mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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meddle obscured by clouds dark side of the moon wish you where here animals the wall the final cut a momentary lapse of reason
Meddle Meddle along with Obscured By Clouds are often looked at as albums that didn’t managed to reach their goals. Albums that that didn’t succeed to be Dark Side of The Moon. To tell you the truth, neither is trying to be. Meddle wasn’t just a step towards perfection. It was something own. Something special. Still is actually. If you must compare it to any other Pink Floyd-album I probably say that it reminds more of Animals and maybe Wish You Were Here, rather than Dark Side. At least the more or less instrumental opening song will make your thoughts drift away and think of Animals, released 6 years later. "A Pillow of Winds" is a ballad that will make you draw parallels to "Wot’s.. Uh The Deal" on Obscured By Clouds. It strikes me to be the main song on the first half of the album. The others are done in a lazy, laid back, soothing mood and heavy blues influences. Even though the songs are not masterpieces or the work of pure genius, they are still very pleasant to listen to. The song that this album is build around is a masterpiece and without any doubt geniuses in work. It’s more than 23 minutes long and it deserves its length. It’s beautiful and haunting at the same time. Great guitar parts, fragile piano melody, cool organ, a decent set of lyrics and it blends pshychedelia, fusion, blues and different sorts of sound effects into a wonderful stew that actually during the vocal parts points the way towards Dark Side of The Moon. Behold, you simple mortals, "Echoes" appears in front of you. I take off my hat and most humbly lower my head in gratitude and appreciation.
Obscured By Clouds A soundtrack that mostly consists of boring pshycedelic instrumentals with some jazz influences and a slide guitar adding some color to the sound picture. Sometimes the band tries to rock out, but it’s quite an embarrassment. I get a feeling that Obscured By Clouds has a bit more of Gilmour for its own good. It’s not a total flop. Roger Waters steps in and takes control and save this album from being a hopeless mess. "Wot’s... Uh The Deal" might not be the most fantastic song the band ever did, but on this very record it stands out as a small masterpiece that could very well have been fitted into Meddle without shame. Be careful with this one!
Dark Side of The Moon Some of the sound experiments hasn’t aged very well. Uninteresting, boring and quite awful too. I just can’t understand their part in this otherwise pretty amazing album. You see, when the band focus on the actual songs, they are very hard to surpass and is probably the best band that’s ever been out there. The song "Time" here is a good example. It follows up a monstrous sound collage and suddenly you get that beautiful, reflecting rock song with melody, great lyrics, and most importantly it has loads of hooks in it that would have been enough to fill up a complete album. A fantastic song. Us And Them is even better, though! The album continues in the same spirit. Combine those experimental instrumentals with amazing pop and rock songs with touches of jazz fusion and blues. Lyrics that covers subjects such as personal feelings (loneliness, growing old, misunderstood etc) as well as heavy social critique (commercial forces in the society, focusing on less important things, concervative ideas). This album is where Roger Waters really starts to take control over the band to full fill his visions. He’s not in total control but it wouldn’t take that long.
Wish You Where Here Wish You Where Here is a very sensitive album. It’s a band celebrating the memory of their old friend, Syd. Syd Barrett that was the unquestionable leader of the group in the early days and gave Rogers and the others the possibility to realizing their musical ideas. To create art. However, Syd’s heavy use of LSD was finally too much for the band and he was replaced by David Gilmour. The memories of him was still treasured, and the amazing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" that is about Barrett directly is overwhelming and with next to no hesitation what so ever I could proclaim it to be the greatest song ever. There’s so much about it that’s worth mentioning. The sad, broken guitar chord in the beginning, the incredible vocal performance and the so very affecting harmonies singing the title. I’m speechless. I’m out of speech. The title track is quite wonderful as well, only a bit more abstract lyrical but it’s title cannot be mistaken. Their friend is missing. "Have A Cigar" seems to be about the early days of Pink Floyd, right before making it big. When Syd was still in the band. A gentle, warm and loving album that still is bitter, sad and pondering. After this album Roger definitively had the band in his hands. I’m starting to think that democracy is not always the best solution. At least not when it comes to music.
Animals At first glance Animals is the same as Wish You Were Here. Five songs, the last song is a reprise of the first. Slightly changed, though. Even more dominated by Waters this time around (he even did the sleeve design). However, there are still things that are different to their previous effort. The songs are longer, more spaced out thanks to the interesting, moody and often great synth-lines. Sometimes, if you are not in the mood, they might crave too much attention and simply become background music. Not always, though. And why not listen to the rest of the band during the instrumental passages? It’s not always the instrument that is up front that is worth listening to. For instance, while there is some great guitar playing going on in “Dogs”, even greater drumming is building up tensions and excitement at the same time. I can assure you that you had not experienced the guitar solo the same way without the drumming. Come to think of it, this might be Pink Floyd’s peak as instrumentalists. They could really play, you know. Even Roger Waters, who is often described as one of the worst bass players ever. Anyway, back to the music. I don’t think I have understood the concept to 100%, but Animals is Roger at his most bitter and his most hard hitting statement about humanity so far. Perhaps only Amused To Death from the early 90’s can measure up to it. Yes, he did write The Wall and The Final Cut too, but I find both of them being more of a personal statements than Animals. They take focus on the individual in a way that I don’t think this particular album does. It is generalizing, sure, but yet is very moving.
The Wall Released: 1979 Rating: 9/10 Track listing: 1. In The Flesh?/ 2. The Thin Ice/ 3. Another Brick In The Wall, Part I/ 4. The Happiest Days of Our Lives 5. Another Brick In The Wall, Part II/ 6. Mother/ 7. Goodbye Blue Sky/ 8. Empty Spaces/ 9. Young Lust/ 10. One of My Turns/ 11. Don’t Leave Me Now/ 12. Another Brick In The Wall, Part III/ 13. Goodbye Cruel World/ 14. Hey You/ 15. Is There Anybody Out There?. Nobody Home/ 17. Vera/ 18. Bring The Boys Back Home/ 19. Comfortably Numb/ 20. The Show Must Go On/ 21. In The Flesh/ 22. Run Like Hell/ 23. Waiting For The Worms/ 24. Stop/ 25. The Trial/ 26. Outside The Wall While all the Pink Floyd albums are classics, there are still some that are more classic than others. The Wall definitively belongs to the that category and is a clear stand out in their catalog. It is supposed to be about an isolated rock star that loses contact with himself. At least if one should believe what’s written about it. Even Roger Waters claims it to be about that. I personally look at it a bit differently and I’ll tell you how I interpret this corner stone in Waters' and Pink Floyd's career. To me The Wall critizes the conservative forces and ideas that England trusty is built upon. Waters thinks that society shapes each and every individual to not be different, to not stick out of a faceless crowd. To take your place as “another brick in the wall”. And when this happens, it is finally enough. Sooner or later you are bound to explode from being held back. Held back creatively, emotionally and finally it all becomes too much. You get depressed, fall apart and paranoia hits you right in the face. It all affects your life. Your social life, your love live and your relations to everybody and anybody, including yourself. You think of taking your own life because you can no longer stand living in a world that is cold, heartless and extremely dark. You blame yourself for it. It is like this everybody try to live their lives. Finally you manage to overcome your problems. You are no longer isolated. You have destroyed your personal wall. Ok, that’s what the wall is about to me. Musically it is stripped down and sounds all natural. No spacey arrangements or weird instruments. Most songs are slow, performed by pianos, acoustic guitars and organs. And I think it gains from it. It gets more personal and the music hits closer to your heart. It’s a masterpiece and one the great moments in rock and roll. Unfortunately, it does not deserve the highest grade. The second disc is a somewhat mystery to me. The albums absolute best songs are found there, but also fillers seems to enjoy that disc too. Fillers that were no where to be found on the first disc starts to pop up here and there on the second one. I could easily have managed without “Vera” and “Bring The Boys Back Home”. “The Trial” is annoying and overlong, but still it’s there where the story finally is sorted out. I can see why it’s there, but it doesn’t have to mean I like it. On the other hand there are highlights that saves the day. “Nobody Home”, “Hey You” and “Comfortably Numb” are pretty and emotional. “Is There Anybody Out There?” may first seem as an instrumental throwaway, but it features nice acoustic guitar, a gloom violin and creates a magnificent atmosphere. So what we got here is a masterpiece, that cannot be overlooked or dismissed. Achingly beautiful, personal, close and honest. Some people may disagree, but there are tender melodies and hooks throughout the album. Roger Waters personal vocal performance is fantastic and the lyrics places him up there with Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Paul Simon and all the others. If not even above them.
The Final Cut Pink Floyd is often considered to have four great albums in a row (Dark Side - The Wall). A span of high quality albums that very few artists can match. I would like to include The Final Cut as well. An album often ignored and dismissed as a lyrical masterpiece but with unimaginative, boring and lifeless music and not a hook for miles. An album that should have been better off as a book. Frankly, I’m not sure if those people have heard the same record as I have. The Final Cut keeps your attention by switching from silent, almost unhearable music to loud, thundering parts. Always beautiful and highly emotional. It’s also very possible that this is Roger Waters best vocal performance ever recorded. He sounds desperate, lonely, paranoid, nasty and extremely sarcastic when it’s proper. He follows the music as it shifts without any problems. And just the actual sound of his voice is just perfect. Listen to him whisper “boom boom bang bang Lie down you’re dead” in “The Fletcher Memorial Home”. One of the highlights here. The music is very similar to The Wall. Only more naked, fragile and affecting. Gilmour gets very little space to do anything with. Which probably is a good thing. The songs float together just perfect and I suspect that if one note was changed it would ruin everything. It’s hard to pick out any specific highlights because it’s all top quality and there are so much going on in the background that people might miss unless they pay full attention. Little nice trumpet lines, whispered lyrics, a nice violin, some screams... Too much to mention. I could write a book about this album. However, I will mention “Not Now John”. A song that for some reason seems to be universally hated. In fact it’s Gilmours chance to step into the spotlight. People complain that Waters is all over the place, but when he steps back people gets sick. Logic at its most beautiful. Anyway, “Not Now John” is the most rocking song here. In fact the only rocking song. I think it’s wonderful. Gilmour sings it very well, but suddenly it’s more quiet and Waters steps back in and the contrast between the two voices are astounding. And that “bingoooo!”-scream gets the thumbs up from me. The Final Cut is a masterpiece and probably the best album Pink Floyd came up with. Roger left the group shortly after its release and Pink Floyd was not the same. They would never manage to be anywhere near the magical hights Waters led them to and became a parody on themselves.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason With Roger gone, Dave was in complete control of Pink Floyd. Whilst Dave’s songs always had offered musical and vocal diversity on the Waters-dominated albums, they don’t work throughout a full album. A Momentary Lapse of Reason sounds like Pink Floyd on a first glimpse. However, if you scratch a little, some discoveries will be made. Pink Floyd never sounded dated. The early albums, perhaps, but in their prime (1973 – 1983) they didn’t. Dave is using modern 1980’s techniques and some of the authentic sound is demolished and has been replaced by a far more slicker and plastic sound. Roger Waters may not have been the greatest bassist out there, but he was aware of his limits as an instrumentalist and surely knew how to keep the songs moving. To replace him with session musician and King Crimson-member Tony Levin might seem like a good idea, but this is the 80’s, after all, and funk-inspired slapbass (think “Seinfeld”) isn’t exactly the first thing I’m looking for on a Pink Floyd album. Besides that and the obvious intentions to mimic the atmospheric sounds of Dark Side of The Moon and particularly Wish You Were Here, there are a few enjoyable moments to be found. Gilmour’s singing might not be the most unique, but his guitar playing shines throughout the album. In fact, I would not mind too much if his vocals were wiped off and replaced by some more guitar. As for the songs themselves, they are not that memorable. With a few exceptions. “Learning To Fly” is probably the best out of these ten songs, but I also like “On The Turning Away” quite a bit. It has a simple, nearly Final Cut-sounding, melody and is not as overblown as the rest of the songs, even though it does build up to become a huge thing after awhile. How can an album sound so ambitious and inspired, but at the same so lame? On a commercial point of view, I can understand why Gilmour brought along Richard Wright and Nick Mason, on a more artistic point of view I can not (if Dave needed Mason that much, how come Jim Keltner also is playing?). I’m not sure if David could have gotten away with this even if released as a solo-album. It tries so hard to be Pink Floyd that it can’t do anything but fail. Perhaps it would have been better if they just had gone with the flow, to let the group and songs develop instead of keeping them trapped in a Pink Floyd-trap? A lapse of reason, indeed. Nothing momentary about it, though, as Gilmour clearly believes in a trial and error-theory. |