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Review Summary: This is one of the most intriguing and imaginative albums in the history of rock music. It's also probably the most famous progressive rock album in the history of music. “The Wall” is the eleventh studio album of Pink Floyd and was released in 1979. The line up on the album is David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. The album had also the participation of Bruce Johnston, Toni Tennille, Joe Chemay, Jon Joyce, Stan Farber, Jim Haas (additional vocals) and the voices of the Pupils from Islington Green School Choir.
After the release of their great trilogy “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, “Wish You Were Here” and “Animals”, all concept albums, Pink Floyd returned with another concept album, “The Wall”. While the concept of “The Dark Side Of The Moon” deals with things like conflict, greed, the passage of time and insanity, the concept of “Wish You Were Here” is about the mental instability of their founding member Syd Barrett and a critic to the music industry and the concept of “Animals” was based on the Orwell’s political fable “Animal Farm” and describe various classes in society as different kinds of animals, the concept of “The Wall” explores themes of abandonment and personal isolation.
Waters conceived the idea of the album during the Pink Floyd’s 1977 “In The Flesh Tour”, also known as the “Animals Tour”, when his frustration with the audience became so acute that he spat in a fan’s face at a gig in Montreal, in Canada, when the fan tried to get on stage. Shocked with his own action and mournful about the alienation between fans and performers, he imagined a wall between the audience and the stage.
The concept of the story portrays fictionalized the life of an anti-hero, Pink, that is mistreated by the society since the early days of his life, suffocated by his mother and oppressed at school. So, he builds a wall in his consciousness to isolate him from society, and takes refuge in a fantasy world created for him. During a hallucination caused by drugs, Pink becomes a fascist dictator only to have his conscience rebel put it in court, where his inner judge ordering him to have his own wall down and open to the outside world. The album is a rock opera centred on the character of Pink, who is largely based on the Waters’ life. Despite not be an auto-biographical album, as the character of the story Pink, Waters also lost his father during the W.W.II. The album is also modelled by the decline of the band’s original leader Syd Barrett, due to drugs problems, when he was on the group. For instance, the album includes some references to Barrett, including “Nobody Home”, which hints at his condition during the Pink Floyd’s abortive U.S. live tour of 1967.
The style of Pink Floyd is progressive rock and because this is a concept album, it flows as if it’s only one song and all the instrumentation is absolutely lovely. However, the sound changes from track to track. Some songs are quite heavy and angry, while others are sad. All of the songs are worth a listen to and they never get boring, too long or repetitive. And of course, listen to “The Wall”, the experience, is much better if it’s listen from the beginning to the end, because we are in presence of a conceptual album. Despite some morbidity of most of the material on the album, there are some very beautiful and now classic tunes like “Another Brick In The Wall”, “Hey You” and most notably “Comfortably Numb” with the Gilmour’s searing guitar solo. It has become the single track that most defines Pink Floyd. This album showcases many different musical types. So, the sound of “The Wall” ranges from bluesy to hard, beautiful filled solos by Gilmour and very nice vocals by Waters that goes so well with the main character, Pink. However, for the most part it’s a progressive hard rock opera. About the performers, Mason’s drum work is very well done, and the same goes with Wright’s keyboard work. Some of the stuff he plays on here is just hunting. Waters fills nicely with the bass, nothing flashy tough. Gilmour’s guitar work takes the spotlight. He plays some pretty haunting riffs, some lovely acoustic work, and of course, his guitar solos. He puts so much emotion into his guitar solos that he doesn’t needs fats flashy licks to make them enjoyable and great. This is one of the most guitar oriented albums of all the Waters era Pink Floyd albums.
Conclusion: Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is one of the most intriguing and imaginative albums in the history of rock music. Since the studio album release in 1979, the tour of 1980-81, the subsequent movie of 1982 and in 1990 Waters created “The Wall – Live In Berlin”, “The Wall” has become synonymous with, if not the very definition of, the term “concept album”. Aurally explosive on record, astoundingly complex on stage and visually explosive on the screen, “The Wall” became perhaps the extreme paradigm of a concept album. So, “The Wall” became as one of the most famous albums in the world, and is also one that many people treat as one of the Pink Floyd’s masterpieces. It represents also the beginning of the end of an era in Pink Floyd. It represents the increasing of the tensions within the band and that would grow on their next album “The Final Cut” and which would end with the departure of Waters from the group.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
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Album Rating: 5.0
Your comments are very well received, as usual.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Excellent album, but I like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here a tad better.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
The Wall is a classic. The thing is a timeless document to rock music and what it can do, conveyed through the eyes of a societal anti-hero laying down the conflicts of the sociological, pathological and existential.
I hear Ed Sheerans new one will be similar.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
@Voivod
Yes, this is really an excellent album. I also prefer The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, too. And I also prefer Animals to this one.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
@zakalwe
Yes, this is an astonishing and timeless document of rock music. This is really one of the best trademarks ever made in the rock music. And it's a very current document even today.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Nice review, man. I appreciated read it.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Thanks, dude.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I'm sorry, but I dislike this album quite a bit
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Ok, man. It's no need to apologize for it. In the end of it, this is only music and we can have different musical tastes and feelings about it.
However, I would like to know why you dislike the album so much. I know that the more radical prog fans dislike the album because they think the album isn't properly a truly prog album and is different from the other albums from the band. However, I think they have no reason about it. Although, I think this isn't probably your main reason for it. Is it?
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
I think The Wall is a good album when you're in the frame of mind. For me, some songs just have shallow song-writing, even cliche at times. There's basic rock grooves all over this album for one, and I feel that while the concept is grand, it just is so ambitious that it sort of stops a few cuts from making it through.
That said, majority of these songs are fucking fantastic, I can't deny. People highlight the obvious songs, Comfortably Numb, Brick in the Wall pt.2 but I love moments. Moments like 'One of my Turns/Don't leave me now' and The Trial!
This album can suck when you talk to 'fans' about it. The 'fans' don't really listen to this record thoroughly, and cherry pick. Why the fuck am I ranting so much...
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
good review
my 5th or 6th favorite floyd album but i mean its floyd so its still pretty great
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
okay the reason I dislike this is not because I don't find it "prog worthy", the main reason is why is because the whole album feels like an entire filler album, I mean, there are almost no songs that are cool on their own. You got comfertably numb, which is really cool. Other than that you don't really get much out of it.
The music first and foremost is pretty boring. Everything stands still most of the time, and the band rarily brings out any good tunes. The music itself is also really fucking strange. The lyrics are really obscure, and personally, I couldn't give a rat's ass if the lyrics are "deep" and shit, for me they are cryptic. In addition to this, It rarily happens that I care or get touched by lyrics. For me, good music is what I'm looking for, and I find almost nothing on The Wall.
Many people find it as a milestone, I can't see their point of view. the album feels so extremely disjointed. I just can't enjoy this
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
its more like a rock opera, which i can totally understand a lot of people not liking, its not a very concise thing, it isnt my favorite either
i generally dont like a lot prog for similar reasons actually
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
but prog is best genre, this is just not a good example of it.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
in theory yeah but there is way too much try hard wanker shit in the genre unfortunately, finding the good is a chore
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
@GooGoo
I'm also a very hard fan of Pink Floyd. And as I know perfectly well all their discography, I'm perfectly comfortable to talk about them.
I sincerely can understand some objections about the album, despite I disagree with most of them. When I was much younger than I am now, I also thought that this is a less prog album and a very commercial album. However, with the years that have past by me, I became more flexible I finally could understand the truly importance and dimension of it. As you said, The Wall is a very good album with a great concept and with some fantastic songs. Although, I became thinking that the album worth as a whole and slowly became a landmark of the prog rock and in one of the most important rock albums ever.
However, I perfectly know that Pink Floyd have better albums, The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals. Anyway, I still think That The Wall is better than Meddle is. Sincerely I think The Wall is much more balanced and has no weak points like Meddle has.
And the importance and the dimension of the album by the world can't be ignored like the famous performance in Berlin, when the wall came down in 1990.
Even I also think that it represents also a great landmark in Pink Floyd discography, because it represents, for me, the last really great album made by the group.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Thanks guitarted.
The Wall is only my forth favorite album from them. And yes, you're right, this is more a kind of a rock opera. I accept that many people dislike rock operas. Personally I love them.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
@smaugman
I respect your opinion but I disagree, man.
About the lyrics, I can agree that the lyrics can be a little bit obscure which is nothing strange because they were written by Waters. And you can't forget that the lyrics have many in common with Waters himself, as I wrote on my review.
About the music, I don't feel the music pretty boring at all. I still maintain that once The Wall is a concept album, a rock opera if you wish, the music on it must be listen as a whole, despite it can have also so many tracks that be listened individually.
However, thanks smaugman for your explanations.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I go back and forth on this one. It has moved me to tears, but most listens I'm bored and fast-forwarding through the 'filler' . . . There is a video of the original tour (NY) on YouTube if your interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BqX3FrniOI
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Excellent review, pos'd.
Monumental album.
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