WET DREAM

Between Pink Floyd's release of Animals in 1977 and The Wall in late 1979, both David Gilmour and Richard Wright worked on their first solo albums. Gilmour's sold fairly well and had some minor chart success. Wright's didn't fare so well, even though it was the more "Floydian" sounding of the two. One could easily debate about which was the better of the two, but I'm sure most listeners will agree that they were both composed and performed exceptionally well for debut solo albums.

Unlike Gilmour's solo project which focuses more on his guitar work, Wright's solo album is more focused on the composition than his keyboard work. The songs resemble a lot of the musical pieces he contributed to Pink Floyd albums prior to The Dark Side of the Moon. In addition there are several instrumentals scattered throughout the album, all very exceptionally well done. As mentioned before, Wright composes his songs in a very Floydian-like fashion indicating that he is heavily influenced by his parent band's style, or perhaps, he has more to do with the Pink Floyd sound than most fans and critics believe. One could argue both ways, but I suspect it's more of the latter. He also chose a guitarist that does a fare impression of Gilmour, Snowy White, and includes the talents of saxophonist Mel Collins. These add to the Floydian-like texture that Wright weaves throughout this album. Furthermore, Wright's voice is perfectly suited for Floydian compositions and he shines here. It's a shame he didn't perform vocals more often in post-Dark Side albums.

In the end, the best way to describe Richard Wright's Wet Dream is imagining that Waters never had the idea of the Dark Side of the Moon and the band continued to make albums like Obscured by Clouds and the shorter material on Echoes and Atom Heart Mother. Wet Dream would sound like a perfect successor to Obscured by Clouds, but much better composed. Although Wet Dream is considered an obscure acquisition by some, it's definitely in the four-star realm of ratings for me. A very worthwhile purchase and an essential must-have for Pink Floyd fans.