Pink Floyd Solo: First Album

Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs. Of course. 

I have all of them but Barrett's but I have heard it and I'm not a fan. I like all of the rest all in varying degrees with my fav being Wright's. Wet Dream shows what Wright brought to the table in Pink Floyd. Half instrumental, keyboard heavy but not dominant, a bit jazzy, not very deep lyrics and his underrated voice. Gilmour 's self titled is blues based rock, with plenty of space for his guitar. It sounds like he is out playing with some old friends having a good time. Like Wright's Wet Dream, there is no major lyrical statement here, and the production isn't pristine like it is in PF. Waters' Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, is different. It's lyric heavy with sparce musical pieces and is a direct descendant of the Final Cut. The production is immaculate. Mason's is the odd album as its really a Carla Bley album with Nick playing drums and producing. She wrote all of the songs. His production is very clean with the drums pushed more to the front than is usual for a PF album. The music is light avant jazz album with with some rocky moments. Chris Spedding does a great Gilmour like impression on the track Hot River. This album was my introduction to Carla Bley.

In short, this is a sum of the parts. They show what Wright, Gilmour and Waters bring to Pink Floyd. And none of them solo are as good as they are together. But these are all good albums.

David Gilmour.

I went with Mason. Wright's would be a close second.

Unfortunately I've only heard the Roger Waters and David Gilmour albums so I won't vote in this but I definitely prefer the DG. However, wasn't technically "the body" the first RW solo album?

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - November 03 2020 at 11:11

Cristi wrote: A Crimson Mellotron wrote: First vote for 'Prons and Cons' here! I really enjoy this one. what's a "pron"?

moshkito wrote: Psychedelic Paul wrote: The first of two Pink Floyd solo album polls in The Endless River of polls. Hi, Honestly I doubt most folks have actually heard some of these solo efforts. (I have them all and have had them right from the first one! Gilmour) Barrett's is unrecognizable as a PF member. Gilmour's is conventional and nothing great. The video of his band (Manfred Mann's band I think it was), doing a tour in France is hundreds of times better than the album! Nick's is the most progressive of them all though it was jazz'y and fun and funny, and PF members have very little humor! Roger's is nice, but over blown because of a terribly over rated guitarist that did not know what to do ... witness Jeff Beck later and how/what he did! Wright's is by far the prettiest and nicest albums of them all, and it is more interesting, since too many of us have/had no idea how/what he worked with the band ... some really pretty stuff in there, and it used to be really hard to get (LP days!), and probably got easier on CD ... but I am not convinced that enough folks have heard it enough (timewise) compared to how many times they have heard Gilmour's. Wright's and Nick's by a mile. Syd's album is actually very sad ... somehow earlier the music was illustrated by his words, and it was far out and came off as stoney, or dopey ... and all of a sudden all anyone can play is beginning level rock and some chords, and the album is really not very good, and if it was you or I would be trashed senseless. All of a sudden, no one knew how to color his words ... and it was sad! The vision, was mostly ignored, where before the vision was illustrated even if in cartoon style.

Heard them all but Nick's. If Gilmour and Wright had just done a collaboration, it would have been awesome but solo Rick's is second best to David's s/t album.

Mr Gilmour's album is brilliant.