Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon

Rating (1-10): 10 Before everyone e-mails me to let me know that Pink Floyd has more albums then I reviewed here, I only review the albums that I own and have a good feel for. Thus, only a few of the many Floyd albums are reviewed here. Now, back to business. Dark Side of the Moon is a great album and I recommend it to everybody. What makes this album so great is that it is so different from anything that anyone has ever heard before. It fits no specific genre. It is progressive rock, heavy rock, alternative, hip-hoppish (on some instrumental pieces), and mellow.....WOW! Anyway, you really need to do yourself a favor and check out Pink Floyd. Roger Waters is an excellent lyricist and all the musicians are superb at what they do. "Breathe", "Time", "Money", "Brain Damage", "Eclipse", and "Us and Them" are all great tracks and "The Great Gig in the Sky" is the best instrumental song I have ever heard. Also, if you play this album along with the movie the Wizard of Oz, weird thing coincide, like a heart beat in the record while Dorothy listens to the Tin-Man's heart......weird huh? Well, nobody ever accused Pink Floyd be being normal.

Wish You Were Here

Rating (1-10): 9 This album is written primarily for Syd Barret, Pink Floyd's founder and estranged former lead singer. The album has five tracks and all are great so I will take you through each of them since this album tells a story. The first track is "Shine on You Crazy Diamond Pt. 1" and is good. The "crazy diamond" is Syd and this song talks about his LSD habit. You see, Roger Waters, like song-writer enjoyed the Beatles. So, much like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" means LSD, "

S

hine on

Y

ou crazy

D

iamond=SYD. The next three tracks take you through a building of Pink Floyd's history. "Welcome to the Machine" is the "building's" basement in which they were just getting started in the business world or the "machine". "Have a Cigar" is the next track in which you are now in the suite of the building and everyone is having a cigar to celebrate the success of Dark Side of the Moon. "Wish You Were Here", the title-track talks about how everyone wished Syd was there with them to see his dream come true. Finally "Shine on You Crazy Diamond Pt. 2" takes you out of the building at the end of the line so to speak. I could point out lyrics that justify my analysis, but I am lazy so you either need to look at the lyrics and form your own opinions or take my word for it. Would I lie to you about Pink Floyd?

The Wall

Rating (1-10): 10 Everyone knows what story The Wall tells. It's about a fictional character named Pink Floyd who is a rock star that goes insane. From the song "Mother" where he sings about his overprotective mom to the famous "Another Brick in the Wall" triad which talk about how the singer is forming a wall around him and shutting himself out from the rest of the world, this album makes you think about life and the life of the people that you idolize on a dialy basis. "Comfortably Numb" is another great song in which the singer is gone from life and the doctor is trying to diagnose his ailment. "Hey You" is the singer's cry for help. Every song tells part of the story and the movie is good, too. Roger Waters considered this his masterpiece and it really was. For one man to write the entire music and lyrics for 25+ tracks (with the excpetion of David Gilmour contributing on a few bits and pieces of some of the songs) and make it tell a story shows incredible talent. Musically, however, this album is not as good as Dark Side of the Moon, but you should still get it. It is a classic that everyone should have on their cd shelf.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Rating (1-10): 7.5 With the departure of Roger Waters, the music suffered as well. Pink Floyd tried to make this album as trippy and weird as the others, but it just didn't work. "Learning to Fly" is a good song, but overall the album lacks an identity. It seems as though it was thrown together.

The Division Bell

Rating (1-10): 8 This album is a modern version of Floyd. They dropped the progressive aspect of their music more or less and turned to more of a combo of mellow sounds and alternative. It's not that bad actually but the absence of Roger Waters' supreme ability shows once again as this record is missing the elements that made Dark Side and the Wall so good.

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