WISH YOU WERE HERE

Pink Floyd may be the biggest name in prog. For a prog artist's best work to reach many non-prog listeners at such a level is a rare thing. Pink Floyd's best works have, despite the spaciness and oddness of their music at times, reached a huge audience. Surprisingly this doesn't mean to an intelligent and demanding listener that this material will be bad. In fact, Wish You Were Here is a masterful piece of work.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond Pts. 1-5 starts with spacy guitar, dragging into a trancing state with Gilmour's lead playing overlapping. It soon kicks into Waters and Gilmour's tribute to ex-bandmember and old friend Syd Barrett. Shine On You Crazy Diamond reflects Syd's perspective of the world and how it's affected the band, and the melody and texturing of the song in it's entirety is fantastic. Guitar and texture is rarely this engaging in this particular form. (9/10)

Welcome To The Machine is a brooding song with a pleading vocal tone. It's very heavy on texture and electronics, creating a real spacy atmosphere. It brings science fiction to reality in it's guitar and synth heavy nature. It's Pink Floyd's trademark spacy and oppressively impressive tone at it's finest. (9.5/10)

Have A Cigar brings a different tone to the album, recruiting an acoustic piano sound and a twangy guitar in addition to a similar tone to the previous songs. The vocals and musical interplay here are excellent, and the melodies are extremely memorable. (10/10)

Wish You Were Here comes in beautifully from the effect cutting Have A Cigar. The song is mostly acoustic, featuring some of the most memorable guitar moments and vocals, and when they meet it's magic. The song lifts into the next incredibly smoothly. (9/10)

Shine On You Crazy Diamond Pts. 6-9 returns to the elements of the first track, but adding a more improvisational touch and more texture to a jamming spree. The musical interplay here is beautiful, and this side of Floyd is rarely touched on. (9.5/10)

Wish You Were Here is constantly strong track after strong track, Pink Floyd's sound is not better represented anywhere else, and Pink Floyd's sound when in full effect is something to behold. [Reviewer's tilt: 9.5/10]

[OVERALL SCORE: 9.4 or 4.5 stars, rounded to 5 stars]