THE WALL SINGLES

'The Wall Singles' - Pink Floyd (Compilation)

I'll make this brief. Personally.I do not see the point of making a compilation of items valued primarily for their collector's appeal, and then seeking to distribute it as a new product. Sure, Pink Floyd are one of the most legendary and greatest selling acts of all time, but this cow has been milked a bit too much. The musical quality of 'The Wall' is certainly not in question; it is a classic album and was one of those esteemed records that opened me up to some nice ideas in music years ago. Singles are a nice escort and support for the larger work, providing a sample for listeners to digest before checking out the full album. Even today, singles are still valid, and useful when a listener wants to get a glance at what a band is up to. However, 'The Wall' was released decades ago. Anyone who would dare come in contact with this compilation would likely already know of the album, so the musical introduction with the singles here are redundant and unnecessary. The music here is a decent cut of tunes from the album, but it's an entirely useless compilation. Even for the sake of collecting; while the original vinyl singles have their worth, how much will a newly released compilation be worth to a hardcore collector; a boxset that's dropped long after the band has split up? Perhaps I'm missing something crucial to the appreciation of this; please let me know if I am. Otherwise, this is one for the dumps.

3 singles from The Wall era Pink Floyd. Is it just another shameless cash in of the success of the band, that are biding time now between concert appearances? Unfortunately that is really all that is happening here. For the fan who has to have everything that is emblazoned with Pink Floyd on it, this is a collector's delight. To the rest of us who appreciate their music alone, this collection is rather redundant. With all the immersion box sets and Discovery remasters that are being churned out one might think that there would be an end to this type of marketing. Indeed 2011 has been a year of re-releasing Floyd in every way possible and it will continue into 2012 with more box sets of specific albums on their way.

The music is definitely incredible on these singles but all Floydians would own "The Wall" in any case. The singles are basically Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) with the B side of One of my Turns; Comfortably Numb with a B side of Hey You, and finally Run Like Hell with the B side of Don't Leave Me Now. If you already own these singles then of course you would have to be desperate to shell out hard earned moolah for this oddity. The packaging is okay if that's what floats your boat, but really this is a case of excess at its most extreme.

Not sure what the point of this complilation is unless it's strictly about cashing in. Everything here is on the original WALL release, and is in it's original context, as well. Otherwise, what we have contained here is 6 songs from THE WALL. Included is "Another Brick", "Hey You", "Comfortably Numb", "One of my Turns", "Run LIke Hell", and "Don't Leave Me Now". All are great songs, of course, but they serve no purpose here except possibly as some kind of an introduction to someone unfamiliar with the complete album. But, in that case, buy the album. So....a worthless collection of decent tunes. Hard to rate but I have to go with 1 star for sheer unadultereated money-grabbing.