#9
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Released: November 30, 1979
Members:
Roger Waters - vocals/bass
David Gilmour - guitar
Nick Mason - drums/percussion
Rick Wright - keyboards
Personally Acquired: November 2004; Ryan ripped the CDs onto my laptop, then I burned copy. Still don't own official copy. Blasphemy, I know.
Summary
One of the 3 highest selling albums ever. And for good reason. This album is the album to end all albums. It's one of the most perfectly constructed albums ever conceived. A glorious form of power production. The double-album blends together so seemlessly, it's like it was made in one take. That's obviously not true. Even for Pink Floyd, this album uses an obscene amount of overdubs. Take "Comfortably Numb" for example. I detect at least 4 different guitar parts in that song alone. And even in it's throngs of grace, there's something about The Wall that just makes it transcend the power of the band. That's part of the big problem with this album; it's a marvelously produced and crafted album, but it doesn't seem exactly like a band effort. It's like a huge spotlight for Roger Waters, vocalist and producer. There are a couple times on the album where the whole band plays like true rock gods they are, but not enought imes. Given that, it still is arguably the best album ever constructed. I have yet to see the movie about the album, but I've heard both sides that it "helps clear up the questions about the theme of the album" and "it only makes it more confusing".
The first awesome song on the album starts three tracks in with the first of the "Another Brick in the Wall" trilogy. It is soft and dark, segwaying into "The Best Days of Our Lives", which in part is nothing but a gutteral bridge into "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2". Masterful. Out from there comes the awesomely acoustic motherly lovetune "Mother" and the floaty zephyr "Goodbye, Blue Sky". The album takes off with the next duo of tracks, "Empty Spaces", an evil dark intro into the pure rock attack of "Young Lust". This is one of the songs where the band completely clicks together. Waters is electrifying with his scratchy vocals while Gilmour attacks with his distorted guitar.
The second album is full of awesome tracks, almost moreso than the first. Starting off with the haunting Floyd masterpiece "Hey You". Another one of the tracks where the band fully compensates for the rest of the tracklist. The sweeping drift of the guitar during the bridge is amazing, and the song is easily some of Waters' best written lyrics and best performed vocals ever. The aformentioned soothing spectacle of "Comfortably Numb" is the next benchmark. Arguably Floyd's best song ever. The ending quadet of songs makes the entire listen worth it, starting with "In the Flesh (reprise)", which sounds like a more live version of the opening track. That makes a great segway into the electrifying bounce "Run Like Hell". After the weeble-wobble of "Waiting For the Worms", and the 30 second remorseful "Stop", we get to the most extravegant track on the whole album. "The Trial". It's like an entire musical in a short 4 minute timespan (and it doesn't suck). It depicts a trial (natch) in which the accused is sentenced to be exposed before his peers for "showing feelings of an almost human nature". Best part is the judge's deliberation. The guitar slaps on the distortion while a very sinisterly garbled voice imitating the judge sentences the accused and yells ferociously "Tear down the wall!". Awesome. This album is godly. All in all, this isn't just another brick in the wall.
This was a long summary. Deal.
Four Good Tracks: "Hey You", "The Trial", "Young Lust", "Run Like Hell"