Wish You Were Here

---

---

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Wish You Were Here is a song cycle dedicated to Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett, who'd flamed out years before: two grimly funny songs about the evils of the music business ("By the way, which one's Pink?"), and two long, touching ones about the band's vanished friend. The real star of the show, though, is the production: sparkling, convoluted, designed to sound deeply oh-wow under the influence--and pretty great sober too, with David Gilmour getting lots of space for his most lyrical guitar playing ever. And, though the album is big and ambitious, even bombastic, it somehow dodges being pretentious--the Barrett tributes are honest and heartfelt, beneath all the grand gestures and stereophonic trickery. --Douglas Wolk

---

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-13 rating:
Pink Floyd's Masterwork
No, not Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall, this is Pink Floyd's greatest work. Only 4 songs (one split in two) but they're absolutely sublime. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is an amazing song and, I think, the Floyd's longest, Welcome to the Machine is eerie but compulsively listenable, Wish You Were Here one of their most gorgeous songs, and Have a Cigar is very underrated, in fact one of my favourite tracks and a nice change of style, without which the album might have felt a bit too heavy. You have to listen to the album in one sitting to truly appreciate it, and it's a hugely rewarding experience with not a duff second on it. And the ending of the album is truly gorgeous, possibly the best ending to an album ever. Absolutely essential listening.

---

review by: Album Cover date: 2008-10-18 rating:
We Don't Need No Remastered CD - Where's the SACD ???
Stop messing about with yet another remastered CD - BRING OUT THE SACD VERSION THAT WE ALL KNOW HAS BEEN PRODUCED. Storm has done the cover art, all the work has been done on the 5.1 mix - please Please PLEASE cut it to SACD and bring it out before December 2008 and make my Xmas.

---

review by: Gilmour/Townshend date: 2008-08-16 rating:
ALBUM 2 IN THE SERIES OF GREAT ALBUMS FROM FLOYD
This album is without doubt my favourite Floyd album. It has everything you need in a concept/prog rock/Floyd album. Some say its the last of the great Floyd albums, before waters took over, and it was more of waters solo work. Although Mason is never credited, his classic drumming is always there to help the flow the immense music. Again, we have a short number of tracks, but we still get a blistering 44 odd mins. With the epic that is Shine On You Crazy Diamond, the first five parts are 5 brilliant pieces of music, I think we've all heard Shine On part II (if not, look it up) with the combination of Ricks excellent Piano and Synth work, and Gilmours quite frankly perfect guitar, the first few pieces all fit together, and then we get waters lyrics, reminiscent of their old front man Syd, and how cool is the wording, Shine on You crazy Diamond, waters was really on fire that day. The first 5 parts flow seamlessly into Welcome To The Machine. This monster of a track just shows waters at his best, attacking government with some fab guitar, and synths, the drums in this are really cool too. Then we come to side 2 and the opening song which became a single, Have A Cigar. This bass driven, funky vocals and again perfect guitar from Gilmour, show what Floyd are made of. With the voice of Roy Harper, because waters had strained his voice doing Shine On, we get a sort of folk rock version of vocals, and it works so well. And alas we come to the title track, and indeed possibly floyds most famous song. Wish You Were Here, is the writing partnership of Gilmour/Waters at work. That beautiful riff that just gets better every time you here it, and those immortal words. Again its an album where waters wrote all lyrics, but you wouldnt ask for any better ones on this song. Its an anthem that will see Floyd remembered well after their gone. To end the album, Floyd then return the the Shine On suite, to add 4 more parts to end the album. Albeit, in my opinion not as good as the first 5, but parts VI-IX really show what Floyd are made of. They had wanted all of Shine On to be one long track, but it was too long for a side of vinyl they had to split it. All in all, this is the only Floyd album I can listen to for pleasure. I love Floyd and they have some brill albums, but I have to say that this is my favourite to listen to, dark side is more of a rocky hey lets get up and play air guitar to Money, whereas WYWH is an album for listening to, its immortal and will never die, even after 30 years people still buy it, and for very good reason.

---

review by: date: 2008-03-07 rating:
Wonderful From Start To Finish.
Following 'Dark Side Of The Moon' must have been difficult. So kudos to the Floyd for creating 'Wish You Were Here', for many their finest work. By their usual standards, this is remarkably gentle and can be easily appreciated by fans of all genres.

One of Pink Floyd's most famous songs, 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is a loving tribute to the late, great Syd Barrett. A nine part composition split into two, It's a thing of beauty from start to finish made all the more poignant by the fact that Barrett himself, suddenly showed up at the studio whilst Floyd were recording that very song, prompting Richard Wright to proclaim it as "Karma, Fate, who knows?".

Things take a darker tone with 'Welcome To The Machine' and 'Have A Cigar', attacks on the hypocricy and greed of the music industry. With David Gilmour's blistering guitar work and tinny synthesizer beats, these tracks are more Rock orientated than the rest of the album.

But it's the title track 'Wish You Were Here' that seals the album's greatness. A simple, haunting, acoustic ballad that also, is based on Barrett. Rolling Stone voted it one of the top 500 songs ever made, and rightly so. This is affecting stuff from one of Rock Musics greats, and a fitting tribute to Syd Barrett, one of Rock music's great visionary minds.


review by: Roadbloc date: 2008-01-21 rating:
Not as good as dark side..... BUT AMAZING!
A brill album. Shine on you crazy diamond is the best song ever made; it's musical feelings reach out to you and calm you down, while Welcome To The Machine fills you with energy. Brill.

---

Similar products

Dark Side of the Moon
Animals
The Wall: Remastered
Meddle
The Division Bell

---

Similar categories

Music . Special Features . Bargain CDs . All Bargain CDs
Music . Styles . Pop . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Pop . General AAS
Music . Styles . Rock . Classic Rock . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Rock . Classic Rock . Classic British Rock
Music . Styles . Rock . Classic Rock . Progressive Rock
Music . Styles . Rock . General AAS
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . CD . CD Album

---