WISH YOU WERE HERE

I always had some trouble with Pink Floyd, although I posses their entire discography, I am reluctant to describe myself as a fan. My mixed emotions started at this very point - the album considered a masterpiece by many.

I do not think it's a five star material, but the album is good. Very good. Great. I'm not subtracting the little star(s) from the masterpiece of progressive rock status because I don't think the album is terribly progressive or complex, no; to the hell with that. Have A Cigar and Welcome To The Machine are extraordinary songs. Wish You Were Here is a decent rock song, although not my cup of tea. What about the two main themes? How much are they shining?

The opening one is fine (radio-overplayed though), the closing one is anything but memorable. Of course, similar themes could be re-visited in a conceptual, progressive, serious piece, but this one smells like a filler (not entirely but still).

So much for the songs. What about the album in general? The sound, the atmospheres and Everything Else?

There's that progressiveness issue with the Floyd. Oh How I Hate It, But I Must Push It. You see, as a rock band, they're one of the best (and rightly so, greatest) rock bands in the world. As a prog rock band, they suck giant King Kong's balls while not being worthy to tune the instrument that belongs to ______________(enter your favourite non-Floyd prog artist here).

What kind of stupid statement is that?

Oh boy, it's getting messy. I'm not pushing the childish thing how much X is or is not bearing the tag Y. After all: 1) the majority will disagree with me and b) it's entirely and exclusively MY problem. I am the one who is not able to shift the mood and the impressions that I am perceiving while listening to WYWH (and many other PF albums). That doesn't mean I'm not enjoying it, though. But they were always so INCLINING towards something more that turned out to be only my expectation. Take the keyboards for example: this is Floyd's peak in the career. Putney is so expressive, it could be gorgeous and nasty at the same time! (Putney is an alias for a VCS synthesizer.) But however, something is hollow. At the moments, oh I dare, boring. I won't say what should be added; Pink Floyd have no substitute. But they're not fulfilling my needs with 100 out of 100. Not on this album.