Beg to differ about Honky. Lovely Butterflies and Mombius Hibachi are classic Melvins, but not even at the level of Atlantic year classics. They All and Pitfalls and Mouth Breather are anomalous essentials. Grin and Freaktose are fun. Laughing is among their better novelty tunes. But there's still ten to fifteen minutes on this record that just never connected for me.
I still haven't heard anything as unique or creative in the form of a record album by any other band that can touch Honky.
But it's not for everyone, that's also another thing that makes it so special IMHO.
You want to know why it sounds the way it does compared to the Atlantic albums?
they could make a record with an advance for probably between $50,000-$80,000 more or less with Atlantic.
Then apparently a Lawsuit ensued for breach of an evil contract that for sure was intended to ruin them as a band...
I doubt they had much money to record anything after that... they made good use of a low budget production.