or Spotify (I haven’t used Spotify in a few years but I’d be surprised if the album isn’t on their anymore), you can listen to Friends or the whole album on YouTube. Friends is one of the true great Beach Boys albums, warm, sweet, laid back and harmonically gorgeous.

[ForHerCryingSoul]

Fav: Tied between Smile Sessions and Love You (Pet Sounds is in a close third, with MIU/Adult Child a distant 4th). Each of these albums are very off the wall in different ways. I love Brian's control on the production studio/vocals. There isn't anything else like it, and nothing since imo. Songs are instantly hummable imo, heck I'm doing a sheet music project on Love You, if that confirms my biases.

Least Fav: KTSA - the way the vocals are processed is so irritating to my ears. I just can't get past it... Songs are below average imo and better mixed on other sources (see When Girls Get Together), there are better scraps too (Brian's Phil Spector stuff, Dennis' Bambu stuff, even Mike's stuff left in the can are better material than what came out, besides Goin' On imo, unlike LA, I am not a fan of Bruce's soft production touches).

Underrated: Beach Boys (1985), I think it deserved a better chart placement/promotion. Imo, good songs, good balance of Bw input + band. Good singing, the band finally sounds youthful-ish again after the disaster that was KTSA... Can't stand the Culture Club production now, but there are good songs in there, especially Getcha Back (even tho it's a Springsteen rip off), Where I Belong, and Male Ego (which should have appeared on the main LP instead of hidden in the CD release... The band shouldn't have been kicked to the curb like they were after this album came out and dried up.

Overrated: Sunflower (I love schmaltzy songs, but Add Some Music just comes across as dentist waiting room music. It needed more of a hard edge like Surf's Up. Maybe it should have been a double album of Sunflower/Surf's Up, and put the whole package together as a double LP, especially since Sunflower completely bombed).

These are my thoughts as of today, things ebb and flow, much like the fortunes, legacies, and turbulence of this band.
 

[Debbie KL]

Best in a nutshell:

It was charming and funny when Brian asked me, in 1969, what my favorite BBs album was, followed by a quick (before I could answer), "I mean, except for 'Pet Sounds'." I said "Friends" and he was so happy. He really loved that album. That would be my most underrated - although "Love You," in all it's oddities, was brilliant.

I have no idea how to pick between "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" as a favorite (okay, "Smile" was a BW band recording, not BBs, but it should count, I think).

Worst: The first time I heard SIP (decades later, thank heavens) and through a link on this MB, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then I realized that they were apparently serious. I've never made my way through "Stars and Stripes," and probably won't. Life is too short. I also really hated that disco monstrosity on "LA Light."

Overrated: I really don't have a good answer, other than the last paragraph. There was something brilliant on nearly all the other albums.

[The Nearest Faraway Place]

Best in a nutshell:

It was charming and funny when Brian asked me, in 1969, what my favorite BBs album was, followed by a quick (before I could answer), "I mean, except for 'Pet Sounds'." I said "Friends" and he was so happy. He really loved that album. That would be my most underrated - although "Love You," in all it's oddities, was brilliant.

I have no idea how to pick between "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" as a favorite (okay, "Smile" was a BW band recording, not BBs, but it should count, I think).

Worst: The first time I heard SIP (decades later, thank heavens) and through a link on this MB, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then I realized that they were apparently serious. I've never made my way through "Stars and Stripes," and probably won't. Life is too short. I also really hated that disco monstrosity on "LA Light."

Overrated: I really don't have a good answer, other than the last paragraph. There was something brilliant on nearly all the other albums.

I actually like HCTN. The BB vocals on a disco track just work for me

[Julia]

Favorite: Pet Sounds

Least Favorite: 15BO (there's worse but this one was the worst at the most disastrous time and everyone knew it sucked but let it out anyway)

Overrated: Surfs Up but Sunflower is close. I hate how obnoxious the boomer SU apologists get though when anyone doesn't like their favorite album from when they were 14 or whatever.

Underrated: Probably Surfer Girl? Maybe SS or LY (they obviously have their fans these two but still very strong detractors and not a lot of mainstream acclaim)

[Zenobi]

Fav: varies, right now it's a tie between Smiley Smile and Love You

Least fav: no doubt here: Light Album, just for the 11- mins unbelievably boring disco monstrosity, if nothing else

Overrated: Pet Sounds - great, of course, but not the best album ever; and there is a moment when hype, even if justified, really starts to annoy me

Underrated: Summer in Paradise - opposite of Pet Sounds: ok, bad it is, but there are many worse things around, and I actually like the title song

[Julia]

Fav: varies, right now it's a tie between Smiley Smile and Love You

Least fav: no doubt here: Light Album, just for the 11- mins unbelievably boring disco monstrosity, if nothing else

Overrated: Pet Sounds - great, of course, but not the best album ever; and there is a moment when hype, even if justified, really starts to annoy me

Underrated: Summer in Paradise - opposite of Pet Sounds: ok, bad it is, but there are many worse things around, and I actually like the title song

Not asking in a defensive way but totally curious: whats your favorite album of all time, or if you're one to speculate on such things, what do you think is the "best" album ever made?
I agree that hype annoys me too, especially if it's unjustified. Which is why Im contractually obligated to remind everyone I think Sgt Pepper is overrated

[Zenobi]

My answer to the second question is easy: there is no "best" album, and there is no best pop album, no best jazz music, no best heavy metal album etc. All far too subjective.

Even when a kind of consensus is reached, like Shakespeare being the best writer ever, or Hayao Miyazaki being the best creator of anime movies, it still does not mean that's the truth. If somebody thinks Goethe, or respectively Makoto Shinkai, is better, more power to them. Democracy should determine who's to rule the nation (for a while, do you get this Macron?), not what's true.

Now to the difficult question - which is my fav album. Very, very hard, but I'll try an answer. Currently, I'd say that it's "Blue Jays", the all but forgotten "duo" masterpiece by Justin Hayward and John Lodge of the Moody Blues. Unbelievable "pastoral" atmosphere right from the title and the cover, great melodies, great harmonies, great production, literally unbelievable guitar work by Justin, fantastic orchestral textures by John. Also, no hype whatsoever...

[BJL]

Favorite: Today. The Beach Boys album I love best and listen to most. I know it's no Pet Sounds on a technical level, but in my eyes it's just as perfect. I even love Bull Sessions with Big Daddy. One of my own most heretical Beach Boys takes is that I think fans are wrong to dismiss Bull Sessions as a "throwaway" or “filler" track. Brian had plenty of songs and, in this period, the ability to basically write new ones on command. He could have knocked out an instrumental in an afternoon. It seems obvious to me that he liked having the skits and spoken word bits on the records, that it appealed to him creatively, and that Bull Sessions was recorded and included with full creative intention as part of the experience of listening to The Beach Boys Today. And although it makes little sense in the streaming era (or, really, the era of automatic advance and shuffle on a CD player, even), as someone who has listened to the album through in sequence probably a thousand times, it is a really effective and unusual end to the record, that maintains but also plays with the tone the ballads set. Also, it’s the obvious precursor to the spoken word aspect of Smile. (And Pet Sounds is literally the only Beach Boys album between Little Deuce Coupe and Wild Honey that didn’t have audio vérité, a skit, a spoken word monologue, or a parody song of some kind). I mean, Brian recorded a 20 minute interview with the band and then chose Marilyn handing out cheese burgers to go on the album. If that's not the creative choice of a totally idiosyncratic artist, I don't know what is.

Least Favorite: Summer in Paradise, I guess. I don’t have much love for Keepin’ the Summer Alive either.

Overrated: Surf’s Up. I’ve come to love all the songs except for Student Demonstration Time, the inclusion of which was a near tragic misstep. But take out Surf’s Up and Til I Die and it’s probably a worse record than Carl and the Passions, let alone Sunflower or Holland.

Underrated: Summer Days. I know, it’s crazy to call one of the Beach Boys most celebrated albums underrated. But everyone talks about this record as a step back from Today, and I completely disagree. I think the record is a near perfect refinement of All Summer Long, one last incredibly successful attempt to capture the magic of a carefree teenage summer that had all but defined Brian’s creative project from the beginning. I love every single song on the record, and I love how the music and words relate to each other. I love the pointed contrast between magic and mundanity in songs like Salt Lake City or Amusement Parks USA. I love the way the mood shifts across the record, and how much incredible depth the arrangements have. I love (another controversial opinion in some circles) how Brian’s music and Brian and Mike’s words relate, Brian’s interest in making the music *feel like* the words. And since those words are simply about being young and having fun and dating and kissing and riding rollercoasters and, hell, visiting Salt Lake City and checking out the scene, the music has full reign to express pretty much the full range of what it feels like to be young, girl-crazy, life-crazy. Personally, I see Today as the immediate precursor to Pet Sounds, but Summer Days as the immediate precursor to Smile.