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The Wall - Over rated ?

is "The Wall" over-rated ?

  • yes

    Votes: 33 27.7%

  • no

    Votes: 86 72.3%
  • Total voters
    119
#21
driver800 said:
IMO, The Wall is a great concept album with a fully realized storyline (mostly thanks to Waters). And it's a great collection of songs (mostly thanks to Gilmour).
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"Fully realized storyline"?

The storyline starts strong on side 1, then side 2 and 3 and halfway through side 4 all the songs are an interchangable mess of experiences which mostly serve to demonstrate that the main character is a complete effing a-hole. The character does not develop, does not grow, does not learn from anything that he experiences, and the order of these things is largely meaningless as his character's fame grows.

From what I understand "The Trial" was a 90% Ezrin composed attempt to rescue the project or salvage some kind of story out of Roger's rambling incoherent narrative.
Strange side note, my favorite song on that album is "Vera."
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I've always thought that some of the best melodies/songs aren't fully realized while some distinctly poor melodies/songs are ground over and over incessantly. That's always been one of my biggest problems with "The Wall". I mean, "Another Brick In The Wall, despite being a big hit, is a pretty crappy song. A mostly boring unimaginative melody with a call-and-response chorus which has lyrics that really only connect with the angst-filled adolescent boy record-buyers. Is there really a need to repeat that tedious song three times while leaving just a few seconds for a great melody like "Vera"?
The Wall strikes me as primarily the adolescent whinings of a pompous egomaniac control freak... it's self-pitying & distasteful...
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I completely agree. Good album though. More than the sum of it's parts.

The last time I listened to the record in it's whole at the end I thought "Who "really loves" this jerk? Who's walking outside the wall? Effing NOBODY that's who? His mother? His ex wife? Fans? He derides and abuses them all, what do they have to "love" him for? There's nobody outside the wall. The only good thing is maybe he can start over and not be such a douchebag this time.
 
#23
Philbiker said:
I've always thought that some of the best melodies/songs aren't fully realized while some distinctly poor melodies/songs are ground over and over incessantly.
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Agreed, the "Another Brick" series bores me to tears, but Vera is over the second I get into it. I haven't listened to The Wall in a while, it's just too much work to get through a lot of the tracks.
 
#27
I think it is totally overrated, but I'll be the first to tell you that you SHOULD NOT listen to my opinion, for the simple fact that I am not you. "I" don't care for it, "I" don't really care for any floyd, it bores the sheets out of me.

I want to appreciate them, I really do. Every so often I give it the old college try, but they sit with me about as good as 5 bean burritos from Taco Bell washed down with 4 cups of espresso.

I recently listened to a few coworkers rave about their greatness, so it inspired me to try again. I asked what they thought would be the best DVD/album to watch/listen to to try and convert me, I WANTED to be converted.

They suggested Live at Pompeii and I borrowed it.

What a boring, overtly self-indulgent piece of... well, you get the point. They played a note, and I got so bored waiting for the next that I went to the bathroom, put my coat on, drove 3 miles to the Beer Store, came back, cracked a brew and STILL had time to make a sandwich before the next note was played.

And before all of you load your flamethrowers with rocket fuel, go back and read my first sentence. This is my opinion, not yours, so I don't care how wrong I am, because I am not wrong, my opinion just differs from yours.
 
#29
I love The Wall.My favourite Floyd album.Sooo dark.There is themes of Syd int here but it isn't primarily about him.It's more of Roger's experience than anything.Maybe there was some inspiration from Syd.My personal favourites off that album are the Waters songs (Empty Spaces,Nobody Home etc).
 
#30
driver800 said:
IMO, The Wall is a great concept album with a fully realized storyline (mostly thanks to Waters). And it's a great collection of songs (mostly thanks to Gilmour).

The only issue I have w/ PF is that listening to them too much can be depressing.
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Waters wrote almost all of the music to the wall (3 songs co-written with gilmour, and 1 co-written with ezrin.). I guess if you're takling about guitar solos or something, than yeah, that was gilmour, but other than that, Roger had a huge grasp over the band and pretty much guided it where he wanted it to go (and of course it's brilliant).

But, i agree, too much floyd can be quite depressing.
 
#32
paniak17 said:
Waters wrote almost all of the music to the wall (3 songs co-written with gilmour, and 1 co-written with ezrin.). I guess if you're takling about guitar solos or something, than yeah, that was gilmour, but other than that, Roger had a huge grasp over the band and pretty much guided it where he wanted it to go (and of course it's brilliant).

But, i agree, too much floyd can be quite depressing.
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Yes, they are almost all Waters' songs, but, (to me) Gilmour provides the sound that makes the songs work -whether with his voice or his guitar. Without Gilmour's contribution, thesongs don't do much for me. That's not to denegrate Waters in any way - I just think Gilmour breathes life into those songs. That's why they were/are never quite as good separately as they are together. Dang, I wish they would do a new album.
 
#36
Animals was definetly one of Floyds most highly regarded/inspirational albums(hell, Claypool covered the whole thing!), total gloom. The Wall was their last hurrah, great album but totally the end of the line for Floyd. Mason IIRC, hardly finished recording his parts when he left the band during its recordings along with Gilmore who refused to deal with Waters in the studio or be there when he was, terrible facts, but that's rock 'n roll...& usally it ends up cult afterwards, oh well...

~S~

PS: I recently heard a new song by Waters that totally sucked(IMO), & the last Gilmore album was so-so...
 
#39
Atoz said:
Personally, I think the album is great, but the movie is incredibly stupid.
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+1
The album isn't about Roger, it's about Sid, who committed suicide. He was so strung out, that's how Gilmore got involved. He took Sids place when he was too out of it to play and was a natural to step in after Sid was gone. "Shine on you crazy diamond" is about Sid too.
I guess the movie is based on a Rock Star loosing his mind in an LA hotel room, and I never liked the Boomtown Rats so I thought the main character was cast badly.

The Album floored me. I've always put that up there as one of the best made. I like it better than DSOTM, but I'm in the minority there. I like Animals and Wish you were here better than DSOTM also. Final Cut? They could have skipped that one.
That surprises me Bruce, I don't know about England, but it got rave reviews in So Cal when it came out. Continuous play.
 

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