Pink Floyd - "The Wall"

After this one, you may be thinking that I have “a thing” for concept albums. And you’d be right, I do - both because I like albums that tell me something, rather than just being “pleasant to listen to”, but also because concept albums tend to come from a single vision, being more “personal”. This is certainly the case here.

What more can anyone add about “The Wall” after all these decades? There are thousands and thousands of reviews out there, some of them brilliant (and some of them even on Amazon.com). Unless you think the album, or Floyd in general, are “pretentious” (a term which I’ve found usually means “too intense” or “too good” - how many times have you seen it applied to, say, Dream Theater?), if you know the album, you probably consider it a masterpiece.

So, were I doing a review, I wouldn’t have much to add. Fortunately, this is not a reviews site.

Unlike some other albums, I didn’t exactly love “The Wall” at first. Some good songs, sure, but also some shorter “interludes”, acoustic pieces, and “silences”. It’s not that I don’t like those, but, to me, for them to work, I have to start thinking about it as “an album” instead of “a collection of songs”. And, yes, “The Wall” is certainly meant to be listened as a single piece, though, of course, some songs also work on their own (like “Comfortably Numb” or “Run Like Hell”).

But, after half a dozen listens, and especially after watching the movie (which is like a video for the album), I really began to “get” it, to understand it, to know the lyrics and the story behind them.

And, yes, it’s a work of art. One of the best of the 20th century. One I can’t seem to get tired of listening to, these days. Sometimes more of an opera than a “rock album”, “The Wall” is personal, emotional, intense, with fantastic lyrics and imagery.