WET DREAM

I love the work of Richard Wright. When he is with Pink Floyd. Much as I've tried--and I bought Mr. Wright's solo albums when they first came out and gave them many listens--they do not, IMHO, achieve the heights that he and his bandmates were able to gain. It is often the case that an individual is not as powerful as he is in a collective (Tony Banks and Steve Howe come to mind). It is also common that the ideas of the solo artist are not as grand and grandiose as he is able to come up with in a collaborative environment. (One man's mind can be an awfully strange and foreign place!) The album is not bad just not great. The performances of contributors like Mel Collins and "Snowy White" are fine (especially some of Mel's sax solos--and I normally don't like sax), and Richard's singing voice is fine (as good as many of the Neo and solo artists coming out today) but the songs just lack that specialness. It feels like listening to a Mike Rutherford album: Nice, pleasant, but innocuous and, unfortunately, forgettable. Of the three of Richard's solo albums that I own I probably like this one best, but not by much.

Best song: the Mel Collins show piece, "Waves" (4:20) (9/10).