Pink Floyd - The Wall
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Free Music Notes for The Wall
Free Music Review: A Masterpiece.
Hit: 5 Stars
The Wall is still quite an album, for a number of reasons:#1: It Does Have Something To Say: This record dates from a time when serious rock musicians were well educated and constructed sophisticated, if misguided, arguments with their music. No matter that, as we grow older, we might think their arguments are wrong. at least they had arguments. Nowadays, the only thing that passes for ascerbic social commentary is Marshall Mathers. Keep it up, Eminem - you're our only hope!
#2: Yes, It's Excruciatingly Self-Indulgent, But So Is A Lot Of Really Important Art: No-one rapped Vincent Van Gogh for his stifling self-pity when he cut his ear off and painted his own portrait with a bandage on, did they? Did we smugly cackle at Tracey Emin's found-object sculpture of her own unmade bed? (Actually, we did, and rightly so. But Tracey is no Vincent Van Gogh, nor is she a Roger Waters).
#3: It's Desolate But Strangely Beautiful: Well, not even strangely beautiful; in some places, just flat-out beautiful: The luscious major progression over the choruses in Comfortably Numb, and *that* guitar solo; Water's plaintive lyrics, plaintively sung, in Nobody Home; the icy, barren angles of Don't Leave Me Now. It's affecting. It's hauinting. And, at least when you're seventeen, it *means* something about your own life which nobody else on the planet understands.
#4: It Doesn't Sound Like Anything Else. Not even any other Floyd record sounds like it. It's completely unmistakeable. Unique. Except for the bit that sounds like Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger.
#5: It's Funny. Yes, Intentionally Funny: In The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, we hear cane strike posterior,.... from the owner of the bottom. The "oh my god what a fabulous room!" routine. The Trial - a witty (and very well drawn) caricature of Lloyd Webber.
#6: An Axe-Head's Delight: All students of the electric guitar should own this record. In Another Brick In The Wall (Part II), Mother, Hey You, and Comfortably Numb, you have five of the greatest guitar solos ever to land up embedded in polyvinyl. Doff your hat to David Gilmour (who also wrote and scored many of the achingly beautiful bits (see #3 above)).
#7: It's Knowing. On In The Flesh, the Floyd pretends to be a band pretending to be the Floyd. And the record ends with a truncated sentence... which is completed in the run-in grooves at the beginning. All frightfully self-reflexive. But that's all jolly good fun, in a pop record.
And if that weren't enough, even though it was an expensive double album The Wall managed, in the straitened financial times of 1979, to sell 17 million copies.
Now, can seventeen million Floyd-heads be wrong?
Free Music Review: Cranky Reviewer, your defense was weak! THE WALL: EXCELLENT!
Hit: 5 Stars
(...) Now about the album.The Wall is a smart portrayal of politics and current events taking place in the world at the time of it's release. Roger Waters, the main writer of The Wall, coproduced an incredible concept of the story of an unhappy boy (Pink) who grows up without a father, goes to a school where teachers torment the students, becomes a depressed rock star, has a bad relationship with his wife, and so on.
"Another Brick in the Wall (Parts 1, "Happiest Days of Our Lives", 3, and 4)" is one of the biggest hits on the album, and tells about Pink's school. "We don't need no education" is from "Another Brick in the Wall" in case you're wondering, since it is a Classic Rock radio station favourite. "Mother" is a nice song, which tells about Pink's parents. "Goodbye Blue Sky" is also a nice song, but pretty gloomy. "Empty Spaces/Young Lust" is my favorite song on The Wall, and is sung by David Gilmour. "Hey You" and "Is There Anybody Out There?" are creepy songs that I like. Note: CD2 is the best CD of The Wall, and has more complete songs than CD1. "Comfortably Numb" has a great guitar solo by David Gilmour, who co-wrote the song. "Run Like Hell" is excellent. "Waiting for the Worms" is creepy. And finally, "The Trial" concludes everything in Pink's life when everyone who made Pink's life miserable and tormenting all come to Pink's trial. This song's lyrics are very "crazy".
Overall, The Wall is one of Pink Floyd's Top 5 albums. It is arguably not the best one, though.
One con about The Wall is that you can't select shuffle or random on your listening source because most tracks are not complete songs. In other words, most tracks converge into each other. There is a way to help this, though. Put The Wall into your computer, use certain types of music software, and converge multiple tracks from The Wall into a single track. One thing you can do is combine Another Brick in the Wall Parts 1, 2, and 3, and Happiest Days of Our Lives, therefore creating Another Brick in the Wall complete version. This can go for all Pink Floyd albums. You can even combine every track in progression on The Dark Side of the Moon and make it as one file (make one file with every song of the album on it in order).
The Wall gets 5 stars, and rightly so, being the well-written, complex, and musical-genius of an album it is. (...)
I, personally, hope that whoever is reading this review buys The Wall, or already has it. It is a very good album to own.
I hope you liked my review.
BOTTOM LINE: The Wall, a near-masterpiece, is an album that should be in every household, especially if you are a rock enthusiast or Pink Floyd follower.
-Tabucky
Free Music Review: Epic and incredibly Flawed
Hit: 5 Stars
Soft barely discernible notes twinkling in an almost sinister childish melody, suddenly loud anthemic guitar chords are played. This is how Pink Floyds "The Wall" opens, a rock opera that is along with "Dark Side Of The Moon" widely considered to be Pink Floyd's best album. Is it really Pink Floyd's best album, as many People here make it out to be? No its not, in fact its not even one of their better albums.
Why is it that this doesn't rank among their better albums? I used to think it was because their usual spacey psychedelic sound isn't as prominent on this album, that's not it though. I mean Genesis went for a different approach on "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", and yet it is probably Genesis's best overall album. The problem is that Pink Floyd had decided that the lyrics were more important than the music. Really it was Rogers and David's fault. By this time, both of their egos had swollen, and they both had decided to kick Rick Wright out of the band. It is the fact that Rick Wright was absent for over half of the album is what really brings it down, as his work with the keyboards is absolutely amazing. So is the music bad? Well because this is Pink Floyd, it is definitely not bad. It's got a lot of weak spots, but there are also some absolutely mind blowing moments. Comfortably Numb is a beautiful and mysterious song. Hey You is dark and quite eerie. The Trial is really weird but is also really good. Is There Anybody Out There? is haunting with its finger picked acoustic melody and light orchestration. Goodbye Blue Sky is perhaps even more chilling also featuring an acoustic finger picked melody, and some stunning synth-work. A lot of the album features an orchestra, and I have to say as with Atom Heart Mother the orchestra goes really well with the music.
So what's so great about these lyrics that Roger Waters felt were more important than the actual music? The lyrics tell a story and the story is a mixture of the story of Roger Waters and the tragic descent into madness of their original guitarist/singer/songwriter/frontman Syd Barrett. Of course there are a lot of fictional elements added in(neither of the aforementioned men ever got up on stage and called everyone in the audience out racially, neither man was or is a Nazi etc.) The lyrics and concept on this album are better any other thought up by Waters, and you always discover something new in the story with each listen.
So is The Wall worth buying, of course it is all Pink Floyd Albums(discounting AMLOR) are worth buying at some point, Who knows you may even end up considering it to be Pink Floyds best album.
Free Music Review: The most magnificent masterpiece from music history
Hit: 5 Stars
The Wall is not just an album, it's life story. That's the reason why The Wall is timeless. Touch so many aspects about human life ( isolation, lonelyness, sorrow, hapiness, lies, madness, etc ) that it's the most powerful and touching album ever made.
It's not a weird thing why this album has been the most succesful one among the Rock albums, and the second one in the music history ( the first one is Michael Jackson ).
The Wall throws the heart out of your chest, makes you to think about your own life and about other ones.
how many albums do you have on which each track is made for the the next number ?. Most of today's music is ephimeral, but The Wall has survived for 25 years and it will keep doing timeless.
Most of bands nowadays must release short albums, radio frienly, with 11 or 12 songs containing at least 6 filler numbers. No connection, no meanings, nothing. Just pure commercial crap.
But inside The Wall you'll find an experience, those kinds of albums you must listen from the first second until the last one. I mean, even from the very first second ! ( "isn't this...when we came here". Try to listen those words, if you're astute you'll realise what I'm talking about ).
Moreover, not just in the lyrics you'll find connections and relationships. The music is played tighly, and you'll find a lot of messages on it. For example, the album starts with a few seconds of "outside the wall" !!. There're a lot of voices before "comfortably numb" including the teacher ( appeared at the end of "another brick in the wall part II ), the girl ( appeared at "one of my turns", etc. Even you'll find "echoes" guitars on "is there anybody out there" !!. That's makes the album so exciting and interesting. You'll find a lot of secret messages on it, unlike boring and predictable today's music.
I know you've listen a lot "Another Brick In The Wall Part II", "Comfortably Numb", "Run Like Hell" and played a lot that classic guitar from "Is There Anybody Out There". But The Wall is so fantastic that makes you forget the previous songs while you're listening to the next ones. That's amazing, keeping you inside the main history told in this album.
This album is a book of life, a life filled with extraordinary music and lyrics.
THE MOST MAGNIFICENT MASTERPIECE FROM MUSIC HISTORY
PS: I really want to see someday Pink Floyd The Wall Live DVD ( there's enough footage filmed both on 1980 and 1981 !!!!! )
Free Music Review: Not Pink Floyd's best, but still deserving of 5 stars...
Hit: 5 Stars
The Wall, while not being on par with such Pink Floyd classics as Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, is still a beautifully and masterfully written and recorded record. Like DSOTM, the Wall is more of a concept album than a collection of singles. Songs lead into eachother, and when the entire project comes together, you get at least a small sense of a story in your mind (that is if you are capable of paying attention to the lyrics throughout). For those who don't know, the basic idea is of a musician who builds a wall around himself to keep from being hurt, both physically and emotionally. At least, that's a very outline of the idea. Basically, it appears the story travels through the artists chjildhood, through to his prominence as a performer, and the point where it would appear (judging by lyrical content) goes crazy as a loon.Despite the mildly disturbing subject matter, the album retains so much integrity and beauty throughout. Only during the last three tracks does this coherence start to waver, with tracks that are quite operatic in nature. Maybe for some, but those last couple tracks can be a pain for me to listen to depending on the mood I'm in.
The lyrics, as already mentioned, are quite descriptive and beautiful, always adding to the story, and rarely, if ever taking away. The backing keyboards on many tracks add to the story as well, and Doug Gilmour's guitar playing is on par with any of his other works. Fantastic use of soloing methods keeps the album fresh throughout.
Definetely not the band's best, but close to the top (check Dark Side for the best of PF), and definetely worth picking up if you are curious about the band. It provides some insight into the band's tyle of storylike albums that can then be used to appreciate some of the other records.
Mostly great tracks, a few fantastic one, and about two that get a little tedious towards the end of the record. But match that with any album out today, and you are likely to find maybe half of the album listenable...
If you are still reading this review, STOP! There is no point in reading any further. Ignore the bad reviews and recognize them as the ravings of someone who just doesn't have the intelligence to "get it" and "appreciate it." If you are a person who feels music rather than just listening to it, buy The Wall now. There's no point in not doing it.. For those of you who need a catchy riff and cuss words, go buy some Limp Bizkit, and stay away from the intelligent stuff...