Jul 6, 2021
Review #129: The Wall, Pink Floyd
#129: The Wall, Pink Floyd
You may have noticed that since my epic road trip ended, there’s less of a narrative to these reviews. I took fewer notes after that. And there’s something about driving that makes music so much more memorable.
To combat the loss of my handy plot device, I listened frantically to 78 new entries over the month of January, not counting the ones I was listening to for the second time. For perspective, I only listened to 25 new albums in February. (Do you ever bite off more than you can chew?)
I didn’t do much other than consume music like a madwoman for that first month, not really taking note of what experiences in my life were framing these albums. But right around here, I began taking notes in earnest of what I was doing when I listened to these albums for the first time.
It looks like these notes will shed meaningful light on my understanding of the music. For example, for this album, I wrote down: “I listened to this while I was washing the dishes, but my dishwasher was broken, so I had to wash them in my bathroom sink.” Ah, yes, the universal experience of washing dishes in your bathroom sink to Pink Floyd.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1” — My favorite thing about this instrumental is that it forced one of Pink Floyd’s most radio-friendly songs to be a “Pt. 2” song.
“The Happiest Days Of Our Lives” — Short and weird.
“Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2” — If we don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control, how come I’m shelling out so much money for grad school?
“Mother” — Imagine your mom saying Mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true.
“Young Lust” — LOL — the part at the end of this song where a telephone operator admits that the protagonist’s wife is having an affair is real! Well, they really did trick a phone operator into thinking he’d caught someone in an affair.
“Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3” — This one makes me nervous.
“Hey You” — This song’s lyrics page on Genius proves that Pink Floyd fans are pretty nuts.
“Is There Anybody Out There?” — Dark Side is beautiful, The Wall is scary.
“Bring the Boys Back Home” — Every Brit band needs one (1) song that sounds a little like a salute to the Queen.
“Comfortably Numb” — Roger Waters wrote this song about getting injected with tranquilizers before playing a show.
“The Show Must Go On” — Knowing this album is about how sick they were of touring makes this song kind of sad.
“In The Flesh” — Oh wow. This is a concept album and the story gets pretty dark — well, long before now, but especially now.
“Waiting for the Worms” — No spoilers but I just read Dune IV: God Emperor of Dune, and I think we’re ALL waiting for the Worm.
“The Trial” — Pink Floyd is the most dramatic band in the world.
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“Don’t Leave Me Now” — Slow piano ballad with warbly voice.
“Goodbye Cruel World” — Scary song title, boring song.
“Vera” — Oh, buddy, your voice.
IS RS FULL OF IT?
Pink Floyd are kind of like the Beatles; overrated but brilliant.
