Pink Floyd
WISH YOU WERE HERE 50

LA RECENSIONE

Ok, someone might say: “Pink Floyd again?” “Wish You Were Here again?”

Well, let’s just say we’re not only talking about the album released in 1975; there’s much more to it than that.

After the dreadful box set that did no justice to the 50th anniversary of “The Dark Side of the Moon” (which came out two years ago), you can really see the difference with this new product in terms of the rights to the group—now that they’ve passed from the old band members to SONY.

The major label already showed us just a few months ago what they're capable of when they released the restored version of “Live at Pompeii” in a superb and definitive edition, both in terms of video and audio.

Now they’ve released this box set (I got the single Blu-ray version) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Wish You Were Here, with the whole album for the first time in Dolby Atmos, plus other versions ranging from the 2011 5.1 Surround Mix, the Stereo Mix, and the 1975 Quad Mix.

In addition, there are excellent and wonderful takes and demo versions that gradually reveal how the songs were born and transformed before becoming the definitive versions we all know (an example above all is the version of “Wish You Were Here” with solos played on a slide guitar instead of a classical guitar).

Finally, you get an entire audio concert recorded during the 1975 tour.

Unfortunately, there are no official versions and this concert was recorded by Mike Millard (a genius of bootleg recordings who, I hope, will one day get a proper documentary film dedicated to him), and here it’s been restored by Steven Wilson.

An extremely enjoyable concert, with that raw, direct recording vibe—a real gem showcasing the band’s full potential during their live shows.

If you want a definitive version for your Dolby Surround system, this is the one for you. Otherwise, there’s the audio version with 2 CDs, which does not include the full 1975 concert, though.