WISH YOU WERE HERE

Why oh why oh why is this so highly rated? Shine on part one is acceptable, but the central three songs are irrelevant, and Shine on part two is again only acceptable. It's a rare thing that the album cover be better than the album itself. This is, however, a step up from the previous albums, which are fairly reprehensible. Shine on, although far too long, is quite nice in parts. Some of it is pretension, (a four note riff does not comprise a theme, chaps) but some of it is listenable. Generally, however, this cannot be considered as in the same universe as the Symphonic prog of the time.