namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
I said the other day that I might rank at least one of the two post-Waters records above the Wall, but I wasn't entirely sure about that, so I went ahead and re-listened to all three of them all the way through yesterday.
Even though it was the last one I listened to, I'll talk about the Wall first.
I liked it more than I remembered liking it. The last time I listened to it all the way through was about three years ago on a plane with regular non-noise-canceling earbuds, so that may have detracted from that listening experience. Basically, if you look at the album from the point of view of the four LP sides, I would say that sides 1 and 3 are very strong, while side 2 has more good material than not but drags a little, and side 4 is more theater than music and doesn't add that much(some others have said this here too, that the last ten minutes are not great).
I have to say that, with a few exceptions, the record is more cohesive than I remember it being. Musically, it's tied together quite well. I'd forgotten how many times the ABITW riff is reprised in other songs. It's almost a little too much at the end. Although it works really, really well in Hey You.
The main thing with the record - other than it not being as collaborative an effort as it could've been - is that it maybe just had a little too much fat on it. I think if you cut Young Lust and one of the One Of My Turns/Don't Leave Me Now duo and then end the album after the In The Flesh reprise, you'd have a tighter record requiring less stamina to make it to the end(it cuts the running time from roughly 80 minutes to roughly 60 minutes). I might end it with Run Like Hell, but I like the symmetry of beginning and ending with In The Flesh.
1. In The Flesh
2. The Thin Ice
3. Another Brick In The Wall I
4. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
5. Another Brick In The Wall II
6. Mother
7. Goodbye Blue Sky
8. Empty Spaces
9. Don't Leave Me Now
10. Another Brick In The Wall III
11. Goodbye Cruel World
12. Hey You
13. Is There Anybody Out There
14. Nobody Home
15. Vera
16. Bring The Boys Back Home
17. Comfortably Numb
18. The Show Most Go On
19. In The Flesh
I was being too harsh on the record the other day. Comfortably Numb, Hey You, and Another Brick In The Wall are all-time classics.
In The Flesh is awesome.
I join Cobbler in that Vera is indeed beautiful.
I found all the fanfare in Bring The Boys Back Home strangely moving.
Now, The Division Bell.
I'll admit that this was the first time I'd ever actually listened to TDB front to back. I'd listened to most of the tracks individually, out of order, but never straight through. It wasn't really as good as I thought it would be. I mean, High Hopes and Marooned are tremendous and would make any Floyd compilation that I would put together, and there are a number of other guitar solos scattered throughout that I really enjoyed(only natural to enjoy solos played by one of your favorite guitarists ever), but on the whole the record just goes on too long, some of the tracks are redundant, and almost all of the vocal/lyrical parts aside from High Hopes are not very interesting.
Most of the non-instrumental tracks seemed to follow the same pattern of Gilmour making his way through a vocal section he himself could take or leave before launching into an extended guitar solo at the end that comes off as the thing he wanted to be doing from the start. Somebody said it might've worked better as a fully instrumental record and I think I may agree with that. So no, as much as I love High Hopes and Marooned, I wouldn't rank this record above The Wall.
And finally, AMLOR.
This record I had listened to all the way through before, but not for a long time. This is the most shat-upon Floyd record, and while it's certainly not top-tier, I don't really understand why people hate it. I mean, I get the lyrics are not up to a standard, but to tell the truth, I'm not one to let less-than-desirable lyrics ruin something for me if I like the music. I'm pretty good at just ignoring lyrics I don't like. It's about the music, man. And I have to say, I really enjoyed most of this record when I listened to it yesterday.
First off, I don't care what you say, Learning To Fly is awesome. Floyd isn't exactly known for anthemic choruses, but that chorus does it for me, I love the melody and that 'earthbound misfits' line is one of the few lyrics on the record that I actually like a lot.
I'm not going to spend too much time defending The Dogs Of War, and I know the lyrics are...whatever, but from a purely musical perspective, I think it's actually sort of interesting. The rhythm, the brooding nature of it. It's got a certain grit the rest of the record lacks, there's something ominous-sounding about it.
On The Turning Away has, from the first time I heard it 14 years ago when I was 17, been on of my very favorite Floyd tracks. I think the vocal melody is catchy and gorgeous, and the whole second half of the track where it's just instrumental blows my mind every time. So, so, so fucking good. I truly don't know why this track isn't more celebrated here, even if you think the rest of the album is shit.
As has been mentioned, Sorrow is also a strong track, although it takes a bit to get going. The lyric is a bit too long but, whatever, the solos are worth it.
Aside from those tracks(LTF, OTTA, and Sorrow in particular), I wouldn't say any of the others necessarily stand out individually, but there are some really nice solos, and I was surprised at how well it worked as a whole, as a whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts kind of thing.
Anyway, it's not a top-tier record, and if you can't easily ignore lyrics, that's probably a problem, and if the certain brand of 80s-ish production that permeates the whole thing is something you can't get past, that that'd be a problem too, but personally, I have to be the lone dissenter here and say that I like this record. Would I rank it above The Wall? Probably not. But I think it's far from the embarrassment it's made out to be.
---
I guess my ranking as this moment of the albums I've heard(everything from AHM on) would be something like:
1. Wish You Were Here
2. Meddle
3. Atom Heart Mother
4. Animals
5. Dark Side Of The Moon
6. The Wall
7. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
8. Obscured By Clouds
9. The Division Bell
10. The Final Cut
It's hard to say though, it fluctuates.
Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference
Even though it was the last one I listened to, I'll talk about the Wall first.
I liked it more than I remembered liking it. The last time I listened to it all the way through was about three years ago on a plane with regular non-noise-canceling earbuds, so that may have detracted from that listening experience. Basically, if you look at the album from the point of view of the four LP sides, I would say that sides 1 and 3 are very strong, while side 2 has more good material than not but drags a little, and side 4 is more theater than music and doesn't add that much(some others have said this here too, that the last ten minutes are not great).
I have to say that, with a few exceptions, the record is more cohesive than I remember it being. Musically, it's tied together quite well. I'd forgotten how many times the ABITW riff is reprised in other songs. It's almost a little too much at the end. Although it works really, really well in Hey You.
The main thing with the record - other than it not being as collaborative an effort as it could've been - is that it maybe just had a little too much fat on it. I think if you cut Young Lust and one of the One Of My Turns/Don't Leave Me Now duo and then end the album after the In The Flesh reprise, you'd have a tighter record requiring less stamina to make it to the end(it cuts the running time from roughly 80 minutes to roughly 60 minutes). I might end it with Run Like Hell, but I like the symmetry of beginning and ending with In The Flesh.
1. In The Flesh
2. The Thin Ice
3. Another Brick In The Wall I
4. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
5. Another Brick In The Wall II
6. Mother
7. Goodbye Blue Sky
8. Empty Spaces
9. Don't Leave Me Now
10. Another Brick In The Wall III
11. Goodbye Cruel World
12. Hey You
13. Is There Anybody Out There
14. Nobody Home
15. Vera
16. Bring The Boys Back Home
17. Comfortably Numb
18. The Show Most Go On
19. In The Flesh
I was being too harsh on the record the other day. Comfortably Numb, Hey You, and Another Brick In The Wall are all-time classics.
In The Flesh is awesome.
I join Cobbler in that Vera is indeed beautiful.
I found all the fanfare in Bring The Boys Back Home strangely moving.
Now, The Division Bell.
I'll admit that this was the first time I'd ever actually listened to TDB front to back. I'd listened to most of the tracks individually, out of order, but never straight through. It wasn't really as good as I thought it would be. I mean, High Hopes and Marooned are tremendous and would make any Floyd compilation that I would put together, and there are a number of other guitar solos scattered throughout that I really enjoyed(only natural to enjoy solos played by one of your favorite guitarists ever), but on the whole the record just goes on too long, some of the tracks are redundant, and almost all of the vocal/lyrical parts aside from High Hopes are not very interesting.
Most of the non-instrumental tracks seemed to follow the same pattern of Gilmour making his way through a vocal section he himself could take or leave before launching into an extended guitar solo at the end that comes off as the thing he wanted to be doing from the start. Somebody said it might've worked better as a fully instrumental record and I think I may agree with that. So no, as much as I love High Hopes and Marooned, I wouldn't rank this record above The Wall.
And finally, AMLOR.
This record I had listened to all the way through before, but not for a long time. This is the most shat-upon Floyd record, and while it's certainly not top-tier, I don't really understand why people hate it. I mean, I get the lyrics are not up to a standard, but to tell the truth, I'm not one to let less-than-desirable lyrics ruin something for me if I like the music. I'm pretty good at just ignoring lyrics I don't like. It's about the music, man. And I have to say, I really enjoyed most of this record when I listened to it yesterday.
First off, I don't care what you say, Learning To Fly is awesome. Floyd isn't exactly known for anthemic choruses, but that chorus does it for me, I love the melody and that 'earthbound misfits' line is one of the few lyrics on the record that I actually like a lot.
I'm not going to spend too much time defending The Dogs Of War, and I know the lyrics are...whatever, but from a purely musical perspective, I think it's actually sort of interesting. The rhythm, the brooding nature of it. It's got a certain grit the rest of the record lacks, there's something ominous-sounding about it.
On The Turning Away has, from the first time I heard it 14 years ago when I was 17, been on of my very favorite Floyd tracks. I think the vocal melody is catchy and gorgeous, and the whole second half of the track where it's just instrumental blows my mind every time. So, so, so fucking good. I truly don't know why this track isn't more celebrated here, even if you think the rest of the album is shit.
As has been mentioned, Sorrow is also a strong track, although it takes a bit to get going. The lyric is a bit too long but, whatever, the solos are worth it.
Aside from those tracks(LTF, OTTA, and Sorrow in particular), I wouldn't say any of the others necessarily stand out individually, but there are some really nice solos, and I was surprised at how well it worked as a whole, as a whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts kind of thing.
Anyway, it's not a top-tier record, and if you can't easily ignore lyrics, that's probably a problem, and if the certain brand of 80s-ish production that permeates the whole thing is something you can't get past, that that'd be a problem too, but personally, I have to be the lone dissenter here and say that I like this record. Would I rank it above The Wall? Probably not. But I think it's far from the embarrassment it's made out to be.
---
I guess my ranking as this moment of the albums I've heard(everything from AHM on) would be something like:
1. Wish You Were Here
2. Meddle
3. Atom Heart Mother
4. Animals
5. Dark Side Of The Moon
6. The Wall
7. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
8. Obscured By Clouds
9. The Division Bell
10. The Final Cut
It's hard to say though, it fluctuates.
Sent from my iPad using U2 Interference
Last edited: