THE WALL

You know, I used to think that The Wall by Pink Floyd was the best thing ever. This was partly due to me having very little music at the time, and just happening to pull this dusty double album CD out of a random shelf and sliding it into my computer. I thought everything from the music to it's concept were fantastic. The stars were aligned in this album's favor. After actually comprehensibly listening to all of Floyd's music, I have a much more different idea. This album wasn't as fantastic as I remembered.

My main problem with the entire thing is Waters' complain-y sort of way he tells his life story. Not in the way of the actual subject matter or what he's trying to get across, but he tries to make his music sort so artistic that it just seems snobbish. Not to mention, it's only him really doing anything, because he barely let his band members contribute to it. It was, in a way, Waters' child. And when something like that happens, things can usually go awry. In this case, the music is so focused on his point of view that his fellow band mates couldn't play as well as they had before. Quite a disappointing prospect that was not very enjoyable to listen to. From the pseudo-metal of 'In The Flesh', to the bad attempt at spacey psych rock 'Comfortably Numb', Waters' magnum opus was nothing but a double sided excuse for over-exaggerated self pity.

I mean ugh, I don't want to sit here and listen to Waters preach to us how he's just a fragile soul who's emotional barriers caused him to be such a rude dolt to everyone who cared about him. That brings us to his treatment of his staff and fellow band mates during the tour. Bob Erzin, the producer for Pink Floyd who in the end was able to grace them with a platinum record, was treated with less than how he should have been treated. But this isn't a biography on Roger, so let me explain WHY I don't like this album in more detail.

Most of the music is built on pillars of keyboard synthesizer and spoken word that gives the album the illusion that it's way smarter than it actually is. But even then, Wright was kicked out of the band after the release due to Waters' remarks of his ineptitude on the instrument. It is all a confusing mess. I must admit that some of the vocal effects they pull off on say 'Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1', but that's one of the few things I did enjoy. Many of the songs are drawn out to their full extent in order to really blast you Waters' story and make you feel sorry for him. Not enjoyable at all. Some tracks are keepers, though. Most of them are on the second half, and are the only reason I'm not dumping this into the one star category. 'Run Like Hell' and 'Waiting For The Worms' are two pretty cool tracks, and 'The Trial' is a mighty fine piece of conceptual music, with spoken word actually being used expertly well. The album just ends on a terrible note with the child-chorus of 'Outside the Wall', totally ruining anything 'The Trial' had accomplished. At every turn where the band actually seems to have a grasp on Waters' personal nonsense music, they fail extraordinarily with more synth led acoustic or attempts at radio friendly rock songs like 'Young Lust' (which happens to literally be filler because the band needed more space).

So, in the end, this whole album is pretty much a tangled mess that got all of the juice squeezed out of it until it was nothing but pulp. The album had extremely successful singles that weren't even that good in the first place. In the instance of the lame disco-rock like 'Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2', very reminiscent of what Yes tried to do with 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' years later and succeeded at as well. This album is not good, and I appreciate it very little. The biggest growth it had on me was it introducing me to the band, but even now I've heard so much better than it in past years, so this is just in the back of my memory now. I have no desire to revisit this album any time soon.

I do not recommend this album.