Pleasures Of The Harbor (studio album) by Phil Ochs

From Jboy56 01/19/2023 16:16

Long songs, I do not necessarily like them being so long. The point in music is the words and to me it does not open too well, today..

From Larcx13 06/22/2020 15:20

Change of style for Phil Ochs. I thought this was going to be cringy but I was impressed by his song writing. Not one of the greatest albums of all time but I believe it deserves some recognition.

From Mercury 10/19/2017 20:34

Listening to this was one of the most eye-popping moments in recent memory. For me I mean. I always had a very specific idea of Ochs. I thought of him as the poor man's Dylan - protest songs, some sweet melodies and sad ones too, and some nice acoustic guitar. As a matter of fact it got to the point where I just mentally glossed over his work when anyone would mention it or when it would come up on lists. That must be true, cuz looking at the RYM lists of 1960s singer/songwriter albums would feature Ochs albums, foremost this one here and I never noticed. I remained ignorant.

Then I saw this album as a big album released in '67. I heard it was "really different" and "totally essential" and I said "alright alright! I'll give it a listen."

Well, I finished listening to it and I was slack-jawed. I couldn't believe what I had just heard ona PHIL OCHS RECORD! My only previous experience with him was his first 2 albums, and I liked them well enough. Oh and I had listened to "Rehearsals For Retirement" which I recall really liking. So there. That is it.

So, in brief, what was this album to me? Like Long Form-"Odessey & Oracle", with the occluded social commentary of "Another Side of Bob Dylan" with a healthy dose of "Imperial Bedroom"-era Elvis Costello in its biting wit and observations of the sad and asinine aspects of the world around the narrator. I mean the songs here are GORGEOUS. They are lush, intensely complex arrangements. There are full classical/symphonic parts, and the musicians here are all so damn top notch. And in the middle of this maelstrom of overwhelming beauty and creatively, is the plain yet endearing vocals of Phil Ochs. His lyrics here are layered and meticulous, they are incredibly observant, and engrossing throughout.

Picking the most intensely triumphant song here is near impossible. No song sticks out as being out of place. At the same time there is no doubt this thing is dense and scattered all at once. There is such a massive amount of musical ideas here. The opener "Cross My Heart" is very nice, intensely beautiful and touching and gives one a good idea of the space of this album. But Then the next 2 songs build on that high mark. Each song is a "WTF" moment for me, where I am not sure I am, again, listening to a Phil Ochs album.

Then the last song "The Crucifixion" manages to peak the whole album in terms of innovation, with its incredibly disconcerting and somewhat discordant strings laying the groundwork for Phil to come in with an epic 8 minute poem which takes us through the whole history of man, with all its attendant betrayals of Nature and God. I am not sure there is a better way to put a cherry on top of one of the most mind boggling listens I've had in quite awhile. This is just a truly awe-inspiring achievement of an album.

"The Spanish bulls are beaten; the crowd is soon beguiled,
The matador is beautiful, a symphony of style
Excitement is ecstatic, passion places bets
Gracefully he bows to ovations that he gets
But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat
And saliva is falling from their smiles" - "Crucifixion"

Grade: 9.7/10

From samistake2ice 08/19/2015 19:13

There are songs that try to be ambitious, some of them are good. None of the songs are as good as the stuff that came out before during his acoustic period.