Dark Side or WYWH?

I see. Well, my ratings would be VERY different from yours. VERY different. The Wall for me is nothing more than average, for example. TFC VERY sub-par, TDB in the best with Meddle and WYWH... and of course More and OBC *at least* in the average... poles apart as you can see

Man, one could get really drunk in here!

I agree with twister for the most part, except I would put Animals DSOTM and WYWH at the top.

TFC, The Wall, OBC, More, Piper, in the middle.

AMLOR, Division Bell, just below average, but not horrible.

AHM Umma (studio) horrible.

Anything I left out, I am sorry, just can't think of it all right now.

Let me correct that, TDB would be horrible if not for High Hopes.

aye, though I think some are even intoxicated before getting here.

AHM? Horrible?

I say wywh because the lyrics to every song on that album are nothing less than inspired, and Shine on you Crazy Diamond (one and two) is the best song ever written by any band.

Hey Shane, you oughta PM twister and make an offer on his copy of OBC. You should get a great deal on it since he won't be listening to it again.

AHM has one great song sandwiched between two mediocre songs sandwiched between two idiotic ventures into psuedo-rock art.

Just my opinion, of course.


By the way, I forget who said it, or where, but I like the Duran Duran thing.

Yeah, I'm not mad at you.

DSOTM
i got that album for my 10th birthday. it sat on my shelf for 2 years until i decided to open it. its been my favorite album since

first post by the way

congrats.

on both the first post and opening of the album.

Both Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac were both sitting on my desk for a year and a half, collecting dust, when finally I decided to pick up Kid A and listen to it - spawning my love of Radiohead.

Goes to show that good music can sit there for a while before you get turned on to it.

Tsk, tsk. Here comes the moment you've been waiting all your life - to hear me prattling on the subject of Dark Side Of The Moon. Well, first of all I guess that whoever you are, gentle reader, you already heard this album in its near or full entirety - whether it be CD, tape or (most probably) radiowaves. So I don't think it's necessary to introduce you to the songs. I guess it would also be of no use saying all kind of things everybody said a hundred times - that this is one of the greatest bestsellers, that it introduced a new kind of music, revolutionized all there was to revolutionize, converted millions of fans to Floyd music, etc., etc., etc.
Of course, an album that's rated as high as this one can't help being overrated. You might shrug your shoulders or anything like that, but this is an undeniable fact. The only album that ever comes close in the level of worshipping is Sergeant Pepper, of course, and that's overrated too (I might also name Live At Leeds, but it shares a specific kind of popularity, a much more solid kind - while the former two are the 'official greatest', the Brahma and the Vishnu of the musical press, Leeds' popularity is mainly based on ordinary listeners - I've never heard a single bad opinion about the album. But I digress). So in this here review I'll try to analyse the album's popularity and make some conclusions about why and how much it is really overrated. So as not to lose direction, I'll try to speak separately about lyrics, music and special catches of the album. Okay? Ready?
So, the lyrics. This is maybe the main innovation to the music of Pink Floyd. All of them are written by Waters, and thus the album initiates a period of Waters domination over the band: musically the other members are still there and active, but the lyrical genius is one and only one. Even more important is the fact that these lyrics have nothing to do with typical 'prog lyrics'. They all have their special kind of meaning. Roger is presenting his philosophy of life, trying to express his opinions on all of its uncomfortable sides: schizophrenia and paranoia, time and aging, money and corruption and suchlike. In fact, the album could just as well be called Dark Side Of The Earth, but I guess one more metaphor couldn't hurt. The lyrics are good, and I can't deny the fact. But there's also a very serious flaw about them, a flaw that prohibits me from regarding them as real poetry. Truth is, they resemble a philosophical treatise much more than the outlook of an emotion-full poet. This is not Sir Roger Waters spilling beautiful imagery on us. Rather this is Doctor R. Waters, Ph.D., who has just finished adding rhymes to his latest thesis. Unfortunately, he's no Bob Dylan and often ends up sounding rather banal ('Time'; 'Eclipse') or preachy ('Breathe'). Maybe this was the kind of poetry the world was expecting in 1973: to demonstrate that art rock could be really clever and not just irreasonably pompous. In retrospect, though, I don't see why we should rate this poetry higher than the much more fascinating contemporary lyrics of Pete Townshend or Keith Reid. These dudes managed to be philosophical and poetic at once, although I can see where some people would be slow to appreciate their lyrics as opposed to those of Roger.
The music. The music is great. There are moments on the album that are totally unique, not only for Pink Floyd, but for mankind. The bombastic introduction to 'Time' (the one that goes 'BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - bo-boom-BOOM') is enough to make me take off my hat. The bass line on 'Money' is something special, although I'm sick of hearing praises for that stupid 7/4 time (everybody was using weird time signatures at the time). But on the other hand, behind the hype too many people seem to forget that most of these musical ideas are borrowed from older albums - Meddle and Obscured By Clouds, in particular. Both 'Breathe' and the chorus of 'Time' once again reprise the main theme of 'Echoes'; 'Us And Them' is a 'traditional' Rick Wright keyboard shuffle, even if a little improved; and 'Brain Damage' isn't seriously better than some of the most effective Waters acoustic ballads ('Fearless', for example). Try to understand me: I'm not saying the actual songs on DSOTM aren't good. The only weak tunes for me are the pointless jam 'Any Colour You Like' and the closing 'Eclipse' which is still good (of course, I do not include neither 'Speak To Me' nor 'On The Run' here because they're not songs). What I'm trying to point out is that in no way does the music stand out among the general row of Floyd albums: while some of the tunes are better, some are definitely worse (I far prefer 'Childhood's End' to 'Time' 'cause it's less pretentious and doesn't feature any dentistry). The only serious innovations on here are 'The Great Gig In The Sky' (which is hardly Floyd at all, it's a song that owes its charm to Clare Tory) and yes, the weird tempo of 'Money'. All the other musical innovations were thought of several years earlier. I agree that this album might be the quintessence of these innovations: a tight and compact compendium of all the good things Pink Floyd have thought of for the past three or four years. But that only means that the album is a little more consistent than the previous ones and nothing more. It's no wonder that anybody who starts his Pink Floyd education with this album will treat all or most of the others somewhat more coldly: but if you start from the beginning and listen first to Meddle or even Ummagumma, you won't get such a shock, I tell you.
Now about the special catches. If the lyrics aren't really groundbreaking in the end, and the music was really mostly a rehashment of elder successes, then the catches are what makes this album. I'll admit that the level of jack-in-a-boxery is at an all time high: no previous album boasted such an immaculate production or such a huge load of special effects. Beating hearts, wild laughter, strange maniacal phrases, airplanes exploding, money ringing, clocks ticking, and a symphonic 'Ticket To Ride' at the end (I can't guarantee this one: there really is something vaguely sounding like an orchestra in the background at the end of 'Eclipse', but there's no way I could guess the melody) - all this is enough to convert any unexperienced new-buyer. But this is also my main complaint, you see? The music gets lost behind all these things! And, okay, maybe it's fun to endure 'On The Run' a couple of times, but do you really want to hear that 'do-do-do-do-DO-do-do-do' every time you'd like to relax to the sound of 'Great Gig In The Sky' or 'Us And Them'? Maybe you do. I don't. I know it's supposed to symbolize paranoia, so what? This piece of noise-making doesn't deserve to be placed on this record. Yes, it's a great pleasure to write phrases like 'the wonderful heartbeat on the album lets us know that the music is devoted to human relationship' and suchlike (this is actually a misquotation from Gilmour), but once you've written all that you find out that the only thing these effects do is preventing you from enjoying the music. Of course, this might have been just the plan: 'shut off' the music so that the clocks and cash registers would hide from your eyes the obvious weaknesses of the tunes. The special effects are a mask - a thing that is mistakenly taken for 'art' when in reality it's just a screen masking the lack of truly innovative 'art'.
You might ask, of course, why I'm still giving the album a 9 if all I did was scold it. Okay, apart from the fact that it's not true, I'll apologize by saying that all the critique above serves only to deprive DSOTM of the title '(one of the) greatest rock album ever', just because there's no such thing and there never can be, and even if there was, DSOTM wouldn't be worth it. Apart from that, it's certainly a great album: at one time I was ready to give it a 6, but I guess I was anti-hyped at the moment. To be frank, apart from being bored with most of the special effects and particularly the whole 'On The Run', I don't like 'Any Colour You Like' and some other moments on record ('Money' could be a very good song, but it seems to me that the band preferred to take it as an opportunity to jam, and Gilmour's solos are quite detestable). But 'Time', 'Us And Them', 'Breathe', 'Brain Damage' and especially 'Great Gig In The Sky', with ultra-amazing vocals from guest vocalist Clare Tory, these are terrific songs that quite redeem the bad moments. Still, all the kitsch elements result in my putting on Obscured By Clouds much more often. Too bad. And one final word to the casual listener: don't run ahead so as to raise your voice in the general chorus. Better buy a couple of albums preceding it and a couple of albums following it, have a dozen listens to each one and use your head. Don't idolize it. Be cool. Have a life.

This is gonna be a tough one, but I'm not gonna leave the battlefield defeated. After all, didn't I just admit that Dark Side really deserves a 9? Well then, I have to confess that I can't give Wish You Were Here more than a 7, much as I'd wish to raise this rating. Yes, I know that the album was almost as huge as its predecessor and still is a 'fan' favourite (especially for those 'fans' who don't know of the existence of any other Floyd albums). But IMHO, there's very little about the album that permits us to regard it on the same level.
Where do I begin with this second mega-monster in the band's history? Well, for starters, there are several moments on here ('moments', I say, not 'songs'), that I utterly admire and that certainly no other band would be able to pull off, not in 1975 at least, when making 'serious' music was already starting to be regarded as an offense against 'good taste'. Unfortunately, these are 'moments', at the best 'periods', just because the songs are so damn long and they never deserve to be that long. It all starts with the incredibly beautiful 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' - a respectful and worthy tribute to the 'late' Syd Barrett (who actually gave the boys a visit in the studio while they were recording the song, as if by irony: were they really paying tribute to that fattened old guy? Go figure!) The first parts of the song might be one of the most evident epitomes of 'gorgeous beauty' in rock: Gilmour's calculated, but nevertheless inspired guitar notes playing over the moody synth backing perfectly convey the feeling of majesty, sadness and inescapable tragedy that the song's all about. And the lyrics depicting Syd's (or, let us be less concise, 'the Artist's') decline and demise are truly heartfelt - why didn't they record a song like this earlier?
However, the song ends in a rather feeble saxophone solo, and then off we go into loads of moody and atmospheric garbage. Honestly, I don't know how anybody can love 'Welcome To The Machine' and 'Have A Cigar', two of Waters' worst anti-establishment anthems. The elevator noises that are supposed to carry you 'into the machine' usually carry me to the sink, and the whole song is built on dirty electronic gadgets that totally eliminate any cathartic feelings you could have generated during 'Shine On'. Yeah yeah, I know they are supposed to give the impression of the record business industry being similar to a robotic monster, but that gives the song about the same value as a museum exhibit: look at it, listen to it, but God forbid you touch it or use it. How can you be entertained by this crap? Nah. The best thing about the song is probably Waters' lachrymose intonation, and that's no big deal. As for 'Have A Cigar' that's sung by Roy Harper because Dave didn't want to sing it since he didn't like the lyrics (he had a point, too), it's probably okay by any average band standards, but consider it a Pink Floyd highlight? It's just a mid-tempo bluesy tune with nothing that stands out - just your standard rhythm, drums and singing. Kinda like the Gilmour-sung part of 'Time', only weaker because Harper just isn't that expressive, and the lyrics kinda suck.
That leaves us with 'Wish You Were Here' (whose was the atrocious idea to link it to 'Have A Cigar' with that squeaky radio sound?) which is also gruesomely overrated as a song. It's good, but how come it deserves its reputation of one of Floyd's best songs? I could name at least four or five early Waters acoustic tunes that aren't any worse! Maybe it's because of the pretentious lyrics? Could well be, but for me, the best part in the whole song is the charming 'doo-doo-doo' singing near the end. Finally, we reprise 'Shine On You C. D.', and the final parts are also much weaker than the intro. What the hell?
I mean, c'mon, it ain't an unworthy album. But there's an interesting thing that you may discover if you listen to all Floyd albums in chronological order: Wish You Were Here is the first album that shows genuine signs of 'regression', in the sense of 'going backwards', not necessarily 'worsening'. They reached their zenith on Dark Side and just couldn't go any further: neither Gilmour nor Wright were able to contribute new musical or conceptual ideas. So this album, wrought and produced with so much pain and tension over the course of two years, is a stalemate. Curiously enough, it's much more close in sound to Meddle than to anything after it. Come to think of it, quite a few songs and bits of songs are just re-writes of tunes from that album: thus, the main theme of 'Shine On' creates the same mood and has almost the same melody as the main theme on 'Echoes'; 'Have A Cigar' sounds just like the part I called 'boring blues jam' on same 'Echoes'; Part VI of 'Shine On' recreates the bass thumping and dentistry soloing of 'One Of These Days'; and isn't it possible to trace 'Wish You Were Here' to some of the folkish songs on that one, like 'Fearless'? I think it is... Conclusion? Wish You Were Here is but a slightly more sophisticated re-write of Meddle with (consequently) a lot less innovation (if any) and a lot more pretentiousness and preachiness. That would make a 6 (one point less than for Meddle), but I kindly raise it one point just because the album begins on such an incredibly gorgeous note.
Have you ever wondered why this was the last album with any significant contributions by Gilmour and Wright, with Roger stepping in and taking full control over everything after that? No? Because they were exhausted. If Roger had been able to gain total control over the band five years earlier, he'd have done that. He wasn't, because there were lots of ideas in these two pots. This album amply demonstrates that Roger was the only guy with something left to say... (not that everything he said was good, of course)...