Dark Side of the Moon time.
Okay, first of all…what is the POINT of Speak To Me? Is this ever gonna be on anyone’s list of “Top five songs of all time”? It’s pretty much nothing but silence…then a little bit of a drum and laughing. Plus it didn’t even end before the next song (Breathe) started. It was just an intro to Breathe dammit! Don’t give me that “Speak To Me” is its own thing…it’s just a long intro, that’s all. Doesn’t even deserve a review, IMO.
Yeah, I know. I probably just don’t “get it”. But this is why I’m not crazy about music that is like this. I don’t want to have more questions than enjoyment of music. I like bands that make songs that have a beginning and end, that actually has content, that isn’t just random noises or breathing or laughing. So far this is two albums, now, that makes me think Pink Floyd just might not be for me.
Okay…so…Breathe. Slightly better, but still mostly just…groaning. It sounds like the singer is just groaning. In the last half of the song, because the first half is MORE FUCKING INSTRUMENTALS. Hey, I realize not all music has to have words, but the music I tend to like usually does.
It’s like, okay… On the Run. Sorry, but this fucking song is BULL. SHIT. The first two minutes are nothing but this weird “bobbly” type noise you’d expect to hear out of a pinball machine. This isn’t music, this is a waste of my time is what it is.
And that all leads to Time…which is the best song on the album so far–and that’s saying something–because even that one (in my opinion) isn’t overly great. It’s just okay. It’s got a good intro and good sounds and good singing (good Lord, actual SINGING?? WORDS?? In a Pink Floyd song??? What are they doing here?), but it’s brought down in a big way by being ALMOST TWO AND A HALF MINUTES of instrumental. Again, I don’t like “just instrumental”. If someone had told me “Uh, you know that Pink Floyd is mostly an instrumental band?” I might have just skipped listening to this band. But anyway, the singing in Time is good, for what it’s worth.
And I like the guitar stuff. See… I don’t mind instrumentals when they’re paired with singing. You know the song Light My Fire by The Doors, right? That one has one of the BEST MUSIC SOLOS I’ve ever heard, IMO. Almost six or seven FULL MINUTES of nothing but instruments. But see, that song is BOOKENDED by singing (and good, catchy singing) at both ends.
These songs, they’re either all instrumental or they start out that way and don’t reach a good enough peak to make the entire song that good, IMO.
Okay, so…The Great Gig in the Sky. I start listening. No words. I listen more. Just music. More. Instrumental. I look at the album info. Hm, well, it says vocals done by two people in this song, so I assume they’re coming soon. I listen on. Nothing. Wait. Crooning. By a human perhaps, although it sounds almost more like a loon with a leg chopped off. “AHHHHHH! AHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH WAAAAAOOOHAAAAAAAHHHH!” Someone is being tortured. Okay, when the hell is the vocals? I’m waiting. Listening more. More wailing. It’s nails on a chalkboard. Song ends.
What the fuck…?? Those were vocals? Uh, no. Not on any planet I’m from. Not by any dictionary I own. Sorry looks it up Clare Torry, but you suck at vocals. At least on this song. And I had such high hopes when I saw “vocals”, too…but pfft. sigh
Now Money…I remember that one. That one is good. Money is a good song, I have to admit. Money is catchy. It’s rocking. It has a good start, a good beat throughout, good VOCALS…a great guitar solo after awhile. See, THIS is the type of music I like. I like my music like this. Not with screeching and pinball sounds and telling me I have to eat my meat before I get any pudding.
Us and Them is/was another really good song. See, it’s not all bad. It’s not all bitching. I knew/remembered I liked some stuff about this album. That’s now four songs I disliked (Speak To Me, Breathe, On the Run, and The Great Gig in the Sky) and three I liked (Time, Money, and Us and Them)…almost tied. Just about evened out. There may be hope yet. Us and Them DOES suffer from some of that “random mumbling” shit that I’m not a huge fan of, but the nice sax solo makes up for it.
Okay, Any Color You Like. Oops, sorry, I forgot Pink Floyd is British. Any Colour You Like. Which…is instrumental. Ugh. Well, this one seems like it’s the LEAST annoying/bad instrumental of them all, so that’s something. I don’t dislike it as much as the others.
Brain Damage I like, always have…great music and song.
Oh, and by the way, someone mentioned above (eschereal) about how I just gave “Comfortably Numb” one sentence in my last long review…but see, that’s a good thing. It means I mostly liked the song. The shorter the sentence and less I say about a song, the better…because I only tend to go on and ramble and expand when I’m ranting…and I only like ranting about songs I don’t like or think sound stupid or like shit. I’m more likely to bitch an entire paragraph about, say, “The Great Gig in the Sky” and just give “Comfortably Numb” a “It was good”. It means I like it, trust me, no worries.
And finally, there’s Eclipse, which is good. See what I did there, eschereal? I like Eclipse, it’s a good song.
So that’s five songs I didn’t care for and five songs I liked…which I already knew I thought about regarding this album since I’ve heard it before.
Overall, this album just wasn’t as good as The Wall. It was much more “psychedelic-sounding”. I don’t like that kind of music. I don’t like music that is trying to be like colors in my head…and that’s what this stuff sounds like. Lots of instrumentals, random noises, space-agey type of music. Not a huge fan. And again, it was like the whole album was just ONE LONG SONG. Every song lead into the next. I don’t like that with songs. Songs should be enjoyed one at a time, alone, they shouldn’t be dependent on hearing the part right before or after the next one or the one before it. And many could probably argue that they CAN be enjoyed that way…and you’re right,…but listening to it all together on the album, you can’t really help but hear it AS one long song. IMO, that’s slightly annoying.
At this point, I liked Led Zeppelin way more than Pink Floyd. Does Pink Floyd have any albums/songs where they, you know, actually sing normally? Like rock type tunes? Or is it all wavy, spacey, free your mind, trippy, mind wander-y stuff like this album was? It may be a bit of a generational type thing. A few people on here are much older than I (I was born in 1979)…so maybe it was a 70s thing? A “smoke a joint and feel the music and IT SPEAKS TO YOU, MAN…it fuckin speaks to you” type of thing, maybe? I can’t relate.
Anyway, this is all just my two cents. It’s not for everyone, I realize. I’m still gonna keep going, though, in hopes it will get better or that I’ll find something I like… but even if I never do, then at least I can say I listened to it once in my life. Apologies if most of these reviews are gonna sound like one, long bitching session. It may just be that, too, in fact…but like I said,…it’s not ALL bad.
Up next, I think maybe I’ll tackle ANIMALS. I’ve heard very good things about it from a lot of people.
