The Floyd-Hole: Every Pink Floyd Album - Part 11

THE WALL - REVIEW

This is a big one - a 26-track rock opera. Let's go!

Track 1 is In The Flesh?, and the intro is an immediate kick to the face - hard guitar shredding, epic organ slams, and a real killer build up. Then it transforms into something else, with screaming, airplane sound effects, and allusions to the upcoming show. It ends on a bombshell blast, and feels like it!

The Thin Ice, conversely, starts with a crying baby and soft, almost lullaby singing. Very different, but thematically appropriate for the beginning of what is supposed to be a rock opera (birth... the beginning... get it?). The song itself is nothing special, with a very basic rhythm and simplistic beat jarringly spliced into the hard rock from the song prior.

Another Brick In The Wall, Pt.1 kicks in with some electric guitar strumming that feels straight out of an '80s cop show. The singing is up and down, bouncing from echoing and melodic to hard shouting, and back again. The latter half is mostly sound effects (children at play) and the same persistent guitar strumming. This song somehow manages to be both relaxing and intense; a strange hybridization.

The Happiest Days Of Our Lives is up next, transitioning seamlessly from the track before, and keeping a lot of the same elements (like the strumming). Lyrics speak of dystopian school authoritarianisms - the central theme of the album - as it lines up for the classic introduction in the next track...

"We don't need no education!" Another Brick In The Wall, Pt.2 jumps in right away with this memorable line about dumb kids and double-negatives, and it's great. The beat is catchy, the bassline is funky, and the singing is haunting and defiant (involving a choir of kids, no less). The track has a solid rock-funk hybrid style going on, and a pretty bitchin' guitar solo at the midpoint. After the solo, the last minute or so is people shouting at children and phone sound effects - classic PF move.

Mother sneaks in next, and feels super out of place as one of those hippy twee songs from PF's origins, complete with breathy, echoing vocals and soft acoustic guitar. A strange change of vibe for the album, even if the lyrics reflect the general anti-authoritarian theme. At least the first half is like that - the second half picks the electric guitar back up and throws some heavy piano on there to bring things back round to rock. The song is better the longer it goes on, but on the whole, fairly middle-of-the-road.

Next comes Goodbye Blue Sky, with appropriate bird/plane sound effects and soft airy singing that fits the track a bit better than it did in Mother. This apparent lightness overlays some deep, resounding electronic stings that really ground the song back in reality. The whole song sounds effectively mournful and pleasant simultaneously. Very strange piece.

Empty Spaces has a somewhat "industrial" feel to it (presumably purposely) - the first song on the album that feels appropriately dystopian. It feels bleak, and sad, and hard-edged, thanks largely to its plodding tempo and sullen singing. It ends on a seamless transition into the next song, making it wholly abrupt if listened to on its own.

Young Lust has a hard-hitting, almost heavy-metal sound, and wouldn't be out of place in a roadhouse jukebox. The lyrics sing of rock and manliness, and everything about it just feels super "butch" (the chorus is literally "I need a dirty woman, I need a dirt girl"). I thought this was an album about kids in school, but this is definitely a grow-up song. It ends with a somewhat lengthy collect call dialogue as filler.

The next track, One Of My Turns, begins with odd dialogue of a woman with way too many questions and comments played over long synthesizer notes. The lyrics come in over background television noises and the same weird synthesizer notes, but everything is very slow and muddled. Then everything turns on its head at the 2-minute mark, introducing an electric guitar, some piano, shouting, and general hard rocking. It all tapers off nicely compared to its predecessors.

Don't Leave Me Now comes next, with slow plodding organ notes leading into wailing, disjointed singing that doesn't really align with the melody of the song at all. It feels like it just drags on - this song is a drag, but in this case that might be what PF what actually going for. It kicks up with an electric guitar at 3 minutes in, but still keeps the mournful tone. Everything tapers away with tv channel-changing noises and shouting.

Another Brick In The Wall, Pt.3 picks up where the last track left off, and definitely keeps the same melody as the previous two parts of ABitW, but this time the electric guitar hits harder and the singing is much more "glam rock" than before. It was unfortunately abbreviated comparatively, which is a shame because I liked the tonality of Pt. 3 better than 1 or 2.

Goodbye Cruel World is the outro to the first half of the full combined album. It consists of a somewhat heart-wrenching farewell played over soft organ music, giving things an almost "funerary" air. It is brief, but then most outros are supposed to be.

The second half of the full album begins at Hey You, with some light acoustic guitar strumming and airy, mellow vibes. Despite the general "hippy" vibe of the singing and instruments, the song itself feels very depressing. When the drums kick up, the song takes on a more positive, optimistic quality - all this is dashed at the arrival of the electric guitar, whose wailing power chords reinforce that this is a hard song for a hard life. When the electric guitar leaves the picture, the song gets happy again for a bit, then it goes right back into being depressing. This track is all over the place.

Is There Anybody Out There? begins with more television-watching sounds - a favorite effects choice for the album so far. It is punctuated by a strange sci-fi buzzing and echoing choral singing, which eventually fades into a pleasant acoustic guitar riff. Not much to speak of lyrically, but the song certainly sounds nice enough, albeit a little out of place.

Nobody Home has more TV sounds, and more adults shouting at children, before a nice lounge piano melody picks up the mantle. The singing is morose, but kind of empowering at the same time. It maintains a consistent mediocre tonality throughout - neither exciting nor disappointing.

Up next is Vera, a ballad with gentle sounds, soft background backing, and hard/loud signing. It is very brief.

Then Bring The Boys Back Home enters with startling fanfare, complete with military march style snare drums, epic choral shout-singing, and fantastical loudness. This is all marred by the random PF talking/knocking sound effects tapering things out at the end, unfortunately.

Comfortably Numb comes next; a soft, swingy song with dulcet singing ushering in some heavier electric guitar solos that punctuate throughout. The general vibe is mellow, but this song has the opportunity to slap you in the face a bit with meaningful lyrics and some hard guitar shredding. I like this song, but I'm having a hard time picking out why I do, because it's not typical to my usual fare of harder, heavier stuff.

The Show Must Go On follows, opening with a choral "do-wop" chanting of sorts. The soulful acoustic guitar sounds a little strange over the barbershop-style singing, but it works somehow.

The next track, In The Flesh, announces itself with shouting and some pretty epic guitar work. Choral singing is powerful and serves to underline the extremely controversial (purposefully) lyrics about shooting gays and Jews. The whole song has an air of showmanship about it, giving it a very distinct vibe among its album brethren. Not a bad song, provided you don't take the lyrics to heart.

Run Like Hell has much more of a classic rock sound, in particular the echoing electric guitar that really dates the song back to the turn of the '80s. It rocks pretty hard and stays pretty consistent throughout, with a sprinkling of sound effects added in for good measure. I believe it's one of the few songs on this album able to stand alone, and maybe even see some radio play.

Waiting For The Worms begins with a plodding, marching beat on the drums, backing some impressively varied vocals that mostly sound like they are being sung through a megaphone. It rises and falls in tempo and intensity (like much of this album so far), but does a good job of remaining a single cohesive piece. The volume variation of this song keeps me from enjoying it fully, although it does wonders to keep me interested.

Stop brings things way down with gentle piano and more conservative singing. It is extremely brief though, not really much of a song at all - more of an interlude right before the album end.

The Trial begins with some trumpet fanfare, and much like In The Flesh, it all has a very theatrical feeling, and an almost circus-like flair to it. Also, just like In The Flesh, the lyrics are potent, expletive and somewhat controversial. At 3:30, the heavier electric guitar kicks in and the song begins to feel a little more intense. The random fanfare and sounds in the background really makes this song sound like it might be from a film soundtrack. 

Outside The Wall rounds off the album in a sweet gentle way to the yet unheard sounds of accordions and children singing. It is a very pleasant outro for the whole thing, which I suppose is the intent to show that "the wall" has been torn down, and everything is sunshine and rainbows now.

Overall: The Wall may be a rock opera linked thematically by a theme of authority and oppression, but as a whole the album feels a little bit like it's been stitched together with the threads of songs sharing similar melodies. This has always been one of PF's more acclaimed albums, but to me, it's a bit less impressive than the previous three - with a couple exceptions, the songs are generally unmemorable and not very catchy, and most wouldn't exist well in a vacuum (that is to say, listened to on their own). It has the feeling of a film soundtrack, but as I have no film to watch it with, I must judge it on its merits as a music album. Some would say The Wall is an experience - and it is that - but I came for music, not story. Not to fault the group for attempting to make a cohesive album piece, but for my tastes, without any sort of linking visuals, a rock opera is always going to be sub-par when compared to a normal studio album of hits.