Hindsight is a wonderful thing. For Pink Floyd, it means realising not all of their works were up to scratch. For Roger Waters, it appears to be a thin veil for his meandering and meaningless live shows. David Gilmour seems removed from The Wall anyway, but it does not stop him from being roped into this mess. When the Nostalgia Critic can adapt your music to suit his sinister needs, it is probably time for a bit of reflection. It cannot be helped, of course, but The Wall has aged stagnantly and the monumental expressions of rock opera first founded on this piece here are tired and demonstrate a real urgency Pink Floyd had as a band to see if they could turn The Dark Side of the Moon and its track-by-track interplay into something which can hold narrative wonder.
From a technical standpoint, it can. But little more can be said for the songwriting and instrumental sections of The Wall, a piece where the themes outweigh the act of creativity and do not do much for listeners anyway. What remained of Pink Floyd takes influence from the life of Syd Barrett and airs their thoughts on the isolation he found was necessary for the remainder of his life. Tributes to a man who did not want nor need them. The Wall is much more than this of course, it is also an album stuffed with infighting which spreads itself thickly across the initially sharp critical blows of commercialised prog-rock, which of course leads to the death of a spirited, creatively flowing genre. But this is a constant for everywhere, eventually, the balance tips into viable cash than suffering artists, and The Wall has a smug presentation about it.
It can be heard in the likes of Another Brick in the Wall Part 1 & 2, as well as the album closer Outside the Wall, where the metaphors and displays of knowing nods to the titular barricade, are not as smart as Waters and Gilmour believe them to be. Too few themes spread thin means there is even less for The Wall to meddle with. Expectedly sound work from Gilmour on guitar is found throughout – that is no surprise, but what is a shock is how little The Wall expresses over its ninety-minute running time. It is a shock to the system to hear its story is told in the first few tracks, the rest are just Waters’ fodder and lyrical ambiguity stretched to their very limit. It is here where they snap. He has not learned this and continues to tour the miserably contrite experience, out of steam by the fifth song.
Consider the impact and longevity of The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, clearly stronger records but for what they achieved, they must be considered two of the all-time greats. The Wall does not really have this feel to it bar the iconography of its cover, similar to The White Album from The Beatles. A splash of every member makes up the Fab Four essential, whereas gluttony and a strong belief in himself guides Waters through this. Shouts and interjections, helicopters whirring overhead to mask the change from track to track, as happens frequently but most obviously on The Happiest Days of Our Lives, is not as smart or sharp, on record or streaming, as the band thought it was at the time. Fluffy bits and pieces throughout stop Pink Floyd in their tracks – their peak had passed them by and they did not know it.
What a load of tosh THE WALLis a masterpiece and this so called writer has obviously never listened the album through,this is just a click bait that inspires me never to click on cultfollowin again.
So glad I’ve inspired you!
Wow, what a complete opposite of opinions we have.
The album tells a story that flows beautifully from past to present, taking the listener through a rainbow of emotions. I feel a different person everytime I take the headphones off and the record stops spinning on “outside the wall” to when I put the headphones on and “in the flesh” starts.
Yes, I agree that it is a purely a Waters album and there could be more of an influence from the other members but let’s not forget “comfortably numb” and the hard rock of “young lust”.
Again this is just my opinion and I totally respect yours, but don’t understand it ;)
I totally agree with Ewan on this.
The Wall is, in my opinion, one of the most overrated albums, and I am a big fan of Pink Floyd and yes, I have listened to it countless times, and yes, I have the vinyl album in my collection, and have had it since its release.
This album for me was the start of the Roger Waters ‘I think I’m Pink Floyd, the others are just backing musicians’ era, which generated some seriously self-centred lyrics where Waters ego and seming need to be outspoken and controversial is forced onto the group.
That said, the highpoints of the album are there, but limited to a few good songs, backed by some outstanding music, most notably David Gilmour guitar solos and Rick Wright keyboards making something out of potentially nothing.
That’s my take on it.