WISH YOU WERE HERE

With Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd did something that few bands have been able to achieve - follow up a perfect, monstrously popular album with contrasting, but still perfect follow-up. While only three songs and a split multi-part epic, this album has no low points, no lulls, no filler. Each song is distinct from the other, but still work together as a coherent whole. This album marks the end of the first David Gilmour - led era, and already Roger Waters is having a larger role in the band than he did before. But in their loving tribute to their fallen brother Syd Barrett, the band really came together to produce a unified sound that they would never quite achieve again.

The epic Shine On You Crazy Diamond is everything you want in space rock, a huge atmospheric creation that transports the listener to another world before building to an explosive chorus. Welcome to the Machine is a menacing keyboard tune showing Waters' growing snarling sarcastic style. The classic title tune is a strummed acoustic break from the intensity. Have a Cigar is a lighter strike at the industry featuring spot on vocals by Roy Harper. In some ways, the album is more like Meddle than Dark Side of the Moon in composition (with Shine analogous to Echoes and WYWH analagous to Fearless). In that way, it feels more like a classic Floyd album than Dark Side or the Wall that are almost stand-alone works.

Probably everyone on this site already has this album memorized. This review serves mainly to speak my opinions that: 1. There can be no doubt this album is a masterpiece. 2. At the same time, it's probably not one of the top 5 or even top 10 Progressive albums, as there are simply other more deserving albums that simultaneously pushed the envelope farther while possessing the same level of excellence. 3. Everyone should simply own the album and then my opinion won't matter so much. It's certainly essential rock n' roll, essential prog, Floyd at their prime, some of their most iconic single songs, and belongs in any serious fan's library.

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