THE WALL

Onto the strength of 'The Wall.' We all know it is the famous Waters compositions and that the band was dividing, Waters tried to make Wright a studio musician for the album and not list him as Pink Floyd, etc. But whatever went on in the studio, Floyd recorded some amazing music. This double LP worked. It's almost THE concept album, if not for the Lamb.

Lots of good comments have been documented through various reviews so I'll talk about something slightly different and more interesting to me. It is also what gives the Wall such value and why it impresses me so much. Double LPs are incredibly ambitious to say the least. Trying to write such a collection of great music in one go is understandably difficult. It's hard enough to write to albums back to back that are spectacular, and then trying to use a single theme between the two and coordinate the effort takes considerable confidence.

Looking at Rock's track record some absolutely amazing bands have not faired too well. First off, Tales from Topographic Oceans was pretty terrible (Wakeman readily admits - on this site, even - that the songs were padded to fit onto sides). Cream had difficulty with Wheels of Fire. The best of the album are my favorite Creem songs, but the whole album isn't flawless. Dream Theatre's Six Degrees lacks in integrity and power, especially as a followup to Scenes From a Memory. And even the mighty Led Zeppelin couldn't pull off the double LP with Physical Grafitti. As mentioned, the only band that did it in my book was Genesis... and Floyd.

Double LPs must be treated delicately. On one hand they cannot be full of crappy, non-sequitor songs just because it is two albums. But to be fair I do think of them as having more potential points (such as judged events in the olympics where the performance is out of more possible points). The Wall is packed full of great songs that play together wonderfully. And for that reason it is one of my favorite albums, probably mt favorite by Floyd. Lord knows it a mile ahead of 'Meddle'.

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