There’s no such thing as an album that’s a perfect 10 – but there those that are one notch below. The 9’s is an occasional series which explores some of those records.
Released: 1977
About
Often dismissed as a Beach Boy – the rumours were Dennis Wilson was supplanted as a drummer in the studio by session men – Pacific Ocean Blue dropped a pin in the map of a man whose lifestyle the band had based many of their early surfing classics on. Relief from his duties in 1971 freed up the headspace to make a solo album, but the act of being captured by his addictions shortly after it’s release ensured there was never another. A heartbreaking descent into vagrancy and chaos meant that it was a broken and embittered Wilson who would accidentally drown in 1983.
Why a 9?
There’s an argument that it isn’t: Less than stellar lyrically, doused in melancholy and never wholly comfortable in it’s own skin, Pacific Ocean Blue is as flawed as the guy who made it. It’s these limitations though which make it endlessly fascinating, opener River Song rejecting the now tainted silhouette of LA, whilst he out Steely Dan’d Becker and Fagen on Dreamer and the tender scriptures of Thoughts of You and Farewell My Friend are things of crushed beauty.
Why Is It Important?
Escaping the event horizon of America’s definitive sixties band was a feat barely recognised at the time, but now stands as a singular act of bravery. Often derided and a talent never to fully realise, the black sheep had nevertheless made a record which in creative terms surpassed anything his musical alma mater had produced since Pet Sounds.
You should listen to
River Song, Thoughts of You, Dreamer, Rainbows
The Voice Of Unreason 