The Beach Boys Wild Honey(Sunshine Tomorrow) 2CD Set?

[Rich Panteluk]

Canadian fan (from Calgary and going to see Mike and Bruce in less than a month) Rich P here.  I preordered on the first day that had it listed for $20.65 and I ordered two copies so I could get the free shipping.  I hope they honour that price.  I once had them cancel my pre-order for an item that they later offered for substantially more.  $40 is too much.  Although, it is The Beach Boys and I know that even though I am complaining now I would drop the cash - cause I gotta have it!!!

[HeyJude]

Canadian fan (from Calgary and going to see Mike and Bruce in less than a month) Rich P here.  I preordered on the first day that had it listed for $20.65 and I ordered two copies so I could get the free shipping.  I hope they honour that price.  I once had them cancel my pre-order for an item that they later offered for substantially more.  $40 is too much.  Although, it is The Beach Boys and I know that even though I am complaining now I would drop the cash - cause I gotta have it!!!

Unless substantial information about a release changes, sometimes to the point where they create an entirely new listing for an item, Amazon doesn't tend to cancel orders despite price fluctuations.

Always worth keeping in mind is that sometimes Amazon customer service will help you out in these instances. If they cancel your order forcing you to re-order for a higher price, you can write explaining what happened and sometimes they'll adjust your price back down and/or give you some sort of credit on your account.

Similarly, while Amazon explicitly does not do "price matching", if you write them and tell them Amazon in another country has an item for substantially less, they *might* adjust your price or give you a credit.

[HeyJude]

It looks like $40.60 Canadian equals about $30.64 US. While I think it is frustrating they don't have some sort of relative price parity across various Amazon sites, I can't say 30 bucks for a 2-CD set is like *outrageous* beyond belief or anything. Typically new CDs are in the $10-$15 range, so $30 isn't that awful.

There may also be *other* Canadian retailers that offer the set for less. A quick look at the Canadian Walmart website shows a price of $18.97, presumably in Canadian dollars, which gets you to under $15 US.

[Scaroline No]

These price differentials are all very confusing. I pre-ordered mine when it was announced, not on amazon.ca but on amazon.com, and my price is $19.98 before taxes and shipipng. It doesn't indicate an exchange for Canadian currency. If I do a search I see the same thing listed at two prices, one at $19.98 and one at $43.70 with (smh) in brackets and a note that it's an import. If I search on amazon.ca, there is only one price: $40.60.  So I don't know what's gonna happen with my order since I didn't order from the Canadian amazon... I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

[HeyJude]

These price differentials are all very confusing. I pre-ordered mine when it was announced, not on amazon.ca but on amazon.com, and my price is $19.98 before taxes and shipipng. It doesn't indicate an exchange for Canadian currency. If I do a search I see the same thing listed at two prices, one at $19.98 and one at $43.70 with (smh) in brackets and a note that it's an import. If I search on amazon.ca, there is only one price: $40.60.  So I don't know what's gonna happen with my order since I didn't order from the Canadian amazon... I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

If you ordered from Amazon.com (the US site), you're fine and the whole thing is simple. You'll be charged the current price (or, if it lowers between now and release date, you'll get the lowest price; this pre-order price guarantee is in place on both the US and Canadian Amazon sites). If you're in Canada and buying from the US Amazon site, it'll just convert the US dollars to Canadian dollars when you're charged when the item ships. All simple.

You obviously can order from either Amazon site; you'd just have to figure out which is more expensive including shipping costs. You also have to account for how it will probably take longer to ship from the US Amazon site to a Canadian address versus ordering direct from Amazon Canada. If you want the CD set sooner, possibly on release date, you'd probably be better ordering from Amazon Canada I'd guess if you have a Canadian address.

As for the second "SHM" listing on the Amazon US site, that's an import CD from Japan manufactured with the "SHM" ("Super High Material") process. It's a sham and I wouldn't bother with that version; it'll sound identical to other versions. It's not mastered differently. Rather, the CD simply has some slightly alternate materials that it's manufactured with. I have a few SHM CDs that I bought only because a few Japanese pressings had unique bonus tracks and the Japan version was only available as an "SHM" pressing.

[Scaroline No]

These price differentials are all very confusing. I pre-ordered mine when it was announced, not on amazon.ca but on amazon.com, and my price is $19.98 before taxes and shipipng. It doesn't indicate an exchange for Canadian currency. If I do a search I see the same thing listed at two prices, one at $19.98 and one at $43.70 with (smh) in brackets and a note that it's an import. If I search on amazon.ca, there is only one price: $40.60.  So I don't know what's gonna happen with my order since I didn't order from the Canadian amazon... I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

If you ordered from Amazon.com (the US site), you're fine and the whole thing is simple. You'll be charged the current price (or, if it lowers between now and release date, you'll get the lowest price; this pre-order price guarantee is in place on both the US and Canadian Amazon sites). If you're in Canada and buying from the US Amazon site, it'll just convert the US dollars to Canadian dollars when you're charged when the item ships. All simple.

You obviously can order from either Amazon site; you'd just have to figure out which is more expensive including shipping costs. You also have to account for how it will probably take longer to ship from the US Amazon site to a Canadian address versus ordering direct from Amazon Canada. If you want the CD set sooner, possibly on release date, you'd probably be better ordering from Amazon Canada I'd guess if you have a Canadian address.

Right. That makes sense. Thanks for logicking that out for me, LOL. Looks like with the exchange rate it'll come out just slightly better than if I had ordered from amazon.ca. Other Canadian fans, you might want to consider ordering from .com instead, you might get a better price.

[TV Forces]

Canadian fan (from Calgary and going to see Mike and Bruce in less than a month) Rich P here.  I preordered on the first day that had it listed for $20.65 and I ordered two copies so I could get the free shipping.

Wow, I've never heard of someone doing that before..  Is the 2nd CD really cheaper than the cost of shipping?

[Shady]

ZERO PROMOTION.

[pdas1996]

Amazon' price has gone down to $16.59

[Matt Bielewicz]

Man, I can't be doing with all this Amazon horse-trading every time a new release comes out that I want, with prices going back and forth like this. And I don't get all the fuss over the date from which you're allowed to put in pre-orders, either... you still can't *have* the album when you pre-order it, which is all I'm interested in at this stage. And when you factor in the shipping c*ck-ups that *always* seem to delay the arrival of a new release from Amazon for somebody or another on here... it all adds up to a big fat 'I won't be buying this from Amazon, thanks very much'.

Having said that, maybe it's because I'm fortunate enough to still have a bricks and mortar retailer in the vicinity which I know will be carrying this set. In other words, I shun Amazon for releases like this... because I can. And I do appreciate that I'm lucky in this regard - not everybody has that freedom these days.

But like Paul McCartney going into Lewis's, buying an album and then savouring the look of it on the bus home... I positively *like* going to a shop to buy an album, and walking out with it in my hands. And that's what I'll be doing next week... on release day. And then, thank goodness, I'll be spared that business of 'There! Is that the postman coming up the drive??? It is, it is... er, it's not, it's a dog in the street. Oh, wait... that IS him!! Here it comes! It's here! Wild Honey in stereo, here I come... oh. It's just a telephone bill and a pizza delivery flyer. So, er... maybe tomorrow, then?'.

Which, when I'm waiting for music I really, really want, I absolutely CANNOT STAND!!!!!

Having said the above, it seems that Fopp in Cambridge, England, my surviving bricks and mortar retailer, are getting the grand total of ONE copy of Sunshine Tomorrow in stock next week. And you can't pre-order, pre-pay, or reserve over the phone. So I'm going to have to be there for opening time, sharp!

I know the Beach Boys are always going to play seventy-eighth fiddle to the Beatles (that's just the way it is, folks), but if the Capitol plan was to get a hip cachet off the back of what the OTHER great band of 1967 were releasing that year, I'd have to say they've failed for this release here, at least in the UK (and surely, the UK has traditionally been one of the best markets for this material?). No-one knows about this release over here outside hardcore fan circles, the surviving record shops are stocking minimal copies, and the media aren't talking about it. So buy plenty of copies, folks, because this is our best shot at getting more of this kind of stuff out there, and it ain't looking great for sales already. To paraphrase a well-known saying around these parts, we'll be lucky to sell 10,000 units in January. Er, I mean July. I hope not, but it feels to me as though similar releases for Friends, 2020, and Sunflower could be hanging by a thread...

[Matt Bielewicz]

By the way, since I posted that above, I have learned that Fopp in COVENT GARDEN, LONDON is only getting two copies of this in as well. And there will be three in HMV at Bury St Edmunds, which is it for major bricks and mortar retailers in the whole East of England now.

That suggests that other than via on-line retailers, there could be less than a dozen copies of this album on sale in the whole of the East of England (though I think there are still a couple of indie record shops in Norwich that I suppose might have some).

This... is not good. And does NOT augur well for UK sales...!

[HeyJude]

Amazon isn't complicated in the slightest when it comes to ordering a new release. You pre-order a release, and they'll *automatically* give you the lowest price the item ever reaches between when you order it and the end of the day on release day. Extremely simple and requires zero work on the customer's part. Also, Amazon doesn't charge you until the item ships out (usually a few days before release date), so it's easy to cancel pre-orders for most of the duration.

Also, Amazon usually offers and/or guarantees release date delivery. Every movie and music release I've ordered has reached me on release date. In the US at least, they've got the shipping process extremely dialed in.

There are no doubt plenty of valid complaints about Amazon, but the pre-ordering process is not one of them. It's beyond simple.

[HeyJude]

Currently #26 on the Amazon CD sales chart. Not too bad given the amount of promotion it has been given. I expect it might spike higher by/on release date/week.

It's also featured in Amazon's Top 20 "Upcoming Releases" chart where it appears it's at #3.

[HeyJude]

A back cover image from Amazon:

[HeyJude]

And for no other reason than because "why not, it's cool", let's all look at the single artwork for "Wild Honey" again:

[jiggy22]

"You're So Good to Me" is up on the Beach Boys' official website:

https://www.thebeachboys.com/news/listen-youre-so-good-me-1967-sunshine-tomorrow-out-june-30

You need a Spotify account to listen to it though.

[PS]

This is...simply wonderful. So stripped down, that thudding bass/farfisa sound, with an incredibly soulful vocal by Brian - how beautifully strange to hear it like this.

Wednesday I have Friday on my mind.

[king of anglia]

Just got my copy! About to listen...

[lostbeachboy]

A back cover image from Amazon:

Gee thanks for the great packaging. That's all we get is a typical plastic cd case??

[king of anglia]

Untitled (Redwood) is Time To Get Alone

[JK]

Gee thanks for the great packaging. That's all we get is a typical plastic cd case??

Whaddya expect----stained glass?

[Wrightfan]

This is...simply wonderful. So stripped down, that thudding bass/farfisa sound, with an incredibly soulful vocal by Brian - how beautifully strange to hear it like this.

Wednesday I have Friday on my mind.

Might be my new favorite version of the song. Agree with the word soulful, especially the end.

[HeyJude]

A back cover image from Amazon:

Gee thanks for the great packaging. That's all we get is a typical plastic cd case??

I prefer a jewel case to a digipak, though either will do. Jeez, what exactly do you want? This isn't a big deluxe boxed set or something. I think it's probably stretching it at this stage/era to get one of the major labels to put this thing out as a physical CD at all; I think trying to do big fancy deluxe packaging is just not an option unless it a big magnum opus 5 or 6-CD set like "Smile Sessions", etc.

If any set, and any band, any era was a representation "it's about the music, man!" rather than packaging or popularity or image, it would be *this* set.

I have that 40th Anniversary fuzzy, flocked "Pet Sounds" set, and it's a pain in the ass. It just absorbs dust more than a friggin' Swiffer, and at the end of the day I just want to pull the damn discs out and play them. Even the 2012 album remasters are more of a pain.

Bring on the "standard" jewel cases man. I actually prefer them, *and* what I really want is the music inside.

[Matt Bielewicz]

King of Anglia - please, put us out of our misery and reveal all! What is the version of Can't Wait Too Long like? Something we already know, or something previously unheard by most of us? And the 'long' version of Lonely Days? Anything previously unheard in the stereo WH mixes? What about the alternate Fall Breaks? Could a stereo Mama Says be made out of the session pieces? What's with the 'new' version of Surf's Up? And is the accapella Surfer Girl as good as the one I can hear in my imagination...?

I know - you're probably trying to, like, *listen* to the damn thing, and here I am making with all the annoying questions. Sorry... But you guessed it, I can't get my hands on this until tomorrow morning at 9.30 UK time... and that just seems like an intolerable wait right now! 

MattB

[Emdeeh]

Just got a shipping notice from Amazon -- it's on the way, due tomorrow!