WISH YOU WERE HERE

I think a lot has already been said about Wish you were here and a lot of it superlative. Yeah, this is probably one of the few Floyd albums that has a blemishless image. Meddle is condemned for the inclusion of Seamus in the album. Dark Side is considered to be overproduced, apparently hiding a lack of real virtuoisty. Animals is criticized for being too bleak and The Wall is so obsessed with the grand concept, that... duh... where's the music, Roger? But music lovers have only glowing tributes to offer for WYWH. Really, is it that much better than the rest of the band's 70s work? Hmmmm.... I don't think there's any need to analyse the songs any further. So much has been said about them already. Here's my opinion on the album. This is not exactly what I expect from Pink Floyd. The lyrical content, particularly of Shine On, brings them more to the level of other rock bands out there. Most people like WYWH precisely because of the immensely personal emotions boiling over in Shine On I & II and the title cut. That's precisely the problem for me. No doubt the songs are well-written, but it's all too personalised, focussing over and over on Barret. The premise of DSOTM and Animals is much wider, covering life and humanity as a whole. Where WYWH approaches the broader outlook of those albums is in Welcome to the machine and Have a cigar. They have the requisite bite and Watersian irony that I look forward to. Especially considering Waters's later lyrical work, he doesn't, to my ears, sound too convincing delivering a mournful tribute to ex-band member and beacon Barret. It just gets a little too cheesy in the end. The only thing that saves the Shine On epic(s) is the wonderful solos by Gilmour and Wright, and of course, Dick Parry on the saxophone. Particularly, in Shine On-II, Wright has a whale of a time. But, then, if you've already heard the shining masterpiece from Meddle - Echos - this isn't exactly that exciting. In the final analysis, WYWH lacks the brilliant combination of variety and uniformity so finely crafted in DSOTM. It also lacks the moody intensity of Animals or The Wall. As for Piper at the gates..., its appeal is too far removed from the 70s Floyd work to be discussed with them. If this is the first Floyd album you'll buy, this is the ideal one for you, unless you already have exalted expectations from the band. This is not likely to evoke sharply divided reactions from fans and critics alike, and so it hasn't, because this is a mellow and mature Floyd, with their stomachs full and Waters not yet filling entire albums with his gloomy worldview. But if I would have to point out one album with which Floyd set the world on fire, this would most certainly not be the one.