WISH YOU WERE HERE

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a most deffinite masterpiece. The second best Pink Floyd album (second only to the heavily artful "The Wall"), "Wish You Were Here" is a follow-up of such calliber to "The Dark Side Of The Moon" that it completely surpasses it altogether! Some Floyd fans may not be as enthusiastic as I am, arguing it lacks the unity of TDSOTM, or it's just a moderately-sucessful filler between it and Pink Floyd]s later, more artsy work. LIES, I tell you, LIES! Gilmour's guitar is at its best, surprisingly varied and very catchy, with long and elaborate riffs, reaching an intensity found previously only on "Meddle". Moreover, Waters' vocals are veery good ( in comparison to his usual way of singing, which is extremely good, but wouldn't have fit on this album), and Wright's keyboards reach prog rock Nirvana on the two parts of the key track of this glorious masterpiece: "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond". Even if "Echoes" surpasses it with its grace and epic grandor, this suite is the sign of Pink Floyd's artistic maturity. The second best song on the album is undoubtedly "Wish You Were Here". Lyricaly, it is the best, but after a brilliant start, it loses intensity, in favour of a perpetual fake ending. "Welcome To The Mahine" is highly impressive, but becomes monotonous. I reccomend "Inerstellar Overdrive" for people who like this sort of songs; its orchestrartion and soundeffects are fairly better. "Have A Cigar" is somewhat misplaced in the tracklisting ( I think that it would have been better to put it before "Welcome To The Machine"), but that is its only flaw. All in all, adeserved rating for a perfect album. I highly reccomend it to people who are new to the world of Pink Floyd.