PINK FLOYD

Review Nº 896

"The Wall Singles" is a compilation album of Pink Floyd that was released in 2011. It comprises a series of six songs of Pink Floyd that were taken from their original eleventh studio album "The Wall", which was released in 1979. The six songs were also released on three singles. The first single comprises "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" as the A side and "One Of My Turns" as the B side. The second single comprises "Run Like Hell" as the A side and "Don't Leave Me Now" as the B side. The third single comprises "Comfortably Numb" as the A side and "Hey You" as the B side.

So, "The Wall Singles" has six tracks. All the songs that appeared on this compilation album were written and composed by Roger Waters except "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell" which were written and composed by the duo Roger Waters and David Gilmour. The first track "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" makes part of the track "Another Brick In The Wall", which is the title of three songs on the album, set to variations of the same basic theme subtitled "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1)" with the working title "Reminiscing", "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" with the working title "Education" and "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3)" with the working title "Drugs". "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" is a protest song against rigid schooling rules in general and boarding schools in the UK in particular. This is one of the band's most famous songs. It has the chorus of "Hey, teacher! Leave the kids alone!" and it also features schoolchildren singing on this song. The second track "One Of My Turns" is a song split into three distinct portions, a fragment dialogue, a quieter lyrical portion and a loud lyrical portion. In the song Pink, the main character of the story, invites a groupie into his room after learning of his wife's affair. It shows him in real trouble. With the music barely audible behind Waters' quiet vocals, the song laments his wife's infidelity and his inability to connect with a groupie he's brought back to his hotel room, before a sudden crescendo turns into him lashing out of the groupie with his singing, before the final plea of "why are you running away?" that shows his desperation. The third track "Comfortably Numb" is one of the band's most famous songs and is renowned especially for its guitar solos in the middle and in the end of the song. It provides one of the best examples of Gilmour's and Waters' vocal interplay and leads into the incredible "Is there anybody out there?", which has one line repeated four times, and shows that Pink now is finally behind the wall and he is now looking for help, or at least comfort, to reconnect with the real world again. Apart from the lyrics, this is possibly the most haunting song on "The Wall". The fourth track "Hey You" is the first song after Pink has completed his wall with him pleading for people to open their hearts to him, which is something that he couldn't do for the others. Combined with a great guitar solo, this is one of the best stand alone songs from that album, and it also includes "the worms", that eat away at Pink, driving him yet further into his insanity. Along with "Comfortably Numb", it provides one of the best examples of Gilmour's and Waters' interplays as a duo of composers. The fifth track "Run Like Hell" was written from the point of view of the anti-hero Pink, an alienated and bitter rock star, during a hallucination in which he becomes a fascist and dictator and turns a concert audience into an angry mob. The song was played live even after Waters left the group, and has the same sort of deep disco groove as "Another Brick In The Wall", and has Pink bellowing orders to his fans, demanding that they follow him in his new found fascist ways, while sound effects in the background include screaming, suggesting a genuine evil present in the rock star. The sixth track "Don't Leave Me Now" shows that Pink has discovered his wife's infidelity. He invites a groupie to his hotel room during his tour and destroys the hotel room driving her away forever. Pink falls into a depression and despite the dysfunctionality of his marriage, the song features him singing to his wife, urging her not to leave him, even as, almost in the same breath, he threatens to put her through a shredder. The whole song is sung in an emotional and fragile tone, over quiet guitar and piano chords, symbolising Pink's further breakdown. Like many of the other songs on "The Wall", Pink seems to think that the world has built the wall for him, ignoring his own actions and his role in doing this.

Conclusion: First of all, I must confess that "The Wall Singles" was my fifth review about "The Wall" to Progarchives. I've already reviewed "The Wall", "Is There Anybody Out There?" and "The Wall ? Live In Berlin" the live CD and the DVD. On the other hand, I also saw the "Pink Floyd ? The Wall" film. So, I'm perfectly comfortable writing about "The Wall". In relation to "The Wall Singles", I reaffirm my opinion about compilations of progressive groups. I always wrote that, in general, I'm against compilations about progressive bands, especially when they have to do with conceptual albums, which is the case of this compilation. A concept album must be heard as a whole, as I demonstrated with the approach in my review. So, what rating can we give to a compilation like this? Since "The Wall" is a conceptual album, it seems to me absurd to release a compilation with only some of their tracks. So, this is for collectors and fans only.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Given the precarious psychic conditions of Syd Barrett that worsened day by day, the remaining members of Pink Floyd had to recruit David Gilmour to reinforce the band and finally replace him in the middle of 1968, and it is thus that the main creative force of the debutante "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", ends up participating tangentially in the elaboration and publication of "A Saucerful of Secrets" (1968) the second album of the Englishmen.

A work in which the recomposed band is in search of its identity, immersed in psychedelic landscapes and surpassing the planetary limits, as with the esoteric "Let There Be More Light" and the enveloping bass of Roger Waters and the final guitar solo of Gilmour, with the intriguing and hypnotic "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" whispered by Waters over the instrumental curtain that the keyboards, xylophones and vibraphones of Wright (great protagonist of the album) and the persistent and orientalized percussion of Nick Mason build, and especially with the experimental "A Saucerful of Secrets", an extensive sonorous transgression divided in four segments and impregnated with surreal cosmic divagations and whose celestial keyboards of the last section give it a touch of emotional grandiloquence.

And those astral atmospheres also find earthly backwaters to support melodies such as the nostalgic "Remember a Day" which includes an interesting slide guitar from Barrett in one of his sporadic appearances, Waters' first approach to the war theme with the squeaky "Corporal Clegg" and the use of the almost satirical whistle of the kazoo, and also the narcotized acoustic beauty of "See-Saw".

Finally "Jugband Blues," one of Barrett's last creative flashes, recorded much earlier than the rest of the work, is the closing statement that combines the luminosity and mental instability of a diamond that stopped shining much earlier than it should have.

Although "A Saucerful of Secrets" did not reach the heights of popularity and recognition of the great albums of the band (#9 in the UK charts and without figure in the US charts), it is placed as the transitional album and the platform on which Pink Floyd would begin to build their later proposals.

3/3.5 stars

After touring the London underground circuit since 1966 with legendary lysergic and multi-colored presentations at the mythical UFO club (one of the preferred venues for such purposes) and with the singles "Arnold Lane" and "See Emily Play" as initial letters of introduction, Pink Floyd released "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967), their debut album and the only one with Syd Barrett at the helm, accompanied by the still secondary Roger Waters on bass, Richard Wright and Nick Mason on keyboards and percussion respectively.

Without all the production that would later be one of the hallmarks of the Englishmen, the album presents an original proposal dominated by psychedelia and astral voyages that Barrett's creative and unstable mind used to draw, with tracks like the emblematic "Astronomy Domine" and the journey through the planetary confines with Morse keys included and an interesting guitar riff by the singer, with the note of sanity that Wright's jazzy piano brings to the instrumental and wandering "Pow R. Toc H.", and with "Interestellar Overdrive", another cosmic lucubration extended to infinity.

Maintaining that permanent and impregnating psychedelic halo, the work is also tinged with delicate and even candid folk elements that the singer's oscillating personality developed from his interest in literature, especially children's literature, such as the nostalgic "Matilda Mother" inspired by Hilaire Belloc's "Cautionary Tales", the fabled "The Gnome" influenced by "The Lord of the Rings", and the baroque sadness of "The Scarecrow", themes that, although rudimentary, show a very attractive sense of complementarity and unity of the album.

To add an additional mystical component, the hypnotic "Chapter 24" refers to the "I Ching", the book of changes of the millenary Chinese philosophy, and the conclusive "Bike" makes it clear that folk and disturbing bizarre experimentations could be united in a single track.

The erratic behavior and disconnected from reality that wandered through hidden mental paths aggravated by the consumption of hallucinogens, made unviable the continuity of Barrett in the band and after the difficult promotional tour of the iconic and successful "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (# 6 in the UK charts and # 13 in the US) in mid-1968 in the United States, he was replaced by David Gilmour.

3.5 stars

Pink Floyd mixed by Steven Wilson, the prog mastermind who reveres them as much as his own musical DNA. The ultimate version of unbridled experimental rock from Floyd's psychedelic heyday. Dialogue and other interviews have been removed to delve deeper into the musical crater. The film's restoration is handled by Lana Topham, resulting in a striking visual.

'Pompeii Intro' with a stronger, Wilsonian vibe, I would say, is definitely a Steven mix. 'Echoes - Part 1' from 1971, the two-part 'meddle' with its nightclub vibe around the 8-minute mark, and a souvenir from my cousin, Pink, is also a memory box. 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' for the ultimate apocalyptic psychedelic surge, the clear, pervasive sound; purists will feel like they're hearing a new album, while fans will note the perfection of the original sound. 'A Saucerful of Secrets' for the famous views of the volcano, the flow of living lava against a backdrop of Nick's eruptive pads, with the piano seeming out of tune and the guitar mimicking a plane in distress. The final Olympian, Pompeian ascent.

'One of These Days' and the check of the mix work with the drums in front, behind, and on the sides, accompanying the keyboard above and below, the perfect omniphonic joy. 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' and the second personal memory, my essay in French with a teacher who let loose a bit by revealing herself, proposing the album as a dissertation topic. The opportunity to regress to Atmos 45 years later with this track as oriental as possible. 'Mademoiselle Nobs' as an interlude à la 'Seamus' with canine blues to settle down before returning to 'Echoes - Part 2' and its crows and sinister atmosphere; It's on these more psychedelic, soaring tracks that we truly appreciate the instrumental purity.

Note three alternative and unedited tracks on the CD and vinyl editions: 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' in a more explosive mode, 'A Saucerful of Secrets' in an experimental extension mode, and 'Echoes - Part 1' in a potential radio edit, just to dream a little more.

A pure moment of regressive nostalgia that would make you want to upgrade to a proper stereo system to appreciate current musical technologies, erasing the blur and the breath of recording to retain only the spirit of the musicians in action. A testament to today's youth.

"More" and "Obscured by Clouds" (Pink Floyd's other soundtrack album) are often regarded as side notes to the band's primary development as represented on their true studio albums - and consequently not worthy of the same consideration as the albums proper. I couldn't disagree More, no pun intended.

Obscured by Clouds and More represent a critical component of the Floyd sound that would emerge whole by the early seventies. Whereas the 1968-'71 albums proper are harder and more psychedelic/progressive in their orientation, the two soundtracks are largely acoustic (with some striking exceptions) with strong melodies and great singing (individually and in harmony). Importantly the material on More (and Obscured by Clouds) displays that subtly menacing edge that Floyd's peak work is known for. In fact that combination of a soft melodic veneer with a cold, menacing undercurrent is - I would argue - the essence of Pink Floyd and is demonstrated much better on the two soundtracks than on any of their pre-1973 or post-1975 albums.

The true songs and instrumentals here are all outstanding. The playing is great, the arrangements are really enjoyable and the whole album sounds like a live band recording - not as much like a studio recording. This also has quite a bit of great guitar work from Gilmour.

Strongly recommended for early and mid-seventies Floyd fans. Truthfully you can only listen to Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon so many times before getting tired of them - here are two albums that share many of those qualities that you've never heard once. 4.0

I've been listening to this album since I first bought it for 50p, in 1974, from a class mate in school, when I was 14 years old. Sadly, that original 1973 pressing is long gone. I think that I sold it on to another mate around1978/79 for £1. Nowadays, I've got a very nice 1977 vinyl pressing which still sounds fantastic, as well as a 1994 digital remaster on CD and both the 2016 remaster and the 2023 50th Anniversary remaster on vinyl. I've also got another digital version downloaded from Apple Music onto my phone. My 1977 reissue is probably the best sounding version of all the versions that I've got. I've consistently maintained that this is probably the most cohesive and coherent album that any rock/pop artiste has ever created. From start to finish, it's musicality, electronic invention, melody and social relevance remains unmatched. The manner in which it flows, from soft to loud, from slow to fast, from vocal to instrumental, and all else in between, was never achieved before and hasn't been since, by any other artiste. (Several have approached this level of perfection but none have ever actually reached this zenith - e.g. the utterly magnificent The Lamb Lies... by Genesis, CTTE by YES, Aqualung by Jethro Tull and perhaps a few others, despite their brilliance, still remain in the shadow of DSOTM). As well as all that, the time period (early 1970's) just happened to be the perfect time for this album to be unleashed upon the world. If it had been released in the 1990's or in the 2000's etc, it possibly wouldn't have had the same impact on the world. But ironically, because of it's quality and because it was so successful in the 1970's, that has meant that it has endured up to now in 2025. This is an album which, I suspect, will never go out of fashion or sound tired. It will endure and will still be listened to for a long, long time to come.

The second Pink Floyd live release in less than ten years, Pulse is a marginal step above the overproduced Delicate Sound of Thunder. The recordings and performances have more room to breathe which is a welcome change of pace, and the cover art is very unique. However, like its predecessor, it struggles with a mixed bag of a setlist that suffers whenever the band tries to tackle anything from The Wall and forward. Gilmour as a vocalist can't match the rage and fury of Roger Waters, so when he tries to take on tracks like "Hey You" and "Run Like ****" they lose the paranoia and danger which makes them such powerful songs and just end up sounding way to sedate. There's also the major push of material from the lackluster Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason albums. Understandable Gilmour wanted the focus to be what the current lineup of the band was accomplishing which some of it was pretty good, but those albums have never been amongst the Floyd's greatest work.

The big selling point for this album at the time was that it contained for the first time a full-album length performance of the iconic Dark Side of the Moon. And to their credit, they deliver a pretty decent facsimile of that classic album. Sure, it a bit glossier than the original 70s recording, but on the whole decent enough. However, with the trickling out of high-fidelity live tapes of the same material being performed by the Floyd in their original mid-70s peak by the definitive lineup on recent reissues of Dark Side and Wish You Were Here 5.0 One of my favorite live performances.

Definitely not Floyd's best, but its musical redemption from the "Final Cut" and "Momentary Lapse of Reason" not bad considering that by this point their top songwriter was long-gone and their second best was trying to sue them dry. Some of the songs are actually very good, and none are terrible - that aspect alone seperates this album from A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Marooned and Cluster One, both instrumental, feature some great guitar work from David Gilmour, and High Hopes and Lost For Words are solid lyrically as well as musically. But, as is always the case with the post-psychedelic Floyd, the music needs the sweet-and-sour balance of Gilmour and Waters to stand up. In this case it is Gilmour's blandness which rules the day, and while this is more accessible for most listeners than Roger Waters' whining, it doesn't make for a classic album. If you have all the work from Floyd's golden era and are looking to expand your collection, then this would be one place to start. But don't go judging the band on this release alone. 4.0 the quartet was done by this moment in time but make one last hoorah.

What is there left to say about this masterpiece that hasn't already been said? It's incredible to think that this album was such a massive success, especially when compared to today's popular records. Could an album this ambitious still become a cultural phenomenon today? Unfortunately, I don't think so.

The strength of Dark Side of the Moon doesn't lie in a single track but in the harmony and seamless flow of all its pieces. The only real break in this journey comes with Money, which I find to be the weakest track. Yes, it's catchy, but its style and length make it stand out too much from the rest.

Aside from that, the album slowly immerses us in an almost astral voyage. It's a contemplative record, one that takes its time to convey a wide range of emotions. Probably the best album to unwind with after a stressful day!

Pink Floyd's 'Atom Heart Mother" made in 1970 is perhaps their most progressive record. The title song suite on the first side could easily be categorized as avant garde-prog. On this track the band enhances its psychedelic song- writing with the soulful guitar of David Gilmour, the beautiful Hammond organs by Richard Wright, a layer of orchestration (mostly copper), a very modern choir performance in the middle section and one of the most psychedelic recording sounds ever. The orchestration by Ron Geesin sounds modern/atonal and fits in perfectly with the abstract sound of the music. Like most epics the songs has a dark/horror section in which a bomb seems to explode. After it the band launches a section of studio manipulations that allows them to create an explosion of parts that are fading in and out. More compelling than any tape manipulations ever done by Zappa. The ending section of the 'Atom Heart Mother' combines the band, the orchestra, the philip Jones brass ensemble and the choir in order to maximize on its main theme; not unlike the beautiful ending of 'Tubular Bells'. Its such a journey to listen to this. This Pink Floyd masterpiece has such a distinct atmosphere that there is simply almost no recording that sounds anything like it. I only used it once as a reference in a review, for the Italian 'Il Paese dei Belocchi' album, which I can also warmly recommend. I also like the fact that not even all Pink Floyd fans seem to like Atom Heart Mother that much, whereas this is not at all like their post-Meddle smooth recordings. Instead, this album is recommended to listener of psychedelic (acid) music, eclectic prog and Avantgarde-prog

"If" is a nice English folk-style song with a hint of Pink Floyd vibes. "Summer '68" and "Fat Old Sun" are also beautiful, sweet melodies that continue to evoke the pastoral vibe of this album. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is the worst track on here. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, but it's a little tedious and doesn't seem very planned out. Plus, the breakfast noises are sort of off-putting for the casual listener. Anyway, the last track is worthy of existence, but probably not worthy of being on this excellent album. The first four tracks are better than Pink Floyd's first two psychedelic albums, Meddle, Wish You Were Here, Ummagumma, and any post-The Wall albums, mainly because the first four tracks evoke such a unique mood and stick to it. With the last track, it's about the same as WYWH, Meddle, the debut album, and the sophomore album. 5.0 definitely one of their trade mark albums, and along with Animals both are my favorite offerings by Pink Floyd. Lulabelle the third looks like she likes the album too.