Pink Floyd
The Wall

THE REVIEW

If with "Meddle" and "The Dark Side Of The Moon" the new Pink Floyd, following the departure of the brilliant Syd Barrett and the arrival of the great guitarist David Gilmour, had already shown the world their exceptional music, in 1979 they created what I consider to be their best masterpiece: a furious concept album, fierce, rich in sounds that vary especially in hard rock (note that during those years bands like Van Halen were born) and spectacular lyrics by author and vocalist Roger Waters.

Let's be honest, Pink Floyd is the only great rock band capable of capturing their audience with their spectacular music, even when playing behind a wall to thousands of people. Their music is not just that; it is life, it is emotion. The protagonist of this double album is Pink, a man who, after his father's death in the war and due to his continuous sufferings, builds a wall around himself (highlighting this magnificent metaphor) to separate himself from society. In the songs, you can find abundant information about the past life of this character: how, as a child, he was always with his overprotective mother ("Mother"), how at school his teachers treated him like dirt but at home were henpecked fools ("The Happiest Days Of Our Lives"), and Pink's suffering concerning his paranoia and his girlfriend ("One Of My Turns"). Additionally, it is important to emphasize: this album is not typically the "progressive rock" that Pink Floyd has always made us hear but is more like an independent work, as was the "White Album" by the Beatles: a new, surprising, original work that would lead the band to explore new currents and new sounds: the hard rock rhythms of "Young Lust" and "Another Brick In The Wall Part 3," the melancholic ballads of "Goodbye Blue Sky" and "Nobody Home," but also unforgettable masterpieces like "Comfortably Numb," with one of the best final solos I've ever heard, "The Trial," almost a theatrical song where Waters' brilliant madness takes part, and the historic hit "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2," a rock piece that closely resembles the style of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. An album with painful lyrics, exceptional arrangements, where everyone gives their best: Roger Waters' voice, which for the first time ever throws himself into hallucinatory pieces screaming his lungs out (just think about the dark "Don't Leave Me Now" and the rock-powered "Run Like Hell"), David Gilmour's guitar, more spectacular than ever, the keyboard of that other genius Richard Wright, author of must-haves like "Us And Them" and "The Great Gig In The Sky" from Dark Side, and finally, the powerful drums of Nick Mason, the only permanent member of the band from the sixties until '94 with the release of "The Division Bell."

What PF has delivered is therefore a MASTERPIECE in the history of rock music, akin to the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's" or The Who's "Tommy," another grandiose and hugely important concept album that has inspired countless musicians on the scene. Even though many consider it a commercial work, others instead view it as an immense endeavor where the listener is drawn into an almost macabre story, but the music is excellent, and the same goes for the band's energy, in short... Spectacular, a masterpiece, which especially live has always thrilled with its drive and strength. I recommend everyone to also watch the film with Bob Geldof, especially for those who can't fully understand the events surrounding the protagonist. This is rock art, and with these works, Pink Floyd has shown that it's not necessary to make mindless solos with a thousand notes per second or create absurd riffs to produce something furious: only by uniting minds like Waters, Gilmour, and Wright (the complex's genius composers) do you get something that goes beyond the imaginable.

Magnificent band, magnificent album, a gem of music!