Most overrated and underrated BB's Albums

[kookadams]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

[Mike's Beard]

Plenty of good stuff on each album, there's just a couple of clunkers to skip over.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

Do you know what the word 'pundit' means?

[Ovi]

Overrated: Holland (and MIU after reading this thread)
Underrated: Light Album

[Rentatris]

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. Interesting opinions so here's mine

Underrated: Love You: this is more a public perception thing as I know a lot on here share my absolute passion for it.

Overrated: Holland and Sunflower: try as I might I just can't get into these albums. Holland is soooo boring and Sunflower just feels so dated.

[Ovi]

Sunflower just feels so dated.

In what ways do you mean?

[bluesno1fann]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

If you remove Sumahama, replace the album version of HCTN with the single version and add It's A Beautiful Day and another track by either Dennis, Carl or Brian, then you'll have the best BB's album post-Holland IMO. Agreed with KTSA though.

[Lonely Summer]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

If you remove Sumahama, replace the album version of HCTN with the single version and add It's A Beautiful Day and another track by either Dennis, Carl or Brian, then you'll have the best BB's album post-Holland IMO. Agreed with KTSA though.

I don't mind Sumahama.  KTSA is much weaker than LA, though. They should have been great covering Chuck Berry, but School Days fails to ring the bell; and why on earth did they resurrect When Girls Get Together? Embarrassing.

[phirnis]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

A collection of outtakes?

[Lee Marshall]

Around here? 

I personally feel that both 'Love You' and 'Smiley Smile' get overrated by a wide margin.  Someone earlier used the word "hideous".  Perfect for too much of what is contained on both albums.  Also way BENEATH the levels of capability as demonstrated beforehand by both Brian and Group.

Underrated?  Little Deuce Coupe and Carl and the Passions.  2 really well done efforts which have withstood the test of time with ease.

Depending on the time-frame/era that fans entered into this specific musical 'journey' I DO understand that the 'view' of the proceedings changes.  Mine is from spring 1963.

[phirnis]

I can only speak for myself but I love the fact that the BB as a major pop/rock group had the guts to release albums as downright experimental as Smiley Smile and Love You.

[sea of tunes]

Overrated: Friends
Underrated: Love You

[job]

Overrated:  Sunflower

Underrated:  Summer In Paradise

[sockittome]

Overrated:  Sunflower

Underrated:  Summer In Paradise

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!   

[beacharg]

Overtated - Summer in Paradise
Underrated - Pet Sounds

 

[bluesno1fann]

Overrated:  Sunflower

Underrated:  Summer In Paradise

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!   

Hey, it was bound to happen sometime 

[startBBtoday]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, Friends, Surf's Up and Sunflower are rockin'?

Also, is Darlin' a bad song just because it's an "outtake"/rewrite?

[joshferrell]

Over rated-The cocaine sessions
underrated- The campfire sessions

[RangeRoverA1]

Also, is Darlin' a bad song just because it's an "outtake"/rewrite?

Who cares? It doesn't sound like one, maybe the least "back-to-basics" track on the album.

[Bicyclerider]

Overrated:  Surf's Up.  The critic's darling, it just isn't in the top ten Beach Boys albums IMO, a few moments of greatness and the rest is dross.  Not nearly as consistently good as Sunflower.

Underrated:  20/20 - or Sunflower Part 1, this was their first great true group effort.

[kookadams]

I dont see how or why anyone would think theres anything good about the light album or ktsa...think about it : the beach boys were a rockin band , the light album other than shortenin bread is essentially muzak, brian was hardly involved and it was a collection of outtakes...ktsa just awful...I love the beach boys, ive been a zealot/pundit my whole life but their post.holland output minus love you is grim and soulless.

If you remove Sumahama, replace the album version of HCTN with the single version and add It's A Beautiful Day and another track by either Dennis, Carl or Brian, then you'll have the best BB's album post-Holland IMO. Agreed with KTSA though.

I don't mind Sumahama.  KTSA is much weaker than LA, though. They should have been great covering Chuck Berry, but School Days fails to ring the bell; and why on earth did they resurrect When Girls Get Together? Embarrassing.

light album and ktsa are just forgettable, a couple decent cuts per album but overall more miss than hit.

[dcowboys107]

Overrated: All Summer Long  I think there are quality tunes on there and I have the mono/stereo version saved on my iPhone.  While it enjoys a fair amount of listens,  it realistically is just a decent effort.  There is nothing particularly bad about the album but it lacks the punch of Today and, hell, even Shut Down Vol.2 has some nice kick to it and is more enjoyable of an album as a whole.  For a summer album, for that period, I'd prefer Summer Days.

Underrated: 15 Big Ones  I can see that it was a strike out at the time and they blew a great chance to gain critical praise. But I spin my copy quite frequently. I think "Talk to Me" is amazing and just about everything else is quite enjoyable except "TM Song" and I'm not a huge of "Everyone..." but it does get stuck in my head at times.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Overrated: Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) Why does this get so much praise and respect? It's an uneven hodgepodge of different styles, different levels of quality and different moods. That may sound like a good thing, but on an actual listen it's a mess. They recycled a song from their previous album which I call lazy. The filler on this is much more distracting than the filler on Today! and speaking of that album, this was a major step DOWN from that. Today! going into Pet Sounds is much more representative of Brian's growth. This album is like the awkward, unexplained valley between those two peaks.

Underrated: Smiley Smile Even many fans seem to hate it, and the Boys themselves dont seem to hold it in any high regard either. I want to know more about these sessions and the intent behind them but nobody in the know seems willing to talk about it. Whether you personally like listening to it or not, you have to respect the fact that it took serious balls to release. It completely went against everything that was defining pop music at the time. It's one of the biggest WTF moments in music history, completely predated the back to basics movement, has a unique sound thats never been emulated by any other group, and is just as experimental as Pet Sounds and SMiLE.

EDIT: I wanted to keep this simple and just do one for each. However, in hindsight I think I should add a few points. Wild Honey may be an enjoyable listen for some people and that's great. I dont care if someone really likes it or whatever, but I think it is worth noting that it's a major step down from what came before, and not even in a cool experimental way like Smiley. So I guess you could call that overrated, in that it gets a lot of attention here when technically speaking it isnt a very good album. Surf's Up could also be considered overrated in that everyone in the fandom hypes it up as the cool Beach Boys album, when listening to it now, I'd say it's anything but cool. I dont know if it's fair to call it overrated tho looking at it just in the modern context. I just think it may have been cool then but it hasnt aged well at all and now looks very dated and tacky. Also, as far as the general public is concerned, Today! is very underrated. The popular narrative is that the Boys were a light surfing group and then WHAM out of nowhere, Pet Sounds. But in reality, Brian had been growing since '64, with '65 as a big big step forward. Just as it was for the Beatles. It actually really surprises me that he names Rubber Soul as the impetus for PS when he basically had already made Pet Sounds (just not quite as musically advanced) with Today. The general public needs to know about and appreciate that album, and it's a crime not many do.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

How is an album like Love You "overrated" when even some of the most hardcore fans on BB message boards such as Smiley Smile don't like it? That record's actual fan base is still incredibly small as it's not even a particular fave among rock critics. I don't get it.

I agree 110%. It took me a very long time to get around to listening to it due to all the bad word of mouth surrounding it even here. I assumed it must be junk. When I finally gave it a shot I was blown away by how good it was, outdated synth sounds and awkward lyrics aside. It's not a critically acclaimed album or a fan favorite. It's not something that you'd see rereleased in 180g vinyl or as a boxset. It's just a cult classic with a small but dedicated fanbase. Nothing more. Overrated? More like virtually unheard.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Across the board (hardcore fans, rock critics, general public):

Overrated: SMILE. As an album or complete collection, Smile just doesn't make it for me ... I like the individual songs, but feel they work better as originally released -- spread out among the later LPs. And I love Smiley. As an album, it just doesn't flow or work in my opinion.

To be fair, the BWPS sequence doesnt do it much favors. Ive always loved the SMiLE music, but felt it was less than the sum of its parts. Then I tried out a personalized two-suite/side structure as opposed to the way it was on TSS and it really gave me a new appreciation for the music as a cohesive statement. Im not plugging my version so much as suggesting you try playing around with the order yourself and seeing how you feel.