Pink Floyd Album Tournament, Round 10

Wish you Were Here, easily for me. It's got more music. The Wall is good too, anyway.

Much as I love The Wall with it's fabulous atmospherics, Wish You Were Here is just a classic and pretty much unbeatable.   

WYWH

The Wall

The-time-is-now wrote: The Wall ! Can't believe it's losing !

In Progarchives Wish you were here was bound to win. Perhaps even against Dark Side, we'll see.

Wish You Were Here is a bit less comercial than the Wall so my choice is clear.

Ok, so what's worse lyrically. RW bleating about S.o.Y.c.D. Barrett (who turnnd up at the mixing of his requiem...) Or  The Wall where the missus, the teacher, his Dad, the judge who fined him five pounds for stealing a policeman's helmet on boat race night and some groupies...

I do find WYWH works lyrically If I don't consider Waters' lyrical intent (anti record company, Syd sadness) as it works brilliantly in an all encompassing way - he managed to engage a broad apectrum of listeners in relating their interpretations / experiences.

Muscially WTWH is sublime.

The Wall. Now if you scan the lyrics the whole thing works as an 80 minute single piece that manages cohesion and considerable variety. It uses non  rock (Vera, Bring The Boys Back Home) which is very courageous in a poular music environment. It has obscure irony (In The Flesh?) and less obscure irony (In The Flesh) which some took as gospel. It has a lot of variety, it's conceptual, has lots of high points. It is also another record / music bix moan. How tough life is as a rock star with groupies drugs and toilets. My heart bleeds Rog.

(Sorry folks I really cannot stand that predominantly 70s trend (BOC, Kiss, Floyd and whoever else writing about "the road" and doing what they do as if that's a bad thing. Work in an office or McDoanld's and then find something to whine about...)

Comfortably Numb is the Floyd's signature tune. Considering it's drug and power obsessed nature I can't help but think of DG at Live 8 ironically arm waving along with the crowd singing along as though it's a nostalgically schmaltzy ballad. Apparently DG dislikes showbiz, according tro interview comments in 1974
anyway.

WYWH was really the last musically collaborative effort from PF. Absence of being is the theme for one, while alienation despite the presence and because of the absence of family and friends in the other. It's going to come down to Shine On Versus Comfortably Numb.

Thankfully voting here is confidential. (Unlike in poiltics when yo vote your name is matched against a number on an attendance register so your govt can find out later for whom you voted.) Whoops. Cat out of the bag. Tell Rog. It's gotta be a better topic than Pros  And Cons...

The Wall is not prog rock. Only the conceptual thing fits in this format. That not means that is not good. But there are too many fillers there. Some stuff is excellent as Confortably numb or In the Flesh.

WYWH, no doubt in that.

Filler? 

10. One of my turns (1:33)
11. Don't leave me now (4:22)

2. Is there anybody out there! (2:40) 
3. Nobody home (3:25)
4. Vera (1:38)
5. Bring the boys back home (0:50)

8. In the flesh (4:16) (again) 
10. Waiting for the worms (3:56)
11. Stop (0:34)
12. The trial (5:16)
13. Outside the wall (1:42)

Without doing the math, that looks like 25-30 minutes.