Pink Floyd is one of the great enigmas in the culture of classic rock. They were one of the best representatives of the underground psychedelic London scene of 1967, yet unlike so many other good bands that originated in that era, they were able to successfully evolve into something better and WAY more popular, even after losing their frontman and main creative force after one album. They were a rock band that did great songs despite melodies that were usually very good but not stellar (and I stand by that), and despite having very few "classic" riffs. They were a band that regularly engaged in lengthy, "self-indulgent" instrumental noodling, while almost never displaying raw chops on the level of the instrumentalists of the more popular prog rock bands of the day. They were one of the most technophilian bands I've ever heard in my life, relying on sound effects like mad and featuring all kinds of processed keyboard and guitar noises, yet it is extremely rare to find somebody nowadays who considers a classic Pink Floyd album "artificial" sounding. Their greatest commercial successes were with a concept album that shoved classic rock and smooth jazz styles into a prog rock format, a tribute album to their original frontman (whose main feature is a 25-minute synth-based art-rock suite, split in two), and a double-length rock opera released after the punk revolution. This is a band that makes no freaking sense, and I love them for it.

History has done a really strange job of treating the band's legacy, though. On the one hand, anybody who has ever listened to a classic rock station has had some level of exposure to them. Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall are both easily in the top 5 of albums whose tracks are played most on the radio, and Wish You Were Here is probably somewhere up there too. Critics, by and large, absolutely love them: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not only elected them in 1994, but also has an entire wing devoted to the band's history. Yet despite their massive success and following, and despite an ever-growing number of people who have a strong familiarity and love for the band's whole history, the % of music fans who really know the group is pretty small. If one were to ask a typical classic rock fan off of the street to name albums that Pink Floyd had done, 95 times out of 100 the answers would be restricted to Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and Wish You Were Here. Furthermore, it would happen more often than not that said typical classic rock fan would identify themselves as a "big Pink Floyd fan." Years and years after first getting seriously into the band, the distortion of the band's history by the classic rock radio community as a whole continues to greatly bother me. It's not that the songs that get played most often are bad (though some of the ones off The Wall are a mite overrated), but rather that it just doesn't seem like an unreasonable request for other great songs from the band's lesser known albums to get play once in a while. As great as "Time," and "Money," and "Comfortably Numb," and "Wish You Were Here," and "Run Like Hell" might be, it doesn't seem right for them to completely overshadow "Astronomy Domine," or "Cymbaline," or "One of These Days," or far too many others. This doesn't affect me directly, of course, since I never listen to the radio anymore, but when a "big Pink Floyd fan" says they aren't even familiar with Animals, I always have to take a second to bite my tongue.

Along those lines, Rolling Stone is just as culpable in the distortion of the band's history as presented to the general public. Given the fact that the band has its own wing in the R&R Hall of Fame (run by Rolling Stone), you'd think that would mean that RS loves their catalogue, throwing out stars to them in a way reserved only for the Beatles and the Stones. Naturally, this is not the case at all. A look at the Rolling Stone Rock and Roll Album Guide shows that DSOTM and WYWH get 5 stars, Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Wall get 4 a piece, and all the rest 2 or 3. Given that the guide makes it a point to denounce the remainder of the band's catalogue as experimental garbage, it confuses me how a set of four albums can somehow merit this much praise. I agree with the love for Pink Floyd, but I most certainly do not always agree with the reasons that most people and establishments give for loving them.

The thing is, it's not that I see the band's pre-DSOTM period, which contains its lesser known albums, as better overall then the albums made in the band's commercial peak ('73-'79). Frankly, it's not close: DSOTM and Animals are firmly entrenched in my top 50, with WYWH in my top 150, while the pre-DSOTM period has one top 100 album (Piper), a probable top 150 album (Ummagumma, with a live album that would be rated much higher but also with an inconsistent studio offering) and a couple of others that might make it into my top 200 (I've never actually bothered to rank my collection out that far, this is just a guestimate based on my site's ratings). There's little question in my mind that the band really figured out how to best focus its talents around 1972, around the time of Live at Pompeii and the DSOTM sessions.

On the other hand, while the earlier albums still found the band in its "research and development" stage, that doesn't mean they should be dismissed. The classic albums did a good job of refining the band's earlier ideas into something more easily swallowed by the general public, but many of these ideas were, in my opinion, done just as interestingly on the earlier albums, if not more so. One thing that I've never wavered on over the years is that "Echoes" is the best thing Pink Floyd ever did, and many of the more outstanding elements of that track were at least used as crib-notes in bits and pieces later on. Pink Floyd was doing effective acoustic ballads well before "Wish You Were Here" and "Mother"; the eerie screams that pop up in "Another Brick in the Wall (2)" and "Run Like Hell" are adapted from "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," and there are a half dozen other examples. Point is, the separation between the "experimental" albums and the "normal" albums is certainly not as clear cut as many like to make it out to be, and dismissing the former while embracing the latter seems like a mistake to me.

Moving onto the band members themselves, I'd have to say that Pink Floyd had one of the most fascinating internal dynamics of any band that I know. Originally, the band was clearly led by guitarist/singer/songwriter Syd Barrett, whose tweaked sense of whimsy, love of guitar feedback and unfortunate fondness for LSD helped make Piper one of the classics of 1967. Keyboardist Rick Wright was the most prominent "backing" member of the group, contributing a healthy share of vocals and bunch of interesting organ parts, but no original songs, while bassist Roger Waters (who got one token song on the first album) and drummer Nick Mason seemed solid but not indispensable. When LSD started to destroy Barrett's ability to function, though, the band hired guitarist David Gilmour as a stage replacement, and eventually as a full-time replacement. Most of A Saucerful of Secrets features Gilmour instead of Barrett, and by the time of More Barrett was gone, off to attempt a short-lived solo career.

From that point on, sorting out the roles of the various members of the band becomes a little complicated. Roger Waters took it upon himself early on to be the band's "leader," but while it is true that Pink Floyd eventually became, in essence, his backing band, the group was very much a "democracy" for a good number of years. Roger may not have been the main songwriter for most of the band's life, but he was certainly the band's dark, bitter soul, and he brought a number of things to the table. He was an effective lyricist, a good writer of bittersweet acoustic ballads, a master of atmospherics and an aggressive user of sound effects to help drive home his points and make the overall sound more powerful. He was also, at the least, a competent bassist: he played very few passages that were at all flashy, and he had little interest in hardening up the band's sound with his instrument, but the few times he brought his instrument to the front betrayed solid abilities. His voice was never that great, but then again it's hard to imagine somebody else singing most of his parts.

Rick Wright's importance to the band waned over time, but for a good while he was critically important to the band's output. He contributed a small number of songs with just his name in the credits, a couple of which are among my favorites of the group, but most of the time he shared credits with Waters and Gilmour and combined his ideas with theirs into something fantastic. His voice was probably my favorite in the group, and while his keyboard parts were almost never "fancy" (apart from some of his excursions on Piper), they were, on the whole, some of the best written and best played keyboard passages I've ever heard in a rock context. The man was an absolute master of making his keyboards prominent while keeping them unobtrusive, and as an added bonus he probably had better taste in synthesizer tones than any other prominent keyboardist of the 60's and 70's (while not being afraid to stick to piano and Hammond organ when necessary). He's definitely the only art-rock keyboardist whose reputation has held up well (among people who aren't prog rock fans) in the ensuing decades, and as much as I love my Wakemans and Emersons and, uh, Minnears, I will always have a soft spot for Wright. Unfortunately, he faded in importance pretty quickly after Wish You Were Here, as first Waters and then Gilmour took total control of the group (though he had a mild rejuvenation on The Division Bell).

David Gilmour, then, is somebody about whom I feel somewhat ambiguous. As with most fans of the band, I'm less than thrilled on the whole with the songs exclusively credited to Dave, and the man had a lot of difficulty coming up with good lyrics. His approach to guitar playing was also not exactly my ideal, as his solos tended to be so obviously pre-planned and careful and completely devoid of spontaneity that they're close to the antithesis of what "true" rock playing is supposed to be. I mean, there's just something a bit creepy about the fact that the solo in the studio version of "Comfortably Numb" was never actually played like that; it was culled from about fifty versions of that solo, with each note extracted from one of the many selections available (this is the main reason that that solo made an infamous list of the 100 worst guitar solos ever). On the other hand, though, while I have an instinctual problem with his overall approach to guitar playing, which makes it seems like every note was focus group tested before release, and which inspired a legion of arena rock guitar players in the 80's, it's hard to escape the fact that he was REALLY FREAKING GOOD at that horrid approach (I mean, as creepy as that solo might be, it's still awesome). I only sometimes love a Dave guitar passage, but I almost always like them, and that has to mean something. His love of cool noisemaking, particularly in using echo effects on his guitar, is also something that shouldn't be overlooked; the masterful use of sound effects throughout the band's career is almost as much David's doing as Roger's. Guitar playing aside, he had co-writing credits on a lot of great songs in the band's career, as he had a knack of taking Waters' raw ideas and molding them into something more enjoyable and, in some cases, more musical. And, well, I really like the guy's voice, even though it sometimes sounded a little rough live.

Nick Mason was the least important person in the group by far, as he never really demonstrated a particular mastery of holding a groove or the ability to throw in a bunch of neat fills, but he was certainly servicable. Some of his best parts in the studio were supposedly tape-loops, but as demonstrated in live footage and the Ummagumma live album, he could do some neat things behind the kit during the band's early days. He really could have been swapped out for any number of drummers, though.

In the end, Pink Floyd's greatest accomplishment, in my mind, was that they showed that a deeply flawed band could still make lots of amazing music. You didn't have to have a single songwriting genius, or an absolute technical wizard at any instrument, if you knew how to effectively leverage the talents you did have at your disposal. Only a couple of their albums came close to being perfect, but a lot of them were very, very good, and the band gets as solid a 4 star rating from me as any on the site.

What do you think about Pink Floyd?

Eric Einhorn (eeinhorn.home.com)

I'd agree completely on the fact that the Floyd's radio hits aren't representative of their full career. However, the worst thing is that they aren't even real Floyd songs. I mean, Money and Another Brick In The Wall 2 are catchy songs, but they sound nothing like classic Floyd is supposed to (i.e. Shine On, Breathe, Dogs, Interstellar Overdrive). Most of their hits are more bluesy a la David Gilmour (Run Like Hell, Time, for example), and less based around the keyboards which is the center of their usual style. Oh, and the Syd Barrett period is completely ignored, when there were some great songs back then (Astronomy Domine, Mathilda Mother).

Garrett Newnam (Galaxian1.mindspring.com)

Hey bro, Just wanted to commend you on your rant about the current state of pathological radio-fed ignorance and warped image of what the Floyd is all about. I couldn't have put it more accurately mtself! This needed to be said; badly! Not to mention the other universe of unheard quality material that was performed live, never released officially; the best versions of Cymbaline, Embryo, and especially Careful w/ that Axe Eugene were performed live! I've always wanted to do a radio show someday called the "Floyd Hour", and play nothing but the real Floyd. It needs to be done!

James Logan (jel199.psu.edu)

You are totally right about radio stations overplaying Dark Side and The Wall. These are great albums, but i think a lot of their earlier stuff is better. The Piper At the Gates Of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, Atom Heart Mother, And Meddle are amazing albums and never get any radio play. I wish I could here Astronomy Domine, or Flaming, or Suite, or Echoes on the radio sometime. These are excellent songs that are more Floyd-like than their most well-known hits. The song sheep from the Animals album is another amazing song, but i have never heard it on the radio. This is ridiculous and something needs to be done about it.

R. PITI (roger_waters_pissed_off.hotmail.com)

Hey! I was reading reviews of Pink Floyd albums on your website and I just wanted to praise you for being so...well, honest.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if you've heard Roger Waters' Radio KAOS, Amused To Death, and the greatest live album I've ever heard, In The Flesh? And if so, can I expect a review of these brilliant albums on your website anytime soon?

Keep up the great work.

Jonathan (hollywood.kih.net)

Hey man. I absolutely loved your Pink Floyd page with all of your reviews from each album. Loved it. Do you own Roger Water's solo album Amused to Death? I would love to read your review for that. You should write one up and put it on the page.

And what about Roger's new double live cd entitled, In the Flesh? I own that and it is amazing. In my opinion it blows Pulse into the ground.

PrincessVoly04.aol.com

What do I think of Pink Floyd?  Well I think that Pink Floyd is the best band that has ever, and that will ever walk the face of this earth.  Their songs are mostly written by the band, which not just anyone could do that.  I mean write songs that good.  Their songs go so deep.  You have to like... sit down for about 30 minutes just to figure out what some of them mean.  Like in the  CD "Momentary Lapse of Reason"  the song "Yet Another Movie"  jeez I was sitting there for a long time trying to figure out what it meant.  It all came together though, and it was an awesome song.

(author's note): Just wanted to point out that 30 minutes is NOT a long time to figure out what a song is about - people have been trying to break down Close to the Edge for the last 27 years, after all.

      What do you think of the Wizard of Oz, and the Dark Side of the Moon put together?  Or have you heard of it?  You start the movie, and ya know where the MGM lion is roaring?  You wait till the 3rd roar, and ya play the cd Dark Side of the Moon, and they go together thru-out the CD.  Its the most awesome thing.  Its weird though, that all the band members denied that they had anything to do with the movie, Wizard of Oz, except Waters, which didn't comment on it.

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

GREAT site...

  But WHERE are the reviews for :

  Radio Kaos (crap)

David Gilmour (Brilliant)

About Face (crap)

The Wall in berlin (average)

Amused To Death ( Brilliant)

Broken China (can't say as I've not heard it....YET)

In The Flesh (pretty good)

  The albums are available through both Virgin and HMV.

  (author's note): I'm a poor college student. Enough said.

By the way the above opinions are my own,,No doubt many disagree with them.

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

David Gilmour (1978): This is a great album. Some of those songs, No Way Outta Here, Raise My Rent, and So Far Away should have been the inspiration for AMLOR instead of that 80s pop stuff that was not Floyd.  Rating: A

  About Face (1984): This album sucks. It is too 80s again. STOP IT DAVE!!! Quit trying to be a bloody pop artist. Murder is a good song. Rating: D

Radio KAOS: Ok, Rog.....trying to pull a Gilmour and be a pop artist too? I wish you guys would stop that. KAOS had it's moments but is too poppy. Radio Waves??? Jeezzzzzz!!! Waters, that stunk. Rating: D

Amused to Death: Ok, the best Waters solo so far. It had some great tunes that could've easily been Floydian "What God Wants" and "It's Miracle" are awesome. This is a great improvement. Rating: B

Mason & Wright's albums are both very mediocre at best. C and C- respectively.

Sittinger, Brian D (brian.d.sittinger.lmco.com) (7/21/01)

If I haven't said it yet, keep up the great work! You have very well thought-out comments (although I may have some minor disagreements here and there. Otherwise, we'd be living in a very dull world!).

On Pink Floyd, a few years ago, I had a very similar thought to what you expressed so well above. Thank god I was not one of those Pink Floyd 'fans' who only knew of their existence only from DSOTM, WYWH, and The Wall. However, other than "See Emily Play" and "Learning to Fly" (which I thought was from The Wall at first), I had no idea what else they have done. Well, at least I knew about Syd's existence!!) Very slowly but surely, I'm rectifying this problem. Once I get past buying every major prog. album worthwhile (as I don't have THAT much money to spend!), I'm certain that I will dive even deeper into Pink Floyd's deep catalogue (much deeper than Relics and Animals for example!).

A. A. Azimi (aaazimi.chamran.ut.ac.ir) (7/29/01)

Hey...!

Who ever you are...you seem to be crazy,i'd better say your brain will never understand Pink Floyd's power!

You called final cut a dull album!! haha! so funny shit!

How much do you know about Pink Floyd's idealogy?

I guess nothing! because you called Sorrow a dull song! huh!

And finally my advise to you :

Piss on your page and analysis about Pink Floyd!

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Hello. Good work on the site, John. In case you're wondering, I'm Fernando, from Brazil, aged 17, lover of music and Internet nerd. Now, I felt some need to share my thoughts on Pink Floyd, seeing that I've seen there some neat ideas on the band, you know, different angles for me to appreciate the guys.

  Primarily, I'd like to state that, indeed, I agree with you when you say these guys individually are not really good. Roger is an okay bassist, though I love his voice. David is an obvious case of overrated guitarist. See, his backing guitar work is awesome along with the others, but when he engages in his long, dull guitar solo mode, blargh. It feels so cold, so boring and so calculated, pre-planned and all, so slow and meticulous, I can only agree with George Starostin on the "musical dentistry" topic (though it's argueably the only thing I agree with him on Floyd). Rick is great, his athmospheric keyboards and all neat touches probably are one of the biggest trademarks of the Floyd sound, though he's quite bad on improvisation, especially when he's on his own. And Nick had a good and fresh guitar playing, that can be adapted to any style, though that's just it. Nothing spectacular, at all.

But then, like you said, their biggest power was unleashed when they were together. I say it every time everywhere that Floyd is only Floyd when they work together. Now, Floyd is unique and different from any other band because they didn't care solely on solid riffs and catchy melodies and such, but on how the sound would feel as a whole. Of course they DID present lots of good riffs and guitar lines and nice melodies (most coming from Rick), but they weren't the center of the attention. And this is just their big forte. You know, SOUND.

shiloh hellman (spotguy75.hotmail.com) (12/23/03)

Although I agree with the majority of opinions expressed on this site I felt it necessary to defend one of the greatest players ever to strap on a Fender, David Gilmour. It seems that several people are under the impression that old Dave is merley competent at his chosen intrument and his solos are "overcaculated". Melodically his guitar work is inspired, the solo in Comfortably Numb alone being one of the greatest in rock history. To say that Jimmy Page is a beter soloist is understandable but ignorant. Page was a fine studio guitarist but sloppy in his execution. Listen to 'Can't Quit You Baby' for a primer on how to hit as many wrong notes as possible. In any event I may sound a tad obsessive but if you dont think Gilmour is great you're either not into guitar or you're not listening.

Barry12876.aol.com (4/14/04)

Pink Floyd Rocks, there is no band out there now that can stand on the same stage with them

Marta Acaba (acabam.msn.com) (6/27/04)

You are brilliant!! Okay?? Did I fulfill your need for admiration?? Well seriously I did enjoy your review of PF's albums...Your website was a like finding a diamond in a large vast of an internet ocean. I think I am going to go back and review again some of your comments regarding Roger's solo stuff..I personally think Pros and Cons was the worse album he could have ever vreated. I still don't get it!! Anyway again great website..period..
Thanks

Ken DiTomaso (kenditomaso15.hotmail.com) (9/20/04)

While I very much agree with your opinion on Pink Floyd (in the introduction). I just wanted to say (for the record) that while the band did experament with drugs in the 60's, Syd was the only addict, and the rest of the band had stopped doing them by the Ummagummma album. And Rick had good songwriting abilities until the 90's (but not his singing ability); give a listen to his last solo album (Broken China, 1996) where he proves that if there was another Floyd album it would be very good (and I'm not a big fan of post Waters Floyd so that should say something).

Charlie Vaca (gcharlie.sbcglobal.net) (11/06/04)

PINK FLOYD RULES MY CORNHOLE

Pedro Andino (pedroandino.msn.com) (11/23/04)

say, have you seen pink floyd live? they FUCKING RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CANNOT TOP  FLOYD! YES,ELP, GENESIS, IS GOOD BUT NOTHING COMPARES TO THE FLOYD! SYD BARRET: WHAKED OUT CLANDESTINE DRUG USER! NICK MASON: JAZZY DRUMMER. RICHARD WRIGHT: AWSOME SYNTH PLAYER.             DAVID GILMOUR: SPACE BLUES PLAYER! ROGER WATERS: EGOMANIAC AND VISIONARY! I WISH I WOULD LIKE TO SEE FLOYD AT WOODSTOCK '94!!!!!!!

Todd Alfsen (TALFSEN.peoplepc.com) (12/16/04)

Well put! I think yor totally right. I think that Pink Floyd's best work was on Meddle and Saucerful of Secrets. I Would like to hear some radioplay of this stuff. But I don't listen to the radio anymore anyway. it's just the same old shit over and over again. Not that DSOTM or The Wall aren't great. they just don't fully represent Pink Floyd work.

Shawn Ryan (shawnryan.tds.net) (02/23/05)

Pink Flyod is one if not the best influential bands of all time. And I would say it did take all the members to make them what they were/are. However, Roger Waters is a pure and simple genius. Even though his Floyd writings can be credited to the life of Syd Barrett, I don't know of anyone today who could dig so deep into human emotion, and still have a great sound to go with it (maybe Maynard James Keenan?). Anyway, he seems to be all about concepts Animals, The Wall, The Final Cut, KAOS, etc. They're all telling stories, not just each song but the entire album. He's brilliant. Have you ever heard "The Body", come on he knows what he is doing. I don't really care for Gimour solo, and I know the other guys have solo/side projects but I'm not that familiar with them. But Syd Barrett, Mad Cap Laughs shows you the direction Floyd may have traveled, and to be honest I'm glad they didn't. Thanks for your site and opinions.

SolomonsOther.aol.com (03/15/05)

I see Pink Floyd as the antithesis to Rush. A crappy band with a ton of great songs. Roger Waters can write lyrics that actually effect you (if you're a suicidal wreck bent on blaming everyone in your life, including the government, for everything wrong with the world, that is... but hey, who isn't?) and yet the vocal melodies rarely seem to break out of a certain mold, no matter who's singing. Okay, Syd Barrett was the exception with writing vocal melodies, but he wasn't exactly coming from the same place as the other dudes. And his guitar work was phenomenal... or at least unimitable. Now as for those pesky debates of 'Is Pink Floyd a progressive band or not?'

I'm honestly a not a huge fan of the idea of 'progressive rock'. It hasn't really progressed in 20 years. There's a good reason Robert Fripp coined the phrase and then a short time later denied that King Crimson was a 'progressive rock' band. In the beginning, progressive meant experimental music and not anything of a particular nature... ESPECIALLY not of a particular nature. Visionaries like Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Miles Davis were the true visionaries who formed the core of the philosophy that  Robert Fripp was referring to. People like Keith Emerson and Jon Anderson have run prog into the ground with theitr overly complex and impersonal ideolgical styles... I'm not saying they were bad on their own, they were usually quite brilliant in their own right. But don't you wish proggers would stop imitating them so fucking much?!

So whether or not Pink Floyd is 'progressive or whatever, they were still a fine group.

doug goldfluss (doug.theaspencastle.com) (5/15/05)

not sure if you saw the latest rolling stone with the top 100 "greatest rock and roll bands of all time"

some one was curiously missing... YES PINK FLOYD....

surely guns and roses, tupac shakur, gram parsons, hank williams, roxy music, and NWA were greater than Pink Floyd....

One of these days Im gonna cut you into little pieces Jan Wenner

Michael mayer (musicreddogs.yahoo.ca) (06/25/05)

 hi,I love pink floyd,I have every album they made,lots of Barrett too.The songs are so well put down.Never another band like them.evean teens loves some of the songs.back then I evean got in ports.I still love the stuff. ty

Michael Gallun (mgallun.wi.rr.com) (11/15/05)

is just as much, or if not more pink floyd than roger..   does anyone notice when our sound of floyd came about... sure, syd left, roger took over but david appeared... listen to the song dave sings... name them off... they are true floyd classics.... amlor and divison are awesome.. and i love davids long solos... Sorrows solo can compete with CN as the best guitar solo ever....

andreas schneider (andreasheinzschneider.web.de) (01/23/06)

I would agree that Dark Side, Wall and mostly Wish You Were Here are good albums. Perfectly produced and musically fine arranged. But nonetheless the beginnings of the Floyd were totally different. So is there actual philosophy. Ummagumma for instance may have some flaws. Especially the studio side may lack coherency. But nonetheless Ummagumma is a masterpiece in terms of sound experimentation, quite surprising instrumental interplay and great atmospheric soundscapes. I think there are many good ideas in it. I like lots of the bootleg material - the FAT OLD SUN version from BBC Peel Show from september 1971 and the great OBSCURED BY CLOUDS and WHEN YOU'RE IN from their appearance from May 1973 in Earls Court.

Although I would never consider the Floyd as technically perfect musicians, their skills for great improvisations and instrumental interplay are very very underrated. Both live performances are great in terms of dynamics and climax. The four Floyd avoided instrumental ego-trips and had a very sensitive attitude to the musical atmosphere.

I even would say this is typical Floyd - excitement and experimentation rather than perfection. This is the way Syd Barrett started the band. For me the "real" Floyd are rather more relatives to the sonic adventures of contempory composers as Cage or the Free Jazz innovators as John Coltrane than to Mainstream Bands as Toto.

FloydFanatic69.aol.com (05/12/06)

Hi my name is Joey, and I would just like to say that Pink Floyd is the most spectacular bands that has ever hit the world.  I more than love them, I really really love them.  I have every album on CD and Vinyl.  There hasn't been a day that has passed since I have discovered them where I haven't listened to one of there albums.  LONG LIVE PINK FLOYD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phillip Koulogianes (fortunately4u.cox.net) (05/28/06)

Hey John, Great site. As a musician I am always on the lookout for new material to keep my interest. It seems like that when a  song gets about five years old, I am pretty much through with it. I am totally burned out on classic rock so much so that I do not even listen to the radio anymore. If I do it is the alternative station and even then there's not many bands with any staying  power. That is why it is strange that Pink Floyd is my favorite band. I  see that many people seem to think that just because they do not play  technically difficult music that they are not great musicians. Eric Clapton once said that he could convey more emotion with one note that many players could with  their fast playing style. I have to agree. When I saw  Pink Floyd  perform in San Diego on their last tour,  I did not care how many different modes David would use playing guitar. I just wanted the band to take me someplace. That's just what they did. A true artist is only concerned with the technical aspects in as far as it  concerns the end result. Most bands today are satisfied with taking you around the block, Floyd takes you off the planet or inside you mind or to some far away place. 

  I have just finished putting together a home recording studio and one of my goals is to write and record material that rises to their level. Since there departure from the music scene there has not been any bands (that I am aware of) that are continuing in their shoes with their style of music. I had the chance to see a Floyd  tribute band a few weeks back and was glad to see so many younger people there. When I told my 18 year old niece that I was a fan, she was surprised,I know that Pink Floyd's music is going to be around for a long time and outlive all of us.

     My favorite thing to do right now is try to recreate my favorite Pink Floyd songs in my studio. I must qualify this statement because many of their songs are way out of my reach  because I do not have access to the same resources that they have.  I have pulled off a decent rendition of Wearing the Inside Out and am working on about three others. I will use these songs on a demo of what I am capable of. This demo will be free of charge so as not to infringe on any copyrights. As a matter of fact, I was looking for chord charts for Keep Talking when I discovered this site. As mainly a  guitar player first then a keyboardist,  David Gilmore's guitar solos are usually the thing that draws me to record a certain PF song,  But I must able to get close to the original or I wont do it. I just have to much respect for the music. 

    I dont think I have ever heard a bad Pink Floyd song, I have heard songs that I was not  fond of. Reading through your site, I thought it was amusing that people get very polarized over certain songs. I did find it interesting that a couple of people did not like Keep Talking. One guy even mentioned that he thought Steven Hawking had made an appearance because of the computer talking throughout the song. Hate to spoil you image of Stephen hanging out with Pink Floyd but that voice came standard on all Macintosh computers up until a couple of years ago. I  have mine speaking the same words throughout my version. They must have updated the voice because it sounds more human now. I think they used it to show the irony that it took so long for man to learn how to talk but man could teach a machine to talk in just a few years. Anyway I loved David's use of a "Talk Box" as the exit solo (more irony?).  I was going to make a talk box but when I found that a couple of companies were making them, I had to run out and get one. They are pretty cool! It is Davids guitar tone that is my ultimate challenge, (that and the female backup singers), though I am making strides in overcoming these challenges. 

    As far as my favorite albums, ANIMALS just nudges out the others. Dogs being my favorite song.  I just love the intro to Shine on You Crazy Diamond. The synth sound and Davids perfect lead accompany is a classic that I hope to recreate someday. I have to mention that Davids solos always have the right feel for the song that they are doing. If he tried to do something fancy instead of something tasteful, it just wouldn't sound right. Well got to get back to the studio, David if you ever read this, I think you are the best. You and the other guys have done something special.    A fan always, Phil

basile Fourcade (lebaze.hotmail.fr) (08/16/06)

hello,
i've not read all what you wrote but i think i share you point of view :)

"oh you're a floyd fan, great...Which song you prefer ??? high hopes and the wall " a lot of disappointement :(

in my point of view, the best "pink floyd" is the "tryptique" => Atom heart mother / Meddle / Darkside (have you heard Dubside of the moon ?? it makes me like "money")
And their live session at this time was the best.

I like very much also the earlier LPs , specially the songs :-Pow R Toch H (if you know the meaning of the title , i'm interrested. also this unique barret/wright song shows the "before Waters time")
-Carefull
-Embryo(live, because the studio "Works" version is very disapointing)
-Let there be more light
-the narrow way part 2 or 1 (the folk one)

sorry for my bad english , i'm french!
It's hard to find "real" floyd fan ...
If you want to talk Pink Floyd (and if you have time ...), i'will be delighted :)
basile

taylor hersh (pinkfloydrocker.verizon.net) (11/25/06)

yo, i just wanted to say that you are doing a great thing. i hate people and the raido stations who only know about the main members and who play the same songs over and over again. i honestly think those songs are great but one time i was wearing my Pink Floyd shirt with all five members. one person said who's the person in the back and i just stared at them looking like they were crazy.

another time when i was going back and forth on how much me and this random person knew about pink floyd randomly like i always do then suddenly i mention my favorite person into the conversation, Syd Barrett. the person said, 'who's this Syd Barrett guy?!' i just stare at him, then i kick him in the shin!!!!

so i agree with you on so many levels
remember to rock on each and every day.

Dangeruss one (dangeruss.one.gmail.com) (03/30/07)

amazing,

there music is deeper than anything out there, my second fav is TOOL they only follow in the footsteps of  what the floyd created, took that idea and expanded it...

being a musician, owning a guitar just like gilmours black strat and having the effects he uses' makes me understand the style of it all

every time i watch the wall something else pops up that say's oh yeah i get it...absolutly the best band in the world, there's the beatles, elvis, go back to the classical music of beetovhen it will be remembered long after they are gone being 37 i was only able to see waters live, but it's not the same w/ out them all, i own every released form of media on them, i can watch over and over the floyd is a way of like, as is Tool, i wish theyd get back other than live aid

which was amazing...there's nothing else to say but wow

Lucas Miguel (she_is_suffering.yahoo.com.ar) (05/03/07)

Hi John!. I've been reading your reviews for two years but this is only my second post. One again, sorry if I make some mistakes.

I'm from Argentina and radios over here have the same problems than the radios in your country. The few radios that play Floyd only play material from 'Dark Side', 'The Wall' and to a lesser extent 'Wish You Were Here'. Never in my life have I heard Cymbaline, Astronomy Domine, Set the Controls', Careful with that Axe, Eugene, Cirrus Minor, Free Four, Green is the Colour or anything pre-Dark Side.

At least here in Argentina, everybody seems to love Pink Floyd but when it comes to name the albums, 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'The Wall', or even 'P.U.L.S.E.' are the only ones that people seem to know of. And I know a lot of people who only seem to know Another Brick in the Wall, Comfortably Numb and Money. And I agree with your assessment that these people call themselves 'big Pink Floyd fans'. I have some friends that say they love Floyd but never heard of Syd Barrett!. I tried to show them the magnificence of 'Piper', 'Saucerful', 'Atom', 'More''but I didn't have much success. The ended up asking me to play Hey You, Brain Damage and Wish You Were Here.

By the way, my favorite Floyd albums are 'More - it was my first floyd album, and so it holds a special place in my heart; 'Meddle', by the way, doesn't the guitar part in A Pillow of Winds remind you of The Beatles' 'Julia'' and 'Animals'. I think that 'Obscured by Clouds' is unjustly forgotten. Everyone that loves the Dark Side should listen to Obscured'.

I also love 'Dark Side' (maybe I'm committing heresy'.but I don't like The Great Gig in the Sky as much as I should'). But I have some problems with 'The Wall'. I think that it is overrated, and I find a lot of filler in it (pretty much in disc 2). And I hate 'The Final Cut' (Give me back my money Roger!)'.And I also think that Roger's 'The Pros and Cons'' is one of the worst albums in my collection (along with 'Calling All Stations' (Small Talk is the WORST Genesis song ever'I'd take anything from 'We Can't Dance' any day'even Fading Lights, duh), 'Under Wraps', 'Union', 'Thrakattak'')

By the way, a few weeks ago Roger Waters was here and played two sold out concerts for 60.000+ each day. He played The Dark Side in its entirety. I didn't attend but some friends told me that it was terrific'anyway, I would prefer to see Gilmour'By the way, I love his last album, 'On an Island'. Beautiful, Romantic and 'Nightish' (I don't think that word exists!), especially the songs The Blue, A Pocketful of Stones (which I'm listening to right now) and Smile. It's ideal to listen to while being holding hands and hugging someone you love'how I miss my (ex)girlfriend'.buuuaaaa :'(

Cheers from Argentina. Love your reviews, since we share a similar taste in music.

P.S.: I love 'The Division Bell'..call me crazy, but I simply LOVE it. And I don't think 'AMLoR' is the piece of trash that everybody says it is'I agree that it isn't a real floyd album, but I've come to appreciate some songs, especially One Slip, On the Turning Away and Terminal Frost'.but you're right'.The Dogs of War is atrocious. vomit-inducing I'd say'..

Gmang1986.aol.com (05/13/07)

I love pink floyd, ever since I bought there first album The Wall i can't go thourgh one day, not listening to pink floyd. I love their music because it is soo relaxing and all of their songs go perfectly together, my favorite album would have to be The Final Cut because i love how through the whole cd it goes from a slow and mellow beat to a fast beat. Right now i own The Wall, The Dark Side of The Moon, Animals, The Final Cut, and Ummagumma and I would someday like to own all of their albums. I think u guys are the greatest classic rock band ever. 

Lori Fowler (lfowler.dominionpost.com) (08/02/07)

You ungreatful dick... you don't know shit!  Your one of those people who believes everything they hear, and pass it off as the truth.  David was a great guitar player... have you ever watched "live at pompeii" the directors cut.... he is as good as Clapton.   Mason was an awesome drummer... have you ever heard "I'm going to cut you in to little pieces".... he fucking rocks out!!! ... it wasn't looped on the DVD... they can sing just fine... listen to echos there is good pitch and harmony in that song... If your going to bitch, take this site down... YOU SPREAD LIES, keep your opinions to yourself because they suck... I didn't even read past the first half of the page because it pissed me off.... The floyd are not even my favorite band... not even my top 5 band and I can tell I know more about them than you... you should just give up music... you don't know anything about it!!!!

Christopher21737.aol.com (01/19/08)

hi, i read your site last summer, since then, i have collected every pink floyd album.......and i agree, 95 out of 100 pink floyd fans do not know the early stuff, animals, or even wish you were here.......   

    for me, floyd is my favorite band of all time......i do have the final cut, momentary lapse, and division bell, and i'll listen to them, but, it's not the same......however, the first album with syd, i'm always curious where the band would of went if he , well, didn't ruin his skills........piper is amazeing.....i belive syd was the frontrunner for modern, prog-space rock......   

    i have two friends who love floyd, yet they "were" the 95 out of 100.....i sent one friend meddle, the other obscured by clouds, both christmas gifts.....they were both blown away!!.....both agreed, floyd is more awesome than before.......   

Larry Hale (lhale1950.comcast.net) (12/13/08)

I love your site and the Pink Floyd album reviews.

  I had rediscovered Pink Floyd over the past summer, after having the urge to listen to "Echoes" again.

  There were no Pink Floyd cd's in my collection and I had retired my turntable at least five years ago. So I spent a few weeks finding the cd.

  Even though I know very little about the band, I did see them perform twice (in 1972 and 1974).

  It is nice to go back to these older recordings (I rediscovered Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" a few months earlier).

  My only gripe with Pink Floyd is Nick Mason's drums. The recording engineers added echo and reverb to every other instrument, why did they rarely (if ever) place an echo on Mason's snare drum? It could have added so much more to the sound. I think I ay have heard one Pink Floyd song that has echo on the drums.

  Being a drummer, I hear things I might have played differently, but Mason's basic drumming was not at all bad for the band. He was just not a Phil Collins. I feel the same about Graeme Edge, who was an integral part of the Moody Blues, but not a virtuoso drummer by any means.

  Again, I really like your site and I am learning a lot from reading the reviews.

Matti.Alakulju.upm-kymmene.com (07/13/09)

Maybe this issue has been discussed somewhere, but I'll say it anyway: A big portion of Floyd's most popular output was written about Syd Barrett and his mental state. As we all know, DSOTM and WYWH are masterpieces from musical standpoint, but the fact remains: Roger & Co. made millions writing songs about Syd, while he was like a wasted vegetable sitting in some country village. Maybe there was some sort of understanding between Floyd and Syd, maybe they asked for permission, who knows? I don't think that Syd was able to protect his interests, but some smart (or greedy) lawyer could have made a copyright issue about the subject matter of some songs.

P.S. I sort of dislike songs when they smell like cashing-in on personal tragedies. I stopped listening to Clapton when he wrote a song about his son who had died recently.

"Gary Dagg" (pressworks.shaw.ca) (06/13/11)

Yes pink floyd fans are all idiots if they happen to prefer the melodic voice and musical abilities of one David Gilmour over the vocally and musically challenged lyricist Roger Waters.

They were better together but Waters on his own is a far worse earache than anything David Gilmour could ever hope to come up with. Hell an aged Bob Dylan could sing better than Waters and that's being nice!!

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

I ignored Pink Floyd until Dark Side of the Moon. I had heard of them, but the odd tracks I'd heard in passing didn't flick my switches. I was besotted with The Beatles anyway, and I thought all groups should sound like the Beatles.

DSOM (along with some pretty good Moodies stuff) changed that. I suddenly developed a much broader horizon, and in the early 70s, horizons didn't come much broader than Floyd. Apart from being a stunningly well made album, DSOM taught us that you can include any sound in a piece of music. DSOM included (real or simulated), seagulls, helicopter, motorbike, airport announcements, mad people, clocks, bells, cash register, and probably loads of other stuff that I haven't managed to isolate. And it worked. As an added bonus, DSOM used stereo in a way I had never experienced before. All my Beatles albums were mono versions, because, essentially, it didn't make that much difference. But on DSOM, stereo was part of the experience. I used to lie down with my head between the speakers (I didn't have headphones) and listen to the helicopters rasping through my brain from left to right and back again, while some poor guy "on the run" would also trot right through the middle of my brain. Magic. Good music too.

Having acquired DSOM, I had to start on the back catalogue. This was more difficult to get to grips with, because none of it was anything like DSOM. It was, however, pretty interesting in its own right, with varying degrees of musical merit versus just plain experimentation.

I fail to comprehend the idolisation of Syd Barrett. He deserves credit for setting the ball rolling, but if he'd stayed sane, I think Floyd would have ground to a halt after a couple of years. I doubt if I would ever have bought any of their albums. His compositions are wierd and childlike, but actually not all that interesting. The best thing on Piper is Interstellar Overdrive, which is very much a group effort, and hardly a composition at all. Similarly on Saucerful of Secrets, the title track is the piece that really moves me, again a group effort.

Once Syd had left, the Floyd that I loved started to come together. Slowly at first. Ummagumma is probably the least played Floyd album on my shelf.

More and Obscured by Clouds are both OK, but neither would have converted me to Pink Floyd Appreciator, if they'd been the first things I heard. Atom Heart Mother, I really liked, probably more so than the band themselves. Meddle, and specifically Echoes, is absoluteley mind-blowing. Not so accessible as DSOM, but wonderfully atmospheric and satisfying. A completely different experience to any other Floyd album.

And there's a clue to why I like Floyd so much. Everything they do is different, whilst remaining identifiably them. Not just different from everyone else, but different from what they've done before.

Wish You Were Here was a bit of an anticlimax. More subdued, and lacking the moments of climax to be found in Echoes and Time. Still a good listen though.

Then we start the slide into Deep Waters. Animals is actually a prettty good album. Better in my opinion that WYWH. And side 2 has a set of songs that I really love (i find side 1 a bit of a drag). But the theme is dark and depressing. You might say that earlier albums are also dark, but personally I think that If and Brain Damage are really uplifting songs. The Wall, I thought was far too long and dreary when I first heard it, and I haven't changed that view. It's an hour and 22 minutes of total self pity. Despite that, it has some fantastic songs. Another Brick ..., Comfortably Numb, Mother.

The Final Cut .... sorry, I tried and tried to listen to this album, but it has almost no redeeming features, except, perhaps, some nice orchestration. It's thoroughly depressing, and Waters' vocals are excruciating. This album has absolutely nothing in common with DSOM or Meddle.

I liked Gilmour's solo stuff, mostly, and I regard the last two Floyd albums as an extension of Gilmour's catalogue. Lapse of Reason is unpopular with the critics, presumably because it's really Gilmour in disguise, and not really a Floyd album. OK, so The Wall and Final Cut are really Waters in disguise. So what? Judge the music on its merits. I like MLOR and Division Bell better than the Waters stuff. it's a matter of taste.

As a final aside, I have looked at quite a lot of threads asking which other groups are like Pink Floyd. The suggestions are generally laughable. Then you have to ask ... which Floyd do you mean? Floyd has never stood still. It has morphed and morphed so that there is no obvious connection between PATGOD and Division Bell.

My advice to Floyd fans is to move on and experience the rest of the universe of original music. Try something by Brian Eno.

timharrington12.gmail.com (10/13/13)

Spot on with your overall review of the band. Especially, your observations on the "the I love Pink Floyd, their songs blow my mind" crowd. There's nothing like the reaction you get when you either play the studio disc from Ummagumma or watch the Live From Pompeii video.

I am amazed that you are referring to the Rolling Stone Record Guide. As a teenager I discovered a lot of bands through that book that I otherwise never would have known about in the pre-internet era. My recollection of their review was that it was very superficial. But it did get one thing right. Pink Floyd loved to recycle sound effects that were never that great in the first place.

majora27.gmail.com (03/13/14)

This is band that at first I really wanted to get into to but found inaccessible, to having them as my favourite band, to finding them to be very flawed and rarely listening to them. They are not a bad band by any stretch but Gods of Rock they are not. Animals is a great album and others like Dark Side, Meddle and Piper are very good as well but then you have albums that are mostly boring (Wish You Were Here), annoying (The Wall) or both (Final Cut). I am of course being completely subjective so take my words with a grain of salt. I do respect then but I can't love them. I'll give them 3 stars.

---

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - 1967 Capitol
D
(Great / Very Good)

Best song: Astronomy Domine

As mentioned in the introduction, while most people associate the band with the 1970's epic Roger Waters rants, that is by no means how they began. For that matter, their beginning was hardly much less significant or amazing than the 'classic' albums. Early Pink Floyd was led, of course, by the oh-so-infamous Syd Barrett (whose solo career I have reviewed here). Syd had three characteristics which ensured that he would have a viciously loyal cult following to this day, and it's hard to imagine Pink Floyd without having ever had him around to loosen things up. First, he was a phenomenal songwriter, both in terms of melodies and lyrics, and I will never step back from arguing that. On the one hand, he came up with all sorts of little childish ditties about mice without houses, the joys of playing hide and seek, creepy cats, what it's like to be read a bedtime story and other playful things. And although his voice wasn't exactly phenomenal, there was an overwhelmingly innocent and little-boyish quality behind it that made his songs even more enjoyable. That he liked childish stories and concepts shouldn't be too surprising, though; just look at the album's name, which is taken from a chapter title in Wind in the Willows. But that wasn't all he was good at, no no. His second specialty was dark, 'cosmic' space/drug rockers, and he had just as much talent in creating those as he did in making his simpler songs. Of course, these numbers usually freaked out the concert-going fans who had come to hear the cute childish ditties, but hey, they should've known better.

His second significant attribute was that he was a heavy duty LSD addict. It wasn't entirely his own fault (legend has it that his friends dowsed his coffee with the stuff repeatedly without his knowledge or consent until he was completely hooked), but he was one nevertheless. Now, acid can certainly aid in the creation of art which is marvelous and beyond comprehension, but alas, too much of it and your mind starts to go. Such was the case with Syd on this album. Very, very soon after Piper was released, the band had to let him go because he was 80% gone mentally, and this was hurting the group and their stage act considerably. Nevertheless, the fragile state of Syd's mind during this album's sessions mostly works to the album's advantage; "mad" geniuses almost always produce their best work right before they completely collapse, fall off a cliff, etc, and Syd was a mad genius through and through. His mind and his creativity were absolutely working overtime in these sessions, and they pretty much broke down when this was over. Still, as sad as this might be, it's better to have 5 albums worth of genius crammed into 1 than to have them spread out, I think.

Finally, Syd was one of the true masters of feedback creation, up there with Townshend, Hendrix, you name it. He'd slap his guitar like nobody's business, but he'd also use all sorts of outside objects to help him out. Slide rules up and down the fret board, dumping ball bearings across the strings and crazy stuff like that was his specialty. Look, there's nothing quite like listening to a drugged-up lunatic genius messing around with feedback and different ways to make it, and whether you enjoy this or not, it's hard to deny that this album is, at least on some level, an absolutely fascinating listen because of that aspect.

This album is a 40 minute document of everything which made Syd cool, essentially backed by the rhythm section of what would become the world famous Pink Floyd. The dark cosmic rockers are creepier and more disorienting than you could imagine. "Astronomy Domine," one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs ever, has some odd, odd lyrics about his mind travelling in space during one of his trips, with a weirdly mixed voice in the background making announcements about launch times and orbits, and a cool set of downward cascading riffs throughout with Syd just going nuts all over the place. As for the 9:41 instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive" ... it's incredibly dated, probably more so than anything on here, but I still can't help but feel wowed by it. I adore the whole thing, from the terrific main riff to all the improvised (but still held together with a feeling of control) bits in the middle, to that brief stretch where Syd's guitar becomes one of the trippiest things I know of, to the weird stereo panning at the end that makes everything spin around and around my head. This track is as important to describing both Pink Floyd's history and the music scene of 1967 as anything else, I think.

Aside from the trippy instrumental "Pow R Toc H," which a lot of people dismiss as a dumb drug joke but that I have always enjoyed (I like the main themes, and the vocal freakout at the end is a hoot), the rest of the Syd tracks fall into the childish ditties category. These are not, however, your everyday childish ditties; it's not as if his two styles were completely disjoint from each other. "Lucifer Sam" is a somewhat psycho take on surf music, with a marvelous main riff and a parnoid vocal melody singing about a cat that just won't go away no matter where you go. "Matilda Mother" is the aforementioned bedtime story song, with vocals split between Rick and Syd, and it does a terrific job of capturing the idea that many bedtime stories, as sweet and innocent as they might seem to adults, can have a feeling of darkness and creepiness in the mind of a child that hears them. "Scarecrow" and "The Gnome" are relative throwaways, but I've never gotten tired of their melodies and their silly lyrics. Flaming does a nice job of making hide-and-seek sound fun, the much-maligned "Chapter 24" (where Syd took the opening lines of chapter 24 of the I'Ching and put them to music) has wonderful harmonies in the "sunset, sunrise" part near the end, and the closing "Bike" shows how a guy whose mind isn't quite all there attempts to hit on somebody he likes (before the album ends with another vocal freakout).

Oh, I almost forgot; this album has the first song Roger Waters ever wrote, entitled "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk," and it's really, really awful, but that's not in a bad way! This song is so dated that it becomes hilarious and fun beyond belief. Basically, Roger shouts out some really stupid lyrics before the 'melody' gives way to some really, really cool sounding jamming, with both Syd and Rick stretching themselves as much as anywhere else on the album (without going into the kind of trippiness that dominates "Interstellar Overdrive"). Yeah, it probably took Roger about 3 seconds to come up with this song, and those 3 seconds were probably not spent actually thinking about music, but I never skip it.

Buy this album tomorrow. Many, many critics have said almost this exact same thing, and I'm probably just a lemming for following them, but this album is an aural documentary of not only what it's like to be on acid, but also what it's like inside a mind that's about to completely collapse. Somehow, the knowledge of the history surrounding this album brings it all home for me, and what was previously a great album becomes a true classic. Regardless of how many drugs the rest of the group used throughout their history, and supposedly they were used a lot (though some have claimed this is just rumor), Pink Floyd never again made an album which even approached being this trippy.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

I didn't come accross this album until quite late on into my fanship of the Floyd. It's just a little too trippy for me I'm afraid.

  Interstellar Overdrive and Astronomy Domine are EXCELLENT but otherwise I wasn't impressed.

  I give it 5 out of 10

Auto (auto2112.btinternet.com)

One of my newest albums that i've bought. I was recommended it after a friend of mine said to me, "It's fucking great to get stoned to when you're listening to. Course my friend is a wanker and so I actually bought this album for the sole purpose of delving into some of the songs of one Mr. Barrett.

Astronomy Domine is no doubt a classic song. this just reeks of awesomeness. the whole feel of space, and those cool lyrics... well put it this way, I didn't need to be stoned to get a buzz out of this first time I listened to it. Lucifer Siam is also excellent. "That cat's something I can't ex-plllllaaaaaiinnn..." Into a cool little drum rhythm and that bass too. Excellent, but it doesn't stand out on the album.

What else do I REALLY like here... Oh, well Scarecrow is a cool little rhyme. Not really a song in my view, more of a poem being sang aloud. Am i mad? Probably. With comments like that definitely. The one that stands out for me has to be 'Bike'. The rhyming scheme and that weird explosion at the end of every verse is sexual intercourse to my ears. Bloomin' marvellous. Oh and i ain't got a clue how the hell you rate your albums, rather freaked to me so i'd give this album a 6 out of 10. Easier said than 'Supercalifragilisticexpyhalitocis'.

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

Very Psychedelic and a masterpiece in it's own right. However, it is very weak in certain sections (Bike, Scarecrow...mmmm?). Rating: B

Robert Grazer (xeernoflax.juno.com)

Overrated, in my opinion, but still a great album. I'd give it a very low 12, because "Interstellar Overdrive," "Chapter 24," and especially the atrocious "Take up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" are all one here. I'll agree that "Astronomy Domine" is very scary and great too, but my vote for best still goes to "Bike." I'm starting to believe that "Bike" is the funniest song ever written, and I don't know, maybe it's even one of my top ten Floyd songs ever. Seriously. I love that song SO much. This is the only 60s Floyd album I've heard (well, I tried to get through More, but fell asleep in the middle) so I'll have to pick up Ummagumma someday. I still don't think their peak began until Atom Heart Mother, and as far as psychedelic albums from '67 go, as good as this one is, I'll stick with Disraeli Gears and Magical Mystery Tour.

Antoninus1.aol.com (9/10/01)

I've had a guilty affection for this album since 1983, when I bought my first copy (on vinyl).  At the time it was not held in universally high regard; the first Rolling Stone Record Guide, which was my purchasing bible at the time, awarded it a scant 2 stars (this rating was revised upward in later editions), and I think I bought it because I'd read about Syd Barrett in Miles' illustrated book "Pink Floyd" and wanted to know more about the early improvisational/druggy stuff.  The first time I played the album I did not like it AT ALL.  It seemed extremely weird and manic, I didn't like Syd's voice, and the instrumentals seemed crude and stilted.  Then I changed my mind about it after listening to it through headphones after drinking half a pot of coffee!  I was only in 11th grade and caffeine and Pink Floyd combined could make me hallucinate in the dark then.  Today I listen to the remastered version! and after all these years it sounds extremely manic, and the instrumentals still seem crude and stilted.  Even Syd's songs are less impressive as "compositions" -- not the lyrics, which I love (even the one pinched from the I Ching), but the melodies, which are very limited for the most part.  A lot of these songs sound like variations on the same simple melody.  Also, Syd can hang on one note forever before continuing the melody line... this was and is cute, but when people say Syd was a brilliant songwriter and on par with Ray Davies, John Lennon, etc. I have to protest that Syd wasn't even in the same ballpark as those guys.

LeMysterioso.aol.com (1/08/02)

You are probably the only reviewer I completely agree with (most of the time), and you undoubtly feel the same about this album as I do. After Piper, the Floyd were to never again match its excitement and freshness. Never again, were the Floyd ever to be this innovative and exceptionally cool as hell. And this is hugely due to the fact that at one time they had the coolest frontman ever: Syd Barrett. Great review.

Muzmoka.aol.com (1/25/02)

WHILE  I  DO AGREE WITH SYD FANS THAT  THEIR DEBUT ALBUM WAS ONE OF THEIR BEST,  I DON'T AGREE THAT IT WAS THE BEST.  I SUPPOSE I SEE THE APPEAL OF THE SYD BARRETT ERA OF PINK FLOYD FOR THE FA IRER SEX, I DON'T SEE RELAVANCE  TO THE CLAIM THAT IT WAS "BETTER". IT JUST WAS. IN FACT, THE WHOLE  DOWNWARD TURN OF EVENTS  GAVE THE SYD YEARS  A CERTAIN MYSTIQUE.  WHEN SYD WAS FINALY OUSTED, PINK FLOYD LOST THEIR "STAR".TO ASSESSET IT ALL UP, I'M GLAD PINK FLOYD LOST THEIR " CRAZY DIAMOND ", MUCH LIKE THE DOORS THEIR "LIZARD KING", MINUS THE HUMAN TRAGEDY.

Montes3369.cs.com (2/27/02)

listening to Syd Barretts music is a trip, with his music i can see straight through his beautiful eyes and into the universe in his brain. I see syd lost in a trance not wanting to come out, expressing his thoughts through music and art. Taking me into his world and experience the feelings of the most creative person stuck between not real. Syd Barrett was the PINK FLOYD after Syd ther is no such thing as Pink Floyd., roger waters,david gilmour, nick mason, and rick wright were Floyd Pink not PINK FLOYD.

"LISTENING TO SYD BARRETT IS THE ULTIMATE TRIP"

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

A terrific album, but one that has very little to do with anything else the Floyd would ever do. If you can, the special edition mono CD in the box is the one to get, as Syd did a lot of the mono mixes whereas no-one in the band was there for the stereo. Anyway, "Astronomy Dominie" is a fantastic opening, none of the songs suck, except maybe "Stethoscope" (Roger himself has described it as "a very, very bad song"!). Best song - "Interstellar Overdrive" (well, duh!). 8.5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Ooo, the Piper. This must have been my, uh, 5th or 6th Floyd album, from the time I simply put in the album name on Audiogalaxy, and there was a ready MP3 file with the entire album in it. Cool, eh? And well, this one freaked me out. I've read reviews explaining this was psychedelia at its best, but I still had no clue on what this truly was. Well, Astronomy Domine is the definite best, and Interstellar Overdrive is definitively fabulous, one song that had to be done eventually. And well, Syd was there for that. But then, one of my big favourites here, as well, is Lucifer Sam. Hell, do I love this track. Matilda Mother and Flaming are one pair of beautiful tunes, especially the latter, with its 'loose' vibe is a must. And the couple of ditties on side two are all one of a kind. Bike, so much hated by certain AudioGalaxy users, is just fabulous in its own way, and Chapter 24... not that it's bad, mind you, just overlong. It could have been much shorter, and still have the full impact.

Now, there's one chunk of the album that I truly admire. George Starostin hates these two tracks, but like I said, I just ignore it. You know, Pow R Toc H is just... nothing. It's just the guys doing odd vocals with all sorts of instrumentation behind them. It's amusing. And Take Thy Sthetoscope And Walk is, like you said, so bad and so great. You know, the singing means nothing, but the middle jam is the big shine here. I've read on another Pink Floyd sites, that during recordings, the middle jam of this song went on for 10 minutes. Imagine that. Eventually, the jam was edited and cut short by Norman Smith. You see, lots of fans were disappointed with Piper by the time it was released, because they said it didn't reflect the band's live sounds, that's just the live jams by the fashion of Astronomy Domine. But hell, screw them. This is one great album. I agree with the 9 (13).

Ali Ece (psychocandy8.yahoo.com.au) (1/08/03)

One of the greates revolutions in music history. Syd Barrett's guitar is tranformed through shiny lyrics and free riffs to a cosmic dream generator. But there is one difficulty in this album, the problem is the producer sent by the music label who can't understand anything and the diamond in the UFO concerts turn to chrome. I think that if this album was made with Brian Eno it colud be the best album ever. The London 1966 version of Interstellar Overdrive is better. Lyrically it's a great complete book. You can see the sound, the music is dancing you! After that Pink Floyd was very good too but the rest after Barret never did somithing so revolutionary and bright: An album who is the gap between our stolen childhood days and our colorful adult dreams!

micheline provost (micheline122.sympatico.ca) (02/23/05)

I think pink floyd is nothing without syd barrett

javier ceja (polariss.hotmail.com) (03/06/05)

I've always felt like those people you mention. Pink Floyd it's been for me an enigma and  find them ordinary at times. Musically I "feel" there's never been a really passionate reason to get exited... for example when I hear the drums on many of their tracks. Some of them are so boringly predictable.On the other hand I listen to a Focus album and it gives me chills just to hear the great drums they put on those records.Then again that's my opinion. My point is I guess the reason we keep listening to the same old songs been repeated in the radio is because the mass audience only takes what their given and what their given becomes a way of life. Maybe floyd is really a great band , but from my end is I who still prefer making the last decision. The reason we have music icons these days is because no one took music for what it really is as an art form that transcends and not as genres, styles and things for that matter. Thanks

resthaven (resthaven.orcon.net.nz) (07/15/06)

best floyd album ever.third floyd album i bought.ive now owned this album for 12 years and its my favourite.also led me to buy the barrett solo albums from this record.pure genius

Kolby Kramer (gkkramer.gmail.com) (02/28/07)

After reading your glowing review of Pink Floyd's "The Piper," I felt I should give it a chance, even though I literally detest the rest of what I've heard from Pink Floyd's catalog (with some minor exceptions, IE: "Run Like Hell," "Brain Damage/Eclipse," etc.).  I had a friend burn me a copy to listen to in my spare time, which was here recently, trying to keep an open mind about it.  Now this sounds like it's about to lead into a five-page diatribe about why your opinion sucks, and I hate the band even more after hearing this album, but it's quite the contrary; I was pleasantly surprised.  This album is amazing!  Right down to the stupid childish ditties that Syd pulled from the nether regions of his acid-soaked mind.  The opener, "Astronomy Domine" is a great way to kick off the album, leading into another song I find to be quite entertaining (as well as Starostin), "Lucifer Sam."  And of course, there's "Interstellar Overdrive" which every one who has heard this album has a comment about, negative or positive.  Mine is most assuredly positive, although I disagree with Starostin when he comments that it may drag on a bit too long.  I'm all for lengthy instrumentals, if they're done right of course, and this, I feel, is very right.  And if I'm wrong about it, then I just don't want to be right.  Very great recommendation, John.  All though I cannot stand Pink Floyd (and find them to be one of the more overrated bands in history along with The Beatles, whom of which I also detest), this is a keeper.

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

i just wrote you a few days ago, saying i really wasn't a barret fan, with pink floyd.......that's cause i listend to saucerful of secrets......the piper, though different than the floyd i know with gilmour......all i can say is that i dig it......very cool music.......

Christopher21737.aol.com (01/19/08)

by the way, i give piper a 10!!

trfesok.aol.com (08/13/09)

It took some time for this to grow on me, because it is pretty self-indulgent. It's obvious that from the beginning, Floyd was as much interested in creating?sonic collages as it was in songwriting. This becomes a bit of a problem on "Interstellar Overdrive", which really overdoes it at 9+ minutes (a new reissue also includes Take 6, which was only 5 minutes long -- that's more like it). That's a really cool riff, though. "Pow(e)r To(r)ch" (I like my spelling better -- it makes it pronounceable) also qualifies as filler, but it is fun. "Astronomy Domine" and "Bike" are more successful at combining "real" songs with hooks and special effects. In particular, the sped up vocals at the end of "Bike" cleverly simulate the pedaling of a bike and the beeping of its little horn or bell. I don't get why people don't like "Chapter 24." Wright's keyboards effectively create a Eastern atmosphere to go along with the lyrics from the I Ching, but the tranquil atmosphere is atypical of the album. Syd's kiddie ditties are are hilarious, although I also agree that "Bike" may not be as innocent as it sounds. "..Stethoscope.." is the weak link, indeed -- Waters had a long way to go. The songs is a total throwaway, but it is interesting how their noise experiments here resemble what the Velvet Underground was doing at the same time, more than the rest of the album.

In retrospect, I can see why this initially bombed here in the USA -- it's an extremely British album. Their peers -- Beatles, Stones, the Who, even the Kinks -- intentionally or not, "Amercanized" their vocals, probably reflecting the influence of American R&B. Syd's vocals are eccentrically English, through and through, and maybe people didn't want their UK heroes sound too much like they actually came from the British Isles!

Anyway, all this takes some getting used to, but it indeed is more than worth listening to, particularly through headphones!

"Greg Bugay" (greg.bugay.imsbarter.com) (01/13/10)

The best album ever made. When Syd left he took their humor, whimsicality & their penchant for being improvisational. Strand me on an island, this is the ONLY album I would need.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

This is Syd Barrett's Opus Magnus. A fascinating collection of fantasy songs, all set in theunreality of his extraordinary mind. Some are space songs. Some arehorror songs. Some are fairystories. And there is even a love song(Bike), about a small boy's love for an equally small girl.

The music was unique for its time, largely experimental andmind-expanding, interspersed with some really simple tunes that go perfectly with his childlike lyrics. The Gnomewould make a beautiful nursery rhyme.

As a Floyd album, I have to say that it's interesting morethan enjoyable. Interstellar Overdriveis sheer genius, and still my favorite early Floyd track. But the rest of the album, wierd though itis, loses its novelty after a few plays. And with the novelty worn off it's not that great.

Victor Reyes (sydpanther66.gmail.com) (09/13/12)

Enjoyed your well thought out and thorough coverage of the Floyd discography but would like for the nonce to limit my comments to PATGOD, and specifically Barrett and Rick Wright's influence. Actually I'm not sure I can add much since essentially I agree with you on the importance of these two to the early Floyd and agree that the other two were quite expendable. I would disagree about your placement of Piper in your list as #100 as it deserves a much more advanced position in the chronology of influential major releases, unless of course I misunderstood your system. "Piper" was one of the first rock/jazz feels I ever remember hearing outside of Manfred Mann's "Chapter Three" and Tony Williams' "Emergency". Syd was one of the most original of all the guitar players at the time of his peak years as you could listen to Clapton and hear Freddy King, the same with Beck, Page and Hendrix (well maybe not so much with Jimi) but Syd was so far removed from having a derivative style that one had no choice but to deem him a complete and original phenom. Had he maintained his ambition and sanity he may have become one of the most original guitarist/songwriters ever to live/perform/record. As for Wright he kept the Floyd afloat after Barrett's demise and afforded them enough time through his dominant presence on Saucerful to develop their own (Waters especially) musical buoyancy. The curious megalomania of Roger Waters would of course prevent him from agreeing with my position but he's so far removed from reality as to be irrelevant in my book anyway. Enjoy your site and will be a frequent visitor.

---

A Saucerful of Secrets - 1968 Capitol
A
(Very Good / Good)

Best song: A Saucerful Of Secrets

Outtakes from the previous masterpiece, plus some new material. Soon after Piper was released, Syd's mental state went from bad to worse. He was becoming increasingly unstable, and was doing nothing to help the band's reputation. Some of his 'episodes' border on legendary, such as when the group was interviewed on American Bandstand and Syd wouldn't answer any of the questions asked of him, choosing instead to stare blankly into the camera for five minutes. More troubling, and more devastating, was that he was killing their ability to play live. Without warning, he would become completely spaced out in the middle of a song, and just wouldn't play at all or, even worse, start de-tuning his guitar on stage, which naturally made things difficult for the others. To try and fight this, the band hired a friend of Syd, David Gilmour. He basically had one duty; to run out on stage and start playing the lead guitar parts whenever Syd was going through one of his phases. Although his normal guitar style was the complete opposite of Syd's, cold and calculated whereas Syd was completely random, he was perfectly willing and able to play the parts given to him. Plus, he had that cool bluesy voice, far more pleasant than Syd's. Anyways, this worked for a few shows, but after a while the band just got sick of it, and one evening, as they were heading over to a gig, they simply decided to not pick Syd up. Syd was a bit angry about this, as you might imagine, but he was appeased when the group worked out an arrangement whereby Syd would remain the principal songwriter and Dave would do all of the actual stage work. Alas, though, Syd's songwriting had gone completely off the deep end, and the rest of the group finally decided that they had no choice but to fire him. This cost them a great deal of their fanbase, yes, and many of the financial supporters of the group bailed out on them and decided to invest in Syd's solo career, with the idea that a Barrett-less Pink Floyd had no chance of succeeding, but ultimately it was for the best.

Now for the album itself. Like I said, it's mostly Piper outtakes, but if you're expecting the same zany compositions as on the previous album, look elsewhere; the songs on here bare almost no resemblance to those on its predecessor. Wright throws in two pretty, romantic-sounding tracks, with wonderfully rich and syrupy vocals and a gorgeous atmosphere in general. "Remember a Day" is one of the great forgotten Floyd tracks of all time, I think; the combination of the pretty piano lines with the sweet vocals with the little bits of whacky slide guitar in the background make this into, at worst, a minor classic. "See-Saw" is good too, despite the fact that the working title for the song claimed that it was boring as hell. I've always found it to be a lovely bit of nostalgia, remembering the time when the person singing was a child and he and his sister were best friends. I guess one could find a note of creepiness in this if one so chose, but I don't think that's what Wright had in mind.

Waters' material is more in the 'cosmic' vein, and rather cool overall. The opening "Let There Be More Light" starts with a neato-sounding bassline that sounds a lot more interesting on closer inspection than it does from afar, and gradually turns into a slow and ultra-weird (if overly rambling) jam with Wright and Gilmour's new styles well established right away. Also, although it may seem on the surface that this was a Dave-era song, since the guitar parts highest in the mix are vintage Gilmour, closer inspection reveals ultra-loony parts in the background which cry out Barrett. Meanwhile, the lengthy but still good "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun," with lyrics taken straight from a book of chinese poetry (except for the title/chorus) is strong, quiet, and great for chilling/meditating. The final Waters composition of the album, the anti-war "rocker" "Corporal Clegg," is awkward as hell and not that impressive, but it's still rather funny; the kazoo solo is a total blast.

So there's five tracks. A 6th can be found in the form of the closer, a Syd composition called "Jugband Blues." Now, in and of itself, it's not that great a song, but if you know what had happened to Syd previously, the track is one of the saddest songs in the history of man. The ending part is particularly heart-wrenching, with just Syd and his acoustic, and the wonderful lines "And what exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke?". I can never help but mumble quietly "goodbye, Syd" whenever I hear that.

All those positives aside, these songs are not why I give this album an A. The title track, credited to all 4 members, is why I give this album an A. Generally regarded as the first 'science fiction song,' it seems to portray a battle in the depths of space. At first, Wright is just playing random chords, which help me to think of the cold emptiness of space, when out of nowhere it disappears. A Mason tapeloop comes on, and suddenly the guys are all trying to make as much noise as possible, and you can just see ships blowing up and getting shot and all of that cool stuff. Eventually, the battle fades out, leaving the wounded to recuperate, and there's some wonderful harmonizing at the end before it fades into "See-Saw." It's simply marvelous, and while Yes would one-up the concept with the epic "Gates of Delirium" 6 years later, this still works to me as kind of an abstract sketch of that piece.

Anyway, this album is certainly very patchy, and there's virtually no flow between each of the tracks, but there's not a single song on here that I dislike, and several that I love. An A it is.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Nope I aint keen on the second album either. The title track is quiet good but otherwise this is a serious let down. I guess It's my fault for being so big on the "rock" Floyd.

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

A Syd-influenced Floyd LP also. It is a little more rugged than Piper a better rocker, but is too scattered. And what's with those stupid kuzoos? Parts of ASOS sounds like a band that is too stoned to play anymore. Rating: C

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

A patchwork album, made up of a leftover from Piper ("Remember A Day"), a Syd song (the aching "Jugband Blues"), some stuff recorded with Syd but which Dave also contributed to ("Set The Controls", "Corporal Clegg") and some by the new Floyd (and this includes "Let There Be More Light" which was all Dave, believe it or not. He was, in fact, hired because he could play Syd's style, even if it was not his own style). And it is quite good for a patchwork album, recorded in a time of complete turmoil. 7.5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Man, this was the album that took me the longer to get. I couldn't find it anywhere. But damn, it's here. And hey, it's nice. Roger was getting his responsibilities as the main songwriter then, and Let There Be More Light, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (damn them long titles) and Corporal Clegg are nice. I especially like the latter for it's shattering riff, and the funny vocals through it, and the coda with the brass-imitating sound is hilarious. The two Wright songs are beautiful, especially See-Saw, and it ranks as one of my favourite Wright tracks so far. As a trivia, the working title of this song was The Most Boring Song I've Ever Heard Bar Two. Heh! Jugband Blues is such a symbolic closer for the album it hurts. Really, this must be the saddest song of early Floyd. It's so silly and almost nonsense that its meaning is made even clearer. Wow. And of course, the title track cooks in every second of it.

  So, anyway, it has its flaws, but they are what make this album so charming. I don't know if I agree with your rating, I'd give it a little, just a little bit lower. I'd agree if I was in a really good mood.

Todd Alfsen (TALFSEN.peoplepc.com) (12/16/04)

I love this album! It has some sketchy parts and it is a little scatter_brained but for the mostpart it's a great album. Let There be More light is definetly my favorite track but the wholealbums good.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Still quite a bit of Barrett on this album, but the balance is better than PPATGOD. Even the out and out Barrett songs like Jugband Blues work well. This song, which seems to be about insanity, is an interesting precursor to later Floyd albums such as Dark Side of the Moon. The title track, I think, is an early Floyd classic. I love the three phases, and the transitions between them, and especially the grand finale. A better album. Notclassic period Floyd, but you can feel it coming.

Send me your thoughts

Jesse Salgado (jsalgado.uiuc.edu) (2/13/05)

I think perhaps the main reason people are so enamored of this particular performance is that it's the most common bootleg of The Man and the Journey concept suite. It's also been somewhat of a "lost" Pink Floyd album, along with the Sounds of Household Objects deelie. I've heard that it was intended to become a studio album but the idea was shot down, knowing that studio versions of most of the tracks had already been released.

I originally played the hell out of it because it was live pre-Dark Side Floyd and it had unreleased cuts. Now the majority of it sounds really sloppy and really lethargic. Daybreak (Granchester Meadows) is just as exciting as the studio version, with some pleasant organ noodlings from Wright, after which it lurches into Work, one of the unreleased tracks. Hearing some ambling tuned percussion complete with the band members playing at construction (hammers and sawing) isn't that amusing after the first (few?) time(s?). Following Work, the band was served afternoon tea, which according to the track timing went on for about 3 1/2 minutes; perhaps I should go back and underline lethargic. TM&TJ cuts almost all of Work and teatime for the less adventurous.

Afternoon (Biding My Time) is one of the few tunes I still queue up, and while the quieter part is a bit shaky, I like the ending section where Gilmour cuts loose, though the trombone is barely audible. After that comes Doing It, Mason's obligatory drum solo, and Sleep, which sounds kind of like Quicksilver except Sleep is shorter and a bit fuller. It slowly segues into Nightmare (Cymbaline), an electric version which drags on for an awful 9 minutes, and it becomes clear that Gilmour might not be on spot with his vocals. This was followed up with a very short instrumental version of Granchester meadows (Daybreak pt. 2) which rounded out The Man, but was cut for TM&TJ.

The Journey is filled with more music than The Man, though that doesn't really work out in its favor. The Beginning (Green is the Colour) starts off with some nice seagull noises, but is electrical (like Nightmare), really sloppy (like Nightmare), has shoddy vocals and has some scat- singing rounding out the end (like Cymbaline, but not Nightmare). Afterwards we are treated to Beset By Creatures of the Deep (one of many names for Careful) which loses virtually all of its Ummagumma charm, even though it's a bit faster. When it peters out into The Narrow Way, you're treated by vocals just as offensive as Green's, if not moreso, plus the whole thing sounds technically lazy.

Thankfully it switches over to The Pink Jungle, my favorite selection. Granted, it's a modification of Pow R. Toc H., but it sounds frantic, violent and dark, with a rather chaotic jam section in the middle. The Labyrinth of Auximines, which follows, is a weird hybrid of sound effects and instrumental noodling founded upon a very simple bass riff courtesy of Roger. When the song eventually ends, you can hear some footsteps (and the audience laughing on more complete recordings), after which the concert switches over to Behold the Temple of the Light, which rounds out the unreleased tracks. Behold is based off of a repeating series of guitar chords which you can hear at the very opening of the studio version of The Narrow Way (pt. 3). Add in some gradual de/crescendos, gong rolls, a stately tom part, a lot of organ backing, stretch it over five+ minutes and you've got a song! Actually, I like this one quite a lot as well, though the Echoes FAQ says there's no keyboards here since Rick Wright ran over to play the Concertgebouw's big pipe organ. They are, however, quite prominantly featured. Perhaps a pre-recorded part?

The End of the Beginning - also known as Angelic Voices, the final portion of A Saucerful of Secrets - finishes everything up. The Concertgebouw's pipe organ sounds masterful, but everything else is mushy and Gilmour fudges things again. Frankly, I'm convinced this was just a bad night - I remember reading somewhere he was sick with something during one of TM&TJ performances. Perhaps it was this one? One general complaint I must lodge is that it sounds like Cymabline, Green, Beset, Narrow and Saucerful are using the same style of drum fills. Other than that, this was probably a nice show to attend, since they did a lot of visual things on stage, some of which I haven't mentioned and some of which I probably don't even know about. In Conclusion: If the Cap'n gave Ummagumma a C+, this would most likely get an F--.

---

More - 1969 Capitol
9
(Good)

Best song: Cymbaline

Given the Pinksters' reputation for creating "synchronicities" between their albums and various films, it is somewhat ironic that their first full studio album in the post-Barrett era would be a soundtrack. Because it's a soundtrack, this album is often forgotten and dismissed, but it really shouldn't be. Honestly, there are only three tracks on here I could do without: "Nile Song" and "Izba Bar" show the band attempting to do balls-out hard rock and completely failing, and the seven-minute instrumental "Quicksilver" is the boring negative of all of the far more interesting instrumentals that are found throughout the rest of the album (though since the film is about heroin, it might be in the context of a really long trip in the movie).

The rest is really good, honestly. Waters has already begun to assume control of the group; 5 of the tracks are solely his, and he has a credit on 11 of the 13. "Cymbaline" is the standout, with one of the creepiest atmospheres I have ever come across in any song. And it's cleverly self-referential; there's a line in the middle of it that goes "will the final couplet rhyme?" which is cool because the final couplet of the song is the only one that doesn't rhyme. I'm pretty sure that it's about the fear side-effects of heavy drug use, since it talks about all sorts of animals closing in on you from all sides and has an air of somber paranoia throughout. I love the song, and the fact that seemingly no radio station ever plays it just makes me very sad inside.

And the other songs are great. "Crying Song" and "Green is the Color" are a couple of terrific folk (yup) songs, and the latter has to be one of the prettiest songs Waters ever wrote for the group (Dave gives a very nice vocal to this as well). The opening "Cirrus Minor" is a perfect mood setter for the rest of the album, with its very effective vocal melody and the way it turns from a mellow, somber acoustic ballad into one of the most perfect slow chord sequences Wright would ever play for the band (this sequence, by the way, is very similar to what he'd use in the coda of live versions of "A Saucerful of Secrets"). Elsewhere, we have lots of instrumental tracks, and except for "Quicksilver," all have something going for them. The best of the lot is "Main Theme," a neat avant-garde track, but "Dramatic Theme," "Spanish Piece" (a funny minute of generic spanish guitar and some vocals from the movie), "More Blues," and "Up the Khyber" all have positive things to be said for them (even if its hard for me to articulate what those are).

I will admit that this album doesn't jump out as being big and important like so much of Pink Floyd's other stuff does, and I suppose that's the reason that it gets relatively ignored. Is self-importance really the best way to measure an album's quality, though? I don't think so, and while this album is far from perfect, I enjoy it enough to happily give it a 9. Every Pink Floyd fan should have this eventually ... even with "Nile Song."

Send me your thoughts

Satish K. Pagare (spagare.us.oracle.com)

I fully agree with u ...
Cymbaline is one of the best songs of pink floyd !!!

High time ... cymbaline ...

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

I had serious doubts when I purchased this that it would be any use. After all it was a soundtrack to a film. I was pleasantly suprised. You hit the nail on the head with Cymbaline a GREAT track. Get's an 8 out of 10 from me

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

More- Pretty good stuff. My favorite is Cymbaline. It is very weird and spaced-out too. Rating: B

TheeRubberCow.aol.com (12/28/01)

It's good to see some people say they like this one.  I don't meet many people that do.  And to be honest, I can understand why to an extent; if you think about it logically it's not a real good album, but I always enjoy it very much whenever I put it on.  I disagree on the "Nile Song", though.  I like this one because it's one of the trippiest heavy songs I've heard.  I know it's simple, but there's just something about the way it's EQ'ed and panned slightly to the left (or maybe right if I'm remembering incorrectly), and I really can't imagine a vocal part sounding much more decadent than this.  If you ask me, this is the first real punk song.

Aside from that, I agree with all on that Cymbaline is a classic, and that most of these other songs, esp. "Green Is the Colour" and "Main Theme" are some of the most pleasantly psychedelic pieces they've done.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

I LOVE "The Nile Song"!! The lyric is brilliant, and I think Dave's singing on it is awesome. This is a great little album, and I don't think there is anything on it that I don't like. I am only sorry that Pink Floyd didn't do more soundtracks because the two full ones they did do are so darned good. "Cymbaline" is the best song, of that you'll get no argument from me. And I like "A Spanish Piece" because it is something very rare - the Floyd being extremely silly! 9 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Wheee. I'm so fond of this album, and so proud of having it... Hell, it's a crying shame it's so unknown. Cymbaline, Green Is The Colour and Cirrus Minor are all prime Floyd tracks. They all rule. The several experimental portions all cook, with the exception of Quicksilver, just too dull. Of course, this changes when inserted in the context of the movie. But anyway. Also, I don't dislike Nile Song a little bit. It's funny to see the guys making fun out of themselves here, and once again, we must remember this IS a soundtrack after all, so it justifies. Did you notice that after each and ever verse of Nile Song, the guys raise one tone? It starts in A, goes to B, to C#, and all the way until they reach A again? Point! Now, Ibiza Bar is just a cheap immitation of Nile, but innofensive for me. I can enjoy it sometimes.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Some really nice tracks on this album, but overall you get the feeling that this is the filler that wasn’t going to make it onto a proper album. Highlights are Cirrus Minor, the Nile Song (yes, I like The Nile Song!), Cymbaline, and … let me see … Quicksilver. The rest is pretty forgettable.

timharrington12.gmail.com (10/13/13)

Its funny you rag on Nile Song and Izba Bar. I was introduced to this album by a friend who played it constantly one summer. It wasn't until about a month of listening to it that I realized they weren't the same song.

Frankly, I used to get a kick out of how pissed off Gilmour sounded on Izba Bar. The song sounded to me like a parody of a Gilmour vocal.

But a lot if the songs were amusing. Main Theme sounded like a futuristic comedy. Same with Up the Kyber. Cirrus Minor sounded like a horror movie spoof.

Back in the day I didn't pay much attention to the folkier stuff on More because I was just wanted to listen to the avant garde stuff.

---

Ummagumma - 1969 Capitol
C
(Very Good / Great)

Best song: A Saucerful Of Secrets

If Piper was as trippy as Pink ever got, then this album was certainly as weird as the guys ever were or would be. Half live and half studio, messed up does not begin to describe this recording. For starters, the guys randomly decided that they wanted to have the chance to write songs individually, and, well, the result was about what one would expect from four art school dropouts trying to be as weird as possible. Holy cow.

The best contributions, as you might expect, come from Waters. His first song, "Granchester Meadows" seems like a nice, normal, pleasant Simon and Garfunkel style tune, but as the song is fading out, you're quickly stunned back to attention as the buzzing of a fly gets louder before it finally gets swatted nice and hard. And then .... hoo boy, how to explain this. For starters, the title of the next track is "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict," which tell you right away that Waters is a little loony. Basically, the 'song' is Roger imitating a Celtic guy telling some story in a completely incomprehensible voice (though many, many people have tried to figure out what he's saying) with all of these chipmunk sounds all over the place. Apparently the sounds are just speeded up versions of Dave and Roger yelling out things like "give me back my guitar!" and the like, but whatever they are, they make the song into an amusing hoot.

The other guys' work is quite fine, though. Roger shares side one with Rick, and Mr. Wright decides to do something resembling classical with his keyboards. His four part "Sysyphus," simply put, is one of the scariest pieces of music I have ever heard from a rock-centric group. From the forboding opening theme, through the tinkly piano parts in part 2 and the weird noises in 3, he manages to grab my attention at almost every point. And the 4th part, with an even more menacing take on part 1 and all sorts of technological wizardry all around, is an absolutely perfect ending, and wonderful contrast to Roger's first number (which immediately follows).

Even Dave does well here! He has said many times that he is ashamed of this piece, entitled "The Narrow Way," but he really shouldn't be. Sure, part 3 might be a little dull, with somewhat dumb lyrics, but the first two parts are terrific. Basically, he's trying to get as many noises out of his guitar as he possibly can, and that's always a treat to listen to. Part 2 might focus more on actual riffage than part 1 (feedback surrounding an acoustic guitar is neat to hear, btw), but I think it's a really, really cool guitar line, and it gets stuck in my head all the time.

The clear weak link of the lot, then, is Mason's bit. I used to try to defend it, but I really can't justify saying good things about "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party," which is basically an excuse to play tuneless mellotron parts over drums for a long long time. Then again, as dull as it might be, it's still no more dull than "Moby Dick" (yup), and the flute part that starts and ends the piece is nice.

The bulk of my love for this album, though, comes from the live half. Forget P*U*L*S*E or Delicate Sound of Thunder, this is the only live Floyd that you absolutely need. There are four tracks, and they're all terrific. Despite the lack of studio wizardry, "Astronomy Domine" sounds no worse here than in the orginal (different, maybe, but not worse), and it's really neat that other than occasionally being able to recognize Roger, it's almost impossible to tell individual voices in those weird, alien harmonies. "Careful With That Axe Eugene" is fantastic, far superior to the studio version (found on Relics), with the scream that has to be heard to be believed. It's close to a perfect build and release of tension, with neither the build to the scream nor the lengthy fadout rushed any more than desired. Meanwhile, on side two, we get the two best ASoS tracks, "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and the title track. The former gets a faster reworking, with more guitars, and this helps matters considerably and greatly reduces the risks of falling asleep in the middle of it (which has a lot of atmospheric Wright noodling). Finally, the version of "A Saucerful of Secrets" presented here is my favorite Pink Floyd live track, by far. I don't completely know why, but for some reason, I feel that almost every aspect of the song is improved from the original, and that says a ton right there. Heck, I even love the harmonizing that goes on at the end; it sounds good, it's melodic, it has a lot of passion for being wordless noise, and it blends perfectly with the anthemic guitar and keyboard playing.

This is, quite simply, a fabulous album, and there are scant few others I'm aware of that manage to be this weird and still sound like, well, music. Everyone needs a crazy noisemaking album, and you may as well get one made by some of the greatest technological gurus of the past 50 years.

PS. It is with this album that the famous Pink Floyd "soundtrack" legacy begins. This album has been linked by more than a few people to a film entitled Gigi, which isn't all too surprising, since there's an advertisement for it on the cover.

Send me your thoughts

nicholas.green.ntl.com

Dear dear dear......the 3rd part of The Narrow Way is a spooky, grandiose masterpiece with Masons most stately drumming and one of the greatest fade-outs ever...are you comatose!!!!!

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Um what the ****????. I listened to this album all of ONE time. I think it's utter trash. the LIVE performance of Saucerfull for some reason comes accross as better than the studio version (can't say why) I'll be generous and stick 4 out of 10 on it.

(author's note): *sigh*

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

This is very good and very bad. Some of the weirdest stuff ever on the studio side. Sysyphus 3 sounds like metal scraps falling out of a truck. The live side is awesome, though. Mixed review? Rating: Studio- C     Live- A

Garrett N. (galaxian1.mindspring.com) (8/25/01)

One of my all time favorites; could be their most imaginative album. A must listen for any enthusiast of LSD or psilocybin. Does a good job of illustrating their ablity as live performers (though not quite as good as Pompeii), but my favorite aspect of this album is the studio side. My ranking of importance goes as follows: 1) Sysypus, 2) The Narrow Way, 3) Granchester Meadows. The Grand Vizier's Garden Party is an interesting experiment, but rather dull to me; I'm sure Mason would agree. I was listening to Sysyphus one time on mushrooms, and part three gave me a feeling, when my eyes were closed, of falling through a tunnel. The Narrow Way really spotlights Gilmour's acoustic guitar playing, a lot better than anything afterwards, in my opinion, and part 2 could have been used for a BBC sci-fi film score.

TheeRubberCow.aol.com (12/28/01)

Just wanted to point out to Nicholas.green that the drumming on "The Narrow Way" is performed by Gilmour.  Ironic......

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

The live album is awesome, every track is as good, or better, than its studio counterpart. The studio album is experimental but most of the experiments work. "Sysyphus" has the sound of modern classical music to it (which is just what Rick intended), "Grantchester Meadows" is a lovely ballad with poetic lyrics, "Several Small Species" is plain weird (and best listened to with headphones), "The Narrow Way" is the least weird but is lovely and "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" is more interesting than most drum solos because of all the processing Nick did with it, chopping up the tape and so on - sure it's not fantastic but surely interesting. 9.5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

The live album... let's go slowly. We have the absolute best track of early Floyd, Careful With That Axe, Eugene, and it rules with all might. I was dazzled the first time I heard it. It's perfect. Astronomy Domine sure loses a bit of its charm, and it sounds a bit too, er, tired sometimes. Set The Controls is the only track that has seriously improved over the original. A Saucerful Of Secrets loses its calculated precision from the original, and it is not as athmospheric as the studio version. And I truly miss the overdubbed Gilmour harmonies towards the end.

  Now, I might be one of the only ones that prefer the studio disc. Sysyphus is a must, and showcases Rick at his most crazy. And is there anything better than a crazy Rick Wright? Roger's part doesn't disappoint, either. It features the first experimentation with tape sound effects, that would result in Dark Side Of The Moon. Grantchester Meadows is great, and worth every single second of its length. And the second track is simply amusing, though I'd truly like to know what the hell is that looping noise in the beginning of the chaos. The Narrow Way is really cool, and I find those ridiculously high pitched acoustic guitar notes on Part 1 really, really funny for some reason. Part 2 cooks, and Part 3 is... quite inaudible. But it's funny to hear Gilmour playing piano, drums, bass and everything else. Then, Mason's part is, well, rather dull but cool anyway. I used to like it. It feels really spooky and dark sometimes, and all the tape effects are, at least, respectable.

  Overall, an exciting experience, and much better than some morons at AG say.

(jsalgado.uiuc.edu) (10/11/04)

If you want to hear "This is pretty avant-garde, isn't it?", use the slider bar to fast-forward to the 4:30 mark, right after the Pict exhales. Using Windows Media Player, set the clip to "slow" play speed and listen. It's a little hard to tell, what with the echo effect and all (especially since WMP doesn't affect pitch as well), but it's there.

Christopher21737.aol.com (01/19/08)

the studio album.......hmm, i guess even floyd has a bad day once in awhile......the live album......one of my favorites.......

the live version on ummagumma, i give a 10

Kim Gowney (04/29/08)

Was second foray into the Floyd world (Meddle bieng the first), I bought it in 1972 and followed it with Piper then DSOTM and the Wall. Along with Echoes from meddle, Umma Gumma was a foundation stone of my delight in all things weird and spaced out I was telling my friends what a great band the Floyd were but no one was interested, until DSOTM, then suddenly everyone was a fan! I do like Gilmours playing though, regardless of what techniques he may use, I always felt that his playing was the perfect complement to Waters angsty lyrics, expressing much of the emotion musically as the lyrics did in prose. In fact, for me anyway the end of the band as a "great" force ended with the wall (as the last trully great peice of work), because the Final cut was such a drear fest with dreadful political references which didn't have a chance of ageing well. Once they split, well neither had the other as an influence and the result is pretty dire.

Ethan Stern (estern.hightechhigh.org) (04/29/08)

Just as a side note:
Grand Vizier's Garden Party features Mason's wife on flute, not a mellotron.

Still a bore though

trfesok.aol.com (08/13/09)

I agree that the live portion deserves a 9. While the latter day live albums are, basically, "Three Guys Who Were in Pink Floyd And A Large Backing Group Cover Songs By Pink Floyd", this presents Pink Floyd as an actual, self-contained live band. It really is amazing that they could get these sounds live, particularly on the second section of "A Saucerful of Secrets". The group floats pretty close to cacophony on this one, but it works. Like "Chapter 24" before it, Wright is able to give "Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun" a convincing Eastern vibe, but it's still hard to understand Waters' vocals (On the other hand, you can understand them perfectly on the Live at Pompeii version, but the keyboard sound is weaker) . "Careful With That Ax, Eugene" sounds a lot like the more scary pieces that The Doors were putting out during this period. As it turns out, "Astronomy Domine" works just as well without Syd. Mason's drumming, unlike his later work, comes to the fore here. The guys were surprisingly good musicians, not dependent solely on studio tricks. 

On the other hand, the studio part proves the old cliche about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. The Floydsters were not talented enough as soloists to each deserve half an LP side.  The first part of  "The Narrow Way" has some nice, folky playing. "Grantchester Meadows" is a pleasant song, but it goes on way too long. "..Pict", while fun, is not a song, but merely a sound effects experiment. (At least Roger still has a sense of humor).  But "Sysyphus" brings to mind soundtracks of cheap Japanese monster movies, and Mason's section is simply noodling. Maybe the guys could have collaborated and turned some of this stuff into a coherent whole, but, as it stands, it comes off as egotistic self-indulgence. premature exploration of the band members' individual talents. They evidently knew it -- it was a long time before they started doing solo albums.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Probably the least played of my Floyd albums, along with The Final Cut. Of the four half-sides,showcasing the individual members, there are only a few fragments that really work. Grantchester Meadows is nice, and Furry Animals is fun. The rest is unrefined experimentation, and not really ready for public release. The other disc is a live album. OK, but there are better live albums available from this period.

I don’t get the rationale behind releasing all this stuff a sone package. Why not release a live album in its own right, separate from the studio stuff? I suspect the answer was that the studio stuff was nowhere near good enough to stand up on its own.

---

Atom Heart Mother - 1970 Capitol
A
(Very Good / Good)

Best song: Summer '68

The famous cow album. Basically, Roger asked the man commisioned with making the band's next cover art to find the least trippy picture possible, and that turned out to be Lulubell (or something like that) the cow. Yeesh.

Still, as dorky an intro to an album as this is, I'm really quite fond of this recording, despite the fact it is heavily flawed. The main feature of this LP is Pink Floyd's first ever attempt at side-long songcraft, and it's ... um .... interesting. There's some classical influence thrown in there, some jazz, some funk, and lots of weirdo sound effects. And it's neat to hear a distorted voice randomly yell out "Silence in the studio, please!" near the end. The only problem I have with the piece is that it doesn't gel well at all. Indeed, this is one of the clunkier side-longs I've ever come across, and I've heard several of them. Still, parts of it are really cool, especially the main "Father's Shout" theme, and some of the awkward "funk" jamming is strangely appealing. It must have sounded really impressive back in 1970, though; in fact, Stanley Kubrick wanted to use parts of it for the theme to A Clockwork Orange. Figures.

Side two is quite fine, anyways. The highlight is Rick's "Summer '68," a wonderful piano-driven pop song about the emptiness of the one-night stand. I used to feel that it would almost be a total classic if not for the horns, and I'm still not especially thrilled with all of them (though one of the parts is kinda nice), but I'd now put it in the upper pantheon of great Pink Floyd tracks even as is. Dave's "How do you feel? HOW DO YOU FEEL?" vocal in the chorus gives a great intense contrast to Rick's lovely vocals in the verses, and there's just something fascinating to me about the chord sequences. The success of this makes Rick's impending absence all the more baffling: this was the last song completely credited to Rick for 24 years. I guess that's what happens when you work with a despot like Roger ... but that wasn't about to become a major problem for a little while.

Hey, while we're talking about Roger, he chips in a gorgeous acoustic number called If. If you don't count "Corporal Clegg," this is the true beginning of his "the world sucks" phase of songwriting, around which all of the group's mid 70's efforts would be based. And there are weird sound effects, but they are buried in the mix and are very quiet, so they don't interfere. And don't forget the gorgeous bits of guitar noise in the middle, which sound a lot like the guitar noise used in "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain" by The Flaming Lips twenty years later. Elsewhere, we get Dave's folksy "Fat Old Sun," which is kinda boring, except for a nice long guitar solo near the end, and the oh-so-trippy "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast." I know that it's an acquired taste, but I love this track to death. It's so funny! There's some musical noodling here and there ("noodling" meant in a good way; Wright has some extremely lovely stretches here), and a voice mumbling in the background "marmalade, marmalade, where's the marmalade ... " and the like. The song, if nothing else, matches its title.

Ok, maybe the A rating doesn't match up well with my critique, but I really like the album, despite the fact that the flaws are relatively obvious. At the very least, get it for side 2 and have a chuckle when listening to side 1. Unless, of course, you're Roger Waters, who has repeatedly stated that he is completely, totally ashamed of the "Atom Heart Mother" suite, and that he wouldn't play it live for a million dollars. Oh well. Ultimately, it comes down to this - this album is a FUN listen. Clumsy, but ultimately better for it. If you will, it's Fresh Cream to Meddle's Disraeli Gears.

Oh, in case you're wondering, the movie that this is associated with is, of all things, Dr. Zhivago. If anybody has actually run a synchronicity between this and AHM, I'd be amused to hear about it.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Walker (seraphim7s.yahoo.com)

Of all Floyd albums, this receives the greatest variety of responses. It's a very unusual album. You haven't been hard enough on it, though. Thus I will list my criticisms.

1. The opening suite should only be 15-16 minutes long - and that's long enough! The ending really drags, and the reprise is totally unnecessary.

2. Summer '68 is a good song?! The clanging piano rattles my ears, the horns are awful, the lyrics are embarassing (doesn't Rick realise he plays a part in that one night stand - leave the lyrics to Roger). Check out 'Stay' off Obscured by Clouds - it's just as bad. Rick was best at the avant garde stuff.

3. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is really funny and interesting - I like it! BUT I cannot esteem it too greatly because it's just NICE. Actually, that sums up the album - NICE, and definitely not GREAT. 'If' is the best song on here, and 'Fat Old Sun' is nice (that word again) and relaxing. Nothing is that bad on this album, there's just nothing very good.

My Rating: 6

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Still in tripsville. But for whatever reason I actually like Allan's phsycadellic Breakfast and the guitar riffs in the opening tune are good. I also disagree with you about Summer'68. I DO consider it classic floyd. earns itself 7 out of 10

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

Why do I love this album? The suite is too awesome. Fat Old Sun is great. This is better than the earlier stuff. Roger's "If" is also a highlight. Rating: B+

stephen (lovemonkey69.blueyonder.co.uk) (5/07/02)

you dont know what your talking about with your review of atom heart mother

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

Nah, this was a dead end for the band, and they knew it, as they never attempted anything like it again. The suite is clunky because it was recorded in bits and pieces and then, when the band realised it was lifeless, they got their mate Ron Geesin in to add an avant garde orchestral track over the top. Geesin felt the finished work was no more than a demo and wanted to completely re-record it with the band (the band wanted to do this too) but time, and the record company, did not permit. As for side 2, "Summer 68" is one of Rick's best early songs, "If" shows Roger's vulnerable side, "Fat Old Sun" is slight and "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is utter nonsense. 5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

The first album to point the way to the future. Okay, they had the obligation to make a side-long track, and it is not all that bad as some people say. The main Father's Shout theme is simply fantastic, and the way it all develops is a bit awkward and clumsy, but hey, they were still learning... but they do get some tricks out of their sleeves and keep it interesting. It does not justify all its length, but hey, I'm not offended.

  Side B is nice, also. If is just wonderful, and Roger 100% succeeds in this one. Fat Old Sun is good, but David got a little bit TOO excited with his guitar solo stuff. And I also think Summer '68 is the best of the three. The piano line is beautiful beyond words, and that slow-building feel ends in a climatic chorus, though those horns scare me a bit. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is really, really cool. The sound effects through it are a highlight, and I think the 3 musical spots add A LOT to the feeling of morning. I say, musics for breakfasts? Hell yes. You know, the first one truly soulds like a "Rise and Shine!" call, the second one feels relaxed and cool, and the third and last truly feels like we're finally leaving for work or something. I'd really like to listen to the vinyl version, where the leaking faucet effect is extended to the final groove to be played for eternity until the turntable is stopped or something...

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

hi, i just bought atom heart mother cd.........i must say, i'm not a big floyd fan when sid was part of the band.......after sid, i love floyd........ok, i'll say saucerful of secrects was cool.........so......atom heart is differnt , but like yourself........i really dig the music alot

Christopher21737.aol.com (01/19/08)

i love this album, again, cause it's different.......i really wish the orchestra played only a very small part in this album.......i belive this album paved the way for the upcomeing mega floyd sounds.......i'll give this album a low 8

Ricky Flahive (therickyman.hotmail.com) (02/13/09)

Summer 68 was not Richard Wright's last solo writing credit until Wearing The Inside Out. Remember The Great Gig in The Sky? Though Claire Torry tried legal action because she claims she wrote her vocal part, the music is still completely written by Wright. The Dark Side booklet gives Wright the songs full credit. Aren't I smart?

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Now we’re talking. This album gets a panning from the critics for being overblown and pompous, but I like it. Side one is an ambitious suite, in which the group’s music is merged into some classical-sounding orchestral and choral passages, interspersed with interesting non-musical sound effects. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but for me it works exceptionally well. It uses the classic Pink Floyd ploy of repeatedly building up tension and then releasing it. The orchestral/choral and group pieces are brilliantly integrated, and the whole suite is pretty seamless, despite the variety of sounds and moods.

On side 2, “If” is one of my favorite Floyd songs. Summer ’68 is pretty good too. The only bit that doesn’t quite work for me is Alan’s psychedelic Breakfast.

AHM is an album that I still enjoy listening to after all these years.

---

Relics - 1971 Capitol
9
(Good)

Best song: See Emily Play

A compilation put together by the gang during the Meddle sessions. 5 of the tracks had already appeared on earlier albums, while 6 were singles that the band had behind their back. And some of it's really good! The highlights, to be sure, are the early Barrett tracks; both Arnold Layne, their very first released single (about a crossdresser, no less), and the trippy hippie piece See Emily Play are fabulous. The latter is particularly noteworthy for one of the absolutely coolest sounding guitar solos I've ever heard in my life; it's not long or anything, but it sounds oh so neat.

The other singles are a bit weaker, and show quite well why Pink Floyd was never a big singles band, but they're still pretty good. Wright's poppy Paintbox, about drinking, drinking, and ... drinking, is catchy, but nothing really special. Roger's Julia Dream is an attempt at capturing the Barrett vibe of yesteryear, but the prettiness of the track far outweighs whatever trippiness it tries for. Meanwhile, the study version of Careful With That Axe Eugene is far weaker than its live counterpart, as the scream is rushed and there's not as much build of tension, but it's still eerie. Finally, Roger's lounge jazz parody Biding My Time is just weird, and that's all I can say about it.

Anyways, I'm a bit irritated at some of the song choices (did we really need Nile Song? And why not some more Barrett-era singles like Scream Thy Last Scream or Candy and a Currant Bun?), but the songs are good for the most part, even if we've heard them before. You should buy it, sure, but only for a copy of AL and SEP; the rest is either dispensible or can be found elsewhere.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Umm WHAT is the point? I can understand it being released AT the time for thoes who had missed the earlier stuff. But WHY did they release it on CD?.

  2 out of 10 unless you don't ( and I doubt it ) have the other stuff in which case I'll say 6 out of 10

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

This was actually the first early Floyd album I owned so it has a soft spot in my heart. Yes, in hindsight, it would have been good to include all the early singles (the terrific Barrett song "Apples and Oranges" and the highly underrated Waters/Gilmour 1968 single "Point Me At The Sky" in particular) but it is still a nice compilation, covering both singles and album tracks, and the unreleased gem "Biding My Time" 8 out of 10.

Jason Fonner (Jason.Fonner.xrginc.com) (05/25/05)

Careful With That Axe Eugene is one of Floyd's best. Am I the only one that thinks that the ending to this song was used in the Friday the 13th movies? The "ch ch ch pa pa pa pa " part that plays every time Jason is going to kill someone in the movie with an "AXE".  This sound effect is very similar to the one at the end of Careful With That Axe, Eugene. Everyone that has the song and knows the movie, listen.  After listening most will agree with me that Jason should be renamed Eugene.

Derek Farrell (mtstage13.yahoo.com) (06/18/06)

dude, i own that record, and thats not my cover art. whats up with that?

trfesok.aol.com (08/13/09)

I agree with Dan -- it would have been better if this had strictly a collection of non-album singles -- particularly the terrific "Point Me at the Sky", one of their best post-Barrett A-sides. As it is, some of the selections are perplexing. "Cirrus Minor" is nice, but why is it here? "Interstellar Overdrive" at least made sense in the context of ..Piper.., but here, it only takes up ten minutes in which a couple of better songs could have been placed. I don't hate "Nile Song" quite as much as you do, but Pink Floyd trying to be the Jimi Hendrix Experience might not have been the best idea. As for "Biding My Time" (an Ummagumma outtake), I thought "San Tropez" was the first time Waters had written a goofy jazz number, but I was wrong. This song isn't as good, though. The three Barrett numbers are wonderful, of course, I agree. Overall, it is a pretty good collection. But it could have been a lot better.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

This is the first Floyd album that I bought or listened to. It was a low-budget release, and Ithought it was worth risking 79p. It’s interesting and varied, and there are some captivating tracks. Overall, though, it’s a bit of a hotch-potch of early Floyd tracks, and it’s hard to see the rationale behind its content or its release. Even so, I enjoy listening to it, not least because it has some of my favourite tracks from earlier albums.

---

Meddle - 1971 Capitol
B
(Very Good)

Best song: Echoes

Almost start to finish, this is a step up from Atom Heart Mother. There are 6 tracks, and more than 40 minutes of them are just wonderful. To start with, the opening "One of These Days" thrashes and crashes like almost nothing I've ever heard before. Both Dave and Roger are pounding away on bass guitar, Rick is throwing in all these neat synth noises, then Dave starts soloing away as the bassline continues to just kick ass before it all fades away under cover of swirling winds. And that menacing "One of these days I'm gonna cut you into little pieces," with Mason speaking through a vocoder ... wow. Anyways, immediately following it comes a nice, peaceful calm after the storm in "Pillow of Winds"; the melody might not be the greatest in the world, but it's still rather nice, and its placement in the album is absolutely essential to repair the listener's nerves after "OOTD."

And don't forget about "Fearless"! The ending crowd cheering might annoy you (not me though), but you must admit that the song is cool. Somehow, despite the fact that the song is nothing but piano and acoustic guitar, it manages to seriously rock. And the lyrics are no slouch either, all about facing the challenges of life. "You pick the place and I'll choose the time, and I'll climb the hill in my own way." That it has one of the best riffs of the band's career is certainly nice, too, making it another underrated classic.

The highlight of the album, though, and in my opinion of their whole career, is side two. Yes, it is the famous side-long "Echoes" that I am speaking of. There are so many things I love about this song, I'm going to just name a few. That cool piano note in the beginning. The slow Gilmour-Wright duet. The maritime lyrics matching up with the atmosphere of the piece absolutely perfectly. That heavenly sound on Dave's solo. That cool psychedelic blues jam in the middle. The whale noises in the middle. The INCREDIBLE tension built up Waters' bass and Gilmour's guitar over Wright's slow chordings as the mid-song collage is exited. The triumphant call of Gilmour's guitar, summoning you and the music out of the depths of the sea back into the main theme of the track. Indeed, this is Pink Floyd's finest moment, and I can honestly say that I would love them even if they had never done another piece. It fully deserves every second of its 23 minutes, and that says a ton right there.

Unfortunately, the album is slightly marred by two pieces which, while not bad, still mark the very definition of filler. Or at least they would, if weren't for the fact that without them, the album is still a good 41 minutes long. I still don't get it - why fill space that doesn't need filling? Ah well, they're still decent, and besides, deflating lengthy, spacey ravings with amusing numbers was a common trick of the day. The first is a strange Jimmy Buffett imitation, with Roger sounding happy for the last time in recorded history, and the second is a generic blues number featuring a dog as the lead singer. It sounds fairly amusing (and when I heard it at the end of the movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, I was cracking up), but the effect works much better in the film Pink Floyd at Pompeii. In any case, this is a fine album, and while not quite deserving a higher grade, still does a marvelous job of inventing a new Pink Floyd sound and making it enjoyable.

There's one other thing I want to talk about with this album, though. Whereas virtually everyone knows about the DSOTM/Wizard of Oz synchronicity, very few know about the connection between Meddle and Fantasia. The recipe is as follows; program your stereo to play, in this order, "Echoes," "One of these Days," "Pillow of Winds," and "Fearless," on endless loop. In the movie, start the playlist as the conductor fades to red and the animation comes into play. It's a little hard to get exactly right, but you'll know it if you did it correctly. Highlights include Mickey dancing to the bassline in "OOTD," his destruction of the broom as you hear Mason saying "One of these days I'm gonna cut you into little pieces," the conductor directing Gilmour's solo in "Echoes," and the episode with the fairies being trippier than anything you thought Disney could possibly produce. I've run this several times, and I have yet to grow tired of it. Do it today.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Walker" (seraphim7s.yahoo.com)

I applaud your praise for Echoes. It's been criticised on both George and Prindle's site for being a 5 minute dark rock song drawn out to 23 minutes, but if you'd want any band to do that, it would be the Floydsters, wouldn't it? It's a magnificent sonic experiment, I personally like every part. The main piano 'ping' intro, the ascending guitar line, the funky jam (the best 'jam' they ever did, that includes 'Any Colour You Like') the weird crow/whale noises, the incredible crescendo, the poignant ending with the vocal sample pitch-bended upwards before it fades out. I love it all! So I'm happy you haven't slighted this song, and you've got a view on the Floydsters that mirrors mine, and isn't sorely tainted like Georges' - he will never know the joy of Echoes!

That said, you simply cannot take the album down 2 points (or 4 points overall) because of 'San Tropez' and 'Seamus' - they're just too inoffensive to warrant such criticism. I'm not saying it deserves any more than this mark, I just think you've got your reasons wrong. For Chrissake, 'Seamus' is just one of those little ditties that everyone was doing, 'Mothers Lament' off Disreali Gears, 'Jeremy Bender' off Tarkus... I could go on, and none of these ruin the album. It's quite cool to get a dog to sing, anyway, trust me, I've tried.

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Now THIS is Floyd!

  I caught this one almost as soon as it got re-released and I think it is BRILLIANT.

  Seamus had me in stitches and Echoes and One Of These Days are classics.

  9 out of 10

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

Even though it shows weak points like "Seamus". I think Meddle is quite a good piece of music. Echoes is the definite highlight. Rating: A

TheRubberCow.aol.com (4/03/02)

My favorite Pink Floyd album.  Never again did they make an album that was so transportative.  These were their first 16 track sessions, and you can tell.  I really feel like I'm in the desert at night during much of "Echoes" and "One of These Days", and "A Pillow of Winds" is another highlight (the remastered version's artwork goes along very well with this) - esp. that part after "green feilds, a cold rain is falling..." I can't really explain how cool those guitars sound on the part after that line, but it sounds like there's a dozen of them.  And I even think "Seamus" is good, too.  The first time I heard the album, I thought all the acoustic stuff didn't really fit in with the "big" tracks, but now I hear it flowing very well....just the way that last guitar slide at the end of "Seamus" slides down into the first piano note of "Echoes", it sounds like it is actually what is falling into the water making that ping sound. 

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

Wow! "Echoes" is the best thing Pink Floyd ever did, I'll certainly agree with you there. I won't gush, I think you did that just fine!!! Side one isn't so fine (how could it be?!!?) but "One Of These Days" is wonderful and "Seamus" is a throwaway but a fun one. 9.5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

My first Floyd album! Or was it Wish You Were Here? It doesn't matter, I still think it rules. Echoes is 10x better than Atom Heart Mother, and that's saying something. A 5 minute rocker dragged to 23 mins? SCREW IT! Of course the main theme is the big highlight, and it rules unmercifully. It's just gorgeous beyond words, but all that slow building intro, the guitar / organ jam, the scary mid section, the crescendo and the relaxed outro are all fantastic. This is what I'm talking about when the big forte of Pink Floyd was SOUND. You see, there are almost none good riffs or melodies here, but it sounds wonderful. It's incredible when listened on a roadtrip.

Now, side A features One Of These Days, and that's already something. This song is magnificent. By the way, Nick's vocals aren't played through a vocoder. He just shouted this at a high pitched voice, and it was slowed down. Just for you to know... Now, this side also features A Pillow Of Winds. And that's saying even more. I just adore this track, because it's so relaxed and so unmemorable that it just got instantly stuck to my mind. The acoustic guitar work is magnificent, and the slide guitar touches are pure class. I also love it when Mason joins in with the hi-hat. And Fearless is just as beautiful. Start to finish, this is pure thrill, and the final football chants add to it some epic feel. I'm not sure. Now, San Tropez is a fine sing-along, just nothing harmful. And Seamus is funny, and the whole bluesy jam feels very, uh, cosy.

  Overall, the thing I most love in this album it's because it feels like old stuff. It SMELLS of old stuff. The ear in the cover looks like old stuff. Above all, it sounds of old stuff. There's nostalgia all through this album, and I love it. I'd give it more than 8 (12), probably a 9 (13), but that's it.

Jared Walske (jaredwalske.attbi.com) (6/16/04)

I bought this album recently. I think it is very good. It doesn't get the respect that it deserves.

  On an interesting side note, I have read that 'Echoes' also synchs up to the final part of "2001: A Space Oddesy"

Todd Alfsen (TALFSEN.peoplepc.com) (12/16/04)

Meddle is without a doubt real Pink Floyd at it's best. Seamus is a little weak and San Tropez isn't my favorite track, but the rest are gems. Echoes is without a doubt my favorite pink Floyd song ...PERIOD... every minute of it is great, I love how it boulds up after the little whale break and the lyrics of this song are chilling. I give this album an A.

Trfesok.aol.com (12/16/06)

I like this one a lot, too. The most coherent album they had yet come up with. "Seamus" is kind of stupid, but the rest is great. I don't know if Roger had ever been to Saint-Tropez (and that's how to spell it -- it's on the French Riviera), but it's nice to see Roger actually being whimsical for once. The psychedelic "Pillow of Winds" is gorgeous, the lyrics of "Fearless" are moving, and "One of These Days" and the awesome "Echoes" set great moods I especially like how Dave sends his guitar through the VC3S synth to get those albratross cries (after the first fade of the upbrat jam). It certainly isn't as complex as their later work, although the vocal and melodic style certainly sound like rough drafts for stuff like "Brain Damage." The album also has the advantage of not being overplayed, so it's hard to get sick of it. A 9.

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

i'd put meddle as one of my favorite all time albums.....by any band

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Today, I rate this as my favorite album of all time. 90% of the credit goes to Echoes, although side one of the album has some good stuff too. Echoes is a totally outstanding piece, and I feel the same listening to it today as I did 40 years ago. The music creates a landscape in my mind – a stark and desolate landscape on the edge of the world, the domain of sea birds and sea mammals. On this track, the Floyd had perfected their technique of building tension and releasing it, and the effect is almost orgasmic.

I have never heard any other piece of music like Echoes,before or since.

---

Obscured by Clouds - 1972 Capitol
B
(Very Good)

Best song: Wot's ... Uh The Deal

Having attempted the whole epic-length prog thing, what with the side-long tracks on each of their past two albums, the group was not content to try and make themselves into competition for Yes, ELP, and the like, and with good reason; they didn't have the requisite instrumental skills, and the fact was that regardless of their phenomenal success with "Echoes," it was obvious that the group's forte was in shorter song structures ("One of These Days," etc). Since they were about to try and separate themselves from the blatant art-rock path they had started down, this meant that they needed a new style and they needed it fast. Now, Waters had hammered out the bare bones of a project, then entitled Eclipse (take a guess what it would later be known as), which the band was playing regularly in full in their onstage performances, mostly to iron out the kinks for when it would be recorded in the studio. In the meantime, though, they had been asked to create another soundtrack, this time for a hippie movie called Le Valle. Not ones to turn down the opportunity for some extra revenue, they went into the studio for two weeks and hammered out Obscured by Clouds.

Now, you will notice that I gave this album a pretty high grade, and with good cause. Since it was recorded in the period of time when the guys were working on DSOTM, the style of the music is eerily similar to its more famous big brother. The charming thing about the album, though, is that while it shares several of the musical traits of its successor, it has none of the bombast. In addition, several of the melodies on here are completely fantastic, whereas on DSOTM the top-notch special effects were often necessary to shield the slight boredom of the actual songs (not to say that's necessarily bad, though; see my Dark Side review for more). "Wot's ... uh the Deal" is absolutely beautiful, as is "Burning Bridges." The opening title track and the following "When You're In," both instrumentals, are instantly warm, inviting, and catchy at the same time (the title track has one of my favorite Floyd rhythm tracks of all time, sounding at least ten years ahead of its time), and the same can be said for the side two opener "Mudmen." "The Gold it's in the ..." is a terrific preview of any of the rocking tracks on DSOTM, with an upbeat groove and a fun vocal melody and an enthusiastic performance from Dave. The Dave-penned "Childhood's End" (based on the book? Weird how one of my favorite books could inspire something that makes me go "meh") is significantly weaker, with a bit of a lumbering groove and an attempt at sounding menacing that doesn't really work, but it still has its charms. Moving on, I mustn't forget the absolutely hilarious "Free Four." Waters writes somewhat depressing lyrics like, "Life is a short warm moment and death is a long cold rest. You get your chance to try in the twinkling of an eye, eighty years with luck or even less," and sets them to one of the bounciest, happiest melodies I've ever heard in my life. I love stuff like that!

Now, this album isn't perfect or anything; besides the aforementioned "Childhood's End" (which is, incidentally, the last song that Gilmour had a sole credit on for 15 years), the Wright/Waters piece "Stay" is a slow, inferior rewrite of the great "Summer '68" (there's also the fact that Rick's voice has started to go bad, mostly from chronic drug use). I used to seriously dislike the closing "Absolute Curtains," and I still find it overlong and rambling (especially with the Aboriginal stuff at the end), but Wright's noodlings have serious atmospheric power, and the effect of the chanting bursting out about three minutes in is rather impressive, so it can stick around. Aside from the mentioned weaknesses, though, there is nothing to dislike about this album, especially if you're a big fan of Dark Side. Get it soon, it's a nice piece of work.

Send me your thoughts

Ogdensgoneflake.aol.com

This one is a great lost album. I was talking with a friend who said he loved Pink Floyd and he had never heard of this album (but he listed his favorite as Division Bell so he's an idiot any way). The melodies are far better than DSOTM and except for Absolute Curtains (great title!) all the songs are great (Childhood's End is pretty good but the intro is to long). I think that Wot's...Uh The Deal was almost on DSOTM too.

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

"Umm whats the" The best song???? you kid right?? I'll admit it's ok but it's not a patch on "Free Four"

  The album is a good lbum as a whole. But it's not as good as Meddle.

  7 out of 10

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

This is a great album! It emcompasses the Floyd at the turning point. This is the best soundtrack they ever made. It is just a good work. Rating: A

Garrett N. (galaxian1.mindspring.com) (8/25/01)

If there was a pre-Darkside album full of radio-friendly hits, this would be the one! Childhood's End would really go great on classic rock radio, as with any others, since there are no extremely long tracks on this record.

TheRubberCow.aol.com (3/29/02)

A very good album.  I agree that "Absolute Curtains" is a bad ending, it's almost enough to make the album lose it's flavor after it's all over, but not quite, 'cause there's some prime stuff on here.  One of my favorite's is "Mudmen" (by the way I'd like to anally point out that song is at the end of side one, for some reason, even though it doesn't make the sides equal length...I guess they just wanted to end the side on a trumphant note.)  I also really like "Wots", "Burning Bridges", and the first 2 are very good.  Even the ones not mentioned have a certain feel to them that ties the album together.  I do think that "Free Four" is good and humorous (esp. "And you are the angel of death!" sung so happily), but I hear it called the most memorable song on here a little too often...I think the other songs are a couple notches above.  But the album's cool...kind! a has that serious/off-hand blend to it's sound.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

Their second soundtrack for a Barbet Schroeder hippie flick, and another winner! If anything a little better than More, I love very track (OK, the chanting at the end goes on a little long), the threesome of "Burning Bridges", "The Gold It's In The..." and "Wot's... Uh The Deal" sends shivers down my spine. Pink Floyd sound like they were - gasp! - having some fun on this album! 9 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Aww, the long forgotten gem. I 100% agree on you about Wots... Uh The Deal being the best track on here. It's a classic Floyd track, and should be in every compilation. It's just wonderful. Free Four is also great, the happy music along with the bitter lyrics are just absolute thrill. The two first tracks sound very, very nice, along with the gorgeous Burning Bridges and its neat "reprise" on Mudmen. Low points? Well, not many. The Gold It's In The... is just silly, and David's vocals sound very inspired, and for once, his lead guitar sounds good. Not great, but good. I don't see why Childhood's End is so bad. I don't find anything special on it, but I just swallow it nice. You can clearly see that it was obviously pointing the way towards Time. Stay isn't bad at all, it's not anything great, but it's also fine. And... alright, alright, Absolutelly Curtains is not necessairy at all. They were just doing this stuff to maintain their "artsy" aspect, but achieve nothing. I hardly consider it. But alright, this album is great, I can't help but love it. Agreed on the 8 (12).

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Recorded at the same time as Dark Side..? If so, it must have been very early in the sessions, because I don't hear much similarity at all. The sophistication in lyrics, production and engineering of that next album is really not present here. Not that that's necessarily bad. The album sounds more like Meddle, Part 2 to me. The production template is basically the same. The instrumentals sound like "Echoes" cut into smaller, more easily digestible pieces. I do agree that "Absolutely Curtains" goes on a bit too long for its own good (especially that chanting at the end), but the others are pretty good. I like all the vocal numbers, too, except that I also don't like Rick's very strained voice on "Stay." The lyrics are, again, never less than interesting, although I understand that they have nothing to do with the film! Even Gilmour's "Childhood's End" (based on the Arthur C. Clarke novel?) is intriguing. My favorite has to be "Free Four" -- those lyrics certainly predict what's to come from our cantankerous bassist. Overall, I'd rewrite your last sentence: If you like Meddle, you'll like this.

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

hi, read your review.......i just bought the obscuerd by clouds cd.........i agree, it is a pre-dark side of the moon......but i love the music.......i think this album really stands out.......i'll rate it higher than the wall......reason why, the wall, some songs have this oprea tone about it.......not what i dig about floyd.......

Maxti6.aol.com (12/02/07)

I was on a ship in the Persian Gulf in 1988 (USS RK Turner CG-20) and we had stopped over in the UAE for a week for a retrofit and I had gotten some 'King' compilation tapes that are basically bootlegs with numerous songs from Artists, such as Pink Floyd.
Well, after a while this folk melody comes on, hands clapping, guitar playing, a calm Roger Water singing....then it happens.
The most frightening guitar solo I've ever heard in my life splits my ears like no tomorrow.
OK, lets rewind THAT!
Once again, Damn!
Who is that?
That CAN'T be Gilmore!
So I'm assuming it's Barrett completely out of his mind trying to somehow scream through a solo with the amp so damn high that's all he could do. The final days ?
Well, much to my surprise it turns out it was Dave as I found out around 1995.
These days the song etched in my mind during the Fury that was my Red Sea experince is one of my all time go to songs when the world just gets crazy and I need a little something stirry to settle my mind. Enter Free Four.
That's quite the dose of Sanity/Insanity/Death/Depression/Cry for Help/Let Me Out/That's It!/Keep it Goin/Move On/.... and then the soloing again ends the song out with the folksy hand clappin' around the goodtime campfire song that aches in pain as it fades out.
Classic Stuff !!!!
Thanks for reading,
Chris Chandler

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Like More, this was commissioned as a film soundtrack, and like More, it sounds like a bag if discarded tracks that didn’t make it onto aregular album. Some of the tracks sounddated, by the Floyd standards of the day, and I wonder how long they had been inthe can.

Nevertheless, there are a few gems. The title track has a classic Floyd sound. Wot’s Uh The Deal is a beautiful sad song, and Free Four is a real catchy number, in the vein of Another Brick In The Wall (part 2). When someone had the crazy idea of creating a compilation of Pink Floyd dance tunes, this should have been the first song they thought of.

But overall, not a memorable album.

---

*Dark Side of the Moon - 1973 Capitol*
E
(Great)

Best song: Time

You know what I selfishly wish? I wish that Dark Side of the Moon wasn't such a popular album. I wish I didn't have to think, "Yeah, 'Time' is good, and 'Breathe' is good, and 'Money' is good, but they're not that much better than *so and so track*" all the time. If I didn't have to think about how this completely overshadows most of the rest of the Pink Floyd catalogue in popularity, when the quality of the music certainly doesn't completely overshadow the rest of their catalogue, it would be easier for me to just appreciate this album for what it is: one of the greatest freaking albums I've ever heard in my life, and (by the smallest margin) my favorite Pink Floyd album. It's not perfect, but it's as close to it as the band ever got.

If I had to sum up in one word what this album has that the preceding ones didn't, and what prompted the leap from "very good" to "awesome," that word would be focus. This album isn't that different from what had come before in terms of raw materials, but the use of those materials is much more effective here than it was before (and before it was awfully nice). The group was still a fully functioning band in terms of songwriting and everyone contributing ideas to the music itself, but in terms of lyrics and concept, the album is 100% Roger Waters. Just as important, along those lines, is the improved use of sound effects, which were used pretty effectively before but now are interwoven seamlessly with the actual music in such a way as to perfectly drive home the mood and message Roger presents here. Honorable mention should also be made towards Alan Parsons, the producer of this album, who not only made all the instruments sound perfect and clear but also deserves credit for making all of the sound effects and vocal samples work so smoothly with what the band was playing. Basically, this is close to being the perfect audiophile album, and that's certainly a major reason it gets as much credit as it does.

Conceptually, this is Waters' treatise about madness and the various aspects of life that exacerbate it. It's about how there's too much work to do and no time to do it and also enjoy life; how time keeps slipping away without you really realizing it, until you and the people you care about are dying; how money and the pursuit of it make the world a worse place; how everybody is at odds with everybody else. It's a very glum outlook on life, and it's not hard to see why so many people are attracted to the concept because of that. Personally, I think it's a little overdone, and I certainly don't regard the lyrics on here as a worthy foundation for a life philosophy. I know that lot of people consider the lyrics here to be incredibly deep and insightful, but I find them a little too preachy and blunt to really work on that level. On the other hand, while the lyrics on here are hardly material for guiding one's existence, these are nonetheless excellent rock lyrics. They tap perfectly into that part of the mind that wants to think a little bit but not a lot, and a lot of the lines are awfully powerful in their preachy, banal nature.

The music itself is awfully nice, too. Once all of the other aspects of the album (concept, lyrics, production) are stripped away, it doesn't come close to living up to the stature of one of the best albums ever, but it's still good. One thing that's interesting is how close this album comes to being soft-rock or even smooth jazz in places, yet while the album treads dangerous ground in that regard (listen to Delicate Sound of Thunder to hear what happens to these songs when that line is crossed), it never really becomes bothersome. The melodies are all good, there's a really good bass riff in "Money," there's a lot of really pretty pedal steel guitar, a lot of pleasant piano lines, and some really moving guest performances. "Breathe" (preceded by "Speak to Me," a kind of overture of the album's sound effects) always reminds me of lying in a field on a sunny day, with a body of water not too far away, and the mix of steel guitars and Dave's mellow voice makes me understand completely why so many stoners love this album. "On the Run" (the instrumental with the doodly-doodly synth loop and a bunch of sound effects) reminds me of falling asleep in that field and having a bit of a nightmare, before the clocks at the beginning of "Time" wake me up and tell me to get working again.

The lengthy echoey drum passage (with echoey simple guitar lines and a smattering of keyboards) at the beginning of "Time" succeeds where a more complicated break might have failed (another drummer might have made it into just a drum solo, whereas Mason uses its sparseness to his advantage), and then the actual song (with a "Breathe" reprise) has solid singing from both Dave and Rick (who wouldn't sing solo on a Floyd album again for more than 20 years) and one of Dave's best guitar passages. And then, of course, we have "The Great Gig in the Sky," which combines amazing wordless torch-singing from Clare Torry with a set of simple, yet brilliantly written, piano lines and GREAT pedal steel work (and, of course, more vocal samples about people's feelings towards death).

Moving onto side two, we have "Money," which might be the best known song from the group (it's either that or "Another Brick in the Wall (2)"), and while it wouldn't make my top ten from the group it's still a nice number. There's the good 7/4 riff (with cash registers also chiming in 7/4), a decent vocal melody, and of course a guitar solo that doesn't sound incredibly impressive in terms of the number of notes played but is nonetheless rather rousing (it doesn't come close to meeting the "minimalist" quality standards set by somebody like Steve Hackett, though). Then it's onto the quiet, pleasant balladry of "Us and Them," featuring a Beatles-quality simple guitar line, a great mellow saxophone part and nice vocals (with Rick's voice working extremely well with Dave's). The instrumental jam "Any Colour You Like" is a little bit fillerish (I'll take the instrumentals on Obscured by Clouds over this ANY day), but it's got some nice parts, and it does a good job of leading into the last two tracks. Waters finally makes his grand vocal entrance with "Brain Damage," a fun piece about going insane (with more sound effects like crazy laughter in all the right spots) and with allusions to Syd's last days with the band, before breaking into the big finale of "Eclipse," with some fun, important sounding lyrics that wrap things up with another allusion to the name of the album.

And that's the best Pink Floyd album. I'll never even consider it as possibly reaching the F-level, what with my issues with the lyrics and concept and the way it's not that huge an improvement over the preceding albums from a pure music standpoint, but it's still an absolute masterpiece. If you somehow don't have this album, you should really correct that soon.

PS: Somehow, I've never bothered to do the synchronicity with The Wizard of Oz. Weird.

Send me your thoughts

Josh Fitzgerald (breezesf85.email.com)

Dark Side of the Moon? I think this is an even more important album than Sgt. Pepper could ever be. Between the years and years and years on the Billboard charts, and literally constant exposure (make that over-exposure) on the radio waves, just casually listening to this album almost seems like a waste of time. Not that it IS a waste of time, however, it's hard for to acually sit and enjoy without it being everywhere. Maybe that doesn't make much sense, but just the influence of this album makes it too much to handle.

That's enough of my babbling about influence, the album as whole is really fascinating, and always frightening. The melodies aren't strikingly breathtaking, and that's not at all what makes the album. It's the production, the sound effects, and the solos! You hit it right on the money when you mentioned that the album would be nothing without the effects and stuff. Most of them are neat. You can't get a better connecting song than "Any Colour You Like." The keyboards are mesmerizing. In fact, the only thing that doesn't really cut if for me is "The Great Gig In The Sky." As good as the vocals are, does it have to go on for 4 whole minutes?? In fact, I think it would have been neater for "Time" to end, and then about 4 seconds later have "Money" start. That would be really cool. Whatever. Great album, even if I have a hard time listening to it.

Autull.aol.com

I agree with your assessment of DSOTM except for the fact that "Money" is on this album. This tune is a piece of pop crap & "drags" the overall rating to a 9.

Rich Bunnell (richbunnell.home.com)

THANK YOU. I agree with that last thought completely. It really cheeses me off when people find lame reasons to bash this album like "behind the sound effects, the tunes are simple and boring." Those people entirely miss the point. The intricate sound and presentation of the album is where all of the appeal lies! If people want superb melodies, the Beatles wrote about 200 of them, so people can just go buy their albums. This is an album for audiophiles.

Heidi A. Mogensen (hamogensen.students.wisc.edu)

I think Josh Fitzgerald is a jerk off. Write a better song than Great Gig In the Sky. Why would would you say this song shouldn't be included on Dark Side? You are retarded.

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

Darkside is one the greatest albums in rock history. In music history for that matter. Every song is beautiful. Every song is a masterpiece in it's own right. However, Great Gig In The Sky is TOO long. I always fast forward it. Rating: 9

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Worthy of it's praise and high esteem.

  There isn't a single bad song on here, However I definetly dont believe that Money deserves the ammount of airplay it gets good though it is.

  I completely agree with you about Time It's not only the best track on the album but one of my all time fave songs.

  10 out of 10

Auto (auto2112.btinternet.com)

This is no doubt the most important album of all time, but to give a friggin' ten??? Come on my friend, this nowhere near as good as Animals lyrically and musically. It is good, there's no doubting that, and unbelievably my fave song on this is 'Great Gig in the Sky'. Why? Not because of Clare Torry, no matter how delicately sexy her vocals are, but because of the brilliant tune... oh hum.

SFX? Course they're cool, and without them, yes the album would become incredibly empty. Put it this way, you'd be left with a minute of silence at the start of the album if you literally took all the SFX out.

Low points of the album?... got to be 'Any Colour you Like'. I don't know, everyone else loves it, but not me. It's just nowhere as good as 'Speak to Me'. The coolest thing on this album without a doubt is the heartbeat.

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

This album needs no comment. It stands on it's own. Rating: A++

surendranathc (surendranathc.infy.com)

On DSOTM, you seem to avoid all mention of 'Brain Damage'. It is a very intensely personal song for me, for reasons that I will not go into here.....

The interpretation of Brain Damage that Pink Floyd displayed in their 94 London concert was pretty interesting,too

Sittinger, Brian D (brian.d.sittinger.lmco.com) (7/21/01)

Great album. Truthfully, most of it is still played on the radio. "The Great Gig in the Sky" does get tedious after a while. So does the endless keyboard loop (can't remember which song, it's been a while since I heard the entire album in a row!). But, this album is definitely about the sound! A solid 9 out of 10.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

What can one say about this album that has not already been said? Nothing! Oh well, I'll say a couple out things anyway. Firstly, Josh Fitzgerald is a GOOSE! This album is NOT more influential than Sgt. Pepper, not least of which is that it is heavily influenced by it itself. Think about it - the songs all linked together, all the added sound effects... Enuff said. I don't have a favourite track as it really is one piece. All the members give their best, the songs are solid but at the same time still interesting, the production - well, so impressive, especially for 1973. I can't give this anything other that 10 out of 10.

TheRubberCow.aol.com (8/6/02)

This album does reveal a few very minor flaws once one is very familiar with it.  But the first time you hear it (along with very much of the time after that), it is an experience that is indescribable, you just have to hear it yourself.  It's kind of like doing a drug for the first time.  You know, I could actually do without some of the sound effects.  I think the album would actually be better without them!  Not all of them, they're still essential, but I think it's one of the things that keeps me away from it most.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with the music or the solos.  The slide guitars at the beginning of "Breathe" are SOOO perfect.  Yeah, I have to admit, "Money" is the song that gets irritating after so long, but it was great before we were all sick of it.  And I have absolutely no problem with "Great Gig In the Sky."  It is not too long, and even though Claire Torry sang better (in one way, that is) than the rest of the vocalists, do you really know any men that could sing like this anyway?  They needed a female soul singer for this part, so they got one and it was a wise decision.  I think bringing in outside musicains like her and the sax player shows maturity, that they were more concerned with the how the music turned out...and the two they brought in contribute parts that were really meant to be there.

Beatlefanx.aol.com (9/03/02)

What would "Dark Side" be without the FX? Well, what would Parliment/Funkadelic be without the Bass Guitar, or the Stones without Charlie Watts drumming? The question is not worth considering because like the other examples they were a part of the bands artistic vision. I've rediscovered this album recently, playing it once a day for a couple of weeks. While I of course remembered individual songs, I had forgotten the way the songs flow into each other and some of the incredible musical, lyrical, and yes, FX moments. For those who find "The great gig in the sky" boring or overlong, do the DSOTM/Wizard of Oz sync up. The way the music and vocals play over the tornado scene is breathtaking (whether or not the Floyd intended this). My favorite song(s) on the album have to be the Brain damage/Eclipse finale. The songs build emotional momentum, and though the lyrics are not exactly shiny and happy, I always become filled with what I can only describe as optimism, and that's always a good feeling when confronted with those moments that make up a dull day.

Yair Margalit (phozorg.aquanet.co.il) (11/20/02)

By dear god man, how can you say those things about dark side of the moon?

The melodies are cheezy? Daves solo's are boring?!?

I simply adore about every solo in the album, and I think the melodies are excellent too (better then most of the beatles...). I dont see how exactly you can say it was all only in the sound effects.

Well, have a nice day...

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Now we're talking. My absolute favourite Floyd album ever. Why? No reason in special. Probably because this is their most solid and cohesive album ever. I feel here, they gathered all their inspiration and good musical ideas on one album that's not marred by any flaw. You know, I absolutely agree with you when you say their previous efforts just lacked 'something' that stopped them froing being absolute classics. But nothing of it is here. Here, they let go all their potential. Also, this album wasn't conceived all at once. It was written over time, improved, enhanced, embelished, played several times live before being released. Thus, they had all the time they needed to work on it, and they did it good. The album works as one. And there's all that feel on it that enhance even more the effect of the album. It's beautiful and complex. Yet, some moments are so simple and pure that they hurt. You know, nothing can thrill me like the chorus of Time or the intro of Us And Them, from the organ chords to when the drums kick in and David delivers that gorgeous guitar line. Add this to simply astounding production, and you have a hell of an album. For me, this ranks as the strongest 10 (15) I could give to anyone.

By the way, I would NEVER take out ANY song here, much less The Great Gig In The Sky. This song is absolutely necessary. You know, it speaks more than any set of lyrics Roger could provide to it. Also, it wouldn't be cool to have Money start right after Time. Not only because it wouldn't feel right, Josh. But, if you don't know, by the time of 1973, people bought big, black discs called LPs. And it was divided in Side A and B. And side A of DSOTM finishes with The Great Gig, get it? If you took it off, you have only, uh, 15 mins on side A, and you can't put Money and the rest of the suite in there. It doesn't fit, you know.

"Fernando H. Canto" (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (2/26/03)

I just read Yair Margalit's comment, and there's just one little, quiet question hanging on my head. ARE YOU CRAZY?? The melodies on here, better than the Beatles' melodies?? Give me some oxygen, please. While I wouldn't call these melodies "cheesey", they *are* weak (except maybe Us And Them), yes they are. After all, well, melodies were never Pink Floyd's strength. And no, the melodies here aren't the main strength, really. I still think that the album does not depend *solely* on the SFX, but yes, they do play a key role. The album wouldn't be the same without them. And yes, David's solos are boring. Well, not really *boring*, but very below average. I mean, does he really need to play the same notes for 3 seconds straight on the Time solo? Or repeat the same little melody *thrice* on the same Money solo? Please, Dave, you can do better.

And Money... I can agree that it was overplayed on the radio, but "pop crap" does NOT apply. Is it so hated just because it's the most upbeat song on the album? Oh, please. I mean, *I* wouldn't take this album if there was *another* mellow, sad piece a la Breathe or Us And Them in Money's place. "Pop crap," hell. Money rules, no matter how many thousand times it has been played on the radio. It's the same thing with Roundabout and Stairway To Heaven, isn't it?

One more thing. I have thought a bit more about this album, and I have come to the conclusion that this album, indeed, is structured like one big song. And I can also see *symmetry* on there. Just look:

An orgasmic start - Speak To Me
An inspired, mellow intro - Breathe
A mad transitional part - On The Run
The first upbeat chunk - Time / Breathe reprised
A soothing ballad - The Great Gig In The Sky
The second upbeat chunk - Money
Another soothing ballad - Us And Them
A mad transitional part - Any Colour You Like
An inspired, mellow outro - Brain Damage
An orgasmic finale - Eclipse
(and not to mention the heartbeats beginning AND closing the album)

Presto! Now I finally make my stand as a complete music dork here.

As a result, I simply love this album more than any other I've ever heard and probably will. Now go ahead, call me a superficial Floyd fanboy. Watch me care.

Eric Ross (rossko_14.hotmail.com) (5/14/03)

Thanks to Kazaa, I have been able to find out how trippy it is to watch the wizard of oz and dark side of the moon. I wasn't stoned but i felt like I was, it was incredible I can't believe that it's a coincidence, but with the great music that's on the album how could it have purposly done or is it that Pink FLoyd is so good that instead of spending more time on the album, they were able to sinchronize it with wizard of oz. I would love to know how the hell that happened

  Pink Floyd rules

  Eric

WazzupTinytim84.aol.com (5/31/03)

Hi, I was just reading up on your analysis of dark side of the moon. Are you a guitarist? I just would like to know because I feel that if you were then you would not have made such a remark about David Gilmour's solos being boring - His technical work in the 'money' solo is absolutely brilliant, and really quite original, and similarly in 'any colour you like'. Though brain damage and eclipse are not really guitar driven songs, again the guitar work (if you listen very closely) is absolutely brilliant and really quite original. I'm not saying DSOM is flawless, but i feel you could have paid a little more homage to the raw musical qualities of the album. Structure, lyrics and sound effects alone couldn't make it one of the best albums of all time. :-) thanks

(author's note): I just want to clear something up before I get more emails like this. When I say above that the actual music is boring, I'm being somewhat ironic, though I think perhaps I did too good a job of slabbing on the irony here. I really really like a lot of the pure music aspects on this album, but it so happens that I know of more than a few people who don't get much of the album's appeal, due to the fact that, in a vaccum, many of the technical aspects would be considered dull by many of those who at present like them. My point was that, while to an extent I can understand their comments, even if I don't agree with them, whether or not the individual parts are interesting or not out of context is thoroughy irrelevant, because what matters is how the actual music interacts with everything else. Believe me, I like the hell out of this album, and it holds a solid place in my top 50 albums (which is fairly hard to do) that I don't see it abdicating at any point in the forseeable future.

"Keefe, Patrick" (KeefeP.us.panasonic.com) (12/30/03)

Well John, I believe your are correct in stating that Dark Side is not a musical masterpiece, but a masterpiece of sound. But I feel that Dark Side is a recording which cannot be measured in our simplistic, pragmatic way of analysis. Whatever Dark Side may be, it cannot be defined simply by examining it's lack of melody, or deficiencies of the guitar work, or any of the standard methods of review. This is not a Beatles record. You can't listen to Dark Side and shut it off in the middle of a song, and mentally resume the melody in your head.

Dark Side would not appeal logically to anyone simply on the strength of it's components, whether the instrumentals, or the tape loops, or the lyrics. There isn't anything really catchy on the record that we could call "pop". You wouldn't select this at your next beach party.

Dark Side is likely the rarest of all of the collections in the age of electric music. For whatever reason, whether intended by the band or not, this collection invokes us to look into ourselves...set to music. It is the frailty of humankind against the backdrop of the infinite universe, the ill will and struggle of the haves and the have-nots, what's real and what's imagined. It is the struggle and malaise of our 20th (21st) century society. There is just enough musically and lyrically to set our internal mental/emotional wheels turning. All artists want to touch the audience in some manner, yet I have found Dark Side has done this unlike any other recording before and since.

Why this works, I don't know. Maybe it's the effective continuum created musically (after all, it really is a blues album musically). No other record is really even comparable to this; it stands alone as one of the great accomplishments of rock, and it seems to be holding up to the test of time quite nicely (and everyday, the paperboy brings more).

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

A quantum leap, indeed. What would have here without the incredible production? Well, you would have another Meddle or Obscured.., but a third album in that style wouldn't have had that much of an impact. But the sophistication and clarity (engineer Alan Parsons deserves a ton of credit) push this album to new heights in the Floyd catalogue. And while Waters' lyrics gave the band the artistic focus the group needed, he is not the whole story here. This is the last, and best, example of Pink Floyd as a fully functioning band. This is the last album where all four band members got songwriting credits, and the writing, playing and singing capabilities of the other three guys were also critical to the album's success. After this, the influence of the other guys gradually decreased over the course of the following albums. This, of course, turned out rather badly. I do hate to repeat the cliche that this is the group's best, but it's the best example of them working together as a group.

Kolby Kramer (gkkramer.gmail.com) (06/23/07)

Brilliant sound effects or not, this album still bores the ever living crap out of me.  When I first bought it, I thought it was amazing, but that was before I had really understood and dug more deeply into Progressive Rock as a whole, and after doing so, I found myself listening to this album less and less, until it eventually was reduced to collecting dust on my shelf.  Don't get me wrong, "On the Run," and the ending medley of "Brain Damage/Eclipse" are fantastic songs.  But everything else on here, to me of course, is dull at best.  Sorry Floyd fanatics, but I seriously believe that this is THE most overrated album in the history of forever, along with The Wall.  Then again, I'm not much of a Pink Floyd fan at all, other than Piper.  To each their own, I suppose.

Jerald Mitty (jmitty.optonline.net) (06/01/08)

I heard Breathe/On the Run yesterday as I was lost in thought while driving through a busy infrastructure in a growing industrial city. I was struck how the traffic light sequences and the flow of traffic seemed to "sync-up" with the driving beat of the song and the accompaniment of the drum cymbals.

More simply, I tried to suspend my judgement of the song as a descent into hysteria and paranoia or just simply a "scary" atmosphere of building pressure heightened by the song's pulse and energy.

Without this bias, the "On the Run" piece as a stand-alone reminded more of maybe how the body's circulatory system works with blood and air agressively pushing through the body without any obstruction, more natural v. unnatural Or, how a a fire department is altruisically trying to break through a raging blaze of billowing smoke and fire and pump water through the chaos and restore calm.

I'm not necessarily intimidated by the propellors and the mechanisms of sound becuase I DO think "On the Run" HAS a destination a place to run toward; to get to the more rhapsodic and calmer beginning of "Time".

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

This is the album that got me into Pink Floyd in a big way. I suspect the same goes for a lot of people. It’s hard to say anything new about it. For me, it was my first meaningful experience of stereophonics. I used to lie down with my head between the speakers (I didn't own any headphones) and listen to the helicopters rasping through my brain from left to right and back again, while some poor guy "on the run" would also trot right through the middle of my brain.

I loved the extraneous sounds …. seagulls, helicopter,motorbike, airport announcements, mad people, clocks, bells, cash register, and other stuff.

I loved the fact that they were singing about insanity. I’d had a dose of depression by then, and this album has a cathartic effect.

I loved the fact that, despite all the sound effects, thisalbum was very musical, with great harmonies, and fine, controlled guitar and keyboard work. The only track that seemed to break the rules was Any Colour You Like, and I soon got the idea that the discomfort created by this track was purposely created so that Brain Damage could sooth it away.

Classic!

---

Wish You Were Here - 1975 Columbia
C
(Very Good / Great)

Best song: Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-V

Well, as you are probably aware, DSOTM was a complete and total success. It was definitely the guys' best work to date, critics loved it, and although it was a #1 for only a couple of weeks, it managed to stay on the charts for 7 hundred-something weeks. So did all of these things make Roger at all happy or content? Heck no. Indeed, the group's newfound success, especially in comparison to the struggles which they had had in the American market just two or three years previous, gave him more to whine about then when he had written the previous masterpiece's lyrics. And, surprise surprise, we the listeners get to hear all about it.

Basically, his new set of complaints could be sorted into three categories, and each gets at least one song. The first, which is more or less a continuation of the themes of Dark Side, is that the world is a depressing pile of crap with everybody paralyzed by fear and as such missing out on life. Or something. Along those lines, we get the simplistic but pretty title track, which has held up rather well despite incessant overplay. It's not the best ballad of its kind that Roger ever wrote, but it's lovely, and the lyrics pull off "banal yet profound" very well. Plus, I dig the samples at the beginning.

Complaint number two is basically, "the music industry is made up of a bunch of greedy bastards who only care about money, know nothing about what is quality art, and who will try to steal your soul if you let them." For this uplifting observation, we get two more radio classics in "Welcome to the Machine" (which, incidentally, was the first Pink Floyd song I ever heard), and "Have a Cigar." The first does all it can to convince the listener via the atmosphere that to enter the music industry (or "the machine") is to resign yourself to nothing but doom and despair. Of course it's depressing, and maybe a bit overblown, but I do enjoy having my spirit crushed from time to time. Plus, it's got some of the coolest sounding synths of the decade. Now, the second, sung by famous studio musician Roy Harper, is based around actual experiences that Roger and Co. had with top studio execs after the success of DSOTM. Although it was their 8th studio album, Dark Side was the first that many high-ranking music people had heard of them, and as such they would treat the guys with the same "let's sucker them out of their money" approach that they would with a regular overnight one hit wonder group. As you might imagine, Roger was a bit insulted by this, and it was only made worse when one top level official, knowing nothing of the group but trying to pretend he was all buddy-buddy with them, asked them, "which one's Pink?" And so, to deal with his frustrations, Roger took it out on them by slamming music executives in general into the ground with his lyrics. The song is a bit rudimentary, as it's essentially just an okayish blues-based jam (the mid-section of "Echoes" did this sort of thing better), but I still like it.

The third and final gripe was that none of the Johnny-come-latelys that were suddenly claiming to be "big fans" knew a single thing about the group's history, and consequently knew nothing about the man who had started it all, Mr. Syd Barrett. And so, Waters decided to write a tribute to him, which we know as "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" (get it? SoYcD? SYD?). And it's absolutely fantastic. In all, it takes up about 25 minutes of time, but it's broken up so the three other songs are in between the first and second half of it. Now, truth be told, I get a little tired with the second half. The first instrumental passages of this half, both from Rick's synth noodlings and Dave's passionate guitar lines, are fantastic, and the actual song portion is great, but I find the weird synth-based jamming at the end rather tedious. The first half of the piece, though, is awesome beyond belief. The gradual synth, organ, and keyboard build up, along with the familiar heavenly guitar tone progress the tune to a point where it is the gloomiest, most soul crushing piece of music you have ever heard (the bluesy passage is absolutely KILLER at hitting my heart), and that's just part I. II gives us the now famous four ringing guitar notes, or "Syd's Theme," and it's just perfect in its simplicity. III is a mellow guitar/synth noodle, IV is the actual "song" part (with lyrics making all sorts of references Piper and to Barrett's own life), and V is driven by a saxophone part as passionate as the best moments on Dark Side before fading into WTTM. The first half of this piece, all 13-odd minutes of it, is pure heaven to my ears, and one of my favorite stretches in all of rock music.

All in all, this is quite a splendid album, and worthy of its reputation in many, many ways. Aside from the little quibbles I've already mentioned, the only gripe I have about it is that, in many ways, this is the first album where the band is no longer trying to push the boundaries, if you will, and keep progressing. Roger has said many times in the past few years that he always felt that the band, as a whole, reached its zenith with Dark Side, and that after that it was all down hill. On the other hand, it's not a huge step down, and the band had reached such a high point that even if they were to get worse and worse with each passing album, they would still be better than the best output of most groups. Plus, I should mention another major positive in this album's favor: this is probably Rick Wright's peak with the band. While he has no solo writing credits (only sharing credit on a couple of tracks), his keyboards are ALL OVER this album, taking on many different styles, and while this album may belong to Roger and Dave in songwriting, this album belongs to Rick in arrangements. I consider this one of the best demonstrations of 70's keyboarding in my entire collection, and that says something.

Oh, one last thing. I have seen several possible synchronicities for this album on the internet, but the two most intriguing possibilities, in my mind, are with the classic It's a Wonderful Life and with the director's cut of Blade Runner (this one sounds fishy, though, given that WYWH came out long before the movie). Might be worth checking out, might not.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Walker (seraphim7s.yahoo.com)

No, no, and thrice no! How can you give this a nine! think about: Is this album worth 90% of DSOTM? 'Welcome to the Machine' is prime shit - one of the worst things Floyd ever put to tape. If you want to be crushed, 'Don't Leave Me Now' is much, much better. 'Have a Cigar' is average blues rock, but that bastard Roy Harper destroys and renders it unlistenable. That is almost 13 minutes of crap on this album!

But Yay! We have SOYCD which is beautiful (even though the end drags slightly) and the title track, which is great, even though Waters wrote better acoustic tracks (on the two soundtrack albums).

I give it a high 7. It's a gruesomely overrated album, I'm afraid.

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

My favourite Floyd album

  It's just that LITTLE bit better than Darkside (no easy task)

  And will People PLEASE lay of Roy Harper and Have A Cigar? I think it's an excellent track!

  10 out of 10

Auto (auto2112.btinternet.com)

Paul Walker you silly load of tripe. 'Welcome to the Machine' prime shit? Bloody hell. No doubt you're the kind who's likes Seamus then, because 'WTTM' is pure class. The sheer evil in this song is unrivalled, maybe only by 'Sheep' on Animals. But i never could fathom that crowd laughing at the end of 'WTTM'. Oh well.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond is contender for best song ever. Nuff' said. Oh and am i also the only one who thinks 'Have a Cigar' is better than 'Wish You Were Here'? Probably, but it's Roy Harper's singing that attracts me to this. And besides, 'WYWH' is a rather short song anyways.

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

A quintessential Floyd album. This is a must-have. It is some of the best music in the history of rock. The highlight is definitely Shine On (all parts!) Rating: A+

Paul Walker (seraphim7s.yahoo.com)

Hmmm. Since I don't really appreciate being called a 'silly load of tripe' I felt I had to respond to Mr. Auto. First of all, at no point did I say I liked 'Seamus', I merely said it was inoffensive and it's presence on Meddle did not deserve harsh censure.

Secondly, any evil in 'WTTM' disappears as a result of Water's ridiculous vocal delivery and the horrendous, nauseating synths. How in the name of God can anyone like this song? Plus I just can't identify with Roger in his disgust at the record industry. After all, he's raking in the cash ain't he? It is much, much easier to identify with something like 'Don't Leave Me Now' as I mentioned previously.

Thirdly 'Wish You Here' may be short by Floyd's standards, but without the 'radio static' beginning it still comes to about 4 minutes - and what's wrong with that? And you must be the only person in the world who actually likes Roy Harper's voice. I now foresee thousands coming to the defence of Roy Harper. C'est la vie.

Sittinger, Brian D (brian.d.sittinger.lmco.com) (7/21/01)

I might enjoy this album a bit more than Dark Side of the Moon. Still, parts to the last half of "Shine ..." drag out a bit (pointless keyboar noodling?). But, the rest of this album is captivating. The first half of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" is among Pink Floyd's most moving pieces (great atmosphere!). As for "Welcome to the Machine", I can see why people can hate this one. But, the way this song is done is exactly what they want to convey!! Great lyrics throughout this album, too! (about Syd Barrett and industry).

THis album (due to its end) deserves a strong 9 out of 10.

TheRubberCow.aol.com (3/22/02)

Auto: I too like "Have a Cigar" more than "Wish You Were Here."  They are both great songs, but I think it has something to do with not hearing endless college students sitting around in circles around a guitar player, "singing" "Have a Cigar".

Walker: Are you sure that that is Waters singing "WTTM"?  It was hard to tell the difference before I was a real fan, but now that I have heard all their albums many, many times, I have no trouble telling Waters and Gilmour apart, except on this song.  Does anyone have the answer to this?  I kinda lean more towards thinking it's Gilmour.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

I do think this album is a little overrated. It is still great though, I just think the albums either side of it are better. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is great. It is a shame that either Roger or Dave didn't sing "Have A Cigar" but Roy does an OK job. "Welcome To The Machine" is good, but the band have done better. "Wish You Were Here" is overplayed on radio here in Australia, but that doesn't stop it being a good song. 8.5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

My 2nd Floyd album, next to Meddle. Boy, I love this one. First, let's talk about Shine On, shall we? What a piece. I think it gathers the best DSOTM could offer and makes it even better. You know, more musical, more colourful, like David said himself. The first half of it is pure thrill. It starts off so wonderfully, and David's guitar line starts kicking off stuff until we have some great jamming, the wonderful vocal delivery, and the tense sax solo. Now, I might be one of the very few human beings here that like the second half better than the first. Why? Well, since they had the whole thing already started up on Parts I to III, they are free to go wild on part VI, and I absolutely love that jam. After the third verse, we have some cool synth jamming. But alas, part IX is one of the most poignant moments of Floyd's history, and one of the only moments in music that can almost move me to tears. You know, the whole synth / piano backing is gorgeous, and the chord sequence odd, but terrific. Above it all, Rick throws some great soloing, that captures PERFECTLY that mournful feeling, but with that flicker of hope, that culminates in that grandiose final E chord. Wow, man, I absolutely love this.

The three other songs are almost at the same level. Welcome To The Machine is great, indeed, and the sound effect intro is a magnificent piece of work, and the omnious build up is terrific, along with that ascending acoustic guitar line. Have A Cigar is one of my favourites. The upbeat rhythm crushes me, and the synth riff is great, and for once, we have a great David solo. Nothing wrong with Roy Harper, either. I think he does a better job than Roger would do (man, he would kill me if he heard me say that). And the title track is... well, the title track, with all its beauty. Just wonderful. I might give this one a 9 (14).

  For RubberCow: After you mentioned it, I was also intrigued if it was Waters or Gilmour on Welcome To The Machine. You know, the high vocals are REAL hard to tell. But the low voice, when he reaches the "so welcoooo - ooo - OOO - ooome" part is definitely Gilmour. Maybe it's the two of them singing together.

"Scott.MadoffProductions.com" (scott.madoffproductions.com) (5/14/03)

Hi John,

I Just wanted shed some light on Roy Harper and his career. As an admirer of his work, I find I must send you this e-mail.

In your review of WYWH, you mentioned that "Have a Cigar" is 'sung by famous studio musician Roy Harper'. Actually, I would like to give him a bit bettter credit than that.

He is not as you say 'a famous studio musician', in fact he is a famous singer, songwriter, poet, and musician from the UK. Yes, he has and still does record music in a studio just like other musicans, however, he has had a full fledged solo career with well over 20 albums dating back to 1969. he just released an excellent album in 2001 called "The Green Man."

He has never been a hired hand studio musician, but some great people have definitely been guests on his albums.

His first three albums are what I would call late sixties folk much in the vain of Dylan. His lyrics are always evocative and beautiful. Actually, many people consider Roy the UK equivilant of Dylan in many ways. As his albums progressed, he developed are very unique style and he even dabbles with different styles.

The reason that people know his name, but may not know his music is because he and Jimmy Page and he and David Gilmour are very good friends and have been since the early 70's. In fact, Jimmy Page guests on several of Roy's albums playing acoustic and electric guitar. They also recorded and released an album together in 1985 called "What Ever Happend to Jugula?" which is excellent!

David Gilmour also guests on 3  of Roy's albums and a Song co-written by the pair called "Short and Sweet" which appears on Roy's 1980 album "The Unkown Soldier" was also recorded by Gilmour for release on his first solo effort.

Roy's songs have also been covered quite a bit including one of his most popular songs "Another Day" which was most famously covered in the mid 80's by a 4AD label ensemble called "This Mortal Coil". The group consisted of different 4AD artists performing orginal songs as well as more obscure artist covers including three songs by Tim Buckley. The songs are reworked and made into excellent covers.

"Another Day" was also performed by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush on a British TV show in the late seventies. There have been many bootleg copies of this floating around for ages, but it has never been officially released.

The Led Zeppelin song title "Hat's off to Roy Harper" was given to the song as a joke to Roy by Jimmy Page.

Also, the reason he sings "Have a Cigar" on WYWH is two fold:

First, Neither Waters or Glimour were able to sing the song in the key and style in which they felt it would do the song justice, so after hours in the studio, they were just going to use a Water's vocal and put the song in the can when along comes Roy to visit his mate Gilmour in the studio. Actually, Roy was recording his "HQ" album in Abbey Road studios at the same time Floyd were recording WYWH, so Roy and Gilmour would see each other everyday and that is what sparked the idea of Roy recording the vocals.

Since Roy and Floyd were also label mates in Europe (The Harvest label), they were able to use him without any legal ramifications and Roy was happy to oblige.

Roy always says that Waters offered him a life's time of credit at a famous clothing store(I don't recall the name) in London as compensation for singing on the track, however, Roy stated in a recent interview that to this day Water's hasn't made good on the offer. He lughed and said "I might ring Water's up someday in case I need a new wardrobe."

Here is the "Have a Cigar" story straight from Roy:

"When The Pink Floyd were writing 'Wish You Were Here', Roger Waters had written a song that wasn't pitched in too friendly a place for either his own vocal range or Dave Gilmour's. The song was called 'Have A Cigar'. As I was able to reach the silly high stuff, they pulled me in to sing the vocal. I had to rearrange some of the emphasis, the pacing and one or two words here and there to facilitate my own style. Finally I think that I did a good job and that we have all been pleased with the result."

I find it interesting that so many people are oblivious to Roy's work, however, this may be due to the fact that he was never really able to break America and he never had airplay here and that is a shame. I am only 36, and I live in the US, but I have been listening to his music for almost 20 years.

He has toured supporting both Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd in the 70's. In fact, he appears briefly in "The Song Remains the Same" film, however, of course, he is not performing.

If you are interested, you should check out his work, you might like it. five of his best albums are "Flat, Baroque, and Berserk", "Stormcock" (This is considered his best by many, and Jimmy Page plays on this one.), "HQ",(This is a more of an electric album, he assembled a band which included Bill Bruford, and Chris Spedding), "Valentine" (This has some of his more accessible and beautiful songs).

Also you can check out "Whatever Happened to Jugula" with Jimmy Page and the 1990 album "Once" which includes David Gilmour on guitar and some backing vocals by Kate Bush and Gilmour.

Anyhow, sorry for the long e-mail, but I felt I must clear the air about Roy. Feel free to post what you feel is important from this e-mail on your site. I would appreciate it.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Pretty much in agreement here. Not quite as far out or as innovative as the last one. It sort of sounds to me like a cross between Meddle (long instrumental passages) and Dark Side.. (more advanced production, sound effects, lyrical themes). Note that Mason is out in the songwriting credits -- and right along with that, his drumming seems to be de-emphasized. Competent, but that's about it. On the other hand, this album is really Rick's last stand with the group. His synthesizer technique is hardly at the level of the top prog groups, but his arrangements on "SYD" are gorgeous -- "Echoes" taken to another level. And I think that the title track is also addressed to Barrett. ("Did you exchange your walk on part in the war/For a lead role in the cage?" -- sounds like it to me).  Anyone who got into the last one should make this their next stop, unless one doesn't have the patience for long instrumental passages.

norm (norm_ellison.hotmail.com) (09/29/07)

Have you noticed that there is a nearly completely obscured picture of a nude woman behind the veil floating in the wind on the liner art for "Wish You Were Here"? She appears to be taking off her shirt. You have to look very closely and some people I have showed it to still can't see it even when I show them exactly where it is but it is absolutely there  - I noticed it over 20 years ago when I was in high school when I had nothing better to do than stare at album art. If I remember right she has a nice tan and a nice set.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

An anticlimax after DSOM. A really good album in many ways, but rarely achieves lift-off the way DSOM and Meddle do. Some nice subtle stuff though. My favourite bit is Shine On Part 6.

---

Animals - 1977 Columbia
E
(Great)

Best song: Dogs

This is often referred to as Pink Floyd's "punk" album, and this description is both apt and completely insane. There can't be any doubt that this is a 100% prog rock album through and through. Aside from the brief opening acoustic ballad Pigs on the Wing, along with its reprise at album's end, this album consists of a grand total of three tracks, all of which exceed ten minutes in length (with one that's more than seventeen). As usual, the songs consist of long instrumental passages in support of pessimistic, concept-oriented lyrics. So why would punk, which was coming into its own in 1977 with music that was pretty much the opposite of the art rock Pink Floyd had become known for, ever be mentioned in a description of the music found on this album?

Well, it turns out that this album, for all of its similarities to the band's established sound, has a lot of differences that strongly suggest the band had allowed punk to affect it. The last two albums were plenty pessimistic, but their overall tone was more oppressed and depressed than anything else. This album, though, redirects the band's (or rather Waters') pessimistic approach from sad and glum to completely and totally pissed off. The lyrical concept is simple and Orwell-based: all people can be classified as "Dogs" (cutthroat businessmen and politicians), "Pigs" (the ruling aristocracy) or "Sheep" (weak people). It's not just Waters' lyrics that have changed in mood, though. The instrumental parts are MUCH more aggressive than the band had shown at pretty much any time in its history. Mason plays more interesting fills than I'd heard from him since, sheesh, A Saucerful of Secrets, and his drum strikes seem to have greater force than anything I'd ever heard from him. Gilmour's guitar sound has a noticable increase in *OOMPH* and grit from everything he had contributed to the band previously, from harder distortion to a fuller sound to a greater reliance on loud, driving chords than in previous albums. Waters all of a sudden shows off a combination of groove, virtuousity and power that he'd probably always posessed but rarely bothered to demonstrate previously on the band's albums. Wright's style of playing on this album betrays a slight lack of his usual personality, but he's still just as central to the sound as ever, and he deserves plenty of credit for making this album as enjoyable to me as it is. The end result is that this album is clearly a prog rock album, but more than any other Pink Floyd album this is a rock album, and that says something from these guys.

The most significant change from previous albums, overall, is that Waters expanded his (already considerable) control over the band even further. Gilmour has only a single co-writing credit (in "Dogs"), and poor Rick Wright, as prevalent as his keyboards might be on the album, doesn't get any writing credits. Apparently, Wright and Waters had never really gotten along very well in the first place, and this was the point where their differences spilled over into their working relationship. Basically, Waters kept rejecting Wright's ideas, which in turn led to Wright no longer bothering to contribute any ideas, which eventually gave Waters an excuse to fire him ... but that didn't happen for a little while. Point is, this album is Waters' baby through and through, and marks the point where the others essentially became his backing band. Still, while they might have been treated as session musicians on this album, they certainly made the best of the situation and made their parts as interesting as they needed to be. It somewhat helps that the songs were apparently reworked versions of pieces that had been written by the whole band in years past, so while Waters got final credit for them, they actually had significant input from everybody in at least some form.

"Pigs on the Wing," split into two parts and bookending the album, is a pleasant enough simple acoustic ballad with an ambiguous lyrical message that really sounds nothing like anything else here. From the sweet acoustic lines of "Pigs on the Wing" we move into the driving acoustic part, underpinned by moody synths, that opens up the absolute magnificence that is "Dogs." Supposedly, Dave never really liked singing the lyrics assigned to him in this part, but he shows a lot of passion in delivering these lines about what it's like to live among those who have to hunt down and kill others in order to get ahead in life (and how it just gets harder and harder as you get older, until it's time to retire and wait for your empty life to end). The piece morphs into a lengthy instrumental passage with two different, equally great themes (and some of my absolute favorite Gilmour solos ever), eventually coming to a menacing mid-tempo section featuring Dave and Roger singing together. This section absolutely rocks, particularly the underpinning of one of my favorite lyrics from the band ever, "And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around."

The section ends with a resounding, "Dragged down by the stone (stone ... stone ... stone ... stone ...)," which leads into my favorite instrumental passage on the album. The next five minutes or so are nothing but Wright's synths mixed with sound effects designed to create the effect of slowly drowning and hearing a bunch of dog voices above the water. There's that cool synth effect that prolongs and mimics the "stone ... stone ... stone ..." line, those bits of processed howling and barking, and overall there's Wright, playing notes that are seemingly directionless and never ending but are SO effective in setting the right mood. Coming out of that we have a reprise of the opening acoustic-driven theme, only with Waters singing this time. It builds into yet another instrumental stretch that rocks like mad, before Waters sings the final 'verse' and everything comes crashing down on another, "Dragged down by the stone!"

Side two opens with "Pigs (Three Different Ones)," which I consider the weakest of the three but is nonetheless extremely enjoyable. The bulk of the track is based around the same rhythm track, featuring a bassline from Waters that's a weird combination of hard rock, art rock and some kind of stiff funk, and while I could see getting irritated with its monotony, I enjoy it way too much. The verses (all sung by Waters) are an attack on British politics, alternating between Waters all-out belting and singing quieter with some subtle effect on his voice (unless that's actually just him making his own voice sound a little off). The mid-section consists of a mid-tempo, nearly unchanging jam mixing a light synth covering and Gilmour having fun with a guitar effect that mimics pig grunts and squeals. I know people who hate it, and occasionally I start to wonder, "Man, how much longer does this last," but most of the time I'm perfectly happy to lose myself in the sound. And oh man, is that a POWERFUL sounding solo from Dave over the song's lengthy ending and fadeout, with the noises of sheep slowly creeping up.

"Sheep" opens up with a moody electric piano solo, kinda reminiscient of the one from "Riders on the Storm" (at least in tone), before the drums break in and Waters starts singing. This track is just full of awesome bits, the first of which is the way Roger sings, "Helplessly passing your time in the grassland awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay" and the last vocal sound morphs seamlessly into one of Wright's synth tones before Gilmour caps it with a *BAAAAAAM* sound from his guitar (with the same sort of thing happening on the next sung line, and reprised later). Gilmour's guitars are just set to balls-out RAWK on this track, from the aforementioned loud chords to the cool short breaks he throws in to the lengthy fadeout. Wright plays a lot of loud Hammond organ along with his usual synths, Waters plays a bunch of cool basslines, Mason rocks as well as he ever has, and the overall effect is stunning. Plus, the track has a cool midsection with a quiet voice speaking a variation of the 23rd Psalm through a vocoder, before building into the final sung verses, which includes another one of my favorite Floyd lyrics ever ("Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream"). Awesome.

And that's the album in all of its splendor. I can understand the reasons why this album is largely forgotten by casual Pink Floyd fans, but frankly none of these reasons speak in favor of said fans. The songs are long, and the lyrics are very angry and misanthropic in tone, but the songs are great and the lyrics are clever, so those should hardly be considered problems. Credit should also be given to the band for proving that they could make a top-rate album without any guest stars (except for Snowy White playing guitar on PotW), whereas the albums surrounding it belonged as much to the guest star performances, vocal samples, various sound effects and producers as to the band. This is the "pure" Pink Floyd not seen since Meddle, even if the style is drastically different, and it's a joy to behold. A must own.

PS: Supposedly, this album works in a synchronicity with Casablanca. Anybody actually tried this?

PPS: From college until I started full-time employment, I had the following as a custom license plate: POTW3. I'm such a geek.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Walker (seraphim7s.yahoo.com)

I was pleasantly surprised by this album. It is certainly the most 'prog' of all Pink Floyd's pieces - but they did not need stupid synth solos all over the place (a la Emerson) nor do they use jarring time signatures (a la Gentle Giant). Instead they rely on what they do best - crating subtle and dark atmospheres to complement Roger's lyrics.

The only criticism I can think of the sparseness of the sound - it's nothing like DSOTM - I miss the emotional lows and highs of that album. Also, DSOTM showed us grief, sadness, elation whereas there is far too much cynicism and sarcasm (and no irony and self-deprecation) on later Floyd albums, presumably due to that miserable bastard, Roger Waters :) only joking, I love him really. Still, a great album.

TAB (tonya12.tpg.com.au)

Hi,

Love your reviews of the Albums, I found your site seeking more info on Jethro Tull, had a couple of albums and wanted to know more about the others. As far as Pink Floyd goes I would have to say that Animals deserves the 10, it hits my player more that any other Pink Floyd album. Dogs is a high light, revs me up every time.

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Not a bad album at all. But it just can;t live up to Darkside and Wish You Were.

  The songs are fine, especially the guitar riffs. But it just doesn't seem to "click" like the previous two albums.

  8 out of 10

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

I don't care what people think, Animals is the greatest rocker Floyd has ever made. It is brilliant and should not be underrated AS IT IS! Dogs is my 2nd fav song of all time. Rating: A++

Sittinger, Brian D (brian.d.sittinger.lmco.com) (7/21/01)

I'll keep this one short. There's a whole bunch of angry rock here. Thi album does rock harder than the other Pink Floyd albums that I have heard. I leave after listening to this album emotionally drained. Wow!! NO complaints about any of the songs here; just be prepared for the experience presented here! 10 out of 10.

P.S.: My local classic rock station plays "Pigs (Three Different Ones) once in a great while!!! Other than that, this album is vastly underrated. Is it because it falls between WYWH and The Wall? This period truly id Pink Floyd's peak period.

Federico Fernández (fedefer.fibertel.com.ar)(5/29/02)

If you liked Dark Side and Wish You Were here, then listen to this one. Its certainly BETTER, in fact is Pink Floyd's best. Brillant, powerful rocking (all three songs rock really hard), dark moods (the middle instrumental parts of Dogs, Pigs and Sheep are awesome), bitter lyrics (waters at his peak), scary sounds (the sheep raving that salm, the pigs singing, the mad laughs at the end of Sheep) great Gilmour soloing (specially the at end of Sheep), groovy jams (Pigs), and great combination of accoustic and electric guitars (In Dogs) Mind-blowin progressions (the intros and the middle instrumental parts of the three songs... This is an excellent album and there's no weak point in here. Pure genius. Vinod Bhat (vinodgb.stanford.edu) (5/29/02) hey, i was just browsing and stumbled on ur floyd site. i totally agree with most of your views on the genius of their music. on animals u mention the stretched note sung by waters culminating in a BAAM by gilmour. it is also interesting to note that waters' note is crossfaded with one from a synthesizer and the result is way too cool. u also mention about how different the songs sound on this album. i hear a lot of very early judas priest. considering that priest had released their first two albums round about then, 74 and 76, think floyd got a bit inspired by their music?

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

I am glad to see so many people have great things to say about this album because I have always thought it one of their absolute best (better than the usually higher regarded Wish You Were Here and The Wall). Every track is great, even though they are long there are no drags or wasted bits. It is very tight musically and lyrically, played brilliantly (Pink Floyd do not have the flash of some other groups, but they are so tight and don't overplay like some groups of the time did) and again an immaculate production. 10 out of 10!

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Aw, dammit. I was kinda disappointed with it the first time. I thought "Hey, this is not Floyd as I like it!" It grew on me, and I enjoyed it fine. After reading your review, I absolutely love it now. Yes, it's wonderful. Musically, it's flawless. It adds even more to Floyd's legacy, and lyrically... Well, lyrically, it cooks. It burns. It simply rules. It's so great I can't even think of what to say. Or maybe it's because there are only 3 major tracks, but inside them, there are thousands of different aspects, making it impossible to comment on them specifically. So, I'll just say that Pigs On The Wing sucks, and I give it a 1 (4).

  Just kidding, of course.

NfgbIows.aol.com (2/19/03)

It's funny you mention pink floyd-animals being like Orwells animal farm, because I am reading that book right now! I am in 9th grade and kinda a floyd newbie :( but my favorite cd, byfar is ANIMALS its so trippy now i like to smoke a little you know what im saying and sit down and listen to pink floyd, it relaxes me and makes me feel like im floating, if you have ANY reccomendations to good songs like Dogs with those trippy dogs in the background tell me!

TheRubberCow.aol.com (5/14/03)

Ok, I think I said about 20 years ago that I was going to reveal a secret about this album, and I just now remembered that I never did.  It might actually be something that's well circulated, but I don't know since me and my old roommates figured it out for ourselves.  Anyway, if you do the Wizard of Oz thing with Dark Side of the Moon, don't put that album on loop!  Put THIS one on right after it.  Try to get the cd to start exactly when Dark Side goes off, for example, if you're using a CD changer, pause the movie right as Dark Side finishes its last second, and unpause it when Animals starts at 0:00.  THEN :) - put in The Final Cut right after Animals, and it will the movie will end right with the end of "The Gunner's Dream."  For Animals, it's more a of a "mood of the music/movie" fitting together, and with The Final Cut, make sure to pay close attention to the lyrics.  It also helps to squeeze the sweat off of a cow's udder and take some rotten peaches and make lemonade out of it (drink it of course) right before doing this.  (I probably shouldn't have said that, people will think I am just making this up.)

Eric Dantes (crimsonwing.ananzi.co.za) (5/31/03)

Pink Floyd's Animals and Orwell's Animal Farm - they go hand in hand for one thing: mood. A frigid, chilly mood. (That BITES.) Anyway. Pink Floyd. Animals.

The singing's okay - Rog does a far better job on his solo albums, s'far's I'm concerned - the guitar texturing is decent, and the drumming is... uh, decent. Wright's synths are far less annoying than before, which to me is a giant relief. (I'm a fan of music, not extended keyboard wankery that barely qualifies as such.) I can dig the concept; I can dig the lyrics; I can even dig the, ah, music. The thing's coarse and gritty. It grinds itself ever so rouugghly against your skin, and that quality is, in and of itself, the only reason why this album works.

If you get desensitised to the feel, though, the album loses its spark. See, as good as the separate things that go into this album are, this album just isn't the sum of its parts. There isn't enough in the way of interesting ideas or melodic hooks that reach out and grab you. Sheep is exceptional in that it keeps going places right from the start. Pigs is all pissy farty burpy fun, laced with typical Rog venom, and that's okay; but gosh, it stuns me how little actual MUSIC there is in it. And Dogs? well, it works because of the extended format and its cold, hard lyrics. Actually, it works mostly due to the lyrics. The solos here aren't the most memorable in the Floyd catalogue. (But then again, maybe they weren't meant to be. The extremely vivid atmospherics in this track would've been thrown off by aggressive, riffy solos.)

Typical Floyd, really. This isn't the greatest music you've ever heard. But it chills, and for some inexplicable reason, it's oh-so-cool. This is why Floyd works.

But unlike DSOTM and WYWH and the rest, once Animals gets under your skin, for some inexplicable reason, you can't feel it any more.

But hey, before that happens, this is some chill stuff. Read them lyrics.

Nathan (nator9999.comcast.net) (4/07/04)

I hate this album. It's so long and boring and samey and SO goddam overrated. I like Gilmour's slow, calculated soloing in small doses, but when he starts wanking forever it just gets incredibly monotonous. And the melodies don't make up for it, Pink Floyd melodies always suck anyway. That's why Dark Side of the Moon was so great, they focused on the MUSIC. Too much boring guitarwork here and mediocre melodies, and yes, I listened for all the "cool" little thingers that everyone enjoys pointing out. The *BAM* thing isn't as exciting as you make it sound, and the tape loop of the word "stone" that pops up out of Roger's ass at random intervals is just stupid and annoying. I'm sorry if I sound really bitter, I actually like Pink Floyd a lot. This album does kind of suck though. I give it a 6, maybe 7 if i'm in a good mood.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Well, I don't know if I'd rate it quite as high as you do, but I certainly understand your position. It sold far less than the last two or the next one, of course, because it is less accessible and darker. Note that this time, Wright writes nothing -- and, not coincidentally, his keyboards are only there for atmosphere, as you said. But that's not so bad, since Dave absolutely cooks with his guitar parts, and the melodies all work. Waters does the best singing he ever did here, and his misanthropy is absolutely relentless, but powerful. The rewrite of the 23rd Psalm (sent through a vocoder by Wright) in "Sheep" is especially vicious.  "Sheep" actually is one that I hear on the radio on occasion. It took me a long time to get into the album, but it's worth the effort.

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

man oh man..........i like reading your reviews..........i must say you write very well..........i'm short and sweet.......and animals KICKS ASS!!!..........saw the songs live at Cleveland staduim........best concert i been too

pozwr.webtv.net (04/29/08)

I' ve just recently found your site and love it. great stuff!

Regarding Animals, I remember when it was release here in the USofA on 8-track, Pigs On The Wing was ONE song, with the two parts connected with a guitar solo.

Keep up the wonderful reviews.
PS- Review Butthole Surfers please!!!

Ricky Flahive (therickyman.hotmail.com) (01/13/09)

"oh no it's Ricky and he's ganna rant again on how much solo Roger Waters rules!"

  Not this time. I'm sorry to say but I think Animals is, uh...overrated for being underrated. The thing has five songs and it STILL manages to have filler songs. Not very consistant and extremely short. I find myself listening to both Wish You Were Here and The Final Cut much more often. The three main songs are great, but oh is this record short. Dogs is in the top three songs the band ever did. 8 (12)

"Tom Bastiaanse" (dutchtom.live.com) (09/13/09)

Your reviews for pink floyd are very fun to read! And with that said, Animals to me is their best album. I think what makes their music great and especially in this album is replayability. I have listen to floyd for a long time and I never get tired of listening to Pigs (three different ones) on the way to work. I think it's their greatest guitar rock album ever. The combinations of great guitar solos and slow build up (in dogs especially) is just fantastic. If more people listened to pink floyd...the world would be a better place.

"Mark Nieuweboer" (ismaninb.gmail.com) (05/13/11)

Like Johnny Lyndon I hate Pink Floyd too - well not exactly hate them, I just think them a complete bore. But I love Animals and McFerrin perfectly describes why. So you also know why I don't like PF - no interesting drum fills, no guitar grit, no groove, hardly great melodies, no captivating solo's.. But they all are here, plus the concept is great. So PF suddenly kicks ass. And that's what I listen rockmusic for. Moreover Animals isn't as excessive as The Wall would become. So yes, Animals is great prog-rock. Moreover it rocks. It's the only PF-album that does.

Anyone who, like me, doesn't give a dollar (the Surinamese one) for all the artsy fartsy sound experiments, nor for Waters' stupid opera pretentions still should give Animals a serious chance.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (08/13/11)

I actually disliked this when I first heard it, but it grew on me over time. I now think that Pigs (3 different ones) and Sheep are Floyd classics. But Dogs is a bit of a dirge.

Cameren Lee (cameren_lee.yahoo.com) (01/13/12)

Stone cold classic. I'm with your rating all the way.

I don't know if someone else already mentioned this, but someone commented about the American 8-track of Animals, with "Pigs On The Wing" being one song. The guitar solo interlocking the parts was played by Snowy White of Thin Lizzy, who was a backing musician on the In The Flesh and Wall tours, and maybe others I don't know of.

---

The Wall - 1979 Columbia
A
(Very Good / Good)

Best song: Either Don't Leave Me Now or Comfortably Numb depending on my mood

You know what amazes me the most about this album? This album was released when Roger Waters was thirty-six. THIRTY-SIX!!! One of the most infamous "angst" albums of all time, a perennial favorite of high school seniors and pothead college students, with semi-autobiographical lyrics dwelling on how his formative years helped screw him up so much, was made by a man twice the age of those who would get into this album the most. Not only does this show that the man badly needed a shrink, but it really punches a hole in the notion that popular rock music is something that can only be made by "young" people. This was the best-selling album the band ever made, is often regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time and, for many people, is basically the centerpiece of their legend.

The background of the album is pretty well known, but I'll share a brief version of it anyway. One of the nasty side effects of Pink Floyd becoming huge during the mid-to-late 70's was that the venues that they would perform in kept getting bigger and bigger. This of course had its good sides - I mean, what kind of band doesn't want to have more and more fans getting into them - but the fact remained that Pink Floyd had grown up as a band more geared towards smaller, more intimate settings. As the venues grew, there developed two main problems: the first was that the band's performances became somewhat dispersonalized, and the second was that, as their audiences grew, so did the number of extremely casual "fans." A common problem was that Roger still wanted to play things like "Echoes" or "Careful with that Axe, Eugene," but the band would be peppered with chants from fans who only wanted to hear "Money." Another problem that crept up slowly over time was that the crowds were becoming more and more unruly with each passing show, causing the band to fear for its own safety, so they had to construct a large barrier between themselves and the audience. Well, during one show on the Animals tour, a crazed fan attempted to scale the barrier and get on stage, and Roger ... spat on him.

When he got back to his hotel, Roger was horrified at what he had done, and desperately wanted to figure out where he had gone wrong, where he had turned into such a despicable figure, and what he could do to "tear down the wall" he had built around himself. So he concocted a story, in many ways similar to his own life, about a boy named Pink Floyd whose father died in WWII, was tortured mentally by an overly protective mother and various schoolmasters, who tried to drown out his inner pain by becoming a rock musician and eventually a star, and ... you probably basically know the rest. Roger also decided to make this one of the most grandiose ventures anybody had attempted in rock music to that point; he simultaneously envisioned this project as an album, a live show and a full-length feature film.

For all of this album's infamy, I cannot give this album any more than an A. Yes, the album has a lot of neat sound effects, as Roger and producer Bob Ezrin really went above and beyond the standards set on DSOTM in that regard. Yes, there are several songs that are solid on their own and wonderful in context. But I will never be convinced that the following statement on the album is wrong: THERE'S SO MUCH FILLER. I actually think the biggest problem along those lines is the fact that Roger was focusing as much on the live show and film as on the album itself. Things like "Is There Anybody Out There?", "Vera" (and yes, I'm aware of what the song is referring to, so don't call me dumb on this point) and "Bring the Boys Back Home" probably made more sense when seeing the live show, and maybe they have some important significance in the film (which I've never seen), but on the album they sound like blatant filler. Roger clearly valued the theatrical elements of his project as much as, if not more than, the raw musical elements, and while that might draw a lot of people in, I don't think the non-musical elements are effective enough to work proportionate to the amount they're relied on.

It also doesn't help that the story isn't actually that original. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the whole isolation from the world bit had already been done on Tommy, the abusive schoolmasters bit was from The Kinks' Schoolboys in Disgrace, the ending part where the main character wants to change and has an epiphany is from Quadrophenia, and so on. The album also reminds me very heavily of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in terms of overall flow, both in story structure and in the moods set at various points. The only significant "new" elements that Roger introduces are (a) the main character's hatred of humanity leading to him embracing neo-Nazi ideology and (b) the fact that the big climax of the album isn't presented in a great song, but instead in a weird theatrical skit with carnival music in the background. Pretty much everything else on the album, concept-wise, is basically a distilled and dumbed-down element of something presented before either by others or by Roger himself, and that bothers me.

The music itself is actually very different from what the band had done previously, though that's not always for the best. During the sessions, Roger fired Rick (though he let him tour the album as a 'contributing musician') for not contributing anything (not that Roger probably would have accepted anything from Rick at that point) and for becoming addicted to cocaine, and while there's a lot of well-mixed keyboard work on the album, it's honestly pretty faceless and uninspired for the most part. Dave pretty much abandoned all of the new elements he grafted in during the Animals sessions, instead taking his previous guitar style and making it even louder and shinier and filled with more echo effects. He does get in some very nice solos, but they're more arena-rockish than they'd ever been. Add in that neither Roger nor Nick seemed particularly interested in making their playing stand out on this album, and the result is that this album is hardly one of the finer examples of the band's abilities from an instrumental standpoint. It should also be noted that the others had even less involvement in the songwriting here than on Animals, as hard as that might be to believe. Only "Young Lust," which Dave supposedly changed so much from Waters' original demo that only the chorus was preserved, and "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell," which were originally conceived by Gilmour independent of The Wall, then adapted and finished by Waters to fit into the album, feature any band writing credits by people other than Waters ("The Trial" has a co-writing credit given to Bob Ezrin). Much more so than anything from the band to that point, this was a Waters solo album with support from the other members of Pink Floyd.

Yet for all of these overall issues, large chunks of the album are close to amazing. The first disc, honestly, is close to flawless; the mix of sound effects with an acceptable variety of styles, with effective reprisals of themes at just the right times, makes this something I enjoy listening to almost without reservation. "In the Flesh?" is a fantastic way to start things, going from a quiet cabaret theme to a loud blast of arena rock guitars and loud organs with Roger singing a neat vocal melody with lyrics that effectively set the tone for the rest (and an amusing part with Roger yelling out stage directions). "The Thin Ice" has a lovely piano melody, first featuring Dave singing as Pink's mother, then Roger as a bitter narrator, then another terrific guitar solo that crashes into (over a simple yet effective Mason fill) the echoey bliss of "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1." After four minutes or so of learning about Pink's father's death, marking the moment when he started to build the wall around himself, we come to "The Happiest Days of Our Lives," a brief interlude about the abusive teachers in the British school system, and then we have the album's mega-hit. Yup, I'm talking about "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2," the one with the "We don't need no education" lyrics, which are actually about children rebelling against the physical and emotional abuse from their teachers but that most people took to be a kind of successor to the Alice Cooper song "School's Out" (not that I have anything against "School's Out," but the subject matter of that isn't actually close to the matter of the Pink Floyd song). I'd be happy if it never got played on the radio ever again, but it's still an amazing song, from the cool disco-ish rhythms to the fun chorus to the economic guitar soloing in the middle.

The first side closes out with Mother, one of Roger's finest acoustic-based ballads, with Dave throwing in more nice vocals in the guise of Pink's mother (who really gives off a major Psycho vibe) and a decent guitar solo in the middle. Side two begins with the extremely downbeat (also acoustic) ballad "Goodbye Blue Sky," which reflects the disillusion of growing up in post-war Britain and not getting the childhood that would have come without the war, and it's a nice duet between Dave and Roger. The next two tracks show Pink grown up and having gotten married and become a rock star. "Empty Spaces" features a slow, menacing, rising guitar line in the background with a backwards spoken recording playing on top, and a brief look at how Pink's distance from his wife makes it harder to communicate with her. Then it's time for some dumb (in a good way) cock rock in "Young Lust," with a good raunchy vocal from Dave about seeking out groupies. It also ends with a phone conversation between Pink and a phone operator in which he discovers that his wife has been having an affair, which I guess makes Pink even more depressed and adds another brick to the wall.

"One of My Turns" opens with and features a lengthy, fairly amusing vocal sample in which Pink brings a groupie to his hotel room, only to show that he's not really paying attention, ostensibly because he's thinking about his wife. After a fun 'rocker' in which Roger sings about then trashing his room, which frightens away the groupie, we come to what's probably the best song on the whole album. Yup, it may be seem fishy to pick this track as the album's best, especially when George Starostin did the same, but I'd say this is the only track on the whole album that shows emotional power in a way that's completely independent of Roger's otherwise all-encompassing self-indulgence. "Don't Leave Me Now" shows Pink obsessing over his wife's infidelity, while not really accepting responsibility for the way he physically abuses her (not mentioned previously in the album), instead insisting that she should stick around through it because he needs her. The way it starts as a low-key mix of slow, disjointed chords perfectly illustrates a black cloud of depression around Pink's head, making the world seem dark and clouding his good judgement, and when it builds to Roger singing, "Why are you running awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay" and then fading into Dave singing, "Ooooooooooooh baaaaaaaaaaaabe," it's just absolute depressive bliss.

The side closes out with "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 3," where Pink's anger and depression leads to him completing the wall around him, and "Goodbye Cruel World," where Pink acknowledges that he no longer wants anything to do with the rest of the world. So that's the first disc, which has some "filler" pieces that nonetheless work very effectively in filling out the story, and a bunch of awesome "main" songs. The second disc, though, has an awful lot of things that I don't really like. "Hey You," which opens the second disc, is another one of the album's major hits, but I've never liked it that much. Plot-wise, it features Pink suddenly starting to have second thoughts about building his wall, as he's starting to go a little crazy from his lack of outside contact, but not having enough willingness to tear down his wall so he can get that contact. Music-wise, it's an ok downbeat ballad (with a guitar callback to the chorus of "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" in the middle), but I find it vastly inferior to, say, "Goodbye Blue Sky," and I think the main reason people love it is because of the line, "... and the worms ate into his brain."

The rest of side three is seriously mixed. I think the overall goal of the side is to depict what it's like to be in a drugged-up fog, sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and letting your mind drift around to all sorts of past memories, and I suppose it works ok in that respect. I do think it's kinda neat that Dave brings back guitar sounds from the mid-section of "Echoes" to help depict Pink's 'madness' in the middle of "Is There Anybody Out There?", for one thing. You know what, though, I just don't think Roger needed this many tracks and this much time to depict this sort of thing. These tracks remind me a lot of "The Waiting Room" from The Lamb Lies Down, which exists for much the same purpose, and that's not really a compliment. Before "Comfortably Numb," the only salvation on the side is the piano ballad "Nobody's Home," which does an amazing job of showing what it's like when all you have in life is your stuff, and whose melody makes it into a minor masterpiece.

"Comfortably Numb," then, is a track that's great despite some glaring flaws. The guitar solo, as mentioned in the overall introduction, is as unspontaneous as anything in Dave's repertoire, and the keyboard backing does indeed sound a lot like late 70's/early 80's Elton John. The lyrics are pretty neat, though, presented as a conversation between a doctor (sung by Roger) and Pink (sung by Dave) before a show, when he needs to take drugs to make it so he can function on stage. The vocal melodies are pretty nice, and as rigid as the guitar parts might be, they are EXTREMELY well written, and they do a darned good job of imitating passion and genuine emotion and all that. So yes, it's one of the two best tracks on the album, and even if it's overplayed it deserves a lot of its fame.

Side four, then, is just kinda stupid, and doesn't measure up to what the final side of a rock opera is supposed to be. Essentially, Pink starts having a major hallucination of performing at concerts that morph into neo-Nazi political rallies with him as the major leader, and the banality basically drips out of my speakers. I think it's kinda funny that "In the Flesh" basically features Roger singing about how we wants to kill his audience, and I especially think it's funny that this would serve as his show opener for so many years, but I don't find it that great overall. "Run Like Hell," the side's best track by far, is a great song and a major radio hit, with great echoey guitars and great discoish rhythms, with Roger screams adapted from "Careful with that Axe, Eugene," and lyrics about hunting down minorities (with references to getting hunted down by his mother) or something. "Waiting for the Worms" starts off promisingly, then devolves into an abundance of sound effects of Pink directing his minions to wherever. After the brief interlude of "Stop," we come to "The Trial," which is a funny idea and a lot of fun to imitate (and was probably a lot of fun to watch in concert), but is kinda stupid as the climax. Quadrophenia has "Love Reign O'er Me," Lamb Lies Down has "it," Tommy has "We're Not Gonna Take It" ... and The Wall has "The Trial." Yup. The album then ends on a quiet note after the wall has been torn down, with "Outside the Wall" calling back to the cabaret theme at the album's start.

So that's pretty much my take on one of the most famous albums in the world, and the one that lots of people treat as Pink Floyd's masterpiece. It is a a very, very good album, but it is in no way deserving of the reputation that it has earned in today's culture. This album shows one thing to me in the end: Pink Floyd entered the 70's as one of the world's most underrated bands, and left the 70's as the most overrated. No number of additional listens to this album will change my mind on this assertion.

Send me your thoughts

Yan Pritzker (yan.openqubit.org)

"... there's SO MUCH FILLER"

I'd like to point out that many of these songs become significant if you see the movie The Wall. I have seen it recently and was amazed at how much more clear everything on this album became. You see the songs in their context rather than just weird filler pieces.

The movie is absolutely amazing. I highly recommend it, plus you'll get to see how these songs fit in with the movie.

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Possibly Floyds best known work and it's certianly on par with Darkside and Wish You Were.

  Another  Brick PT2, Run Like Hell and Comfortably Numb alone make it a cracker...But all the other tracks deliver the goods as well.

  10 out of 10

Mitch Payton (mpayton.optonline.net)

Hey -- just checking in with a little "delightful disagreement". . .

  I just sat here & read your whole site -- EXTREMELY well-written & thought out, esp. given the standards of the world-wide web. It is a joy to see this kind of writing about PF -- you say things that have been floating unformed in my head for years, things I never really had to formulate into words. Now you have forced me to try and express myself.

  You see, "Pink Floyd The Wall" is my favorite rock and roll album of all time. I think it is a crowning achievement, a distinctly pure and delightfully hard-to-pinpoint-exactly treatise on art and & the artist in the late 20th century. It is a rambling, over-complicated [a good thing, in my opinion] meandering attempt to delineate, or outline if you will, the process of becoming an artist, of "creating the self," a la Nietzsche. The character Pink Floyd is an artist in the sense of an "artisan," he is aking to the character Stephen Daedelus in Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" -- whose desire is to "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." A goal which, due to its magnitude, is condemned to futility.

The movie, & the album, changed my life, & were instrumental in my decision to pursure an artistic path in my life. So I am admittedly biased, but I am not trying to convince you of anything -- I just want to share my feelings with you the way that you shared yours with EVERYONE!!

  Thanks for the site, & the writings -- I pulled out "Animals" as soon as I read your review, & was reminded of greatness. . ..

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

This is my life. I love this album. It is not only the greatest Floyd Album, but it is THE BEST ALBUM IN THE WORLD! Comfortably Numb is rock's greatest song! Deal with it. Rating:A+++++

Hugh Trimble (8-15-01)

I found your site this evening (you know, I forget how... creepy) and I have to say I'm very impressed.  It's far too common on the internet to find so many sites about the 'so-called' Pink Floyd, with their little quotations from The Wall all over the place and their backgrounds ripped off from the cover of The Wall and (you can see where this is going, can't you) their endless rantings about how The Wall is THE BEST ALBUM EVER!!! YAAA!!! with far too many exclamation marks and capitals.  How refreshing to find some well-balanced, intelligent writing - nice one! But I've just got to say this, I'm afraid.

I have a Real Problem with (you guessed it) The Wall.

    To me this album just represents... disappointment.  It was the third PF album I bought (after Dark Side and WYWH) and I was completely shocked when I listened to it.  I got through it and was left... well, lost for words. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not slamming The Wall here, but I feel that it is one of the most over-rated albums I have heard.

    The main problem I have is with the lyrics - ummmm?  What on Earth?  I personally believe that they're just... (see, another ellipsis [...] - this sums up my indescision and bewilderment about this album) _too_ bleak.  In fact, when I'm in the right mood, I might play The Wall as a comedy record: 'To puut throough the shreddah iin front of my friieeends ooooh baaaaaaaabe!!' just cracks me up.  The lyrics seem to me to be so phenomenally overblown, pompous and self-pitying that every time I hear them (yes, throughout the whole album - I'm not just needlessly generalising) I either end up in stitches or depressed on an epic scale.  I agree with you on many points - there is SO MUCH FILLER!  Happiest Days of Our Lives...Empty Spaces... I shan't bother carrying on because I'd be left with only a couple of tracks which I would actually listen to on their own.  In The Flesh? is of course an amazing rocker (maybe even verging on metal?) and the opening lines seem to me rather hurtful - addressed right at the self-important wannabe-hippies like me: 'So ya thought ya might like to go to the show? To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that Space Cadet glow? Tell me - is something eluding you sunshine?  Is this not what you expected to see?' to which I whimperingly reply 'No... sorry, did I do something wrong?' : (  I like ten minute guitar solos!  I like albatrosses hanging motionless upon the air!  The Wall has none of this of note besides the remarkable solo on Comfortably Numb.  To me the whole album seems a triumph of style over subtance - without the undeniably incredible production values there is little left in terms of songwriting.  And the worst part of all for me is that this is what Pink Floyd tend to remembered for. "Oh, so you like Pink Floyd.  Hmm.  'We don't need no ed-juh-ca-shun.'  They're and accquired taste, aren't they?" It's tiring to have to constantly explain the Floyd below all that bombast... I'm not saying I'm a hardcore Floyd addict, but I do see more than The Wall and Dark Side.

BUT, and this explains why there are so many ...'s in my comments... The Wall still seems to work.  The album as a whole is very effective at achieving its purpose - otherwise I wouldn't end up so depressed half the the time.  This might seem totally random, but I'm finding it hard to expess myself much further so I'll wrap it up now and give The Wall 7 out of 10.

That's a low seven, but it's still a seven.  And I don't know why!  Every time I listen to it I DO end up enjoying it more than I thought I would, but I can never explain why... which sounds really lame, I know.

Best track: Well... all of it.

Worst track: Well... all of it.

Well anyway, I enjoyed your site a lot - as it happens I too have just dug up Animals out of my collection to give it another listen on your advice - although I have similar gripes with those blummin' lyrics. Anyway, if you do choose to put my rather nonsensical ramblings onto your site, could you please NOT put my e-mail address on with it.  That's a point of principle... I'm not just afraid of getting lynched! Thanks a lot - and I liked reading your reviews.  Maybe I'll think of something to say about the other albums, too.  Hopefully those'll make more sense.

TheeRubberCow.aol.com (12/28/01)

Don't listen to them.  I agree with you on this one.  Even though there are many things I like about it, it really makes me sick that so many people worship this album.  And then when I say that, I get "I can't believe you don't like The Wall."  Well, I do like  it.  I just wish people would see it for what it really is, not "their masterpiece."  The songs you mentioned as being filler are filler, and dull filler at that.  And I would also pick the same favorites you picked, with "Goodbye Blue Sky" coming in as a close third.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

John, you are not committing heresy! This album is very, very good, but not as good as a lot of their other work. Roger writes not only all the lyrics but most of the music too, and, IMHO, this is not his forte. He would have done better to let Dave be a little more involved musically, it was when they worked together that Pink Floyd's best moments were created. There is some great stuff but also some that is just, well, dull. I love the movie though, I think it works well, but I cannot forgive them for leaving out "Hey You" which is my favourite song on the album. 8 out of 10.

prindle mark (mprindle.nyc.rr.com) (7/16/02)

The Wall is one of my favorite albums of all time.  Granted, this might be because of nostalgia, but I don't THINK so, because it still excites me every time I hear it -- even now.  And I've heard it a TON of times.  I actually own SIX different versions of it (regular, roger's home demos, practicing for live show, Is there anybody out there?, rogers' live in berlin and luther wright's bluegrass version) and can listen to any of them at any time.  I hear no filler at all.  Every single song is required -- every single song moves the plot forward.  "Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back" are the sounds of the narrator losing his mind - getting stuck in the past, remembering his father's death, etc.  It's such a creepy album both lyrically and musically.  I still don't like The Trial though.  Its mood just doesn't fit the rest of the album.  After all that fear and darkness - to end on such a faux-Broadway goofiness note just doesn't please me.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Dangit. Okay, I love this album so much, and I hate this album so much, that I run out of words when talking about it. I loved it for the first listens, but after a while, it lost its spark. I guess this is the main problem. It feels great for a while, but after you get through all the thrill and excitement of the first listens, you look at it and see nothing. I mean, there is good stuff here. But most of it can't be, umm, ENJOYED like DSOTM and Animals can. Very few stuff here can be truly enjoyed. You don't have music, or "SOUND" like I said before. You have a plot. And there's the problem. While the album has an excellent plot, and lyrically it's fantastic, it just doesn't make a nice listen. I don't see much in Comfortably Numb apart from an excuse for David to show the world how he was much better than the evil Waters (also, many people argue that Waters didn't want to include it in The Wall, but David "convinced" him to do so. Though I hardly believe in it. I think Roger saw so much potential on it that put it readily, and even put his name in the credits for "music" as well as "lyrics"). So... I just don't know. It's good and bad. I think I'd still give it a 7 (10).

Though the movie is a fascinating experience.

  For Trannon Gobble: Dammit, I saw so many people like you on AG... and they also said Bike was a terrible song. *sigh*

Ken Lambert (lambertk.frontiernet.net) (9/02/03)

Hi,  I just wanted to say that I've enjoyed your site and agree with much of with you have said.  However, after reading the section about The Wall, I felt I needed to add my two cents. I agree with you that The Wall may not deserve a 10. I was surprised you got caught up in the whole "it's the same story as Tommy" theory.  Though, I don't think Waters would be above pinching from Townsend or anyone else, I believe it has more to do with history then plagiarism. Both men born in Britain in the early 40's may have shared similar childhoods and or upbringings [many british childern lost thier fathers during WWII].     As for Pink Floyd albums, I personally prefer Animals and The Final Cut to The Wall.

Lazer59882.aol.com (10/22/03)

terribly overrated. i am a pretty big pink floyd fan, but i fail to see the greatness of this album. there is a lot of filler, and the emphasis has been shifted from the music and the artisticness of early pf to the lyrics and roger's point of view. and worst of all, dave barely sings a note! when he does though, the song is great, like mother and goodbye blue sky. otherwise, its just roger shouting and occasionally singing in that voice that no one can really like. the orchestrations are quite nice, but a little under used. comfortably numb is among the top 10 pf songs out there, imho. being a fan of  daves style of soloing this is heaven for me. but thats pretty much it. again, a lot of filler. this couled have easily been one disc and maybe fifty minutes of music and i would have been happy. but such is life.

  btw - when i was in ninth grade last year i had to write what kind of music i listened to and liked in spanish for a project. when i got it back my teacher asked me about who specifically i liked and i said pink floyd and the beatles [these being my favorite two bands at the time] he said they were great bands and that he was a huge fan of classic rock. then upon asking him what albums he had he said yellow submarine, the wall, and dark side of the moon. in my head i just cursed him for being 'out of the know' and moved on. theres no point to that story so take it however you wish.

[my frickin shift key isnt working - sorry for no caps]

Richard (garterbeltandstockings.hotmail.com) (4/14/04)

In your term "Filler", while refering to this work of art hurts me. Although it must be known that this album is the best and credit  entirely belongs to David Gilmour. Without his solos this would have been "clearly a waste of time" Gilmour holds all the bricks together and without him, the Wall would have fell long before it was finished.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Well, the music is a bit repetitive, and some of the pieces are mere fragments ("Vera," "Empty Spaces," "Bringing the Boys Back Home"). But it's the only Pink Floyd album with an actual storyline, so it necessitates the songs referring to each other. I do think that the concept is brilliant, but the music is simplified, and they are starting to repeat themselves ("Empty Space" recalls "Welcome to the Machine," for example). Mason and Wright are basically non-factors at this point (Roger and Dave also played keyboards), and session musicians start to show up. However, Gilmour and producer Bob Ezrin deserve a lot of credit for helping to assemble this thing. Roger's voice is starting to decline, also his nastiness is well suited for the character's breakdown, but there are enough balancing vocals from Dave, a much better singer, to compensate. Ezrin pushed for including "Comfortably Numb" (Roger wanted to dump it, stupidly) and for making the concept more accessible to a mass audience. Although, unless you've seen the film, the second half of the album is still confusing.  Not too many Americans are going to know who "Vera" (Lynn, a British singer popular during the war) was, or what all this fascist stuff is about (do people commonly respond to depression by having fascist hallucinations, by the way?).

But still, it's hardly a boring listen. The melodies are even more accessible, especially when compared with the last album. "Run Like Hell" has kind of a New Wave sound (one guy I knew in college thought it was a Talking Heads rip-off). And people are more immediately able to identify with it, which is one reason it's remained so popular. Roger didn't go too far over the deep end, but this would be the last time. I would bet, though, that he's still frustrated by the response to the album. I'm convinced that "Another Brick in the Wall" was a #1 single because a lot of kids took the "We don't need no education./We don't need no thought control," chorus totally out of context. And at the live shows several years later, people were doing the "hammer" thing from the movie during "Run Like Hell" like good little Nazis. People are always going to miss the point, unfortunately.

patricia (patricia2.cogeco.ca) (12/31/04)

Hi,

  I love your site! I just wanted to let all us Pink Floyd fans' understand that there are no filler songs on this masterpiece. The movie will help one understand some of the other songs, like Vera, or bring the boys' back home. The Wall is rich in its themes, and there are many themes, and symbolic messages in this movie. You have to see this movie, with Gerard Scarfe's unbelievable, mind-blowing animation.

Msbella12.aol.com (02/23/05)

dude..  i cant read this crap anymore...   the fact that you think the song Comfortably numb    has anything to  do with drug use means you have no idea what the hell you are talking about..  i wont bother to explain

Derek Farrell (mtstage13.yahoo.com) (06/18/06)

When it come right down to it, this record(yes, i listen to it on a record)gets kind of old. it's got great songs, and a good storyline, but this is the only album that people will listen to, and i hear it a lot, so i got tired of it. I prefer Wish you were Here

  Best song: Empty Spaces

  Worst Song: Another Brick in the Wall pt.2 (SUE ME)

josh lovett (lovett111.hotmail.com) (01/30/07)

Ok well I tend to agree with you on this one except id even say a 7. I mean honestly it has way to much filler. It has some great songs but id say Another Brick In The Wall part 2 isnt one of them. I mean really its not actualy that great and its just overplayed so much, for a vast part its the song people judge the whole of pink floyd when its only the tip of the iceburg. I do enjoy the story i guess its actualy pretty good.

But id say this album is a 7/10 at the best.

David Dickson (ddickso2.uccs.edu) (08/30/07)

I have a special theory about The Wall's thematics. Most people, when discussing the lyrical message on display here, tend to inevitably link this album to themes of the Who, the Kinks, even Bad Company (?!). Specifically, the themes of alienation, loneliness, rejection, walls, and so forth.

Hate to drop a bomb on the debate here, but I think it's obvious who Waters is aping on here. David Bowie, dagnavvit. It's right there in the first song.

Think for a moment: What style is that song in? Glam rock. Where else on the album does it reprise? When Pink's acting like a Nazi. What rock star was acting like a Nazi when he briefly lost his mind? David Bowie! See, it all makes sense!

Actually, I just think the theme of the album seems a blown-up elaboration of "Rock and Roll Suicide" from Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album. The final song, in particular, seems a perfect reflection of the final lyric "You're not alone" from that tune.

And seriously, who else before Pink Floyd on this album (other than Bowie) cast rock and roll stardom as a primarily NEGATIVE thing? Somebody maybe, but nobody famous!

Now, about the music. Yeah, I agree, there's filler on here. That's what happens when you structure your album like a real opera--you'll have plenty of recitatives and short reprises in addition to the regular songs, and often times drama will be emphasized at the expense of melody and tuneage. But dagnavvit, this is Floyd, not the Beatles, and this is a rock opera, not a normal album. One or two duff songs here and there can be forgiven. As a cohesive whole, I'd say the album fits together. "Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" are short, inconsequential filler, but nothing else on the album sounds like them, so that's okay. Come to think of it, this really is one of the most DIVERSE albums in classic rock, isn't it? Sure, Roger Waters' voice makes the proceedings uniformly assholish (I WILL admit to that), and half the band didn't even play on here, but on what other album are you going to hear glam rock, acoustic ballads, funk, electronic ambience, cock rock, disco, Broadway ridiculousness, New Wave, piano solo stuff, arena air-guitar weepers, and Sinatra schmaltz? Todd Rundgren? The White Album? Nope! Before their time!

And kudos for giving a nod to "Nobody Home." What a wonderful, forgotten song. Reminds me of Lennon before he let Yoko sing.

the.doktor.is.in.ddreviews.com (12/02/07)

Man, I really hate this album.  Well, I guess more of my hatred is geared towards the band (although I find a few of their albums to be astounding, which bugs me even more that this one is so highly lauded).  There are a couple of good songs on here, like "Run Like Hell" and "The Trial," but overall this is a failure in my eyes.  As you pointed out, the concepts have been used before, and were done much better then.  The presence of filler is almost tantamount to rape for the price you pay on this double album (I haven't once seen it marked below $30).  Not to mention that the movie is absolute shit.  Seriously, part of the reason I can never listen to this album is because the movie ruined it for me.  I ended up showering and taking it back the same day I bought it after watching it... it really is THAT bad.  Unless, of course, you were a stoner in the mid 70s who spent the tips you made at Domino's on pot and aci d with your friends.  Then I'm sure it's a masterwork.  But, from the sober perspective, I say "hell no!  The Wall must go!"  And with that, my rant is finished.

Christopher21737.aol.com (01/19/08)

ok, the last of floyd's mega albums........i like everyones thoughts on the wall........when i listen to floyd, i never think about fillers, or messages.....i just plain and simple dig the music......me, i love this album, a great way to go out, after all, the band broke up after the wall.......i will say this could of been pink floyds best work, if.....rick had a little more influence......i responded before about this album, since then i have listened to it alot more.....and appreciate it alot more........i'll give it a high 8

Matti.Alakulju.upm-kymmene.com (02/13/09)

Funny how you mentioned that the big climax of the album is not presented in a great song. That's what I have always felt missing on this album, a great uplifting singalong song in the end. Well, I recently saw a DVD where Roger performed this whole opera in Berlin, right after the wall had come down. He had a big cast of stars from Bryan Adams to Van Morrison to Scorpions with him. Anyway, it seems that Roger also felt that there's a song missing in the end. So he decided to add one. I didn't recognise it, maybe it was from one of his solo albums, who cares. But somehow it didn't make it, maybe because it wasn't there in the original album.

PS. Did you notice that "We don't need no education" and "I can't get to satisfaction" can be sung to each other's melodies, ha ha?

Colin Freeman (nordiccolin.aol.com) (10/13/09)

The Wall is incredibly misunderstood. FM radio Floyd fans worship it for it's "great" songs like Comfortably Numb and Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), the rest of the album is thrown away as filler. Intermediate Floyd fans, who want to isolate themselves from those hooligans condemn The Wall.

It really is great album. Most of the more popular songs on the album are good and most of the "filler" tracks are actually some of the best on the album. Goodbye Blue Sky is a beautiful acoustic tune full of emotion. I love how One of my Turns starts out mellow and turns into an exciting rocker. You can feel the lonliness in Don't Leave Me Now. Goodbye Cruel World is also very moving.

Side two: Vera is only filler to people who don't know what the hell it's about (We'll meet again some sunny day). Waters vocals on it are very heartfelt and add a lot to the song. The Show Must Go On has a great melody. Waiting for the Worms is another gem. First of all, how many songs about fascist uprisings do you know? Second, it has a great melody and the guitar parts are very dramatic. The Trial is a great ending to the album. It illustrates Pink's insanity perfectly and I love Roger's screaming. The only song I actually dislike is ABW Part I.

My Top 5 songs:
5. The Thin Ice
4. Waiting for the Worms
3. In The Flesh
2. Goodbye Blue Sky
1. Nobody Home

Madan Mohan (madwiz.gmail.com) (07/13/11)

I disagree that Is There Anybody Out There is filler. If anything, I consider it an apt demonstration of why the Floyd were special - I cannot imagine any of the other big rock bands writing such a piece of music and believing that it would be emotionally powerful. Just a chanted, more than sung, vocal refrain and melancholic guitar finishing with some beautiful violin. Floyd had more flair for hooks and the so called rock and roll than many of their prog colleagues and at the same time were more daring and unconventional than many celebrated 'pure' rock acts. But that there is filler is a statement I cannot disagree with. Too much of the music hinges on the lyrical concept. At a certain point of time, you move off to other music, other albums and cannot remain in that state where you are well aware of the reason why Waters sequenced the music such. And when you come back after a 'gap', these songs don't resonate anymore. Which is flawed, because even in a concept album, the music should be strong enough to resonate on its own steam. I barely listen to any songs after Comfortably Numb anymore and even that song doesn't half live up to its bloat. It, along with ABITW-2, is one of their more generic hits, if I used the right word.

As such, there's generally not a whole lot cooking here that you would not hear in rock of that time, i.e, late 70s or on previous Floyd albums. Still, with that purposeful pacing so characteristic of Floyd and effective use of sound/noise to set moods, it manages to be a very clever and smart mix of both above mentioned attributes and comes out a deserving winner, at the end of the day. I wish though that Waters had let Gilmour handle more of the singing than he did (or maybe Gilmour didn't like large swathes of the album even back then?) because over a double album's length, he really stretches my threshold of tolerance and that's coming from a diehard Floyd fan.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Far too long and dreary. Some fantastic songs, I admit, but also far too much self-pity. My favourite bits are The Happiest Days ofour Lives/Another Brick (part 2), Hey You and Comfortably Numb.

The Trial is awful. I hate Rock Opera. It never works. And on side 4, the album degenerates into Rock Opera. Actually I hate all Opera.

With careful editing, this could have been a half-decent single album.

Stephen P Welte (04/13/15)

The Wall - the mark of someone who's truly hurting and has a sense of perspective is that they will seek help for themselves, cognisant of their own failings and appreciative of the good as well as the bad in the people around them. The mark of an talented but arrogant, self-centered asshole who's hurting and lacks perspective is to make an album like the Wall.

It's loud, it's theatrical, it DEMANDS attention, and loses some of its attraction for that; if it had at least a semblance of humility and subtlety, I'd respect it more. It puts much of the pain and failings of the lead character, as a semi-fictionalized portrait of Waters (and to a lesser extent Syd Barrett), on display, and does it well enough that many people (myself included) empathize with at least some of his problems; but fails to include anyone else in the show except as they relate to the lead character and as they cause him pain. A less self-centered approach would make the concept work far more effectively, as the problems of a wealthy and acclaimed rock star, however substantial, pale in respect to the problems of many others less materially fortunate in this world.

For all that, I still like much of the album. Waters came up with some excellent music and lyrics, enough at least for an entire single album, and perhaps an album and a half. Unfortunately, his megalomania wouldn't allow for significant collaboration with the others in the band, who couldn't produce material as quickly as he and who were exhausted of trying to work with him on an equal footing. Hence, we get the random distractions of pieces like "Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" for no good reason, very little of the subtle approach to musicianship (or the improvisation/jamming) from past Floyd albums, and very little substantial input at all from any of the other three members. It's strong, but not as strong as it could be.

Final thought: let's rearrange the second half of the album. Ditch "Vera" and "Bring the Boys....", start the second half with "Nobody Home" as Pink realizing that he does in fact need other people, leading into the desperation of "Hey You" and "Is There Anybody Out There?", the despair of "Comfortably Numb", and ending the third side with "The Show Must Go On" (albeit with a druggier, more depressing sound to it - Pink sounds entirely too sane here, jammed between the fog of CN and the fiendish insanity of "In the Flesh...". Throw a bit of classic Dave/Rick jamming in to fill space as needed on the third side. Fourth side, same as before, but "The Trial" is a weak climax; after all, what's the point of tearing down the Wall if we don't get a hint of what Pink does afterwards? Swipe "Every Stranger's Eyes" from the Pros and Cons album (which Waters had written already) as the grand climax - Pink realizing the worth of humanity in everyone he meets, not just himself.

---

Is There Anybody Out There? - The Wall Live - Sony 2000
8
(Good / Mediocre)

Best song: Run Like Hell

As much as any other live album I know, this archive release proves that great live concerts don't always translate to great live albums. It was certainly only a matter of time before an album like this showed up. After all, the band's live performances of The Wall were truly the stuff that legends are made of, and I have no doubt that, had I actually been able to see one of these concerts, I would have absolutely loved it. From actually seeing the wall get built up, to getting a glimpse of Roger sitting in front of a TV during Nobody Home, to Dave soloing on top of the wall during "Comfortably Numb," and finally the wall getting blown to bits at the end, this was truly one of the greatest spectacles on earth.

UNFORTUNATELY, instead of releasing one of these shows on video, which would capture this show in all of its splendor, we only get the music itself. And since the original studio album was such a careful and meticulous project, filled to the brim with voice-overs and sound effects, the fundamental nature of the songs is EXACTLY the same as ever (there are some changes here and there, and a couple of new tracks, but they're not significant additions). Now, you may say to me, "but what else could you expect of a concept album done live in its entirety?" Well, I would respond, the place to go for the answer is the live performances of Tommy that the Who did in '69-'70. Oh sure, the songs were still done in their correct order, but the approach of the band in these performances was far different than in the studio. Whereas in the studio, the guitars were soft and the harmonies perfect, live the guitars were LOUD and CRUNCHY. Compare any live rendition of "We're Not Gonna Take It" with its studio counterpart, and you will know exactly what I mean.

Of course, a nay-sayer might still say, "Well, maybe the songs are still mostly the same, but many of them are extended." Yeah, but the only problem is that most of these jams suck. Seriously. If you worship every note that Dave has ever played, you'll disagree of course, but I find the extended soloing in the jams of "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" and "Young Lust" to be incredibly tacky, and a ridiculous display of "crowd pleasing." Wright didn't have much to contribute either, with a couple of significant exceptions, as his soul had been completely crushed for this tour, largely sucking the life out of him and his playing. The end result is that these jams aren't at all on the level of the jam in, say, the Live at Pompeii version of "Echoes" - these are more like the jam one will find on "Gigolo Aunt," from Syd Barrett's second studio album. Plus, even when the band isn't explicitly 'jamming,' Dave is much more active and ever-present with his guitars than in the studio version, and this isn't always for the best.

I will admit that there are a couple of tracks on here that exceed their counterparts from the studio version. "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1" is even more menacing and atmospheric than in the original, and it has a glimpse of Rick Wright from years past courtesy of some simple upward scales. This same slight increase in Rick Wright's presence is also partially responsible for Run Like Hell sounding so freaking awesome; I missed this the first couple of times, and needed a reader comment to make me notice it, but when Wright throws in those litte tinkles in the middle, it is indeed just like he brought a bit of Ummagumma-era Floyd to the big stage. Of course, he's not the only reason the track is so great, as Roger and Dave attack their parts (instrumentally and vocally) with great enthusiasm and demonstrate why the song is indeed a classic from this era.

Elsewhere, though, it's mostly a thing where the songs that were good before are still good here ("Don't Leave Me Now" has seriously spoilt harmonies, though, which hurts it considerably), and the ones that were bad before aren't much improved. I do admit that the effect of the MC preceding "In the Flesh?"/"In the Flesh" is a neat one, as he's perfectly clear and coherent before the former and all hazy and murky before the latter, but there's little else that's revelatory. The sound effects were pretty much the most amusing and memorable part of The Wall, after all, and they couldn't really be changed, since otherwise the album as presented here would lose pretty much all of its effectiveness. Gosh, even "The Trial" is almost exactly the same as before (ok, so they changed one or two lines, big deal).

If you think that The Wall is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and you have an incessant desire to own a 'piece of history', then by all means pick this up. I guess that it's hard to justify giving this a noticably lower grade than the studio version, and there are some bits that are slight improvements, but on the whole this strikes me as a largely unnecessary album without the visual element, and that hurts the grade. It's still a pretty fun listen from time to time, but it definitely does not get a huge thumbs up from me.

PS: Funnily enough, getting fired from the band was the best thing that could have happened to Rick Wright in relation to this tour. Since he was no longer an official member of the band, he only received a pre-determined salary, and wasn't entitled to any cut of the profits the band would make on the tour. Since there were so few shows, though, and the shows cost so much to put on, they didn't come close to making a profit, and the remaining Floyders had to absorb virtually all of the financial impact. I feel kinda bad for Dave and Nick, but Roger had it coming.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Um WHY hasn't this been released on Video???? I saw little point in buying a NON video version of this but eventually decided to go for it.. I'm glad I did. there is some good extra stuff in there and the attached book is good too. But what really makes this so good is the atmosphere. Even on CD it OOZES out. Roll on a DVD or Videotape version.ALTHOUGH IF you DO own the original version think twice...

9 out of 10 (10 ut of 10 if you DONT own the original)

Garrett N. (galaxian1.mindspring.com)

I definitely prefer this performance to the actual album. It seems to me a director's cut of the Wall. Not Only that, but the main themes come across a lot clearer during the show, as the performance itself was the mode of thematic expression. Furthermore, this show sounds a lot more like Pink Floyd than the album: the jams on "Another Brick", the quiet ambience and sound effects of "Happiest Days of Our Lives" (very Embryo-like), the chaotic crash-banging jam on "Run Like Hell" (Saucerful-like), Nick's drum pounding on "What Shall we Do Now", and my personal favorite gem of the show, "The Last Few Bricks." The sound quality is superb & the band is in top form during this jam... Just wished it was longer, as they crammed so many Floydian elements into this short suite.

Floyd Waters (floydwaters67.hotmail.com) (3/05/02)

This is truly The Wall as it was MEANT to be. It is well documented that Mr. Wright was by this time pretty much out of the band, and thererfore his contribution to the studio album was not much at all. On my first hearing of The Wall (studio) it was very clear that SOMETHING was wrong, something was missing.

But in this concert, you can really hear Mr. Wright's influence. Someone here made the comment that his soul was crushed...I would say that is much too harsh. There is pain, to be sure...you can see it in his eyes in photographs, hear it through his playing (note the beautiful, haunting "elegy" of sorts at the end of "Goodbye Blue Sky"). But his playing is superb. If Mr. Waters is PINK...then Mr. Wright is Floyd. The changes are very subtle, but clearly call back the older Pink Floyd sound, that mystique that was missing from the studio album.

Note, for instance, the middle sequence of "Run Like Hell". Don't those tiny piano arpeggios send a chill up your spine, in the middle of all that noise? Strongly reminiscent of the earlier Floyd, such as "A Saucerful of Secrets"...to me, the album is that much more complete for his presence. "It was a very difficult and sad time for me," Mr. Wright says in the liner notes for this album. "...Still, I wanted to finish the recordings--most of my parts had already been taped. I also wanted to do the shows as a kind of final goodbye. That was hard and I'm not sure how I did it."

But he did it well...it was beautiful. Even twenty years later, his incredible, subtle touch gives ITAOT an effect that the studio album never had and never will.

The Mengsk (themengsk176.hotmail.com) (10/11/04)

About your "Is There Anybody Out There?" review, I am puzzled as to why you could ever rank it equally with PULSE.

With ITAOT, Floyd was as good as it was ever going to get, a peak so to speak. Even lacking Wright,

(and I find his performance in PULSE to be a form of payback, his vocals in Time and other songs are easily the highlight of the entire show for me)

Gilmour's guitarwork is powerful, Roger's vocals are stirring, crisp, and potent. ITAOT's Comfortably Numb is easily the best version of the song that the Floyd has ever produced, Hey You is good but the studio version is arguable better. The Trial is incredibly amusing as usual, The Show Must Go On is another one of my underrated favorites that really shines in ITAOT.

In short, I feel PULSE is good, mainly because it's a Floyd show that actually has Floyd in it, performing! ITAOT is so much better, however. Ahh, if only it were released on video...

PULSE does a very good WYWH, Shine on, Time, etc, however those damn women in the background are HORRIBLE, Gilmour should have made those harpies actually LISTEN to the songs they were going to sing for.

---

The Final Cut - 1983 Columbia
B
(Very Good)

Best song: The Final Cut

By this point, Roger pretty much was Pink Floyd, and this is confirmed by one look at the back of the album, which reads:

a requiem for the post war dream
by roger waters

performed by pink floyd

This is a Pink Floyd record in name only. All the songs are completely written by Roger, and Dave doesn't even provide vocals except on one song (which is, in my opinion, far and away the worst song on the album). Dave's contributions on this album are limited to moderately rote but still absolutely gut-wrenching guitar solos; the drums are almost totally insignificant, making Mason irrelevant; there's a lot of piano and organ, but they're all played by studio musicians and, obviously, not by Rick Wright. Meanwhile, there isn't really much emphasis placed on melody here: I tend to think that the "amelodic," "non-musical" reputation of this album is extremely overstated (I can sing a number of these songs from start to finish with very few mid-song cues), but it's still true that most of the album is in the "Comfortably Numb" vein, with lots of atmospheric haze and not much else. In fact, a lot of the album consists of recycled leftovers from The Wall, which Dave and the others had vetoed out of the final product (it was originally supposed to be a triple album, gah), which gives yet another piece of ammunition for people who want to rip this album to shreds. Theoretically, this album shouldn't be very enjoyable at all, and I know of a lot of Floyd fans who seriously dislike it.

Well, I give it a higher grade than I give The Wall. Laugh at me if you will, but this album and its lyrics mean more to my soul than most of The Wall ever could. On the surface, this is a protest album against the Falkland Islands conflict of 1982, but it's much deeper than that on even just a second glance. The album is basically about how much war sucks and how pointless it is, written from the standpoint of somebody who lost his father at a very early age in a war which was supposed to make everything better, and yet hasn't, and sees his country going to war again for completely stupid and petty reasons. It helps, too, that the lyrics are freaking phenomenal. The plea from Roger near the beginning, "Is it for this that daddy died?" is completely heartbreaking, and that's just the beginning. No, the melody isn't stellar, but it's certainly competent, and the effect of Roger yelling out, "Should we shout? Should we scream? What happened to the post-war dream??!!" hits me in all the places that I'm sure were intended by Roger.

"Your Possible Pasts" is slightly fillerish by the standards of the album, but it has great lines like, "her cold eyes imploring the men in their macs for the gold in their bags or the knives in their backs," and "By the cold and religious we were taken in hand, shown how to feel good and told to feel bad." "One of the Few" introduces the veteran who can only find a job teaching even though he's too screwed up to have any business around kids (a call back to the abusive school teacher on The Wall?), and "The Hero's Return" (with the coolest echoey guitar line on the album) does an incredible job of exposing the soul of this battle-scarred veteran who, despite his confident outside demeanor, is still haunted by the memories and the pains in his heart. Highlight: "Sweetheart, sweetheart, are you fast asleep? Good, cos that's the only time that I can really speak to you." "The Gunner's Dream" (a lovely piano-based ballad, as much as any song on here can be called a "ballad") then explores the dreams he has at night, both of the horrors of war and of a world where none of this crap exists anymore ("And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control, and everyone has recourse to the law, and no-one kills the children anymore"). "Paranoid Eyes" concludes the side and the glimpse into this veteran by describing how he can't properly connect with people after all he's seen in the war. The final verse: "You believed in their stories of fame, fortune, and glory. Now you're lost in a haze of alcohol soft middle age. The pie in the sky turned out to be miles too high, and you hide, hide, hide, behind brown and mild eyes."

Side two is weaker, but it still has a couple of amazing classics. The title track tells of somebody that wants to commit suicide but just can't bring themselves to do it, and is so perfect lyrically that I'm not sure any one snippet will adequately support my claim. It's probably closer to sounding like "Comfortably Numb" than anything else on the album, but it's not an exact clone, and I think this actually has a better melody, so I don't hold that against it. The album closer, "Two Suns in the Sunset," an anthem about fear of nuclear holocaust, is rather simple from a music standpoint, but it's still one of my favorite Floyd songs. Lines like "The wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in gives way, and suddenly it's day again" or the closer, "Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend, we were all equal in the end," are just perfect, and the quiet saxophone noodling at the end is strangely amusing given the subject matter.

Other tracks on the side include the quick interlude "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert," which is basically just an introduction to "The Fletcher Memorial Home," a great piano ballad about how all the tyrants and dictators of the world should be shuffled off to a nursing home (named for Roger's dad). The following track, "Southampton Dock," isn't up to the previous standard of Roger's acoustic ballads (a bad sign for the future), but it's still ok, and the imagery of the woman saying goodbye to the soldiers going off to fight another stupid war is pretty powerful. The one outright bad track on the side is "Not Now John," the album's one attempt at a rocker with Dave sounding a lot like the fool who sang on "Nile Song" (and don't forget the hilariously awkward female background singers!). I skip it every time, and my listening experience is all the better for it.

I have to admit that I talked just about lyrics a lot more with this review than I do with most albums I discuss. I also have to admit that it was extremely risky of Roger to put together an album where every song relies on every song to give it much of its power, especially when there's relatively little care taken with the melodies, but I strongly contend that, in this case, it works. The album doesn't get a higher grade because it drags at points, and because Not Now John totally blows, but beyond that this album is marvelous. I like it more than The Wall, and it's the best Roger Waters solo album ever, heh.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

The first "solo" Floyd album ( the 2nd being Gilmour's AMLOR) Not a bad bit of work which has taken some undeserved mauling.

  Captures the feeling and the spirit of Tory Britian brilliantly.

  8 out of 10

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

Even though TFC isn't even close to the last four albums it is a pretty good record. I think it deserves more credit as a good album too, although more Gilmour would've been better. Rating: B-

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

This album has the bad aspects of The Wall magnified (NO involvement in writing from Dave, dull melodies) and the material is, perhaps, a little too personal. Don't get me wrong, I fully believe songwriters should write about what is important to them, but Roger's preoccupations on this album just don't grab me. Still, the album is far from being a disaster. 6.5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Oooh. Now, this is very silly. But this is 200% pure Roger Waters. It's miles away from any other real Floyd album. Still, it rules. You know, Roger did an excellent work with the lyrics, and the music, while nothing outstanding, manage to follow it up very well, becoming unbearably beautiful sometimes (Paranoid Eyes, title track) and fascinating at others (Two Suns In The Sunset, Fletcher Memorial Home). It's a great listen, I love it. Okay, Not Now John is kinda shit, also. Though I think that it leans more towards Young Lust than Nile Song, you see. Also, the only thing that REALLY kills the song are those stupid, bloody annoying female choirs following Roger. If I could kill those bastards, this song could have been a bit better. Also, Dave's solo sounds VERY uninspired. Ok, I understand the guy. He meant nothing to Roger by that time, so he had all the rights to be tired and angry. And I also miss Rick on there, and Nick I hardly recognizable. He's even replaced sometimes!   I agree with the 8 (11).

G Ewart (Gewart.Biotron.com.au) (12/23/03)

I totally agree: "the wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in gives way, and suddenly it's day again." Whoa. but..."the rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in gives way, and suddenly it's day again." Now that's worth Caps and uncontrolled repetition of punctuation marks: WHOA!!!!!! (and add a shiver running down the spine)

Cornell Dotson (cornell.dotson.comcast.net) (1/26/04)

I was reading your review on The Final Cut, your one of the few people that actually see it as i do. Most think it was a crappy peice of work but your like I am you looked under the yelling and found the heart of the music. You are correct the lyrics are sheer poetry in most respects. I have always said Floyd is the thinking mans rock.

 Whats your take on Waters "Pros and Cons of Hitchhicking"? If you liked Final Cut you may enjoy it as well it is an aquired taste but very good once you find the mood of the album.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Well, I do agree that it's really only a disguised Roger solo album (although he claims that didn't force Gilmour and Mason to make it as Floyd album), and that the lyrics are the main attraction here. It's clear that Roger is losing his ability to write decent melodies and to sing. Dave could have helped immensely with both of those.  Maybe he felt that the songs were too personal to hand to anyone else, but it's also clear that his ego took precedence over what was best for the music. According to Dave, some of the songs were rejected demos from the last album, brought back with new lyrics. The Roger/Dave balance was key to the success of The Wall, and Roger screws that up. You do get some of the Dave signature guitar ("Not Now, John"; "The Hero's Return" combines the "Run Like Hell" rhythm line with a neat Indian-sounding lead), but that's it.

  The production is quite clear (the "holophonic" sound effect really are harrowing), and "The Gunner's Dream" has grown on me. But I do think that the best songs are the last three. And yes, I think "Not Now, John" is the best song, not the worst. Much more energy than the rest, a great vocal and guitar from Dave. Though it's hard to figure out what Roger is ranting about this time around.

    Still, this album definitely proves the old adage about the whole being more than the sum of the parts. Roger may have provided the artistic vision and lyrical focus, but without the musical heart provided by Mason, Gilmour and Wright, Roger's concept albums became less "album" and more "concept." And it wouldn't get better from here on out.

BOWIEP.aol.com (03/26/06)

THE FINAL CUT IS ONE OF PINK FLOYDS (ROGERS) GREATEST BITS I LOVE IT EVERY SONG IS WORTH HEARING

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

i agree with your review........one a band member leaves........it's never the same...but i do like this album......but i rate it way behind the earlier stuff.......

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

The Final Straw, more like. This was Roger Waters’ successful attempt to destroy the band he had created, by making an unlistenable album that even the most dedicated fans would be baffled by. There are none of the themes, techniques or musical tricks that made Floyd famous, just 43minutes of merciless self-pity and really awful singing.

No thanks.

Stephen P Welte (04/13/15)

The Final Cut - y'know, for every one of the Waters fanatics who refer derogatively to the albums released after his departure as Gilmour solo albums, this album and the previous were basically Waters solo albums, especially this one, and neither for the better. Still......yeah. I like this one better emotionally than The Wall because the problems of war affect everyone, as you said. The biting, incisive lyrics, the simple yet effective melodies of most of the songs, and the awesome production work well. The pains, fears, and shattered dreams of post-WWII Britain are elaborated upon to great effect. It's a great Waters album, but not a great Floyd album - far too little input from Dave and Nick (and absent Rick entirely), and Waters hasn't the musical talents to compensate. Still, I respect it more than The Wall, and that's something. Still should have been Waters' first solo album, with Dave and Nick guesting.

I prefer a rearrangement of the album's song titles, making the first half about the experiences of war, and the second about the failure of the establishment/politicians to make post-WWII Britain as good as it could have been. First half: "The Post-War Dream - "When the Tigers Broke Free" (originally released as a single) - "One of the Few" - "The Hero's Return" - "The Gunner's Dream" - "Paranoid Eyes" - "The Final Cut". Intro, the pain of war and losing loved ones, and how all the losses and pains of war have broken those involved. Second half: "Your Possible Pasts" - "Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert" - "The Fletcher Memorial Home" - "Two Suns in the Sunset" - "Not Now John" - "Southampton Dock". Some editing would be needed here, especially to fade "Suns" into "John", but I think the flow is more logical, starting with what could have been ("Pasts"), what should be ("Desert"/"Fletcher"), what might be ("Suns"), what often is ("John"), and the sad reality of the cycle continuing ("Southampton" - "she bravely waves the boys goodbye again", knowing many of them won't return, or will return as broken men). Horribly depressing, but sometimes needed as a shock to the system. And yeah, I quite like "John" - the music is harsh, nasty, and cynical, and suits the lyrics perfectly.

---

The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking (Roger Waters) - 1984 Columbia
4
(Bad / Mediocre)

Best song: Every Stranger's Eyes

After finishing The Final Cut, Pink Floyd didn't even bother to tour the album, and Roger went straight into the studio to work on this. At this point, Roger was clearly convinced that, not only was he great than Pink Floyd, but he was so beloved and popular that he could take whatever abstract rant he had in mind, set it to a minimal amount of melodies, and the public would gladly take it and ask for more. Apparently, Roger somewhat succeeded in that vein, as this album has amassed a sizable cult following to this day. You know what, though? I don't care. This album BLOWS.

The instinctual reaction of a thousand Roger-holics may be to flame me with accusations of being a simpleton who only likes "catchy pop songs." This is, of course, a ridiculous claim, as any reasonable reading of my website will show that my tastes go far beyond such things. I also want to specifically point out that I often enjoy it when rock albums have obscure concepts, and I take enjoyment in attempting to uncover not only the superficial concept (or the plot) but also the deeper, "abstract" meanings behind them. Furthermore, I've found that it's easier for me than for most others to uncover the meanings of such albums: I understood the plot of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway after just two listens (and had a good grasp of the deeper, spiritual ideas within just a few more listens), and I've even glimmered meaning and substance from the majority of Yes' Tales From Topgraphic Oceans. It says something, then, that for the most part, I don't know WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON in this album. Apparently, it's a bunch of surrealistic dream sequences with a common theme of marital infidelity, rife with Roger's weird lyrical twists (though these are VASTLY inferior to his work in Floyd). At least the concept of The Final Cut, the pain of losing a loved one to war when you know that it won't mean anything in the long run, is something that a great many families can relate to. But this ... um, who exactly is supposed to relate to this? Well, I guess if you like to cheat on your spouse, but do you think about being attacked by Arabs in the process? Um. Guh. And fans of this here album love to go on about how Roger's emotions just poor out all over the place ... huh? I get a nice emotional twinge in the penultimate track, "Every Stranger's Eyes," but I can't get myself to care about the rest of this album's subject matter at all.

This could be forgivable with strong music, but compared to the ones on this album, the melodies on The Final Cut were Beatles-quality. As I mentioned in that album's review, in addition to liking that album's lyrics and concept a lot, I really liked some of the melodies, and there were a lot of neat twists that I enjoyed. Here, though, the only significant element in this album's favor is the presence of Eric Clapton, whose gimmick-free but emotionally charged and technically flawless style of playing is totally different from Dave's but sounds just fine to me. There is a lot of enjoyable guitar work on this album, and the fact that Eric's able to come up with so many good solos, given how little he had to work with in the "meat" of the songs, only speaks to his credit.

In any case, if you're a really big Roger fan, you might love this, and if you do, more power to you. But for the rest of us ... just stick to The Final Cut. Or even A Momentary Lapse of Reason ...

Send me your thoughts

GRAHAM BALESTRIN (gbalestrin.vtown.com.au)

sorrybabe.......listen to the album again,and i dont care how many times you have listened to it,either you are missing the point or you just aint paying attention pros and cons is a brilliant rock and roll album and a treat every time i listen to it pink floyd livea on!

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Utter Crap.

  Sexual Revolution is absolutely brilliant. But otherwise this album is awful! what the hell Eric Clapton was doing being involved in it I'll never know!.

  3 out of 10

Mitch Payton (mpayton.optonline.net)

I just sent you an email praising you, & then you bash Pros & Cons! Accch!

  Seriously -- I love this album. I relate to it, in answer to your question. The album is a wonderfully early predictor of the loss of self that is predicated by the creation of global multinational captilast super-corporations -- a la Germany after WW II, all the companies that forged their identities in the Nazi machine & now pretend that they had nothing to do with it.

  The album is highly literary -- the Arabs are drawn from Camus' "The Stranger;" the hitch-hiker is the nomad, the Paleolithic-era hunter-gatherer dropped in the middle of some bizarre techno-nightmare super future; I don't hear Roger's emotions, I hear him emoting about the individual being overwhelmed, his "Self" taken away & replaced with. . . nothing. I love it.

  I do, however, understand your frustration, & I say this to you -- keep trying. People spend 27 years trying to figure out some things, remember? Maybe give Roger, & his Pros & Cons of Hitchhking, another hour or two?

  Still well written, as always, your comments. Please don't take this as a rant, I am only trying to share my opinion [& hoping that I am writing as well as you, maybe suceeding, maybe not -- but if nothing else, you have forced me to try to formulate an opinion into words, & I can only thank you for that. . . ]

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

The first 3 or 4 songs got me interested, but it dwindled away quickly. This is a a terrible waste of Eric Clapton's time. Highlight: Running Shoes sounds like Waters in true Floyd fashion aka The Wall.   Rating: D+

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

I just cannot get into this, or any other of Roger's solo albums. I don't hate 'em, they just bore me. The reason is that, no matter how interesting the lyrics are, Roger on his own is musically dull. I like good lyrics, but if lyrics were all I cared about I'd just sit down with a book of poetry. I listen to CDs first and foremost for music and Roger's albums have little joy in the music department. As for this album in particular, it repeats the same melody over and over and over, with a little diversion here and there. And the lyrics on this album aren't that good either. The story, such as it is, rambles along with no discernable direction. I'd give this album 4 out of 10, Radio Kaos 2 out of 10 (the music is distressingly bad and the story worse even than this one) and Amused To Death 4 out of 10 (better lyrics, but the music tries - and fails - to sound like "classic Floyd" and Roger's voice is shot).

prindle mark (mprindle.nyc.rr.com) (7/16/02)

This is one of the worst albums I have ever heard.  Anyone who actually *LIKES* this shit is either a diehard Clapton fan or somebody who hasn't heard enough music in their life to distinguish the good from the bad.

  Love that "bread crunching noise" though.

TheRubberCow.aol.com (8/6/02)

THIS IS THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!   Just kidding.  I haven't heard this, but I've heard his other two, and I can't say I'm a fan of his solo work.  And from reading everyone's repsonses (not to mention your reivew), I better wait until I'm well out of options before trying this out.  Even people who worship The Wall hate this album!  YEESH!

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Now... I like this one. I guess this is lightweight and silly enough to let me enjoy it. Musically, it's just Roger having fun with the guys, bringing Clapton along. Lyrically, it's also fun, anyway. It seems Roger wasn't in ONLY for ranting about war. He needed some dose of sillyness, and even though there still is some subtle poetry through it, the dream imagery is quite intriguing. The sound is obviously soundtrackish, and just a few songs can be considered as standalones. You see, Arabs With Knifes etc etc is just an extension of Running Shoes, that's just an extension of Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad. You know, all songs share the same theme and mood, so this isn't made of "songs", instead, of "parts". And I can't help but enjoy it. It's fun, it's nice. I don't find it any bad, really. And Every Stranger's Eyes is genuiely gorgeous.

Cornell Dotson (cornell.dotson.comcast.net) (1/26/04)

Whoa! I should have read down farther! I guess Pros was not your cup of mud LOL I personally liked it myself not that I am a waters freak I just enjoyed the concept, as with most music it had it hazy moments but overall I enjoy it

Eric B. (sonicdeath10.hotmail.com) (2/17/04)

$#$#. what the? this album's godawful. the only song i can remember from it is the title track and that's only because fo the chorus which says the title of the album (and song). the rest are just there. it's weird because there's music there... but nothing resembling melodies. i don't understand why roger hangs out with yoko ono on one of these songs but to each his own. 0 out of ten.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Supposedly, the rest of Pink Floyd was offered either this or The Wall as the choice for their 1979 concept album. Floyd made the right choice, because this is indeed as bad as you say. Roger brings along the same session players as on The Final Cut, Substitutes Clapton for Gilmour, and comes up with this almost unlistenable tripe. The idea of a concept album based on a dream sequence is a good idea, but Roger evidently thinks the idea alone is enough to carry the album. All of the problems with ...Cut are exacerbated. The near total lack of melodies. Roger's now unbearable voice. He can now do nothing but two vocal styles -- strained, grunting near whispering, or strained, agonizing screaming. And the lyrics, which made ...Cut intriguing, are, I agree, totally confusing. It might all be a dream, but at least there should be something that the listener can relate to somewhere.  When you can figure out what he's talking about, the imagery is downright nasty ("Sexual Revolution," "Gone Fishing," "Dunroamin'.."). While misanthropy like this had power on Animals, for example, here he sounds like a petulant, bitter jerk that you just wish would go away. And the sexist cover art (which originally had a nude butt uncovered) only adds to the effect. 

Once again, the only tolerable songs are at the end of the album.  The title track is at least a catchy pop song, although the lyrics just about summarize the jumbled imagery scattered throughout the rest of the album. And the concluding "Every Stranger's Eyes/The Moment of Clarity" is a moving, humanistic anthem that Roger can come up with if he puts a mind to it ("The Tide is Turning," "Outside the Wall," "Pigs on the Wing").  On the whole, though, this album suggests that Roger should have switched to writing poems or novels at this point, because his musical skills seemed to had declined seriously.

Ricky Flahive (therickyman.hotmail.com) (12/13/08)

I think this album is underrated. Indeed, there isn't much from a melody perspective, but Eric Clapton's guitar playing is fan-freaking tastic. The lyrics are pretty much the worst thing Roger ever wrote; and there ARE tunes that are disgustingly awful (Running Shoes) but overall it is pretty decent.

  Oh yes, in addition to Clapton exellent guitar, Roger's voice is great. When he decides to scream his head off he's usually only amplifying crappy lyrics (like on Go Fishing) but his actual...ya know, singing, is really good. This is obviously the album Roger blew out his vocal cords on, and it shows.

  The evil twin of The Final cut gets a mere 7 (11). If it weren't for Clapton it'd be even lower.

Ricky Flahive (therickyman.hotmail.com) (12/13/09)

A quick note about the tour in support of this album.

As crappy as you can say this album was, or is, the tour was just absolutely amazing. Roger would do good to offically release one of the shows. He obviously had Clapton along for the ride, who did an excellent, though somewhat restrained job. Roger just completely changes all of the Floyd songs played. In one way or another. I think it might've been in spite of David, but he removed every single solo Gilmour played on the Floyd songs and turns them into either a sax solo or has Eric rework them into something completely different. Plus he sings EVERYTHING himself, even Gilmours parts. He just completely outshined anything he ever did vocally, and this took its toll on his voice later on. Here though he pulls a Robert Plant and overblows and screams through alot of the stuff, usually to great effect, sometimes not. I guess he wanted to show everyone he was just as good a singer as David. Here I would say he does his finest performence. Dare I say he sings David's parts better than David himself? The album Pros and Cons works much better live too.

Cameren Lee (cameren_lee.yahoo.com) (01/13/12)

I'm with you on The Final Cut (hey, I'd rather have a certain Waters solo album w/Gilmour guesting and Nick drumming on a couple tracks and getting sound effects than a certain Gilmour solo album with Nick drumming and Rick back on keys, and a memorable Storm Thorgerson album cover), but Pros and Cons's "pros" are more in theory, as I see them. The premise of 40 minutes in a person's life has potential.

Add stream-of-consciousness lyricism, and you might have a cool album.

Make the character one with problems in his own life, needing to escape reality, could be brilliant, not to mention moving.

Sadly, the contributions of Eric Clapton are not enough to keep Roger's 1984 claim to rock 'n' roll's William S. Burroughs from sinking in a sea of his own (poorly bottled, in this case) cynicism.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Tales From Topographic Oceans, the former my personal favorite Genesis album, the latter my definition of the ultimate Yes album (though its lack of "self-deflation", a term you brought up in reviewing CTTE, is a bit daunting, it's still one of the greatest geometry-homework soundtracks around), leave Pros in the dust. AMLOR at least has a dated nostalgia to it, as with Radio KAOS, that can be both an excuse and a slight charm. Excluding Identity by Zee, this is the worst Floyd-associated endeavor ever.

Even Music From The Body had historical value (early verison of "Breathe").

Mikhail Radyshevtsev (mradysh.mail.ru) (08/13/14)

I can totally understand your criticism of the 'The Pros & Cons'. I like this album, nonetheless. Its main problem – the annoying repetitiveness of simplistic tunes – can be actually an asset to the one who tends to enjoy contemporary minimalism and, possibly, baroque and early classical music. In a way this album, in my opinion, is as much experimental as some songs written by Syd Barrett when he was already sliding into insanity (such as his 'Jugband Blues'). It seems to me that the album includes only two proper songs: 'The Pros & Cons Part 10' and 'Every Stranger's Eyes'. Everything else is a multipart suite – as much as 'Atom Heart Mother', 'Echoes', 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' or 'Dogs' are. The peculiarity of this suite is that it is not a sonata-like piece or a medley. It is firmly based on a form called theme with variations and as such is inevitably repetitive. One can dislike this but it seems this effect was a conscious intention – not a failure to achieve something else.

Many would say that repetitiveness is a nemesis of happy family life and the album is dedicated to a search of a personal way through its complications. Thus the choice of the form, I believe is totally justified by the main theme. The fact that Waters throws in a couple of songs written in a different manner before he bookends the album does not contradict the whole idea; it is, on the other hand, not that new to Pink Floyd. There album 'Wish You Were Here' is, in fact, a suite divided in two parts and interrupted by three songs, related to the same subject but music-wise they are clearly distinct . Moreover, the 'Dark Side Of The Moon' can also be considered a suite based on the variations scheme with 'Money' thrown in as a scherzo in order to shake a listener half way through the album.

Overall, not a greatest masterpiece of all times, this opus, I believe, deserves a little higher score (Mediocre to Good) and can be even appreciated for the boldness and resoluteness of the effort and quite a few guitar and vocal moments. The only really awkward point here is “arabs with knifes”. Let us leave it in the extensive world of Roger's middle-life nightmares :)

---

Radio K.A.O.S. (Roger Waters) - 1987 Columbia
5
(Mediocre / Bad)

Best song: After Live Aid (The Tide Is Turning), I guess

Send me your thoughts

Roger Moorhouse (roger.rogermoorhouse.com) (04/29/08)

I agree with much of what you say about Floyd/Roger Waters, especially the extraordinary lyrical skill of the latter - and I too am one of the rare breed who think that The Final Cut is actually really good!!.

  Agree to about Radio KAOS, pretty forgettable - but with one exception - "Home" is a great track, very much in the Waters mould lyrically and very strong musically.  Give it another listen.

---

A Momentary Lapse of Reason - 1987 Columbia
5
(Mediocre / Bad)

Best song: Learning to Fly

After finishing up The Final Cut, Pink Floyd's status was kind of in limbo. Although they hadn't yet officially broken up, it seemed extremely unlikely that the group would ever work together again. Roger stated to the media on a number of occasions that the only way he would consider working with his bandmates again would be in a setup a la TFC, with his controlling everything and the others having no say. On the other side, Dave was firm in his stance that absolutely nothing could convince him to work with Roger under those terms again. And so, it was time for the mainstays of Pink Floyd to start putting out solo albums. Roger released his Pros and Cons of Hitchiking (see above) to mixed reviews, as did Dave with his album About Face. Both hit about #30 on the charts, but while it was clear that both could more or less survive financially, they would never be the same without the name "Pink Floyd."

Eventually, Roger decided that he wanted the name Pink Floyd to cease to exist, and so he officially disbanded the group in 1985. So what did Dave do? Why, he almost immediately un-disbanded the group, reforming Pink Floyd and bringing back Nick and Rick. This spawned a massive court battle; Dave's contention was that as a member of the band, he had every right to do as he pleased with the name, while Roger argued that since the band hadn't really achieved commercial success until he completely took over the lyric (and eventually the music) writing, i.e. that HE was Pink Floyd, the rights to the name rested with him and him alone. Well, Roger obviously didn't have a chance (although he did get to keep the rights to the music and concept of The Wall), and Dave got to keep the name and release a solo album under the Pink Floyd moniker.

Although Wright and Mason do play a little on this album, most of the instrumentation is tackled by session musicians, and the only constant is Dave. Unfortunately, as shown by the rating of this album, this wasn't a particularly good thing. Yeah, there's lots of sound effects and a general feeling of despair throughout, but here it just sounds like self-parody. As of this writing, I haven't heard any solo Gilmour, so it's certainly possible that he could put together good albums on his own. The problem is that I don't think it was ever a good idea for Gilmour to try and make a Pink Floyd album by himself. Yes, he had the voice, and yes, he was the guitarist, and yes, he liked sound effects almost as much as Roger did, but there are a lot of elements that he just couldn't effectively imitate on his own. He couldn't effectively write lyrics in a dark universal mode, and he really had no business trying. Similarly, as evidenced here, he couldn't set a dark mood without sounding really silly or totally like a self-parody.

The first half of the album has some serious low points, but it also has some very good material. One thing that's interesting to note is that each of these tracks gives writing credits to people other than Gilmour; the man needed all the help he could get. "Learning to Fly" has three additional credits, and while it's a little dull, it's still rather memorable, with pleasant lyrics and good vocals. "One Slip" has a co-credit given to Phil Manzanera (yup, the Roxy Music guitarist), and while it has a stupid opening ripoff of the famous drumline from "Time," it's a great piece of up-tempo, driving, catchy arena-rock. "On the Turning Away" is dull but extremely pleasant and even majestic, with a pretty vocal melody, and Dave's ending solo is quite nice, even if overlong.

The other two tracks on side one have serious problems, though. The opening "Signs of Life" sounds like a poor ripoff of both "SOYCD" (the very first part) and (to a lesser extent) "Cirrus Minor," with nothing resembling a melody until Dave starts in with a stupid solo about 3 minutes in, and the sound effects seem completely tacked on and there for the sole purpose of taking up time. Meanwhile, the other track on the side is the ABSOLUTE LOW POINT of Pink Floyd's career. "Dogs of War" sounds like a Waters-penned number about how much mercenaries suck, except for a couple of things; first, the lyrics are awful beyond awful. "Dogs of war, men of hate, without just cause we don't discriminate." Yeah. Plus, the violiny keyboard sound is annoying, stupid, and refuses to let up the whole song. And where Dave probably went, "y'know, we used to employ saxophones a lot, this seems like a good place for them," he forces these poor sax players to play this unmelodic, uninteresting piece of garbage without a twentieth of the power of something like Money. And don't forget the dog noises at the beginning, ripped straight from Animals.

Side two, then, is one of the worst halves of any album I own, and easily the worst half of any Pink Floyd album. "Yet Another Movie"/"Round and Round" vaguely shows Dave taking on a more metallic sound (while also having keyboard noises that are "dark" in a more stereotypical 80's way than anything else on the album), and it completely and totally fails in its attempts to be at all interesting. The remaining tracks are credited solely to Dave, and they're just not any good on the whole. The closing "Sorrow" fails to interest me here at all in its nine minutes, as it has very little of the intensity and darkness it seems to think it should (and a poorly mixed keyboard line that sounds kinda silly here, and would be resurrected years later on "Keep Talking"). I actually think the P*U*L*S*E version is extremely good, succeeding in a lot of ways that this version doesn't, but that's for later.

And then there's "A New Machine." Oh my goodness gracious. IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE??!!! Did Dave really take this "futuristic voice through a machine" seriously? It's obviously meant to evoke memories of "Welcome to the Machine," but it doesn't even succeed on a ripoff level. It's just bad bad bad bad bad. To be fair, though, the piece between the two halves of "ANM" (sitting through it twice only makes it worse), entitled "Terminal Frost," is often extremely pretty and is always pleasant, particularly in the nice piano line. It's still kinda boring in parts, but it's by far the best part of the half.

As one might expect, this album hit #1 on the charts quite easily, but in my opinion, that is merely another example of the fact that people, as a whole, are idiots. There are certainly some good moments on this album, and I guess those are maybe worth hearing if you can find this cheap, but please don't get this first or second: chances are good it will positively ruin Pink Floyd for you. Unless, of course, you've heard this album before and actually like it, in which case you can feel free to disregard everything I've just said. Yeah, that's it.

Send me your thoughts

Martin Kilner (slamminvinyl.roncli.com)

I agree with you about A momentary lapse of reason being a David Gilmour Solo album, but I disagree with your comments about it being a bad album....its an album full of meaning. Its a fantastic - yes, granted...it lacks the Pink Floyd edge of the Waters era, but it where it loses, it also gains...I've followed both Pink Floyds career and Roger Waters career since the split in '85....Radio Kaos is perhaps, one of the most delightful albums ever created...but it doesn't overshadow in any way, what David Gilmour and co achieved with AMLoR....both albums, for me, are as amazing as each other...now if Floyd had stayed together, we wouldn't have had either of them, but more than likely something 'inbetween' them...while in one sense, that could have been a good thing, its also bad, because we now get twice the amount of fantastic music....Amused to death, for instance is fantastic, while, Division Bell matches it for brilliance. If any CD was a waste of space, it was The Final Cut....while yes, it had its moments (The Final Cut) overall, it was a complete let down.....it was a waste of 'Pink Floyd' in my opinion....with David and Nick being nothing more than session players, while Roger wreaked havoc with his control and sometimes, quite disturbing, lyrics.

Apart from The Final Cut, every single Pink Floyd has a fond memory with me, each scoring a 10/10...

I hope I didn't upset you, but these are my views

(author's note): Nah, I'm not upset. Quite the opposite, in fact - this is a perfect example of a good, solid comment with the reader disagreeing with me but doing so in a genial fashion. Martin, I applaud you!

sbowen95n (sbowen95n.sirthomaspicton.haverfordwest.sch.uk)

you obvoisly cannot appreciate pink floyd music in its true light, On the turning away is one of floyds most brilliant compositions post-Roger, with it's moody begginings biulding to a searing solo, along with it's fine bass line it forms a pinnacle in rock history

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

A hard one for me to judge unbiased.

  It was my first Floyd album. And it still holds a special place in my heart. However speaking as a critic and NOT a fan I will admit it's NOT a great one..but nowhere near as bad as some claim.

  A New Machine and the Two Instumental tunes are poor. But the other stuff is pretty good especially Learning To Fly, and Sorrow is My FAVE all time Floyd Tune

  7 out of 10

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

This is Gilmour's 80s Floyd and it sounds too 80s and not enough Floyd. Learning to Fly is probably the only "classic", although I am fond of Sorrow and One Slip too. Still doesn't do it. Rating: B-

TheeRubberCow.aol.com (12/28/01)

hmmm......this one is a mixed bag, but a lot of people say that there's more good than bad, and I would say it's the other way around.  Most of the stuff you're complaining about, I would have to agree with, but I just don't think it's as torturous as you make it sound.  Maybe it is to you, but to me, I don't get off on "Signs of Life" and "Sorrow" but I can handle them.  And I actually like "Yet Another Movie" now; didn't used to much.  It's just an album with some flaws that isn't as bad as people say it is.  One of the hardest ones to sit through; when I do, I have memories of enjoying some parts of very much....

P.S.  I like how "A New Machine 1 and 2" bookend "Terminal Frost", and the variaion with the falsetto.....the way he sings that kinda reminds of Peter Gabriel.....::throws a big shield up in front of his face and ducks::

Federico Fernández (fedefer.fibertel.com.ar) (5/24/02)

What????? No, no, no. NOBODY should own this album, specially if one has already enjoyed Animals, Meddle or Wish You Were Here. This is prime crap; you should avoid it. AVOID IT.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

Dave wanted to go on with Pink Floyd. Only trouble was, Nick and Rick just weren't up to it. Result: a Dave solo album with the Pink Floyd name. And not even a particularly good Dave solo album either, both his "real" solo albums were better (especially his first, self-titled one). Some good songs, particularly "Learning To Fly" and "Sorrow" (sorry I have to disagree with you, as we mostly seem to agree on Floyd). However, there is much here that is just ordinary, such as "A New Machine", "One Slip", and I'm not even very fond of "On The Turning Away". 5 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Yikes. I once owned this MP3, lost it and don't miss it. I just need On The Turning Away from here, and maybe Learning To Fly and One Slip. The rest is nothing. Okay, Terminal Frost is great, and it truly FEELS like a terminal frost. Just remembering that piano line and everything, I immediately think of ice and snow and cold winds. Woo!

  The rest? Bah. Not only this horde of session musicians make it all worse, but this album has DOGS OF WAR! Dammit! Dogs Of War is, indeed, the absolute worst Floyd track ever. Nothing here works. Truly horrid. Yet Another Movie is one of the few Floyd tracks that BORE me. Geez. And Sorrow is tasteless. Gosh, I can't believe Rick's only vocals on the album are on Sorrow... Then, we have that Signs Of Life, that is nothing but a cheap immitation of early Floyd, and that horrid A New Machine. It seems Dave wanted some sort of 'electronic' Pigs On The Wing, but failed miserably. It sucks. Shame it surrounds the nice Terminal Frost: A nice track surrounded by shit.

  So, there are just a few good tracks here, but the rest is utter crap. Even more, Dave was even more fond of his long guitar solos, and they are everywhere here! They are even more abundant on The Division Bell, and this can be only bad! I can only agree with Prindle on the "nine hour solo" on On The Turning Away. Dammit. The 4 (7) is well justified and agreed.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Yes, it's a Dave solo album trying to imitate a Pink Floyd album. And, actually, it was difficult for him to do.  The initial material was, evidently, so bad that Gilmour and Bob Ezrin had to scrap the whole thing and start again from scratch. I do say that it sounds better than TFC. They certainly know what elements to throw in -- triggered sound effects, female backing vocals, sax. And the session keyboardists that (mostly) replace Wright provide a more or less reasonable facsimile of his keyboard style circa Wish You Were Here.   And the melodies and vocals are certainly more pleasant than anything Waters could have (and did) come up with at this time.

  However, it's also clear that without Waters' lyrics, you don't have the proper Pink Floyd chemistry. Most of these words are, at best, tolerable. Anthony Moore's imagery on "Learning to Fly" resonates, maybe because Dave really does fly planes as a hobby. And "On the Turning Away" is a touching bit of social commentary. But I also share the universal hatred of his "The Dogs of War." I mean, was this supplied as some kind of "proof" that Dave could outdo The Final Cut? And the music shamelessly retreads "Welcome to the Machine" yet again.  And "One Slip," despite some musical energy, has some appalling lyrics as well ("'Yes! Oh Yes!', she sighed, to my regret!" -- come on -- this is supposed to be Pink Floyd?).

  After .."Turning..," the album does seem to drag on and on until the conclusion, although, unlike you, I find "A New Machine" somewhat interesting (although we recycle that "WttM" theme twice within the same album).  On the whole, though, this Waters-less version of Pink Floyd conjures up a lot of boredom and mediocrity. Which, even at their weakest, couldn't have been said that before.

"Chris Troyer (Corp)" (ctroyer.adsteam.com.au) (11/23/04)

I must admit that I am in two minds about this album but I'm not sure it fully deserves the savage reviews I have seen it garner over the years.

Granted, the production and overall feel of the songs are highly derivative of the band's own back catalogue but that is, to a certain extent, to be expected. Undoubtedly financial demands, along with the huge expectations of Floyd fans would ensure that this 'comeback album' would be tailored to please as many listeners as possible.

For one, I really enjoy the rhythmic feel of 'Learning To Fly' which doesn't come across as something you've heard a thousand times before. The soft vocal approach David Gilmore applies in the verses adds to the mystical aura of the song without it coming across as pretentious although I feel it does lack slightly through the choruses.

'One Slip' is, to my ears, a fabulous track mainly because I'm a sucker for the 'ricki-ticki' thing Gilmore does on guitar. Further evidence of this technique can be found in his guest appearance on Pete Townshend's 'Give Blood'. I do agree with you however on the intro percussion closely mirroring that of 'Time'. Well spotted.

Contrary to every critique I've read, I rather enjoy 'Dogs of War'. Sure, the lyrical content is rather ponderous but where else have you heard a string section paying a shuffle rhythm?

Many of the instrumentals such as 'Signs of Life' while not essential by any stretch of the imagination, do add to the overall ambience of the album. My main complaint with this record is that many of the songs simply aren't particularly memorable - certainly when compared to some of their previous compositions. Arguably, 'Sorrow' is a strong track but it does tend to drag on with an overlong (even for Gilmore) guitar solo. Lamentably much of the second side of the album sinks into a general air of sameness which tends to loose the listener.

Overall, whilst certainly not their strongest album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason will please many fans and stand up to (selective) repeated listens. The album did however, put paid to Roger Waters' repeated remarks about the reformed Floyd failing miserably in.

For new listeners however I would recommend first exploring works from their creative peak ('73- '80) before progressing onto this work.

Roger Moorhouse (roger.rogermoorhouse.com) (08/02/07)

Hi,

  Nice site - but I can't believe that you panned "Sorrow" - its just fantastic and absolutely one of the best ever Floyd songs....

  Pour yourself and long drink, sit in a darkened room and listen to it again.

  RM

"Kenneth Jarrett" (kennethjarrett4805.yahoo.com) (12/13/10)

That is like saying,Rembrandt is better than Van Gogh. Bear in mind there is no sound like Pink Floyd and just think, you were there.You own something that not all men were able to gain in this life. It sure is unfortunate when personalities and resentments unravel the greatest band of all time. Some critic called "Sorrow" nothing
Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br)(12/11/02)
Yikes. I once owned this MP3, lost it and don't miss it. I just need On The Turning Away from here, and maybe Learning To Fly and One Slip. The rest is nothing.
Well Mr. Fernando H. Canto aka "Sir Mastapha" as the late Doc Holiday once said, "Go and arm yourself, I shall meet you in the street." Don't you ever let me hear you denograte my Pink Floyd again, you bounder!

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

Well, actually I quite like this. I know it’s really a Gilmour album, but I like Gilmour albums, whether or not they come under the Floyd label. There are some good songs, well sung and well played. Good variety. It’s moody, but never miserable. A decent effort.

Mikhail Radyshevtsev (mradysh.mail.ru) (06/13/14)

Dear John,

Let me send you my thoughts on this Pink Floyd's most criticised effort ever.

Putting aside a question about the quality of songwriting and production, I would argue that A Momentary Lapse of Reason has got an overall idea that twinkles in every song. They are all about high hopes and broken promises. The cycle attempts to seek out what lets us down, and how we feel on both sides of the magic mirror of dreams and illusions. The order of songs, nonetheless, is not very helpful in revealing this main line; its logic proved to be more commercial than genuine. It seems, Gilmour and C felt it – they have chosen a different sequence for their life performances.

I suggest putting these songs in the next way:

Signs Of Life – about hope and disillusion;
Learning To Fly – on a thrill of living with a dream;
Yet Another Movie/Round And Around – on fate that batters down the doors: “A pointless life has run its course...”;
A New Machine 1/Terminal Frost/ A New Machine 2 – a flight over the icy desert of life;
Dogs Of War – on those who crush our dreams;
One Slip – on how vulnerable we are if we make just one wrong step;
On The Turning Away – a dream of the world where those who have lost their hope can always find support;
Sorrow – the harsh reality: a desolation.

To add, I doubt we should consider A New Machine as a song and value it as one. It is nothing else but intro to and outro from Terminal Frost. Together this composition is an inside-out version of a normal song form with an instrumental intro and coda and words attached to the main body. Round And Around is also nothing but a coda. Therefore, I wouldn't be too harsh on this number. What is a downside in my opinion are fadeouts in the end of almost every song instead of a proper endings, especially Sorrow. I cannot recall any other PF album that ends in such an inconsequential way. They could have “bookended” the song with the opening guitar power cords as they did playing it live, but as those cords are so similar to the acoustic guitar from Signs Of Life, they could have played with the ending, turning it into a “dark carnival”, similar to the one inside Poles Apart on their next album. Ideally, they should have tried to play the material live before cutting the blueprint at the studio, but it was a tough time for the band...

---

Delicate Sound of Thunder - 1988 Columbia
5
(Mediocre / Bad)

Best song: One Of These Days

This is in close competition with Van Halen's Live: Right Here, Right Now for the title of the worst "normal" live album I've ever heard (ThraKaTTaK irritates me more, but it's a special case). It's really not hard for me to figure out why the group released P*U*L*S*E, another double live album with a lot of overlap to this one, just a few years later; they needed to make it up to their fans for this complete and utter disaster of a live recording (and they did make up for it, to an extent). One might suspect that my beef with it is primarily that the sound quality isn't very sharp, and that certainly is a problem, but that's nowhere near the only problem. It doesn't even necessarily bother me in and of itself that there are several additional musicians on stage, honestly. I mean, they needed a bassist, and the presence of female background singers makes sense, as does having a saxophonist. Heck, even having an extra guitarist on stage doesn't bother me; they did that all the time in the 70's, bringing in Snowy White to help them out. Having a double for Wright and Mason kinda irritates me, but still, there are worse crimes.

My main problem is with how absolutely lifeless these performances are when presented here. The set opens with the first half of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," and whether it's because of Dave's rough singing (I guess his goal was to make the vocals sound different than in the studio, which is odd given how similar the arrangements are to their studio counterparts on the whole album) or the saxophone part sounding too lite-FM or whatever, it ends up having almost none of the emotional impact on me that the original had. The rest of the first disc is ALL tracks from Monumental Crap of Gilmour, and I'm sure you can guess how thrilled I am with that. They don't even include One Slip, though given the quality of performances of the rest of those tracks that might be for the best. "Learning to Fly" comes out ok, but "Dogs of War" still sounds hideous, "Yet Another Movie/Round and Round" and "Sorrow" are duller than dirt, and even "On the Turning Away" sucks here! This disc is SO PERFUNCTORY, and unless you need every auto-pilot guitar solo Dave ever recorded for official release, I don't see how this disc could be enjoyable.

Amazingly, the second disc is an even greater insult, as it lines up a bunch of Floyd's greatest hits, strips them of all emotional power, and turns them into 80's arena muzak. The one redeeming factor is that it opens up with a very solid version of "One of These Days," complete with the cool vocal sample, which is really the only time that I feel the "real" Pink Floyd shining through at all. It's also the one point that must have confused the hell out of most of the fans in the audience, and that makes me smile. The Faux Floyd Fans were probably happy to hear "Time," "Us And Them," "Money" and others for the zillionth time, but if I never hear the versions on this disc again it will be too soon. "Time" at least has a lot of energy, but "Us and Them" becomes headsmashingly boring (in large part because of the overly mellow saxophone parts), and "Money" is extended beyond all decency and given a crappy mid-song jam with "soul" singing from the female background singers. "Wish You Were Here" (stuck between "Time" and "Us and Them") is ok but totally perfunctory, and the three Wall tracks at the end have a lot of problems. Dave makes "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" as tacky as ever in concert, making the instrumental passages no better than on ITAOT?, and neither "Comfortably Numb" nor "Run Like Hell" are done well enough to improve my overall attitude towards the disc. The vocal part of "CN" that was once sung by Waters is now done in an ineffectual duet between Wright and somebody else (John Carin maybe?) that doesn't even keep the melody, and the ending instrumental passage just sounds like an endless, unemotional wank by Dave. Having an anonymous hack singing Waters' parts in "Run Like Hell" really bothers me too.

So basically, this is pathetic, and I almost wonder why I don't give it an even lower grade. The fact that this is still in print and costs $30 absolutely astounds me. If you have a craving for live Pink Floyd, get Ummagumma, and if you have a craving specifically for late-period live Pink Floyd, get P*U*L*S*E. Don't get this.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

ARE YOU NUTS?????

  OK I'll concede the VIDEO version is unforgivable. terribly edited and abysmally directed. But on CD this isn;t so bad ( apart from Guy Pratt's butchering of Run Like Hell). Crisp clear sound, well sung and well packaged It's getting the thumbs up from me.

  7 out of 10

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

A live album that sounds like a studio album with audience noises dubbed on. I saw Pink Floyd on this tour, they were fantastic live, and they sounded live. This doesn't, it sounds canned. I agree with you John, there is no need to own this, and when I converted from vinyl to CD I never bothered with this album. Get Pulse instead. 2 out of 10.

Trfesok.aol.com (10/11/04)

Unless you enjoyed this tour and want a souvenir, it is a pointless filler release. I only have it because I got it for Christmas that year.  I did see a show on the tour, and unlike Dan Bosch, I did NOT enjoy it. I suppose, at that point, I was getting too old (almost 30) to like being in Giants Stadium a half mile from the stage, crowded in with tens of thousands of other folks! But that's only part of it. I will say that it is impressive that the musicians could replicate such complex music live. But the CD, unfortunately, accurately reflects how boring the show was. With the exception of the campy extension of "Money, they didn't do a thing with the songs -- the duplication was too exact. The band played like robots.  As the album cover reflects, the special effects that they kept throwing at the audience had no relationship to the songs -- for instance, they trotted out the flying pig from Animals for "One of These Days" for no apparent reason. I would agree that it's the best song, if for no other reason is that it was an unexpected novelty.

Otherwise, the song lineup was, indeed, predictable. The CD was obviously compiled by Dave to try and prove the that AMLOR tracks hold up equally against the group's most popular material. Of course, he didn't make his case, particularly by including "The Dogs of War." Since they performed all of AMLOR, they should have included "One Slip" (part of the encore) as a more tolerable substitute. And "Welcome to the Machine" would have been preferable to "Sorrow" or "Yet Another Movie," to say the least.

  I didn't know there was a video version, but it'll surely put you to sleep. Unless one is a total Floyd completist, this is an entirely superfluous CD.

David Andino (davidandino83.msn.com) (10/26/08)

how come you don't have david gilmour's solo album? I liked it. as for the live album I sold it to a friend. well it was more soft rock than prog rock. david's solo album from 1978 was more soft yet it had the hard/soft rock tones and it matched well. it had 3 instrumentals and a lot of vocal songs. I really like the clean guitar tones as did eddie van halen's tones. eric johnson, the guy who did manhattan has a clear tone and I liked clear tones instead of the stinky raunchy tones that metal guitar players try to emulate. mihalis, raise my rent and I can't breathe anymore are cool songs. david has his own band backing him up with a trusty bass/drum combo and you got one cool power trio. I liked power trio's as well. rush, police, zz top, cream, the experience. dave's solo album: 14. live album 5. too much like a prog rock bolton than a live concert.

---

Amused To Death (Roger Waters) - 1992 Columbia
9
(Good)

Best song: Perfect Sense (Parts I And II)

Send me your thoughts

Daniel Bosch (bicycle_legs.optusnet.com.au) (10/13/07)

Musically, this is probably his strongest effort (I must admit Pros & Cons has grown on me over time though, KAOS is pretty dire), the problem with this album for me is the vocals. Roger was never the best singer in the world, but by this stage his voice was really starting to go. The only thing that disappointed me about Pink Floyd's Live 8 reunion was Roger singing on "Wish You Were Here", it was just terrible! I think a 7 out of 10 is about fair.

Are you going to review David Gilmour's solo stuff? IMHO, the first album is excellent, "About Face" is frustrating - some brilliant stuff and a couple of pieces of utter crap, "On An Island" is lovely, much more mellow than I was expecting but, after 2 or 3 listens, really grows on you. And, unlike Roger Waters, David can still sing! And that guitar...

Ricky Flahive (therickyman.hotmail.com) (01/13/09)

I don't know if you're aware of the fact that Jeff Beck plays on this album, and he manages to do an even better job than Clapton. You have an odd Starostin-like obsession with melodies, and there are plenty on here.

  This album's Roger's peak as a poet, and his aged vocals still manage to bring them home excellently. I honestly have no complaints at all with this album. I'd say it's even better than The Final Cut. If this thing had the Pink Floyd name on it, it would have been huge. I don't really see how you can give this a lower score than The Division Bell. Bell is pleasant but horriblly dull. Nothing really happens the whole time and the only truely 'great' thing on there is Wearing The Inside Out. The whole album is full of rip-offs and tacky soloing and soft rockness that it can't really be called a Pink Floyd album. It dosen't even begin to compare to this. Everything is pleasant, but you're never going to fall asleep listening to this. The soloing actually has substance. The lyrics are some of the greatest ever penned. This album shouldn't even be in the same sentence as The Division Bell. 10(15)

---

The Division Bell - 1994 Columbia
A
(Very Good / Good)

Best song: Poles Apart

Seven years and tons of critcism (mostly justified, I might add) later, Dave decided to make another Pink Floyd album. His most important decision along these lines was to get Wright and Mason involved in the project from the getgo, both in making sure they played most of the keyboard/drum parts on the album AND making sure they had an impact on the songwriting and overall approach of the album. Where the last few albums with Roger in the band had Dave as the only other reasonably significant creative presence, this album shows a VERY strong Wright presence, and it helps things a lot. Yes, Roger's presence is still missed in a lot of critical ways, but Wright brings back elements to the sound and atmosphere that had pretty much disappeared after Wish You Were Here, and it's neat to me to hear that a Gilmour/Wright Pink Floyd isn't much less interesting than a Gilmour/Waters Pink Floyd.

It's not for nothing that I mentioned Wish You Were Here in the last paragraph. One of the common criticisms of the album, with which I largely agree, is that the album sounds a LOT like WYWH and DSOTM in more than a few places, with the group nailing their "classic" style just a little too closely for comfort. "Cluster One" reminds one a lot of the opening section of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (making this the second straight album where the band aimed for that vibe); "What Do You Want From Me" sounds a lot like "Have a Cigar"; "Lost For Words" sounds a lot like "Wish You Were Here," and this doesn't even mention the cribs from other albums. It's definitely interesting that they were able to get back into this mode so easily after so many years of not writing together, and it's very refreshing to hear this kind of sound on a 90's album from a classic rock band, but I can't totally forgive the amount of self-borrowing that happens on this album.

It also hurts considerably that I really don't like three of the songs on this album. "A Great Day for Freedom" supports my belief that including the word "Freedom" in the title of a song reduces its chances of being good by ten-fold; the only songs I can think of with that word in the title that aren't outright terrible are "Chimes of Freedom" (Bob Dylan), "Freedom" (Jimi Hendrix) and "Freedom of '76" (Ween). Gilmour is clearly trying to ape Waters here, as he tries to make this into a big universal anthem and includes references to "the wall" coming down, but it largely comes off as an inferior rewrite of "On the Turning Away," with a duller guitar solo at the end. "Keep Talking" is a reprehensible mix of the keyboard line from "Sorrow," the pig guitar noises from "Pigs" and the awkward female backing vocals of "Not Now John," complete with a silly Stephen Hawking voice sample, and is probably in the bottom five of all Pink Floyd tracks. "Coming Back to Life" isn't obviously terrible, but it's extremely boring, with seemingly endless guitar noodlings and a "poppy" backing that isn't catchy, energetic or that moving. So that's more than a quarter of the album gone right there.

Amazingly enough, though, I really like every other song on the album, even taking into account all of the ripoffs. One thing that's rather interesting to me is that, just as WYWH was largely an open letter to Syd Barrett, much of the album largely functions as an open letter to none other than Roger Waters (the band has denied it, but given that I thought of this early on while listening and later found out this is the consensus among a lot of fans, I suspect there's something to it). Check out these lyrics from "What Do You Want From Me": "Should I sing until I can't sing anymore? Play these strings until my fingers are raw? You're so hard to please," or "You can own everything you see; sell your soul for complete control, is that really what you need?" That's exactly what the dynamics were between Dave and Roger at the end! Check out these lyrics from "Poles Apart": "Why did we tell you then you were always the golden boy then and that you'd never lose that light in your eyes? Hey you ... did you ever realize what you'd become? And did you see that it wasn't only me you were running from? Did you know all the time but it never bothered you anyway, leading the blind while I stared out the steel in your eyes." There are interviews floating out there in which the band members described Roger as a steel-eyed monster at the end of his time with them. Finally, check out these lyrics from "Lost for Words": "So I open my door to my enemies, and I ask, 'could we wipe the slate clean?' But they tell me to please go fuck myself; you know you just can't win." I don't know about you, but I'm convinced.

Lyrics aside, I like the music in the other tracks a lot. "What Do You Want From Me" may indeed sound a lot like "Have a Cigar," but the bluesy elements of the original are crossed with an overall tinge of mellow darkness, and both Gilmour's singing (and don't forget the power of the brief moments when we hear Wright's naked voice coming through; he got it worse from Roger than David ever did, remember) and his guitar playing are extremely emotional (one thing I should mention about this album is that, even if he's using the same styles as ever, Dave's guitar parts consistently move me in a way that wasn't always the case during the glory years). "Poles Apart" is a terrific pop song, driven by an effective simple guitar line and a well-written vocal melody featuring a strong dose of whimsy, and it features a dark carnival (!) midsection. And while the melody to "Lost for Words" may be a lot like that to "Wish You Were Here," it's also acoustic-driven and a lot more light-hearted, and it gets in my head frequently while making Dave seem awfully sympathetic.

A track I want to particularly mention is "Wearing the Inside Out," the first song solely penned by Wright (and featuring him on lead vocals) since "Summer '68." The song is mildly dull in some ways, and I've seen some fans of the band dismiss it the same way I've dismissed, say, "Coming Back to Life." Personally, I think that considering it that way is a mistake. One thing that fascinates me is that, despite Wright not writing the lyrics (he only wrote the music), the song sounds completely like Rick doing an autobiographical number. Between Roger's mental abuse and his own cocaine habit, Wright had, over the years, seemingly become more and more withdrawn and afraid to say anything for fear of torment, and it took Dave extending him the chance to have a significant role on a Pink Floyd album again to pull him out of it. This song, to me, is the very sound of a victim of excessive verbal abuse, put to music, singing from the corner of a dark room but starting to find the strength to walk towards the light in the hallway. The saxophones are moody and creepy to no end, Wright's worn voice is perfect for the main subject matter, Dave's vocal near the end works perfectly in support, and the guitar at the end drives it all home wonderfully.

The other two "regular" songs are just fantastic. "Take it Back" sounds an awful lot like classic U2, but hell, The Edge's guitar style largely came from Gilmour in the first place, and I don't begrudge Dave for writing a great pop song in this vein. The closing "High Hopes" is probably more overblown than it should be, but it has a great melody (credit should be given where credit is due; Dave has the sole credit for the music on this song), a majestic atmosphere and some GREAT emotional steel guitar parts that play well off the strings in the background. I definitely dig the simple two-note piano chords that drive the melody in the beginning, too.

The two instrumentals shouldn't be neglected either. Yes, the opening "Cluster One" goes for much the same vibe as "SOYCD," but one significant difference is that it doesn't go for the soul-crushing majesty of that piece, instead focusing on a warmer, more pleasant, but still sad vibe that hits me effectively. It takes a little while to really get going, but I like the way Dave plays off Wright's simple piano lines in the second half. Marooned, then, calls back a bit to "Great Gig in the Sky," but nowhere near enough to call it a ripoff. It's a song that really matches its title, as it hits on the kinds of emotions I'd feel if I were marooned on an island, sitting on a beach, staring out over the sea and realizing there's nobody coming to get me. I wouldn't trade the track for the world, especially since it has yet more wonderful slide guitar.

I think it should be pointed out that, when I first bought this album, I did not have any high expectations for it whatsoever, and I'm very surprised that I ended up liking it as much as I do. If they'd ever gone back and made another album like this, ripping off their previous successes, I might have gotten annoyed, but as is, this works as a fine career ender. If you're not slavishly devoted to Roger, and don't feel all Pink Floyd without him should be ignored, you should get this.

Send me your thoughts

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

Floyd do a great job of returning to their "Concept" style with this take on what happens if you fail to communicate.

  The less said about the awful U2 rip off Take It Back the better. But otherwise the rest of the album is cracking. the best thing they've done since the wall.

  I just wish Gilmour would admit that several of the songs are about Roger. We aint thick you know!.

  10 out of 10

sbowen95n (sbowen95n.sirthomaspicton.haverfordwest.sch.uk)

don't discount lost for words, listen to it once, think, listen again,think ,listen again,,, I think it grows on you,I love the guitar solos at the beginning,

Trannon Goble (goble.alltel.net)

This is Floyd. Even though Waters is missing from the brew, this is a classic Floyd album in the vein as WYWH, but not quite that good yet. Maybe history will be better to TDB. Rating: A

Floyd Waters (floydwaters67.hotmail.com) (3/05/02)

As you can probably tell from the review I just sent in for ITAOT, Mr. Wright is my favourite member of the band, so I thought I might offer a different perspective on a few things.

In my mind, The Division Bell actually bears an interesting similarity to Mr. Wright's first solo album, Wet Dream. Both albums have that sort of laid-back, open, oceanic and dreamlike feel to them in many places.

Like no other album after WYWH, Mr. Wright's presence can REALLY be heard and felt. It almost defies words, but there is always a strong sense of PLACE in his music. Where in Wet Dream you can really imagine yourself sailing out on the open water, the wind rushing through your hair, this album very often gives the idea of being in a certain PLACE, especially on Mr. Wright's tracks. "Cluster One", for me, might be a cool fall day (the crackling sounds could be, for instance, fallen leaves swirling about). I can almost feel the wind shift direction at the change of a chord, see the bright blue sky and perhaps a few gentle wisps of cirrus clouds. "Marooned", of course, is VERY oceanic. The image in my mind has always been of a stark, rocky, New England coastline--dark, ominous clouds threaten a nor'easter that may or may not materialise...but a warning just the same. Mr. Gilmour deserves credit here as well, for a guitar solo that to me truly sounds like the anguish of a soul in pain. Some parts even seem like racking sobs. Yet as the song goes on, it almost seems to gather strength...all hope is not gone. Out of this pain comes renewal.

And that them brings me to the album's most powerful track: "Wearing the Inside Out". I must respectfully disagree with the review in which it says this track is "dull"...though it is slow in tempo, it is one of the most moving, most personal things I have ever heard (Mr. Wright's second solo album Broken China being THE most moving thing I've ever heard). Though I would like to point out that some of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Wright's departure are really only rumours (although they are strong ones), even just the mental abuse (good word choice there) had to be hellish enough.

I would prefer not to discuss the actual circumstances, but the time at which I purchased this album was the darkest, most painful time in my life. "Withdrawn"...or to borrow a word from the song itself--"overrun"...certainly would have been a good description of me then. I cannot explain what it was like to hear this song--almost like seeing a reflection of myself, for lack of better words. I identified with it. That can make all the difference, sometimes; this is a strong bias and I know it. But I do think it is a compliment to Mr. Wright that his music would draw me in like that. I know the lyrics are not his, but I agree that the sentiments certainly seem to belong to him.

The song offered something else, too. For all the darkness, there is a very distinct turning point in the song, when that "trumpet" synthesiser kicks in: "I'm creeping back to life..." The darkness, as terrible and consuming as it was, need not be permanent. And even though at the end, this soul is still in agony--there is hope. In the final chord is an uplifting message...there is light in the distance, so to speak. It may not be over, but there is, at least, hope. And this bleeding heart may not be beating much...but it is slow, strong, and clear at the end. There is still life. For me...during my dark time, I cannot explain how much it meant that in this song that was so much a reflection of me, there was an "out", so to speak. In the end, it was very inspiring to hear. Whatever his circumstances were, it was very brave of Mr. Wright to capture his feelings in music that way, because it truly is a gift when you can take those things and touch someone else.

I think there is more to this man than meets the eye. I was, overall, pleased with The Division Bell, especially because of a jewel like "Wearing the Inside Out". I think this shows that, at the very least...it is the sign of a true artist when you can see parts of your own circumstances in their work.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

The first proper Pink Floyd album since 1979 at least. The first time I listened to this album it took my breath away. It is GREAT! Sure, it is not up to their early to mid 70s heyday but it isn't too far off. So many good songs, such as "Poles Apart", "Wearing The Inside Out", the two instrumentals, and best of all, "High Hopes". 8 out of 10.

Fernando H. Canto (sirmustapha.ig.com.br) (12/11/02)

Okay, I must have sounded like I would bash this one, but I won't. Why? Because there's Poles Apart on here! The absolute best post-Waters Floyd track IMO. It's just lovely and beautiful, even with that cheap imitation of early Floyd again in the mid-section. Not that the rest is bad, mind you. What Do You Want From Me is great, even though it immitates Have A Cigar. Marooned is great, and for once, David's solos are good. Lost For Words has a great vibe through it, and High Hopes is gorgeous. Now, I don't see nothing wrong with Coming Back To Life. I like it. And I agree with Paul's comment on Gilmour ripping-off U2 on Take It Back. But I like that one, too. A Great Day For Freedom is a bit dumb, though, and Keep Talking does disgust me a little bit, though. But hey! Rick wrote a song here! And I love Wearing The Inside Out. It sounds fresh, and he sings it nicely. By the way, this is not his solo singing spot. Did you notice the "look at him now, he's paler somehow" part is sung by David?... Oh, well. Yes, Cluster One is again more cheap Floyd immitation, but it's 100x better than Signs Of Life. Good album, nonetheless. If only a tad too long...

Lazer59882.aol.com (10/22/03)

i hate to nitpick, but, just for the record, the "Why did we tell you then you were always the golden boy then and that you'd never lose that light in your eyes?" line was about syd, while the other lines were about roger. dave said this in some interview that i have actually seen, so its legit.

Mike B. (pink_floyd_666.hotmail.com) (8/07/04)

Hey... i'm a fan of the site, i've read every word on it and i think it's great that you made a site which can intelligently discuss the music of the world's greatest band.  i do disagree with a few things here and there, however, particularly regarding the division bell.  awhile ago, i went through yet another huge "old floyd" phase.... particularly ummagumma (both discs), saucerful and piper... and then meddle, which holds my favourite song of the last ten years, echoes.  then i decided to give division bell another shot (i didn't like it the first time).  And i must say, it was one of the worst pieces of tripe i've ever had the displeasure of listening to.  It lacks creativity, as well as the darkness that waters used to provide, and instead presents the listener with a bunch of sappy solos, typical SOYCD organ sounds (which seem to last thru the whole bloody album) and whining about how waters is  an ass (seems half of the songs are attacking waters and half are pleading with him).  Simply put, this album is dull, and if i didn't know any better i'd guess that this whole album was Phil Collins trying to cover Shine On. I can accept the fact that you, as well as some others, like this album.  What i cannot accept, however, is that you gave this the same rating as the Wall... ridiculous.  The Wall is a masterpiece and a pinnacle in rock history.  Between the stunning songs, the dark and disturbing mood, the concept, the live show, and the movie, this work of art is something that cannot be matched.  The only thing good about the division bell is its cover (cool cover.... and if you buy the poster, you can see something written in the grass, though i could never make out what).  Anyway, feel free to mail me back and discuss...  Thanks.

Amattaway.wmconnect.com (8/24/04)

the Division Bell! Takes a lot of cajones to give that one a high grade. I don't think it's an 8 myself, I'd say 6-6.5, but I just respect a site that avoids common critical view.

Now, I'm really fond of two particular songs on this record, "Coming Back To Life" and "High Hopes". CBTL has a good melody, actually, for something new, I suppose, while still containing the normal Pink Floyd elements that manifest a mood in me. It makes me happy, in a way that Paul McCartney's songs do. Maybe only mood is a cheap reason to like a song, because this certainly doesn't have the musical value of McCartney, but I'm fond of it perhaps more than any song in Pink Floyd's catalogue. He wrote it about his wife's effect on his life! How nice!

Oh, and I'll make a quick statement without backing it up, I think the guitar work at the beginning of CBTL is the best that David Gilmour has recorded. Ever.

Thanks for the honest reviews, John.

Gate Attendant (gateattendant.crystalcovehoa.org) (09/25/05)

First of all: I enjoy this album a lot. Don't know why - probably because of the splendid production and overall positive energy and vibe. And it really DOES sound like WISH YOU WERE HERE, which is my favorite album. I am a professional keyboard player, so Rick Wright is my favorite Floyd member; therefore it's so nice to hear him contribute so much again finally! BUT!!! Every track on this album I've heard before on previous Floyd or Gilmour albums, in some shape or form.

Here's my list of comparisons to every track. Enjoy!

CLUSTER ONE = the last two minutes of ECHOES (especially that three-note piano phrase)
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME = HAVE A CIGAR
POLES APART = NEAR THE END (the last track on David Gilmour's ABOUT FACE album)
MAROONED = SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND PART 6
A GREAT DAY FOR FREEDOM = NOBODY HOME
WEARING THE INSIDE OUT = STAY
TAKE IT BACK = RUN LIKE HELL or ONE SLIP
COMING BACK TO LIFE = ON THE TURNING AWAY
KEEP TALKING = SORROW (Duh)
LOST FOR WORDS = WISH YOU WERE HERE
HIGH HOPES = COMFORTABLY NUMB

Still love the album though. Go figure. If anyone has a better comparison list - bring it on!

Oh yeah, John, your site f***ing rocks!

P.S. I don't know how many Floyd bootlegs have you heard or own, but I would REALLY REALLY recommend any recording of the 1977 tour. And I would love to read your thoughts on it. Peace.

Derek Farrell (mtstage13.yahoo.com) (09/03/06)

I really cannot stand any album after The Wall, for one simple reason: they don't have the heart of the band in them anymore. It's almost as if they were only putting out CD's to make the money. They FLAT OUT SUCKED. I could not belive I had wasted $15.00 on the Cd the Division Bell. I got momentary Lapse and thought "this is bad" but i had figured they would try to improve. But i was wrong 

Trfesok.aol.com (01/13/07)

With Wright and Mason back full time and their crack touring band backing them on every cut, this is a far more consistent sounding record than the last studio album.  Nice melodies and classic Floyd arrangements. As individual entities, most of the songs are fine, although "Wearing the Inside Out" is rather drab (although I guess that's the point), and "Take It Back" is an utter failure as the obligatory "rocker" on the album. The lyrics, thanks in big part to Gilmour's wife, are a huge improvement as well. The intimate "Lost for Words" is my favorite. Although Dave denies it, I don't see how most of these songs could not be about Waters!

  The problem is putting all of these songs together in the same album. There is very little variation in tempo or mood throughout the CD. If the last album has one thing over this one, it's that the energy level is somewhat higher. It certainly isn't as deathly dull as The Final Cut or Pros and Cons.., but the album doesn't really grab one's attention on listening from start to end. Combining this with the fact that they've really have no new ideas, I guess it's a good thing that it looks like PF has called it quits.

Christopher21737.aol.com (07/19/07)

after momentary lapse of reason..........i'm glad the the 3 floyd guys left us with somewhat of a decent sound.......its mellow, but i rate it a..........hmm.........8...........keep writeing dude, your awesome!!

"matt faris" (7headedchicken.gmail.com) (11/13/10)

Hey, it's great to see a reviewer appreciating *The Division Bell*, not to mention being able to tell the difference between it and *A Momentary Lapse of Reason*. Not that that one doesn't have it's share of really good songs, but this one to me is great all the way through. I was surprised as well as to how well they brought back their old sound, (their *real* sound, as Dave in so many words said in an interview once.) I think this is just a gorgeous album from the sound to the artwork, and yes, Wrights keyboards are very responible for that sound part. Also, my favorite work from Storm Thorgerson. I like this album so much that I almost don't want to say anything. Plus, you did a great job of descibing it, yourself. If I will say a few things, though, I am totally in agreement with you on the awesome greatness of "Marooned", Dave's guitar seems to have reached new heights with this one, and the devastating emotional effect of "Wearing the Inside Out", especially given the context of the circumstances, and even more especially now that he's not with us anymore. I am glad that he got the chance to contribute again. If I could say one not completely complementay thing about the album, it would be to agree with your comment about the arrangement/performance on "Coming Back To Life", but still - that solo at the beginning with that perfect sustained keyboard chord is very, very good. If it wasn't so bluesy, I'd call it new age. (you, know, the good kind.) But I will disagree with you on "Keep Talking'. I would say that that is actually in the TOP 5 of Floyd songs. Maybe it has something to do with being the first Floyd song I ever heard besides "Money", (yes, I'm a relative youngster) but I think the atmosphere is very darkly picturesque, the groove is quite authentically hip for guys in their however old they were in 94, and then the lyrics are classic! What a great message - kind of makes me think of something that would have been written in the late 60's by one of those that truly care about what happens to our society. Anyway, turns out I've already said more than a few things, so I'll just say one more thing. About Poles Apart, I either heard or read somewhere (so who knows how true it is?) that the first verse is about Syd, the second about Waters, and the third about Gilmour's wife.

Tim Light (timlight99.hotmail.com) (8/13/11)

I quite like this one too. Again, it’s Gilmour, not Floyd, but I really don’t mind. It’s an enjoyable album, and whilst not up there with Meddle or DSOM, it gets more plays in my living room than Animals or the Final Cut.

---

P*U*L*S*E - 1996 Columbia
8
(Good / Mediocre)

Best song: Astronomy Domine or Comfortably Numb

It's really quite amazing to me that two live albums with so much overlap in personnel, track listing and even individual instrumental passages could differ so much in how much they entertain me. Even with some serious problems that keep me from giving this higher than an 8, this is a major improvement over Delicate Sound of Thunder, with some highs in performance that DSoT never even remotely approached. It's rather silly for the band to have released a double live album after each of the post-Waters studio albums, but if this is what it took for the band to adequately apologize for that monstrosity, so be it.

Just as before, this album features Pink Floyd surrounded by a small army, with doubles on each instrument and a bunch of female background singers (and a saxophonist, naturally). As before, the first disc opens with "SOYCD" (which doesn't rise much above the DSoT version in terms of emotional impact, but at least features better sound quality here than there, as does the rest of the album), and contains a lot of tracks from the album being supported, while the second disc contains a lot of the songs from the band's most famous albums. "Money" is still stretched out to an excruciating length, with the same 'soul' singing in the middle. "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" is still pure cheese live, with some of the tackiest soloing imaginable coming out of his instrument. "Run Like Hell" still sounds ridiculous whenever the bassist tries to imitate Waters' voice (the song is still great otherwise, though), and this crime against good taste is extended to a version of "Hey You" on the first disc. And as before, the band doesn't make great choices about what material from the relevant studio album to include. "A Great Day for Freedom," "Coming Back to Life" and "Keep Talking" ALL make appearances on the first disc, and my goodwill towards the band by the end of that stretch is largely exhausted. Dave also takes "What Do You Want From Me," a moving and pleading anthem of frustration with unreasonable jerks, and turns it into a generic arena-rock crowd pleaser, and that makes me very grumpy.

So what's the good news? The good news is that this album gets EXTREMELY good in more than a few places. The sound of the opening radio transmissions leading into "Astronomy Domine" is one of the most exciting moments I can think of on any live album, and while I'm not totally sure that it's Dave playing the great guitar parts here (they're totally out of character with his post-Ummagumma style), at least I know that that's Rick Wright singing the lyrics as before. If I can just get confirmation from somebody that Rick's playing some of keyboard licks in the track, I'll be totally happy. Whether it's actually Pink Floyd playing this great reminder of its earliest days, I'm not sure, but it's an amazing five minutes nonetheless.

A second major highlight is "Learning to Fly," which finally (in my ears) lives up to the greatness I thought previous versions suggested but never quite showed. Dave's grizzled vocals are key here, I think, to giving the track a sense of awe and grandeur that wasn't there in the past, not to mention that the echo through the arena captures the flying vibe better than the studio or the muffled sound of DSoT ever could. Moving on, the third major highlight, much to my surprise, is "Sorrow"! This is the only version of the song I know that has the intensity required to make it work, from the effective *GROWL* sounds of the opening and closing chords to the keyboard line getting pumped up enough to actually have a positive effect, to the way Dave puts just enough extra power and crispness in his singing in all the right places. I don't once get tired in the middle of this version the way I do in the others, and that says a lot. If there's any one track that justifies the existence of this album in terms of revelatory nature, it's Sorrow.

The fourth major highlight comes immediately after "Sorrow" in a spectacular rendition of "High Hopes," which I love even more than the great original. The differences are only in small details, but those small details make all the difference, especially in terms of the emotional power of the string parts. And finally, the fifth major highlight comes in the encore, with the best damned version of "Comfortably Numb" I've ever heard. Yes, I would take a version of CN without Waters over any version with him. There are two big differences between the DSoT version, which is by far the worst I've heard, and this one, by far the best (to be fair, it took a number of listens and prodding from a reader comment to lead me to this conclusion). The first is how the sung parts that originally belonged to Waters are handled. On DSoT, Wright sings, but he's drowned out by tuneless backing vocals, and while I guess they were going for a trippy, creepy vibe, it failed miserably. Here, though, Wright pulls off a legitimately creepy vibe all by his lonesome, sounding more like the "doctor" than Waters ever did on the song, and the strain in his voice gives it an incredible amount of emotional power. I used to dislike what he did with the part, but I don't agree with my former opinion at all. Second, Gilmour's guitar playing on the track gives me chills like almost nothing else in the Pink Floyd catalogue can. It's largely helped by the fact that the entire track is done significantly slower here than in previous versions, with deeper intensity and power in each beat, and the guitar plays off this exceptionally well. The SHRIEK noises Dave squeezes out of his guitar near the end, with Wright's organ intensely underpinning the action, just kill me every time. I admit that this version ends up having a very different effect than the original, but I don't really mind that.

Highlights aside, the other main feature of the album is that the second disc, prior to the obligatory versions of "WYWH," "CN" and "RLH," has a live performance of Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. This performance is hardly an overall improvement on the original, of course; at best, it sounds exactly the same as the original (with the exception of Dave singing Roger's parts in :Brain Damage"/"Eclipse"), and at worst it's stuff like the aforementioned version of "Money." Still, as silly as it is to have "Speak to Me" or "On the Run" here (we're basically listening to the soundtrack of a jumbotron movie based around the track), I'd still rather hear "Time," "Money" and "Us & Them" (which is far preferrable here to the DSoT version) in this context rather than as stand-alone songs. Plus, you know, it's nice to have a live version of "Breathe" from the band.

So that's the album. It's got its downs, but it also has a lot of ups, and I don't regret owning it. If you find it cheap, pick it up. The DVD is a little boring, though, and I wouldn't recommend it. It does have "One of These Days" and "Take it Back," but it cuts out "Astronomy Domine" (boo!), "What Do You Want From Me" and "Hey You," so it's not really worth it.

Send me your thoughts

Jon Greiman (homer.imsa.edu)

Y'know, I keep listening to this over and over, and I'm realizing that I like a lot of these songs a lot more than other songs. Probably because they still have that "new car" smell tot hem.

Jerrid Horstman (jhorstman.att.net)

Ok, I didn't think you were serious when you started ripping apart Floyd's Pulse but I have read your grizzled, moron conclusion and see that the cist has really grown on the Fontal Lobe of your hemisphere.

Anyways, concept or no, I have a lot more to explain to you but in hope that you realize how fucking horrible that Pulse opinion is.....it does not have the right to be on any Internet Server.

I take, what the fuck Do You Want from websites praising Pink Floyd?

You have utilized your freedom of speech, in the wrong place.

Anyways, my point about this e-mail is that if you can find it in your lifetime, feel free to get it, but otherwise you'll just walk begging.....and none gives things to people like you, regardless of what you want.......

Enough of my time has went down the toilet, your welcome....

I will provide the URL so you can review what the purpose of my e-mail is....

http://www.waiting.com/brainanatomy.html

Quit listening to them.....

(author's note): Wow, and here I was thinking that I was a big Pink Floyd fan. Silly me, I actually apparently really hate them - what ever could I have been thinking? Oh yeah, I forgot, I'm brain damaged. Doy, my bad. But seriously, this man has changed my life - his impact from this brilliant e-mail is so strong that I wish to have a uterus transplanted into my body just so that I can have this man's children.

VeryHotPants.aol.com

I'm sorry, I just read that reply to your review for PULSE and I find it hilarious how some morons will take offense to some little review. I want to applaud your sarcastic reply to that idiot. I sent him an e-mail, but he's probably busy listing to PULSE and A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Keep up the great work and let the reviews keep coming!

Paul Stevenson (Stevenson.p.btinternet.com)

The opposite problem to Delicate sounds here. We have a brilliant Video and a poor CD

  The video version is shorter but also more enjoyable and unlike Delicate Sounds video it's NOT butchered in ediing and is well directed.

  In fairness to the CD IF you dont have any other Floyd Live albums it's passable. But it's the Video that delivers the goods and delivers them well!.

  Video: 8 out of 10       CD: 5 out of 10

Mitch Payton (mpayton.optonline.net)

PS -- I just read the email from the guy who hated yer "Pulse" review, & I can't stop laughing. Nice comment by you as well!!

  Hope I'm not in the same category as that clown!

Floyd Waters (floydwaters67.hotmail.com) (3/05/02)

Well, I risk admission of how new a Floyd fan I am...but this was my first album, bought when it very first came out. It was through this album that I actually got to know the band. I really don't see it as all that bad an album, even in light of the large collection of studio albums that I now own. In fact, I even believe there are certain cuts on PULSE that are far superior to the studio versions.

I know you didn't care for the PULSE version of DSotM...but believe it or not, I actually found that the studio album paled in certain places to this! For some reason, I MUCH prefer the effect of the guitar and drums thundering through the stadium at the beginning of "Time"--this resonant, rich sound gives it a certain air of...magnitude...like the beginning of Creation, for lack of a better metaphor. I was actually very disappointed by the studio version, that it lacked this thundering quality about it.

While I would say that on "Great Gig" Clare Torry's original singing is probably better--I don't think there's anything at all lost by the choice of the three background singers who take up her role. Also, Mr. Wright does not stick note-for-note with the original; he does improvise where possible. A note on the effects--I cannot be sure, of course, but I honestly wonder if there is the chance that some of those effects are a sort of forerunner on a grand scale of Winamp's Visualisation feature. This would allow room for improvisation: rather than the effects being preprogrammed, some of them could respond to pitch or timbre of a particular instrument. Of course, there was also someone who could manually control the effects if necessary, so I'm not sure if that had to be quite the hindrance suggested above.

The other real standout track from DSotM is "Any Colour You Like"...for some reason, there is just something so entrancing about that synth solo. I would think (from my limited skill in playing the piano) it would be quite a trick to work with such a long echo and delay built in, in order to make an improvised solo work so well. An ill-timed note could echo after the chord has changed, for instance. This must not be easy to keep in one's head, especially with all of the strange echoes that would be bouncing back at them from all over the stadium--in addition to the intentional echo...echoes of echoes! Having given a speech in a full sports arena, I can only imagine what such a cacophony of sound would be like to have to deal with. Hats off to Mr. Wright for being able to keep up with it and produce such an excellent solo!

Another song that benefits from the stadium performance is "Learning to Fly". Somehow, it really takes on that spacey sound that it ought to have had in the studio album; one can really imagine speeding down the runway and suddenly lifting into flight. A switch that I believe was made that made the most dramatic moment of the song twice as effective: I cannot tell for sure, but it almost seems as if that dinky prop plane was replaced with a massive jumbo jet. One can almost imagine that an airplane took off from a nearby field and crossed overhead (which, of course, would no longer be possible anyway...but even then would have most likely never happened, considering that the laser effects in outdoor venues probably required air traffic to be rerouted). This is also a case where that reverberating stadium sound really transports the listener "above the planet on a wing and a prayer". The studio album doesn't even come close.

The one mistake, however (despite the fact that I love it to death!) is in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". I only call it a mistake in retrospect, now that I am familiar with WYWH. Somehow, as I was not familiar with the story of Mr. Barrett or WYWH, I took this for an uplifting, inspiring piece. Though it is musically very beautiful and I will always love it, I have to say that leaving out the "darker" parts of the song rather interferes with its mood--even causing a new fan to miss the point.

Of course, beyond doubt the most powerful performance--and most incredible piece of poetic justice--is "Comfortably Numb". This surpasses the studio original by so much that it is almost beyond explanation; however, I will attempt it! It is in this song that you can truly see just how stifled the musicians (Mr. Gilmour and Mr. Wright in particular) were by Mr. Waters, during the production of the studio original...because it is incredible what gets free in the live setting!

Much of what I write here will be a sort of reverse reaction--I actually reacted adversely when I heard the studio original, after being used to this one--I simply could not stand it! The thing felt wrong from so many angles. Almost immediately, the first thing that separates PULSE from the studio original is the slowed tempo--this creates a swaying feeling...as though things really are coming through in waves that push the "numb" listener back and forth...a feeling that was very much lacking in the less expressive studio version. Also, the guitar throughout the whole song (not just the famous solo) is far more passionately played--and in the second solo, there is even a screaming noise that sounds as if it could be all of the agony that Pink (or perhaps Mr. Gilmour?) held inside until then.

The sound itself is very flowing, so rich that it is almost tangible, lifted upwards by the beautiful synth playing (and later in the song the Hammond organ) of Richard Wright. Without knowing a thing about the circumstances of the breakup, this is something I immediately noted in the studio album as a hollow absence...as though the music had been forcibly sucked dry. Ironic...considering that it HAD...

But oh, how justice was served, in the creation of this new Floyd fan seven years ago. It is none other than Mr. Wright himself that takes over for the now absent Roger Waters. Though he doesn't strike me as a vengeful sort of person, I do notice that he really sinks his teeth into the role, appearing twice as animated as the other band members in the video! Why not? After all, he's owed this and a whole lot more!

Forever it will be his haunting, ethereal sounding voice that I associate with the "doctor" in "Comfortably Numb". And Mr. Wright can pull off an incredibly spooky effect when he wants to--you can almost imagine the nearly walled-in Pink hearing this voice coming through as though from another plane entirely, one in which he no longer fully functions. In my opinion it works FAR better than the sharp, sardonic voice of Mr. Waters. That was the ultimate turn-off from the studio version. And perhaps it is perfect justice, considering the hell he was subjected to at the time of the original recording, that Mr. Wright forever established himself in my mind as the "true" voice of the doctor in this song. This, and the incredible musical power of this song, both in the guitar solo and in Mr. Wright's contribution, make this easily the best version of "Comfortably Numb" in existence.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (7/1/02)

A huge improvement on Delicate Sound Of Thunder. The band sound alive, no doubt due to the return to some semblance of form of Nick and Rick. All the performances are great, I just wish they'd toured Australia with this one. 7 out of 10.

Patg1389.aol.com (4/07/04)

I disagree with those people who say this concert was just ok, honestly this was the best Pink Floyd concert there was. Actually best concert. When Dave play Comfortably Numb in this concert it game me the shivers for 6 minutes. The solo was unbelievable, And I really hate those who say it was ok even though they have only seen it once.   i give this a 10/10 rating

John Bunjes (jbunjes.satx.rr.com) (7/13/04)

Everyone has an opinion. I have followed Pink Floyd from the begining. This was an exceptional performance by the group. The video also makes the music more personal to the unfortunate ones that didnt see the concert. Thanks to the video I feel that I am there. Giving me close ups of them band members really makes it so personal. I have both the video and the cd and cherish them both. I also have the complete Pink Floyd collection. I perform their music in kareoke and am havin a blast doing their music in tribute such a gifted band who has given us such outstanding music. They have stayed together all these years as a bad and I admire and respect their devotion to fans and their music. Long Live Pink Floyd. Keep up the good fight PF your  the greatest and always will be . John in San Antonio,Texas

---

In The Flesh (Roger Waters) - 2000 Columbia
C
(Very Good / Great)

Best song: Dogs

Send me your thoughts

Ricky Flahive (therickyman.hotmail.com) (11/22/08)

This is indeed the album PULSE should have been. You can tell Roger actually cares; but why do you hate Each Small Candle? Sure it could've been trimmed a minute or so, but it would've fit right in on Amused To Death.

Mikhail Radyshevtsev (mradysh.mail.ru) (07/13/12)

John, I tend to agree with you on that but also think you could pay some attention to David's 2008 'Live in Gdansk'. I do not know if David had read your review but while the remnants of Pink Floyd (it was the last big concert for Richard) did not include 'Dogs', they managed to respond with 'Echoes'. There are some other reasons to listen but I am sure this single one is strong enough and I do not want to spoil it all. The album also includes the entire set of songs from 'On An Island' and if you like "The Division Bell', you probably are going to like the last David's solo work. Although the live version is close to the studio one, I slightly prefer the former for the atmosphere and some little hooks (especially the guitar on "Take A Breath'). Will be interested to read your review one day.

Stephen P Welte (swelte1.binghamton.edu) (12/13/15)

Well. It's a large, well-planned production, with the expected great lighting and visual effects, but it has far better musical arrangements than the performances I've seen clips of from Pink Floyd's last two tours. Less arena-rockish in nature, more creative and tasteful without deviating too much from the aspects that made the originals great. A few comments:

(1) Much of the material is DARK. I mean, the only (relatively) light songs in the entire concert are "Pigs on the Wing" (all twoish minutes of it), "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", and "Every Stranger's Eyes" (OK, and maybe "Each Small Candle", but that one stinks). Everything else is angry, scared, sad, or bitter - the anger and cynicism of the Wall / Amused material and "Dogs", the sadness/bitterness of the "Final Cut" suite and WYWH songs, and so on. The song selection is very good overall, with passionate performances of some songs that (as you said) latter-day Floyd would never have touched, but there's no sense of proportion.

(2) Great selection of backing musicians, overall. Doyle Bramhall II goes overboard occasionally with his lead guitar style, ala Daryl Stuermer, but otherwise they all do quite well in terms of what they play, how they play it, and tone selections (special call out to Jon Carin for playing keyboards, slide and acoustic rhythm guitar, AND lead/backing vocals). Kudos to Waters for contributing as much instrumentally as he does, too. Far better than, say, Guy Pratt's overexuberant vocals or the electronic percussion often used in the P.U.L.S.E. material.

(3) I loathe the "Amused" material with a passion, and it only reinforces how much the Floyd really functioned best as a group; for all that the other members lost in terms of lyrical and conceptual inspiration when Waters left, they retained a sense of musicality and a talent for self-editing which he was unable to achieve on his own post-1982 or so. I hear bits and pieces of what could have been great songs lost in a sea of dross - just....far too many words that say far too little (seriously, STOP CRAMMING SO MANY SYLLABLES INTO A SINGLE LINE), far too many lyrical concepts explored within a single song without focusing sufficiently on any one of them to make a serious impact, far too much specificity at the cost of universal appeal (unlike classic Floyd lyrics, which hold a great deal of their appeal BECAUSE they're not tied to specific people/places/events much of the time), and an overweening arrogance and cynicism that outweigh the value of any nuggets of lyrical wisdom. You can only focus on the evils of the world for so long before you become a caricature, and that's exactly what the material here is - not a mention of anything good or just in the world, just Waters strutting and gesturing in front of the audience, inviting them into his shallow little world of negativity. Oh, and there's no melodies or decent musical lead lines / arrangements here to speak of, except for the chorus of "Perfect Sense", which deserved to be fitted into a better song.

It's still a great concert film / album, overall, but best in small doses, and the "AtD" material and "ESC" drag down the pleasure of watching / listening to it significantly. Still, there's enough tasteful musical passion in it to make it quite worthwhile, especially in "Dogs" and "Every Stranger's Eyes". Really wish Gilmour had revisited the former live; it was supposedly rehearsed for the "Delicate Sound of Thunder" tour, but ended up not being performed as Gilmour was uncomfortable with the dark nature of the lyrics.

---

The Endless River - 2014 Columbia
6
(Mediocre)

Best song: ehn

Send me your thoughts

trfesok.aol.com (02/13/17)

A friend of mine refers to this album as Greatest Riffs. Which is another way of making the same point that you make – that these pieces sound like variations on parts of some of their earlier songs. One does wonder if this stuff was really intended for release in the first place.

However, I cut it more slack than you do. One way to approach it is to pretend that you’ve never heard of Pink Floyd of any of its music. If you look at it that way, it comes across as a very nice instrumental art rock album. (Of course, if any of those people really exist, this should NOT be their first Floyd purchase – you’d get a very wrong idea about the group’s music). Plus lyricist Polly Samson intended the “Louder than Words” to be a tribute to the band and its sound, which is very touching.

I also disagree with your opinion that this doesn’t function well as an elegy to Wright. He is very much the key to the album - -a bunch of Gilmour guitar jams would totally miss the point of releasing it (your old correspondent “Floyd Waters” must be all over this). I like that the title comes from the last song on TDB, as well as the cover photo. To me, that represents Wright sailing away on “the endless river” into heaven. Sentimental, I know, but it works. In the end, I’m glad they decided to put this together.

---

Is This The Life We Really Want? - 2017 Columbia
7
(Mediocre / Good)

Best song: The last three songs

Send me your thoughts

Back to the main page