WISH YOU WERE HERE

"Wish You Were Here" is the 9th full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The album was released through Harvest/EMI in September 1975. After the huge commercial and artistic success of their last album "Dark Side of the Moon (1973)", Pink Floyd released an album that in many ways are different from "Dark Side of the Moon" but also have some similarities with that album. In keeping with it´s predecessor "Wish You Were Here" features a couple of guest appearances. Roy Harper sings lead on "Have a Cigar", The Blackberries sings choir vocals, and Dick Parry plays saxophone on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6 - 9"

The pairing of progressive rock experimentation and more commercial inclined pop sensibility that was initiated on "Dark Side of the Moon" continues on "Wish You Were Here". If you take a song like the title track, it´s basically a more clever version of a commercial pop tune. If on the other hand you take the grand 13:40 minutes long opening track "Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part One" you´ll find plenty of progressive moments, so "Wish You Were Here" features a bit of both worlds. Both mentioned tracks are by the way gorgeous and represent Pink Floyd when they are strongest. The eerie synth laden "Welcome to the Machine" also falls into that catagory. Part two of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" which closes the album is great too but the Roy Harper led blues rock song "Have a Cigar" could have been more interesting to my ears.

"Wish You Were Here" overall features some great vocals and instrumental performances. In those years Pink Floyd really understood how to soothe the listener´s ears with laidback and pleasant yet still intricate sounds. I´d mention David Gilmour´s guitar soloes as an example of that. They are incredibly well played and provides great emotional impact, but everything else being played are also well balanced.

The sound production is near perfect. Clean, powerful and pleasant on the ears. It might be lacking a bit of organic warmth in places compared to previous releases but it´s still a greatly enjoyable production. "Wish You Were Here" is all in all another high quality release by Pink Floyd. It´s not perfect in my opinion, but still spectacular enough to warrant a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating.