Richard Wright
Wet Dream

Clearly, this is not a Pink Floyd album, but this review definitely talks about them.
Warning to readers: if you're only interested in the album review, read only the first and last part of what's written.

Sometimes, when observing a painting for a long time, one gets the impression that a small detail of it calls for important images and considerations equal to those of other more striking details. This is the case with this small and delicate album that fits within the “Pink Floyd Music”. With the album “Animals”, from 1977, Wright's creative contribution to the group was nullified during the compositional phase and reduced in the arrangement phase of the songs. Roger Waters’ leadership became overwhelming, leading the group to create harsher and more raw soundscapes: Wright's keyboards emerged only occasionally to bring with them dark and feverish atmospheres, far from the ethereal and delicate music proposed by the keyboardist. The following year, at the end of the “In The Flesh Tour”, Wright retired to France to concentrate on creating “Wet Dream”. Usually, when a band member is unable to express themselves creatively with their companions (in the album “Animals” for the first time Wright did not participate in the compositional phase) and does so instead outside of the group, it's a sign that something has cracked. This something can be identified on multiple levels that interact closely with each other. We can identify them in summary, through an interactionist approach:

an individual level;
a group level;
a social, cultural, and economic level, which the music business adapts to and attempts to influence.

On an individual level, Wright was perhaps the weakest and most introverted person in the group, a weakness exacerbated during that period by some drug problems (cocaine, in particular) and the lack of communication and friendship developed with others, particularly with Waters. Additionally, Wright's marriage to his then-wife Juliette was in crisis. As many of us have pointed out on this website, Wright's creative contribution has been greatly underestimated as, despite having few compositional credits, his “sonic arches” have given depth and solemnity to the compositions first by Barrett and then by Waters and the group in general.

On a group level, Waters’ strong and controversial personality became absolutely dominant, altering the band's creative process. Whereas previously the band's members spent a lot of time experimenting and composing together (see “Echoes”), during this period it was reduced to just the aspects of song arrangements. Waters was driven by an enormous creative “fever” that led him to write the music for his “conceptual ideas” directly at home, trying to delegate as little as possible to others the compositional aspect of the same (in this regard, Waters complained about “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” because it “diluted” the themes dealt with in “Wish You Were Here” too much). Furthermore, focusing the composition on himself tended to satisfy his oversized ego more (in recent times, “the creative genius of Pink Floyd” was displayed on the tickets for his concerts) than the sharing of work with others. In this regard, it's interesting to note how a band can sometimes be a catalyst for vital energy and other times be perceived as a constraint and a limit to the existence of the people that comprise it. This applies to any type of group, not just musical.
In the case of Pink Floyd, the period from 1968 to 1975 is characterized by a collaborative predominance among the band members with individual contributions (mainly from Waters). There is a precarious balance based largely on the limits of the individual elements that are overcome thanks to the collaboration of the group: Waters immediately imposes himself as a lyricist, but his compositional ability on a musical level is partly linked to Gilmour and Wright's musical and interpretative contributions. Over the years, the band's balance progressively changed: Waters demanded that the band's music completely adapt to the literary ideas he conceived and thus began to take on almost the entire burden of writing the musical groundwork for the band's songs; Waters decided to give more space to his vocal interpretations, resorting to Gilmour only when he couldn't avoid it (Gilmour has a more versatile voice and greater range than Waters, while Wright's voice would completely disappear from the band's sound until “The Division Bell”); Gilmour and Wright couldn't propose lyrics on par with Waters' and the lack of collaboration with him demotivated them as music writers too; Gilmour and Wright had less communicative desire than Waters and perhaps this is also why they didn't truly engage in conflict-competition with him; Waters increasingly failed to recognize others' merits (for example, Gilmour would complain that “Sheep” was 70% his, yet one might wonder what distracted him from fighting to have his rights recognized).

On a socio-cultural level, reconstructing what led to the explosion of punk in England in 1976-1977 is really complex, but it is interesting to note that the band, along with other historic bands, was labeled as “the old to be overcome”. Wright watched this with concern but had no weapons to oppose it, while Waters was determined to go “into the streets” and “fight” with his bass against the newcomers: this meant renewing the album contents and, above all, the band's sound, at the expense of Wright's contribution.

Naturally, the changes that arose in the band were not the result of a sudden shift but rather the result of dynamics, both internal and external to the band, that had developed over the years. This dissection of the band aims to highlight how, in fact, there isn't a single “Pink Floyd Sound” but rather many that have succeeded and overlapped over the years. This examination also connects to “Wet Dream” precisely because it's an album that shows how Wright, a mainstay of the band's sound, felt increasingly “out of place”. Out of place in a band that played differently than he desired; out of place in a band where human relationships were strongly eroding; out of place in that historical period that proposed aggressive and dissonant music; out of place with himself, so much so that he sought refuge in the deceptive world of drugs.

With this load of “negativity,” Wright wrote this album, also “out of place,” to prove to himself that his musical journey was still alive and valid. Listening to this album raises questions (absolutely speculative in nature) about how “The Wall” (or any other album created by the band) might have been if there had been greater collaboration and cohesion among the band's members. Perhaps “The Wall” would have been better without fillers like “The Show Must Go On” or “Bring The Boys Back Home” (I, a fan of the band, take full responsibility for this statement); perhaps it would have been “diluted” in its power by Wright's compositional contributions; or it might not have even existed, considering the elements of “incommunicability” and “isolation” present in the album itself. I raise these questions precisely because I find the collaborative Pink Floyd more “exciting” as they created that absolutely unique musical magma, even though perversely, I'm interested in everything they've published and created in other contexts. I consider Roger Waters one of the greatest authors in rock history but I think it's absolutely wrong to underestimate the musical contribution provided by musicians of great sensitivity and talent like Wright and Gilmour.
Returning to the album, I can say it's a small gem that continues Wright's “musical discourse,” interrupted with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part IX”, infusing it with traces of jazz, funk, and blues. The album consists of four songs and six instrumentals, almost always crossed by “marine vibrations.”

The album opens with the good instrumental “Mediterranean C”, where gradually and slowly first the serene notes of Wright's keyboards are inserted, then the gentle rhythm section made up of Larry Steele on bass and Reg Isadore on drums, and following that the splendid saxophone of Mel Collins and Snowy White's inspired guitar (added guitarist and bassist of the “Animals” tour). The level rises with the next two splendid instrumentals, “Cat Cruise” and “Waves”, where Wright lays the groundwork for Collins’ clear and bright phrasing to soar. “Mad Yannis Dance” has a structure similar to the previous tracks but possesses less strength. The novelty instead comes from the last two instrumentals, “Drop In From The Top” and, especially, “Funky Deux”: the first sees Wright's organ and White’s guitar alternating in the role of the solo instrument within atmospheres less ethereal than the tracks previously mentioned. The second, as the title openly suggests, is a mid-time funk that I wouldn't have expected from Wright, and in which Wright, Collins, and White participate with playful taste: definitely an atypical finale that leaves you a bit disoriented.
In my opinion, these last three tracks are the weakest on the album. As for the remaining beautiful songs, there's a small mystery: the vinyl version of the album credits Juliette Wright as the writer of the lyrics for “Pink’s Song”, while the CD version states that Juliette wrote instead the lyrics for “Against The Odds”. From the information I have, this detail has never been clarified.
“Against The Odds” is an intense and heartfelt song, adorned by White's measured but beautiful guitar counterpoints, in which Wright’s voice speaks of the pain derived from conflict and lack of understanding with the other. “Summer Elegy” and “Holiday” are bittersweet songs based on the sonic dominance of the piano, dominance that is only interrupted by White’s vibrant solos and small slide guitar counterpoints. Finally comes the most moving song on the album, “Pink’s Song”. I've always wondered why such a beautiful and significant song is so little remembered by Pink Floyd enthusiasts. The song, in addition to having a splendid musical structure based on the dialogue between keyboards and Collins' flute, showcases one of Wright's most heartfelt vocal performances, in which he sings:

…Caught in an intricate web
you helped us break free
sadly, then, you lost yourself
and so you had to go away…

Wright has always been evasive about the meaning of this song, but it's hard not to think of the beloved “mad diamond.” This song would not have been out of place on any Pink Floyd album. The conclusion I can draw is quite bitter: perhaps not supporting this fragile musician’s creative abilities within the group was one of the biggest wastes in the ephemeral history of rock. The history of Pink Floyd could have been even brighter…