Pacific Ocean Blue

This album is such an underrated banger, experiemental in all the right ways It contains Time, which is one of my favourite songs of all time River Song is fantastic. I think this album is at his best when the brass sections kick in and the songs are pounding like crazy. So good Moonshine has just a nice refrain at the end with lovely backing vocals to close the song out When the brass kicks in on Dreamer during the first verse... outstanding Rainbows - great backing vocals, lovely high pitched guitar, beautiful song End of the Show is a great way to end it not super into Whats Wrong and Friday Night, but the rest of it is great. I'm leaning 5. it could be 5, if its not five, its close PS - i DO NOT take extra tracks into consideration when scoring, but for common knowledge, the bonus tracks on disc one are INCREDIBLE. Tug of Love / Only with You /Holy Man, superb. lovely stuff, absolutely fantastic

You know that Wilson guy from the Beach Boys? No, not Brian, the eccentric genius. The other one. No, not Carl! Why would you even mention Carl?! Nobody ever talks about Carl! No, I mean one who was all mixed up with Charles Manson. Dennis, yeah. Well, it turns out he was a damn fine songwriter. In fact, "Pacific Ocean Blue" is a great album. It has a little bit of that Beach Boys smell to it but it veers hard into funk/rock/blues territory, at times evoking Clapton, The Stones, George Clinton, and a half-dozen other artists who were cutting absolute classic tracks at the time. It's really a great album. Too bad about that whole Manson thing.

3.6 - Here's a studio veteran that had a hand in some of the greatest popular music ever recorded. So as might be expected, towards the end of his recording career, he's got a supremely deep bag of studio tricks, he's got access to the finest equipment, and a vast network of sound magicians he can tap at will. But, what might be lacking are new ideas along with the energy to explore new emotional territory. I'm hearing loads of subtle beauty in the studio craft. Each song seems like a masterclass in paring sounds, but there's a yawning melancholy that seems to pervade this record despite its considerable sheen.

The thing I have learned after more than 400 albums is that if an album is almost 2 hours long, chances are, half the songs can be scrapped. I don't see why we needed two hours, so in that it fails as an album. It wasn't even bad, but I kept looking at the time wishing it would be over sooner than later.

Was never a big fan of Dennis. The only song of his I like was "All I Wanna Do," so I didn't have high hopes for his solo effort. But from the first song I was surprised. "River Song" gives off strong Beach Boys vibes, and in fact it was originally supposed to be so, but the choir masterfully interlays with Dennis's and the piano ballad to make an emotionally powered piece. Nice segway to the classic rock n roll "What's Wrong" which sets up a cool mood for the next few bluesy-roots songs. My favorite stretch of songs is from "Dreamer" to "Pacific Ocean Blues." I absolutely love the brass contributions of that first song and how they work together with the guitar for lead. The other songs are a lot less blues, showcasing Dennis's amazing baroque pop voice that reminds me of what I loved so much about the Beach Boys. "You and I" gives off Steely Dan vibes, probably the most beautiful song on the album. The titular track is a momentary return to the bluesy theme of the album. It's another strong entry, and the track you're most likely to sing along to, again showcasing a Dennis's talented production. The last tracks are also good ballad tracks, although I wasn't as crazy about them as the others. I thought the closing was perfect. Ignoring the lyrics, it combined everything that defined the album, from the choral vocals to the blues sound to the piano ballad, and Dennis's mature and passionate voice. I see a lot of reviews complaining about the length. They should know Pacific Ocean Blue is just the first 12, which is the perfect length for me. I will for sure return to this album, and re-listen to Dennis's tracks on Beach Boys albums.

Suggests that Dennis was the George Harrison of the Beach Boys. I actually prefer this over two of the Beach Boys albums on this list. And if you really want to go on a ride, peruse Dennis Wilson's Wikipedia page. That thing is a RIDE! Aside from the entire section on Charles Manson, you get to learn (or recall) that Dennis dated Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie (who claimed Dennis Wilson was "half little boy, half insane"), and often told friends he was raped by a black man. But hell, aren't all of the Wilsons at least half insane?

Ebb and flow rock. Tons of grand ideas, and plenty of instruments, lacks any real motive. Just kind of dull background rock. There are songs with that spacey backing voice, reminiscent of Pink Floyd, which then fades to soft piano mono-audio singing.

Funky, bluesy, groovy rock (Clapton-esque) with a spiritual bent. Nice range of styles. Feels more mature in style and substance than the Beach Boys (Wilson's other band).

Successfully walks the fine line of acknowledging the influences of the Beach Boys while claiming his own style. Expertly crafted, and a joy to listen to. Best track: River Song

This was better and more interesting that I thought it would be given the Beach Boys connection. Like the Beach Boys with the annoying elements removed and replaced with something grittier

Well this one was a complete surprise, and the kind of thing I was hoping to get out of this list. I had never heard any of this music, but it's gorgeous. Apparently this was out of print for 20 years. I'm sure glad it's available now.

So Brian wasn't the only troubled genius in the Beach Boys.

Dennis Wilson really goes the extra mile on his only solo record. Though his voice took a turn to a grainy and harsher tone (no thanks to the drugs and alcohol), he fills these songs with a Joe Cocker-esque soul that still compliments well with the signature background vocals from Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston. The instrumentation is absolutely gorgeous on this record, with plenty or strings and organ to fill your ears with vibrant, grandiose harmonies. For fans of Pet Sounds - this is a must listen to album. Favorite Song: Time Least Favorite: Thoughts of You

Certainly is a 70s rock album. It's fine. Inoffensive. It certainly doesn't approach anywhere near The Beach Boy's brilliance.

This one just struck me as bland. It's not bad. The musicianship is fine. I don't actively dislike it. I just found it to be relentlessly mediocre, so I gave up after 19/33 songs on Spotify's deluxe edition. To be honest I probably would have given this a "This was fine, I guess" 3 if it was only 10 songs, but the more I listened to it the less I liked it. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for this. 2.5.

Fantastic - a diamond in the boomer rough

I am highly skeptical of "lost masterpieces"; albums whose rarity is fetishized by white male rock snobs. The "well, actually, have you heard of this?" is a form of cultural gatekeeping. The quality of the record is usually inversely correlated to the advocate's lustful frothing. That effect is amplified by Dennis' tragic accidental death before he completed a follow-up album -- rock snobs get even more tumescent if the artist suffered and/or died. It's can get pretty gross. But I have to admit, Pacific Ocean Blue is a pretty good piece of late 70s yacht rock. The gritty burr on Dennis Wilson's voice adds soul to the schmick production, the playing is solid, and the tunes are harmonies are excellent. It's a good example of yacht rock, if you like that sort of thing.

3.5 I feel like I need a little more time to sit with this one to decide if it really deserved a 4. I listened to only the original track listing for the rating (there’s stuff from an album released posthumously on the Spotify link). What’s Wrong, Dreamer, and Pacific Ocean Blues are new to me bangers. The beginning of Friday Night sounds like the beginning of It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.

WIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLSOOOOOOONNNNNNN!! This guy is great.

big sounds. i dig it.

I had a feeling I was going to dig this. I love the lore that Dennis Wilson was the ONLY Beach Boy™ who actually lived the lifestyle they sang about lmao. He was the only actual surfer, and he would go out and surf and bang chicks in the sand and come home and tell his brothers Brian and Carl and his dumb cousin Mike Love all about it, and they romanticized it into their whole band identity. Which maybe contributes to how surprising and impressive a record this is. Dennis was always just the surfing drummer to me but this absolutely solidified him as his own dense and potently creative artist. This single album might rival the entire output of The Beach Boys™

Just excellent. As a big Beach Boys fan I completely forgot how good this record was. I love the piano work which is super energic and progressions are near perfect. The mix of genres is also just done very well, we get to enjoy some jazzy elements alongside the rock apeal of the record. There's also a clear identity and flow throughout the album which is great, the intro is powerful and the closer is more down tempo, which in my opinion is the best way to go about. I really just overall enjoyed the production and insturmentals on the record along-side Dennis' raspy and raw vocals, just great. Overall score: 9.0/10

This one was a 3 last time and started as a 3 on first relisten. I listened to it a few more times today and it grew on me and really there is some great stuff from the solo outing. Some of it reminded me of Pink Floyd's work. One I could easily see myself coming back to again in the future. Not sure why this one didnt really strike me on the first attempt but there is some really strong songwriting here

And the award for album I least expected to and still don’t understand why I really like it goes to….this cheeky little Wilson number. Never heard of it before, but the production, subtlety varied styles and sort of chilled funky melancholy vibe grabbed me. Might be the fact it’s a miserable winter’s day effect again. [PS. Who knew The Charlatans ‘Blind stagger’ so blatantly borrowed the melody off ‘Rainbows’]

Alright music. Nothing I didn't like, but nothing stood out or stayed with me

Interesting album. Can definitely tell that it's from one of the Beach Boys, but much like the Beach Boys it didn't do a whole lot for me. 2.5/5

I have no thoughts about this album. River Song, Dreamer, and Time are kinda good, I guess, but the rest is very bland and forgettable. Not a bad album, but it literally doesn't do anything interesting.

Didn’t realise this was beach boys brother, sounds ahead of its time. Decent

- I'm torn with regards to this one: there's a lot of interesting things happening here but then I think about the other releases just before, during or just after this one, I put it in the context of the times and it loses some of it's luster for me. Worth hearing for sure, I'm not convinced it's the lost masterpiece that some are trying to make it out to be. It is art so, 3.5 ........

Die Hälfte der Titel hätte auch gereicht.

Very interesting album. Really enjoyed some songs. Standout songs: River Song Time Pacific Ocean Blues

Enjoyable and surprisingly experimental album. I love when the horns randomly hit and bump up the song, a bit.

Okay, first album that’s two hours long, let’s see how we go… I have to say that I didn’t give this the full attention of the other albums as it’s 2 hours and was often on in the background. But I loved the variety of styles throughout, never good boring, had some great grooves and arrangement and will likely go back and give it a proper listen again (3.5)

I could see this one growing on me, there were elements of most songs I liked. For whatever reason most of them didn't connect with me today. Rating: 3.0

This record was WAY better than I thought it would be. I went into it assuming I'd hear some version of what the Beach Boys became when they made "Kokomo." Instead, this was closer in sound to Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Harry Nilsson, and Steely Dan. I'm not sure whether to add or subtract a half-star for the Charles Manson thing. On one hand...tragic and brutal murders. On the other..."Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Let's call that a wash.

Yep, this sounds like Beach Boy B sides to me. It’s not unpleasant. It has its moments. I especially liked the Pink Floyd sounding Friday Night. You can’t tell me that wasn’t the intent. Maybe Dennis should have stuck to that formula. Well, here are with Dreamer sounding very Pink Floyd as well. Maybe he’s on to something after all! Well, I guess not. Back to the b side beach boys . Pacific Ocean Blues goes back to that Pink Floyd , non beach boys sound that he really should have stuck with. A whole album of that sound could very well have been a 5 star from me…. Maybe. Choice cut: Friday Night

Too pop, kinda pink Floyd. Cool orchestral. Too long and mismatched.

Late 1970s singer-songwriter cult solo album from Beach Boys' drummer, Dennis Wilson, the only surfer in the band who best exemplified the California Dream and has a nightmarish association with the Manson Family. River Song has a well-produced chorus of many to flesh out his ravaged by his vices voice. What's Wrong is a limping boogie rock and roll, Moonshine is unexpected soaring and electronic with strings, synths and piano. Friday Night starts like Pink Floyd and continues to sound like it, but Wilson's voice sounds strained when it comes in. Dreamer is delta funk from a tormented soul who witnessed the price of fame, it shifts to a redemptive piano and bells interlude before the bass harmonica, tuba and saxophone returns. Thoughts of You, is a piano ballad about the impermanence of nature and love, It becomes a more menacingly morose affair with echo-laden vocals and strings. Time begins with Wilson repeated "home" a destination where "she waits to share love" but he admits that he is the kind of guy to mess around because he knows lots of women, impressive tempo shift! Obviously this album would produce an elite, word of mouth, influence. You and I has a Yacht Rock sound but the opening line "I've never seen the light that people talk about" is the most heart-breaking pronouncement I have ever heard in a love song by an alcoholic heroin addict burning out. Pacific Ocean Blue is a bluesy rock adjacent jam "We live on the edge of a body of water/ Warmed by the blood of the cold hearted slaughter of otter/Wonder how she feels mother seal/It's no wonder the Pacific Ocean is blue" with a gospel quality. This song could have been a minor hit. Farewell My Friend is beautiful but these melancholy songs about estrangement, longing and disillusionment will always be limited in their interpretation due to the nature of his death. Rainbows is a life affirming and upbeat song. End of the Show is quite somber. We are in bonus track territory because Legacy records gathered and remastered Pacific Ocean Blue, recordings intended for his unreleased follow-up album Bambu and various outtakes. Not certain that I am in the mood to give another CD full of material, let alone four bonus track, a listen. Tug of Love was not that compelling, Only with You is better in fact the vocal melody is a bit more dynamic than everything on the official album and the piano playing is more assured. Holy Man, an instrumental whose Wilson rejected vocal take is forever lost to the world, on the second CD is a reconstructed version with recalled melody and lyrics performed by Foo Fighters Taylor Hawkins, but I am not likely to explore that. Mexico, not labelled an instrumental, but it is and it sounds like the saddest ode to a country known for bright colors and festive music.

The Pink Floyd influence is obvious. It’s an interesting album, but Dennis’s voice isn’t strong enough to carry it. Ironically, I think this would have worked well as Beach Boys material, and makes for an interesting “what if”.

An underlying, if not slowly obvious, storyline amongst the bonkers tale of The Beach Boys was the increasing creativity of Dennis Wilson, the middle sibling of Brian and Carl both of whom bookended the sprawling erstwhile/eternal surfers. From album to album after the 60s as Brian slipped into the failures of giant expectations, Dennis stepped up to the plate and made the listening public bare witness to his developing talents. It all culminated in Pacific Ocean Blue, arguably the most soulful and exuberant release in all of the Beach Boys oeuvre. Pacific Ocean Blue's very existence is proof that there is more than what meets the eye in regards to what's been pigeonholed and disregarded; the fact that it still gets appraisals from like-minded listeners up close and afar to this day is testament to Dennis' endeavors, which would have gotten or could have gotten more sophisticated had he not passed on. A beacon of light in darkened times.

What a great album. I even listened to the reissue and all the extra songs that went with it. I had no idea he was that prolific and talented as a song writer.

One of the greatest and best albums ever recorded by humans.

I'm one of those Beach Boys junkies, and I love this one! But such a different vibe from the BB albums - if those are fun times on the beach, this one is a nighttime campfire in the swamp. Touches of The Band, JJ Cale, early Springsteen, and Waits, with the horns really shining through. Probably a top 5 BB or related album for me, so it gets a 5.

Increíble. El único disco como solista lanzado por Dennis Wilson, y me pareció una absoluta obra maestra. 33 tracks que me hicieron repensar mucho de cómo estaba repartido el talento entre los Beach Boys. Todos son geniales, claro, pero Dennis fue una verdadera revelación.

Just a beautiful man and an incredible record. So direct, pure and full of emotions.

This is one of my favourite albums of all time. It is beautiful, sad, overwrought, joyous, painful. Dennis' songwriting and arrangements rival that of his older brother. The partiest member of the Beach Boys, the one who was friendly with Charles Manson, the one who never tired of chasing women, booze and drugs, was also one of its most sensitive and talented. A very easy 5/5. Not much comes close to this one, in my personal opinion.

Most of this is amazing, setting the template for post-prog electro-tinged 80s rock. A little bit of it sucks, but let's not talk about that.

I thought it was brilliant. 5 stars for me. It was lush and cosy but still varied and interesting. I'll come back to this a lot

Takes his beach boys influences, but then makes a very individual record, it’s beautiful in places in its own way. I have listened to this probably more than any of the beach boys album since it became available on reissue. His voice at this point is rough, but that just adds to the texture it has so much heart and soul. 5 Stars. Like others have pointed out the streaming version is the release extra tracks from an unreleased follow up, 1st time listen you should always just listen to the album as it was, like all albums on the list.

I am almost halfway through listening to every entry in 1001 Albums To Listen To Before You Die and while it is an absolute slog, moments like loading up a Beach Boys solo album and finding out that actually heroin was only the second biggest influence on Spiritualized’s whole deal make it worth it. Five stars.

Beautiful. The ragged glory of his voice over such lush instrumentation provides a fascinating contrast. Often unfairly overlooked in favour of his brothers but the man is a genius. A criminally underrated album.

One of my all time favorites I own the record

This is a phenomenal album. It reminded me of Dion a bit. Pretty much the entire second side of the album consists of ballads. This album is deeply reflective and it’s a shame Wilson didn’t make another one.

This one of the best album ever made and under my personal top 10! It's gospel rock in the perfect sense. Like the ocean it is mysterious, the music comes and goes and brings you to the next step. Wilson worked ages on this and it all worked out in the end.

Beautiful album - that I had never heard before. Great stuff.

Outstanding album. I only knew of Brain Wilsons solo stuff but in my opinion this is better than anything Brian did as a solo.

Love the album art. Twinkly piano, harmonies. Chill and happy. 70s pop. Some songs sound like Peter Gabriel. Some really interesting songs. Very vibey. Very chill California. I want to put this on in Malibu, sitting on a terrasse, watching the sunset over the Pacific, nice drink in hand. A Beach Boy and I prefer this solo record. Sounds like Eric Clapton. Sadly passed 6 years later at 39. Beautiful instrumentals. Bluesy.

Second favourite B Boy. This gets better every listen. Not every track is a winner but the winners win by miles.

This blew me away. Listened to it twice. His voice reminds me of Roger Waters. It’s trippy and airy and dirty and dreamy and gnarly all at the same time.

Took a look at this and thought "HOW long??" - but actually it worked really well as a whole experience. The Dark Beach Boys continues to be one of the main new discoveries from albumfest. Really well-structured, a rewarding listen

Really great— who’s the better Wilson?

Really nice album. I didn’t realize he had a solo album. Kind of has a Harry Nilsson vibe.

Wilson’s vocals are fantastic and the instrumentals only match them. It’s such a varied album that has a lot of different yet interesting sounds. He deserves to plaster his name on the album cover.

Loved every bit.

Desconocía las turbulebtas vida y obra de este genio detrás de los beach boys. Grata sorpresa.

Really good 70s vibe

This album is nuts. Each song is 10x better than the last, and there's a LOT of great songs here. The intro to "Friday Nights" alone would have made me give 5 stars, but then "Thoughts of You" blew the previous song out of the sky, and so on and so on with this album. "Farewell My Friend" stuck with me, I wonder if it's about a pet because it sounds like a dog was barking through a walkie talkie at the bottom of the ocean

I'm very glad to have been shown this album. Solid melodies voice and instrumentation

River Song is truly a monstrous joy bomb. This is just a great album. And I only discovered it in my early 30s I think, despite growing up reading music papers and magazines all the time. So I can only infer this went criminally under-mentioned in the 90s. Mojo probably rescued a lot of albums from this crime. The brass in Dreamer is fabulous. Look it's just all great. Even the weaker tracks maintain the hot and hazy mood. Goes a bit Peter Gabriel on Thoughts of You but it's still great. Time is gorgeous, and sad. Before it explodes into brilliance. Farewell My Friend, sigh. Rainbows just another example. Would really stand out in another album but here it's surrounded by so much beauty. Other standouts from the extra tracks and the unfinished Bambu - Album Tag Song, Tug of Love, 2nd half of Its not too late, and Love Remember Me. School Girl is a banger and lyrically wrong as fuck.

Oh, so this was super cool to be introduced to! Why did I not know about this album before now???

A thousand albums and what seems like a thousand years ago, we heard The Beach Boys' Surf's Up. Pacific Ocean Blue is similar in tone and style and also likewise makes me angry that I've lived so much of my life without it. It's gorgeous.

It's just very good music. I don't even know how to name it. Everything is at its place. Every part sounds great. One of the hidden pearls from the list.

Such a rich and pleasant surprise

Love this album, one of my favorites.

This album was really great and the horn production creates a super out-there soundscape that's unique and especially so for the time this came out but more importantly this album gets a bunch of bonus points for making me find out about Dennis Wilson's connection to charles manson and his murders that shit is crazy

5/5. A healthy mix of blues rock and upbeat pop. Every song stood out as unique and what a change of vocals from the Beach Boys. The instrumentation was beautiful, soulful with horns and choruses. Feels like I am drifting out on the ocean, heading to shore, but comfortable if I did end up passing away. There is not really a faulty song on here, beautiful and calming despite the dark undertone, just like life. Best Song: River Song, Dreamer, Pacific Ocean Blue

A surprising treat. The songs on this album feel transcendental, all at once joyful and melancholy which depicts the time and space in which they were written.

Dennis Wilson: An utterly unique album that's touching in a way only a Beach Boy is capable of. From the jump, we are WAY more in rock land than any beach boys album has been. Echoes of the Stones, more bluesy, more obviously big rock storyteller energy. But the first track certainly makes you feel like that's going to be the abiding energy of the album... it is not! There's so much more beneath the surface... waves of obvious angst, grief, loneliness. The kind you quickly pick up on after a few spins of a Brian Wilson record. My radar's going off, in a big way, Some of these songs have an unbelievable sense of emotion and hurt. I feel like Dennis is more in touch with that side of him than on any Beach Boys record I've heard... it's more raw, more honest in some ways. Amidst this texture of Haleakalā blues, the real pet sounds, in a way that only a Beach Boy could do. It's an intimate and deeply personal version. It's got less of the childlike, and wide-eyed naïveté of Brian Wilson, it's more mature, but no less... hurt. He's spilling his heart out in a way only he can do. I love it, but I also want to cry. 5/5

It was a incredible album, I loved it! 5 Stars!

so i just went down such a good little rabbit role from his wikipedia and it is all so interesting, but i think even more than that, the most interesting thing is that i love the beach boys and without realising who he was, thought ‘oh this reminds me a bit of the beach boys’ on the first couple songs, but overall, it’s just a really good album in my opinion. so is the unreleased one. i really really like his vibe, i would give it a 4 but there’s actually two albums in one technically, and i really like both of them, so, it’s gonna have to be a 5.

I didn't know much about Dennis Wilson before today. Especially if you compare it next to how much I knew about, say, Brian Wilson or even stupid Mike Love, it's pretty much nothing. Hell, the only thing I really DID know about Dennis is that he was the only true surfer in The Beach Boys and that, ironically, he'd drown in 1983. That's always been the framework I've viewed this album through, then: that it was the only solo project he released while he was alive. And going in, I felt that was kind of unfair to Dennis. Like, come on, this album should mean more to me than what its relation to the fact that he passed tragically young. I mean, hell, in my mind it always feels to me like they happened closer together than six years apart like they really did. I should be trying to see what this album provides on its own, seperated from all that. However, that turned out to be a lot more difficult than I'd thought. There's just so many moments in there that remind me of it. "Moonlight", in how it sounds to me, evokes that kind of "lost someone you love" melancholy, even if the lyrics probably have nothing to do with that. Though, speaking of lyrics, "Thoughts Of You" hit me especially hard with the part that goes "All things that live one day must die, you know." On my first liste that was the only lyric I picked up, and, gawd, I felt like it could have destroyed me if I were in a worse place. That's not even to mention "Farewell My Friend", which I found out was played at Dennis's funeral. And I tell you, learning more about Dennis and his life surrounding this album's recording certainly didn't make anything better. Knowing all that context just makes this a very sad album to me. It was never meant to be that, but looking back on it nearly 50 years later and considering all of that context... Hell, even Brian Wilson has said at point that he hasn't listened to it because there's too many sad memories for him relating to it. But then, that's still one reason why this album touched me so much. As much as I hate to admit it, it's because the album ends up being so sad that pushes it over for me from just being really good late 70's rock n' soul. It can even make me look past that one farty instrument on "Dreamer", though that break it has in there probably could've done it, too. Don't get me wrong here. If you're a big, BIG fan of The Beach Boys, and post-SMiLE Beach Boys especially, this might not do it for you. Luckily for me, I dig that stuff a lot, even if I don't necessairly think this album comes as close to SMiLE as that comparison implies. I just wish he'd had the chance to do more; see BAMBU through to completion, at least. But for what he's done here, as "End Of Show" fades surrounded by applause, for the people who know, he's really made something that'll last forever. And besides, it's better to view this album like I just did than through his relation to Charles Mansion. Wouldn't even make sense; Charley there didn't even have anything to do with this album!

The least known of the Wilson brothers (and first to leave us sadly) gives us a solo record for the ages. It's clear that there was an insane amount of talent there. Glad we got at least this one testament to Dennis' artistry as a standalone songwriter.

Didn't even know that Brian Wilson had brothers that were in the beach boys. This album was an absolutely dreamy surprise. I wouldn't say that any of the writing struck me as particularly top-notch (through 3 listens). But the orchestration/arrangement/feel for each song is all so different and perfectly walks the line between complexity and instant grokkability. At any given moment in each track it feels like there are 5 or 6 different things you can focus on. I love the layering in Time that happens after the trumpet solo when the keyboard (or perhaps prepared piano??) comes in. Great album!!

One of my favorites I’ve listened to yet. Hoping to grab this one on vinyl!

What a lush, tightly produced album. Just imagine what Dennis might have accomplished had he lived.

Beautiful melodies and incredible production that the Beach Boys were known for from Pet Sounds.

Rough vocals from rough living, a Beach Boy with real substance (abuse issues). Wow, what a story Dennis had. The middle child and focus of his father's wrath, living in the shadows of his brothers as the 'untalented' Wilson he was reduced to play basic beats on the drums, but then he makes this incredible album. Pacific Ocean Blue embodies everything that the Beach Boys weren't raw, open, experimental and real. It would be nice to believe that the creation and release of Pacific Ocean Blue gave Dennis redemption and freedom, but then maybe it wouldn't play the same or be as poignant.

I don't know what instrument is playing at the beginning of DREAMER, but it is amazing. Between that instrument and the song THOUGHTS OF YOU this record is earning a permanent place on my shelf. It is albums like this that make spending 4 years listening through a book well worth it.

i am a huge beach boys fan, so of course, i was pleased to give this one a listen again, as it had been a while. pacific ocean blue is, in my opinion, one of the pinnacles of the beach boys, and is the climax of dennis wilson's rise to, undoubtedly, the best songwriter in the group. and what's more, it doesn't sound like a beach boys record, it sounds like its own thing, which is something I don't think any of the other beach boys really accomplished on their own. overall, i really love this album.

Omg I love this. Not what I expected and I got quite emotional times. A lovely 5 star surprise

Hidden gem. Like if the Beach Boys put out a cooler album.

Oh I know Brian was MAD

A wonderful mix of genres and styles, tied together by a silky smooth voice and a consistent sort of vague 'feel' - which is hard to quantify! Much more interesting and textured than most of his band's early saccharine pop efforts, while (obviously) not to the height of their best stuff. A tragic tale too, which doesn't hurt the mythos of the album. I had only heard a couple of songs before, but now struggle to pick a favourite track.

This was a great surprise. Incredible arrangements and production value. 1hr 50 is too long for me though.

This was a such a good album with a very chill, and sometimes somber and introspective, atmosphere. Dennis Wilson paints an intimate picture of love, loss, and gratitude with an expertly crafted and performed set of songs. I feel like this album influenced a lot of different musicians. If you don’t know anything about Dennis, please read up on him. He was an interesting character who led an interesting life.

Not only is it an amazing record song-wise, but I'm absolutely astounded by the clarity of the recording and mix here. It just SOUNDS excellent, before you even get to the equally excellent songs themselves.

LP

Brilliant album

so after all these years where we were led to believe brian was the musical genius in the beach boys and he wasn't even as good as his brother on drums. didn't know anything about him so read up a bit; was done over by charles manson and his cult, met some of them and then before you know it they've squatted in his house he's ended up moving out and they've sold all of his belongings. did the famous recordings of charles mansons music and when asked for the recordings as part of the investigation he said he'd destroyed them because in the most california surf dude way possible - "the vibrations connected with them didn't belong on this earth"

This is the perfect example why I'm doing this. This is a masterpiece, however I've never heard about it. Background story of Dennis Wilson is also interesting (and sad).