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Pink Floyd - The Wall CD (album) cover

THE WALL

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

4.10 | 3305 ratings

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Mr. Mustard
2 stars The Wall represents the most dramatic turn in musical style for Pink Floyd, mostly due to the dominance Roger Waters has. It's theatrical, extravagant, and much more commercial than most of Pink Floyd's offerings before. Though, it still carries the basic Pink Floyd sound. But like most double albums and concept albums, the concept often takes over and shadows the music quality, and this is no exception.

Like most concept albums I tend to review the album as a whole instead of the individual songs. With that said, this albums strength is not in the individual songs, but the cohesiveness of the songs which form a much stronger piece. Out of the context of the album, these songs would fail on their own, except for the few which also happen to be more commercially successful. Songs like 'Another Brick in the Wall,' 'Comfortably Numb' 'Run Like Hell,' 'Young Lust' and 'Hey You' are all classic tunes. But the remainder is just weak. Most of side four is a good example of what I'm talking about. Though I appreciate the theatrical side of Roger, the songs just flop musically.

As this is mostly Roger's baby, the output of the other members is severely limited, especially Wright. Gilmour offers some very memorable solos in songs like Comfortably Numb and Another Brick, as well some vocals, but even he sees limited output in the songwriting area.

Overall, the Wall is just too self-indulgent in its concept to be consistently strong musically. This is practically the only album in which I prefer the live version. This sounds a bit too bland production-wise, and a lot of great extended solos are present on the live version. Unfortunately more of the same is to come in The Final Cut, and Pink Floyd will never return to what made them so great in the early and mid 70's.

5/10

Mr. Mustard | 2/5 |

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