WISH YOU WERE HERE

PINK FLOYD were enlightened on 1975. After making a huge earthquake on the world of music with their second best work, Dark Side of the Moon, and reaching the mainstream as succesful rock stars, they created their true magum-opus, which contains the most beautiful melodies you'll ever hear in music and some of the most intelligent lyrics ever composed by Waters, homaging Syd and atacking the hungry-for- money music executives who use the artists to fill their pockets wildly.

Wish You Were Here is carried with emotion from start to finish. PINK FLOYD was a prog band not interested on show instrumental virtuosity (like YES or EL&P), instead they decided to experiment what they could do making beautiful melodies but not overusing technique, they only let the emotion flow using all the resources they had to make their sound more well crafted. This worked perfectly on their golden Meddle - Animals era, their search for new textures on music made all the albums from this era sound very different from each other, and all of them were absolute masterpieces. They could have maintained the formula from Dark Side of the Moon, since it opened the doors of success for them, but again they decided to change the pace of their music, and this time to a more mellow tone based even more on emotion. In fact the only thing they kept from their last albums was the experimental factor, discovering new ways of complementing music by adding the classic sound effects (this time with machines, radio passages, falling star sounds - instead of clocks, cash machines or airplanes) and the epic structure from Meddle, with a magum opus giant track dividing the room with shorter songs that are also very good. But here we don't have things like "San Tropez" or "Seamus". This time things are going perfect, there's no "throwaways" or "weaker songs". Each minute here is used as if it was the last one they had to show their talents, and when i say "their" i DO mean "their", because this is also the last album that Roger Waters considers himself a member of the band and not "the band", so everyone still contributes here. Rick with his magical synths playing and atmospheric effects, Dave driving passionate guitar solos and vocals and Roger with his lyrics smart as always and with some more appealing subjects than the following "the world sucks" ones found on the next FLOYDIAN era, or "Watersian" which is the more adequate word to define it.

With a falling star the album opens with "Shine On I - IV". Part 1 contains some of the most moving melodies Rick and Dave ever put together. Both shine more than gold here, and both'em release passionate solos until Part 2 kicks in to show who is the best guitarist ever. With Syd's theme being played tears will probably come from your eyes since this is one of the most celestial things to ever come from a prog band. Now, suppose the tears haven't arrived yet. Maybe your eyes are saving it for Part 3, which is even more beautiful (if that's possible!) than the last two ones of the groundshaking epic. I'm not ashamed to say that even after three years of playing this part over and over i still feel moved by this third part at the point of having my eyes wet when i listen to that keyboard solo. Heaven! Just it...pure heaven! The vocals arrive and Roger works hard on his voice carrying emotion with beautiful lyrics, and then we have a sax solo courtesy of Dick Parry on the fifth part, leading to some werid machine noises.... Beep! "Welcome to the Machine" and its mechanical cold ambience appear. How can such a "cold" song have such a moving melody impresses me to no end, only the FLOYD could do something like this. It's a very unique progressive number, with a great acoustic guitar solo at the middle that is the second climax of the album (the first would be the ending of part 2 and part 3). Following the same kind of lyrics on "Have a Cigar" we have Gilmour's bluesy guitar and Roy Harper screaming the fakeness of the music executive intentions all in perfect shape. Fading in a radio sound, the title track that non-floyd fans think it is a love song (ouch) arrives in a long acoustic intro with another homage to Syd Barrett inside more touchy lyrics. Poetry and acoustic music at their best. Ending with some winds Shine On returns with its sixth part, the more upbeat one in a superb slide guitar work. Roger comes to sing more lines and then the trip goes to a funky territory, where saxes and synths domain before an ending piano - synth solo showing Rick putting his soul on those keys. The albums ends then, gloriously as it started.

Whoa, after all these 44 minutes of heaven music you'll be gasping for air, such emotion and creativity were never found on any other music album, PINK FLOYD successfully reached their peak, and made this solid masterpiece that will remain admired and inspiring on future generations for centuries from now, you bet!

This is the best of prog music, the best of music in general in fact and you can't consider yourself a music listener if you haven't listened to this beauty before. Well, if you haven't then what are you waiting for? There's always one neat copy of this on your nearest record store, just move and buy it! This is accessible music, and everyone should appreciate this (everyone who has a mature musical taste and is not limited to stupid three minutes long pop songs containing uninspired lyrics about how he or she loves his chick/guy, of course).

The supreme one of the six stars rating crew (formed by Foxtrot and Conquest of Paradise).

Wonderful that they didn't sustain the household objects idea!

Share this PINK FLOYD review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Eclipse
• Report this review (#47233)
• Buy PINK FLOYD music online with PA partners
• Show all PINK FLOYD MP3/Stream
• Go to PINK FLOYD page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Wish You Were Here page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for PINK FLOYD related discussions