RICHARD WRIGHT

"Identity" is just one of those albums that appeal to me personally, as I have a strange approach to the criticism of music. It is an electronic/crossover prog album by the short-lived supergroup "Zee", a partnership between Richard Wright (Pink Floyd) and Dave Harris (Fashion). The album has a very electronic sound, as most of the sounds used were from the Fairlight CMI, a synthesiser that was popular in the 1980s. Rick Wright stated some time after the release that he felt that the album was an "experimental mistake", and that it should never have been released. The album has received much criticism, with fans of Richard Wright left disappointed by the lack of PInk Floyd-eque reminiscence that is evident in his other albums. However, the album is entirely entertaining and does (in my opinion) contain quite a few of the musical aspects that we know and love from Richard Wright.

♪ "Confusion" is a little disappointing. It is a little dry and has a cheesy disco feel.

♪ "Voices" is a great song. Very ambient and pleasant. It is one of the best tracks on the album.

♪ "Private Person" is another dance-like 80's tune, but I like this song much more than "Confusion". It has a more unique style.

♪ "Strange Rhythm" brings out the more progressive side of this album and is reminiscent of Pink Floyd's later material. The guitar solo towards the end of the song is great.

♪ "Cuts Like a Diamond" is a nice track, and has a more garagey feel than the other tracks.

♪ "By Touching" resembles something off David Bowie's "Let's Dance". It is one of my personal favourites off this album.

♪ "How Do You Do It" is a funky track. The guitar riff resembles Robert Fripp's 80's guitar work. The lead synth sounds rather like "Daft Punk"

♪ "Seems We Were Dreaming" is another favourite of mine. It is one of the more ballad-like tunes on this album.

The key tracks here are: ♫ Strange Rhythm ♫ By Touching ♫ Seems We Were Dreaming

This album may not appeal to the everyday listener, but I am a personal fan. I give this album a personal rating of 3 stars. ☮ Peace ☮

This is not an album to be overlooked by any fan of music.

By that I mean fans of Pink Floyd, fans of specifically Richard Wright's work with Floyd, fans of prog or fans of rock or fans of even broader genres of music.

Sonically pleasing in a way much different than Floyd material, Wright approaches this album as a soft ballady long piece with ambient jazz inflections abound. A concept album about his wife's depression, Broken China is perhaps one of the most emotional pieces of music by any artist related to Floyd. It has moments of light and moments of dark and reflects a clinically depressed mind so well it has a sort of indefinable morbid beauty about it.

It's definitely one of those albums the listener can really enjoy sitting in a dark room while pondering the questions of life. It has enough going on in the background to be interesting like most Floyd records but also retains the listeners interest through concept and through moments of pure catchiness.

It's a sad fact that Richard Wright's solo material is often overlooked in the Floyd catalog (even Mason's work is gone to before Wright's for some people) and while it's more understandable with Wet Dream (a decent album nonetheless) there is no excuse for the under-appreciated Broken China record, a record with such glistening beauty that literally anyone who listens to music as an emotional plug in can relate to.

(Plus lead vocals by Sinead O'Connor on two tracks! Check it out, guys!)

What a lovely album from the late great Richard Wright. As should be aware, Pink Floyd wouldn't have been the much loved Pink Floyd without this man's amazing compositions, as well as his creative moods and tones from the keyboards. Indeed, this effort has many of the same souful and deep moments which fans enjoyed on the softer Floyd albums, they are related mostly to "Wish You Were Here". The instrumentals "Mediterranean C", "Cat Cruise" and "Waves" are some examples and they are nothing short of beautiful, much lighter than the dark themes that the Floyd were working on in late 70's... "Animals" and "The Wall" of course. Some compositions on this album are very sensitive and expressive, especially "Against The Odds" and the touches from Snowy White's guitar and Mel Collin's sax make them all the more fantastic. As a whole, it makes for a fine chill-out experience, while also containing a good mixture of styles, from pop, soft-rock, jazz and funk. Highly recommended

I can't believe to have missed reviewing this album until now. It's the second Floyd solo that I have purchased and probably the one that I like most. In 1978 Roger Waters' ego was reaching his top. The band was working on Animals and there was probably too few space for other band members' creativity. In particular Pink's Song is prophetic of what was about to happen "I must go here on my way, Let me go I cannot stay..."

From a musical point of view this can be considered the missed Pink Floyd album, more than Gilmour's debut, this is full of the Floyd spirit before Dark Side of the Moon and features the bluesman Snowy White at guitar, the guy who played Gilmour on the stage of The Wall.

"Mediterranean C" is not a great opener. It's a good instrumental and is functional to introduce the main concept about escaping from the normal life that is better exploited in "Holiday". What's wrong is the keyboard sound chosen for this song that is a bit too flat

"Against The Odds" is a great song, instead. The classical guitar of Snowy white is the distinctive element of the song and the final solo is simple but extremely effective. This is my personal favourite.

"Cat Cruise" is an instrumental with the Wright's trademark. It reminds to his work on Obscured by Clouds with a bit of the piano thrill of The Great Gig in The Sky. Everything completed by Mel Collins' sax.

The melodic piano intro, still in the style of Great Gig but with a touch of country is another great "pop" song on which Rick's voice fits very well. "Summer Elegy" is just a bit too pop, but the Snowy White's Gibson creates a fantastric solo without being too Gilmourian.

The side A is closed by "Waves". A repetitive melody based on minor chords, reminder in some ways of Bridges Burning, with a jazzy solo by Mel Collins. Probably the darkest moment of the album.

"Holyday" is the top track. I have always found amazing the initial passages from F- , Gb , Gb- B. The piano sounds like on the Great Gig and the chorus "Sail Alone across the sea..." speaks of winds, waves and freedom. One of the best songs ever written by Wright.

"Mad Yannis Dance" is like the Dervish Dance. It gives me the impression of a circular movement, but it's not compulsive like the Dervish. It's slow and dark instead.This instrumental gives Mel Collins the opportunity of another good sax solo.

"Drop In From The Top" is a strange thing: It's the kind of bluesy instrumental track of which David Gilmour's debut is full. Of course Snowy White places a fantastic riff on it.

I have already mentione "Pink's Song". It's slow and sad. If I'm not wrong on the vinyl cover Linda Wright is credited for the lyrics. Here Mel plays a flute solo.

The album is closed by "Funky Deux". An instrumental driven by a very rhythmic bass line. A good closer but maybe a little misplaced on this album, I mean "out of the concept". There's not a true concept, effectively. The songs on this album share just some "feelings" and Funky Deux is different at this level. The only "cold" track on a very warm album. However there's room for another great sax performance.

4 stars for PA standards, 5 for my heart.

Richard Wright disappoints with his refusal to take on lyrical and vocal duties, leaving those to the less familiar voice and pen of Dave Harris. The lyrics by Harris are pointless, what happened to Rick's Skill with Summer 68? Beside that the album is middle of the road, with some of the most interesting 80s soundscapes you will hear and a great brooding atmosphere. The music is unmuddled and sparse, which makes it easy to follow. The Fairlight is unique and the percussion is electric but heavy. The album is dark and Floydian and sometimes gets to the creepy heights one would associate with Floyd, like on the track "Cuts Like A Diamond." Other favorites are "Confusion" which you will come back for, and Private Person. The album has some very weak parts, but the worst is the boringness which comes with playing the album through, as the tracks seem variations on some robot's self-same theme. Overall a nice little album that sounds different and a good talisman from the 80s to have, even if it seems unnecessarily purged of Rick's presence.

My theory is that the key tickler was on drugs in the late 70s and early 80s. It messed up his career big time. Gilmour didn't even really want him back at first but learned to love him by the time of Division Bell. He conquered his demons, or so it would seem. Zee may have been an early attempt to do so.

This is the last concept album from a Pink Floyd member, and sadly the last from Rick Wright. It has a mathematical structure. Divided into 4 sections of 4 tracks each with at least one non- instrumental, like it was planeed to be a double vinyl.

What appears clearly is that the floydian element is not present in all the tracks. Some of the instrumentals are a sort of dark Krautrock, but all the album is dark and experimental. This is the first great merit of this album. Being experimenal for an over-60 artist who was obscured in his band by the ego of Waters and sometimes Gilmour, is source of regret for what he could have done with just a bit more temper.

Tracks like "Runaway", with its unusual rhythm, or also the opener "Breaking Water" that sounds like early Tangerine Dream or "Unfair Ground with dissonances in the style of Amon Duul II atlernate with more ambient moments, like "Satellite" or the psychedelic "Black Cloud".

The songs are dark too, but the melodies are more floydian and the two songs featuring the voice of Sinhead o'Connor are highlights. Rick sings Breakthrough on a Gilmour's DVD, and the song is great even sung by him.

Forget the quite and sunny athmosphere of Wet Dream. This album is closer to the studio disc of Ummagumma or to the best parts of Identity. It represents the eclectic side of Richard Wright and I'm sure that fans of Krautrock or Eclectic prog will be more intrigued by this album than the usual Pink Floyd fans.

For those reasons this is an excellent addition to ANY prog rock collection, not only for Floyd's fans. It deserves 4+ stars.

I confess , at the time ,i've been a little bit disapointed by RICK first album but i's because i was hoping him to play some more kind of things as CIRRUS MINOR ,or SAUCERFULL but listenings after listenings this record turned very friendly and became essential to me .It displays the RICK part through the FLOYD alchemy .The melodies for instance, have the RICK'touch; listening to that album you know he was the one that brought the tunes fur US AND THEM and that he was a big part in ECHOES with DAVID .no one must forget that wonderfull song called SUMMER 68, this record is my paintbox and ...... well it's a song by RICK too .I MISS YOU RICK . What would looklike a new album with DAVID , ROGER and NICK ? no one will ever know ! so sad !

First of all, it's NOT a Richard Wright's solo album. Dave Harris did a lot of composing, however some ideas coming from this album can be found with a bit of attention on Broken China. I would have expected to find it under ZEE. This is a very dated album. It's from the 80s and lacks of originality as a lot of its contemporary. It was an era during which the choice of sounds seemed to be the most appealing factor, so many artists did their best, or their worse to appear very "80s". I just want to mention Camel's Stationary Traveller or Mike Rutherford's Acting very strange as examples. Another must of the period was the Fairlight: it dominated the 80s sound toghether with the Yamaha DX7 and the Rolands, and does it in this album as well. All the percussions are electronic and mainly based on disco rhythms. "Confusion" could be played in a disco also today, but it's not so bad as it could seem. It's not worse than other more appreciated songs of that period, but of course one could expect more than this from Richard Wright. "Voices" is a dark track. It's where Broken China is from. Totally electronic, but don't forget that Richard is a keyboardist. "Private person" is back into commercial, but not properly disco. I don't think that dancing on this rhythm is possible. Not the best track of the album in any case. "Strange Rhythm" is what its title says: strange. Personally I like it. The voice is similar to Bryan Ferry with a touch of David Bowie, so very in line with the era. Not worse than some electronic songs of the white Duke. "Cut like a diamond" is the only Floydian track. The intro is typical from Wright. The sounds is different, but the chord's sequence comes directly from Wet Dreams. The guitar riff could have been played by Gilmour if only he was used to play one octave lower than usual. "By touching" is the track i liked less when I bought the album, however listening to it now, I can recognise the link to Broken China "How do you do it" is the weakest track of the album. Put Michael Jackson's voice on it and you'll have a perfect soft-disco track. Skip it. "Seems we were dreaming" is the most melodic song of the album. A chill out song, very relaxing, even if totally in the 80s as well.

What to say of this album at the end? It's between 2 and 3 stars. A true Pink Floyd fan must have it. It's non-essential for sure. Some tracks are good enough, but some are very weak. I go for 3 stars in memory of Rick and because of the link to Broken China. If you have enjoyed it, you can give a try to this album. If you didn't like Broken China, there's no chance to like this one.

The 4-star rating is for Floyd fans (which I am one). For the casual listener or non-Floyd fans, I'd rate it at most a 3 star album.

For Floyd fans, you'll find this album is a kind of light, easy-listening version of Floyd - and while that might not sound very appetising, I do mean it in the best sense. Snowy White does a nice Gilmour imitation, and Mel Collins' work will remind many of a certain Dick Parry. Wright's keyboard and synth work are in the "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" vein.

As other reviewers have noted, the best songs on this album are the instrumentals. While I find the vocal tunes to be pleasant (my nod goes to "Holiday" as the best vocal song), I really wish Wright had saved the vocal numbers for another album.

As much as I enjoy this album (and have been listening to it quite often of late), it also frustrates me. Listening to it, I can't help but feel it was kind of tossed off quickly, without the kind of care and attention that Floyd usually went into when making albums. I wish that Wright had spent more time in the studio, and had been intent on making a major statement. The album could also have used Gilmour's touch on the guitar (not the soloing Gilmour of THE WALL, but the Gilmour of DARK SIDE and WISH YOU WERE HERE, adding varying layers of rhythm work and other overdubs). Whereas Floyd tunes had 3 or 4 different guitars on a tune, Wright's album usually only has White's one. The album also could have been mixed better.

Pleasant album, and one that seems, with a little more work, not too far away from having been a major Floyd album. sigh.

Rick Wright's , Pink Floyd keyboard player debut solo album . Believe me, in fact it is almost lost Pink Floyd album ( somewhere around "WYWH"and "DSOTM" period).

Album contains midtempo epic songs,which sound as very Pink Floyd music! Rick Wright sings in similar to Waters manner, and plays keyboards in very PF style. Snowy White adds great guitar line and solos, when Mel Collins plays excellent sax. In total, the music is very Floydian, melodic, based on keyboards, but rich in guitar,sax and drumming.

Yes, after some listening you can note, that music is a bit more melodic, lighter, not as dark ( in fact -not dark at all), with some jazzy arrangements. So - a bit different from original Floyd music, but potentially could be their another album. And you feel mostly Waters absence ( mainly in sound and record atmosphere).

I think that album is nearest Floydian work of all ex-PF members solo albums ever, and strongly recommended to all classic period PF fans.