(Epic/Caribou/Legacy) www.legacyrecordings.com

Yes, Brian was the genius. The media (and his own father) told him so. And Carl’s voice was stunning. But aside from the faithful, not many appreciate what a talent we had in Dennis Wilson. Pacific Ocean Blue is, quite simply, a phenomenal album. From the opening swells of “River Song” to the yearning melancholy of “Moonshine” to the stunning “Thoughts of You,” if you don’t already know this long-unavailable 1977 masterpiece inside and out, you owe it to your ears and your soul to get it immediately.

And I have no problem rating it a “10.” Not because it is one of the most beautiful, heart-wrenching albums ever made — although it ranks up there. Not because the remastering engineers did such an impressive job of translating the material to CD, or that in having access to the original source tapes, the producers pulled out gems such as the instrumental “Common” or  “Only With You” that don’t appear on my bootleg copies (or most anyone else’s). Not because, at roughly the same age Wilson was when he made these recordings, I relate to the fragility and fleetingness that his music seems to suggest.

I give it a 10 for a combination of these reasons, but primarily because this reissue is an important document — the album proper, the bonus disc’s Bambu sessions, and all the extras. Not to mention the drop-dead gorgeous packaging: the quad-fold wallet design houses a massive booklet (oodles of rare photos plus essays by journalist Ben Edmonds, Wilson biographer Jon Stebbins and Endless Summer Quarterly editor David Beard), and it additionally folds out vertically to reproduce the original LP’s outer sleeve. Reissue catalogs should be more focused on resurrecting lost treasures such as these. Seriously, how many times can I buy a new edition of Forever Changes or the entire Costello catalog?

Standout tracks: “River Song,” “Farewell My Friend” EDWARD BURCH