THE WALL

The Wall is one one of Pink Floyd's most popular album, together with Dark Side of The Moon and Wish You Were Here. The precesor to The Wall, Animals, was the beginning of Pink Floyd being controlled by Roger Waters. The three albums under Waters' lead barely contain songs composed by other members than himself. The Wall is a concept album, it's a story about rocksinger Pink, the story is partly autobiographic to Roger Waters and partly fiction. The Wall had some very impressive live shows, during the first half of the show, a big wall was build, at the end the wall collapsed, this also was an idea of Roger Waters. During the In The Flesh tour (Animals tour) Roger Waters got annoyed by screaming fans who didn't seem to really want to listen to the songs, the wall was some sort of "payback".

The first song, "In The Flesh?" has a very powerful riff. The song opens with the softly spoken words "we came in?", the final song of the album closes with the words "Isn't this were". In The Flesh starts out with distrorted guitar and evil organ. After a while Roger is heard singing and the riff repeats. A very powerful and exciting opener.

The second song is "The Thin Ice", which discusses the birth and the first years of Pink's life. The song starts out with a quite simple chord progression and David singing. After a little while Roger does his vocal part and a powerful solo is heard. The Thin Ice is not as good and strong as In The Flesh, but is a very nice song.

The third song is "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 1". The song is autobiographical to Roger, in the song Pink misses his father, who died in war, and he starts the building of his wall. The song has some delayed, trippy guitar playing and has a powerful chorus. It's not a special song, but it's nice.

Next is "Happiest Days Of Our Lives", a song about teachers. This song also is autobiographical and describes how Pink is being abused by teachers. The song can be seen as an interlude between Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 1 and Pt. 2. Though being very short it's a powerful and fun song.

The big hit single "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2" is next. Just as the previous song it's about teachers abusing Pink, which causes him to further build a wall around him. The song is very accesible and doesn't really interest me at all, the guitar solo is very good though.

Next is "Mother", which is about Pink's over-protective mother. In the lyrics are lines such as "Mother is gonna make all of your nightmares come true", which makes it clear Pink doesn't like being over-protected. The song has a very catchy guitar solo and overall is a pretty good song.

Next is "Goodbye Blue Sky", a very dark song about the death of Pink's father. The song has dark acoustic guitar playing and great vocals, Pink continues building his wall.

"Empty Spaces" is a short song about Pink wanting to fill the empty spaces in his wall, to be completely away from everbody else. The guitar playing in this song is powerful which characterizes the song.

The first of David Gilmour's contributions on this album is "Young Lust", a straight on rock song. The song has a catchy riff and a powerful chorus, also the bluesy guitar solo is very good.

Next is "One Of My Turns", which is about Pink's relationship with his wife, that is not going very well. The song starts with a telephone conversation with segues into a typical Roger Waters Song, very much like he would later do in The Final Cut. After the quiet vocal part the song gets more bombastic and ends with a short and simple guitar solo, I like this song a lot.

"Don't Leave Me Now" is about Pink's wife leaving him. The song is very dark and just as One Of My Turns very much like the next album, The Final Cut. Also, this song starts ou quiet and gets more bombastic later on. I really like it.

Don't Leave Me Now segues into "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 3", were Pink completes his wall. It's the shortest of the three parts, but is the most "rock" of them all.

The first disc ends with "Goodbye Cruel World", a song with a simple bassline, it's simply menth as the outro of disc one, nothing special.

Disc two opens with the fantastic "Hey You", which maybe is the best of the album. It starts with high octave arpeggio's and David's soft vocals. After two verses the strong mid section comes. It's a guitar solo based around a distorted riff which sounds like the "We don't need no education" line of Another Brick In The Wall Pt.2. The solo is followed by a bridge, and the high octave riff is heard again after that. Hey You is really a marvelous song, one of the best of the album.

Next is "Is There Anybody Out There?", which start out with Pink asking if there is anybody out there, while he is completely isolated by his wall. After the vocal part an acoustic guitar solo is played, the song is very haunting and pretty good.

"Nobody Home" is next, it's a gentle, poppy, but still kind of dark, song. Nobody Home is in the same style as One Of My Turns and Don't Leave Me Now, very Final Cut like.

"Vera" is a very short song which also shows the early signs of The Final Cut, the vocal part the song starts out with is one we will hear several times on The Final Cut. Vera is a nice, short song.

Another shorty, "Bring The Boys Back Home". The song is very bombastic and Roger is heard with his shivering screaming vocals. Near the end of the song sounds of earlier song are heard, such as the teacher and the is there anybody out there line.

It segues into "Comfortably Numb", another contribution by David Gilmour, the song is very famous for it's two amazing guitar solo's, especialy the second one is very impressive. In the storyline, Pink gets ill, and needs medicines. The song is very mellow and bombastic at the same time, it's a very epic piece.

After having had the medicines Pink starts to trip, at this time he already is a big rockstar, and while tripping he has to perform. "The Show Must Go On" describes this moment, it's one of my least favorite songs of the album.

"In The Flesh" is next, a different version of the first song of the first disc, with different lyrics and slightly longer. At this point Pink is really tripping and he thinks he is a nazi commander. The song is basically the same as In The Flesh? apart from some slight changes.

"Run Like Hell", David's third contribution is next. Pink tells his audience to run to the streets and start a riot. The song has some delayed guitar just as Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 1 and powerful vocals, it's not a bad song at all...the only problem is that I don't think it really fits on the album with the other songs, which doesn't make it a great moment for me.

"Waiting For The Worms" and the very short "Stop" is next, Pink realizes what he doing is absolutely wrong and he doesn't want to go on. Stop is the shortest song Pink Floyd has ever made, only lasting thirty seconds. Waiting for the worms is very powerful, it has some different parts, like the intro which is sung by David, the megaphone vocals and the riff which is nearly the same as the mid section of Hey You. Waiting For The Worms are a nice pair of songs.

"The Trial" is next. Pink wants to get rid of his wall and joins a trial in is head, in which he realizes that the wall he's made was a big mistake. In the song people like Pink's mother and the teachers are telling Pink what they think of him. The song is sung by Roger Waters, accompanied by an orchestra and later in the song heavily distorted guitar, this makes the song pretty epic.

"Outside The Wall" is the final song, in which Pink destroys his wall. The song is very gentle and ends with the words "isn't this were we...".

Of course, because this is a concept album, you shouldn't just judge the songs on their own, cause it's in fact one big experience. It's like a movie, it's a lovely expierence if you watch the whole thing and follow the storyline, watching the scenes all apart doesn't really do what it's purposed for. The album is not as great as most of the 70's Pink Floyd albums and The Final Cut, but is still very good.

It does deserve more than only three stars, so I give the album four stars, the fourth star being a tiny one, however.