Reviews for The Wall - Radio - http://maxpages.com/spamsmetalpage/The_Wall

Reviews of The Wall, on a scale of one star to five stars

In the Flesh? ***
The Thin Ice **
Another Brick in the Wall (Part I) ****
The Happpiest Days of Our Lives ****
Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)*****
Mother *****
Goodbye Blue Sky ****
Empty Spaces ***
Young Lust *****
One of my Turns ***
Don't Leave Me Now ***
Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)*****
Goodbye Cruel World ****

Disc 2:

Hey You *****
Is There Anybody Out There? ***
Nobody Home ***
Vera *
Bring the Boys Back Home **
Comfortably Numb *****
The Show Must Go On ***
In the Flesh *****
Run Like Hell *****
Waiting for the Worms ***
Stop **
The Trial *****
Outside the Wall ****

The Wall was Roger Waters' crowning accomplishment in Pink Floyd. It documented the rise and fall of a rock star (named Pink Floyd), based on Waters' own experiences and the tendencies he'd observed in people around him. By now, the bassist had firm control of the group's direction, working mostly alongside David Gilmour and bringing in producer Bob Ezrin as an outside collaborator. Drummer Nick Mason was barely involved, while keyboardist Rick Wright seemed to be completely out of the picture. Still, The Wall was a mighty, sprawling affair, featuring twenty-six songs with vocals--nearly as many as all previous Floyd albums combined.The story revolves around the fictional Pink Floyd's isolation behind a psychological wall. The wall grows as various parts of his life spin out of control, and he grows incapable of dealing with his neuroses. The album opens by welcoming the unwitting listener to Floyd's show ("In The Flesh?"), then turns back to childhood memories of his father's death in World War II ("Another Brick In The Wall (Part I)"), his mother's overprotectiveness ("Mother"), and his fascination with and fear of sex ("Young Lust"). By the time "Goodbye Cruel World" closes the first disc, the wall is built and Pink is trapped in the midst of a mental breakdown.

On disc 2, the gentle acoustic phrasings of "Is There Anybody Out There?" and the lilting orchestrations of "Nobody Home" reinforce Floyd's feeling of isolation. When his record company uses drugs to coax him to perform ("Comfortably Numb"), his onstage persona is transformed into a homophobic, race-baiting fascist ("In The Flesh"). In "The Trial" he mentally prosecutes himself, and the wall comes tumbling down. This ambitious concept album was an across-the-board smash, topping the Billboard album chart for 15 weeks in 1980. The single "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)" was the country's best seller for four weeks. The Wall spawned an elaborate stage show and a full-length film. So elaborate was the show, in fact, that the band was able to bring it to only a few cities: New York, Los Angles, London and Cologne. It also marked the last time Waters and Gilmour would work together as equal partners. The Wall was a great album, but songs like Vera and Bring the Boys Back Home make this marginally worse than Dark Side of the Moon, although still great

The 4 best songs on Disc 1:
1. Mother
2. Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)
3. Young Lust
4. Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)

The 4 best songs on Disc 2:
1. Hey You
2. Comfortably Numb
3. Run Like Hell
4. In the Flesh

The 4 best songs overall:
1. Hey You
2. Confortably Numb
3. Mother
4. Run Like Hell

The Bottom Line: *****

What they think:

Q Magazine - 1/95, p.275 - 3 Stars - Good

Entertainment Weekly: A (The Wall DVD review)

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

bigsam84@hotmail.com

Visitors: 00228

Page Updated Tue May 15, 2001 8:41pm EDT