Try About Face by David Gilmour and Radio KAOS by Roger Waters.
P.S. Roger Waters wrote and sang both “Pigs on the Wing” and “Don’t Leave Me Now”.
Based on your (Idle Thoughts) apparent tastes, you would probably like Obscured by Clouds. You seem to prefer the hard-rockin’ songs (with words, no less) to the ethereal floaty “warm thrill of confusion” that many of us PF fans like.
Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar are pretty hard-hitting songs that might be well appreciated, though. The second one, as I recall, has Roy Harper on lead vocal (I have an inexplicable fondness for Descendants of Smith and Watford Gap).
My main gripe is songs that are either all instrumental (and no lyrics or words) or that start out instrumental and don’t get to the words for, like, many minutes.
I don’t mind songs that have singing and then a long instrumental (however long it wants) and then more singing, or singing and a long instrumental until the end, without any more singing…or even singing and then various spans of more instrumentals and more singing scattered throughout.
It’s just “all instrumentals” or “starting with long instrumentals” that I’m not too fond of. Both The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon had both those types of examples. Animals didn’t. Not one. All of the instrumentals on that album were the “singing, long instrumental, and then more singing” type, which I oftentimes like or even love.
I don’t mind it all the time, though…it really depends on the sound. If it’s really rocking and upbeat, great. I’d probably not mind so much.
If it’s spacey or new agey or trippy music, though, it’s a bit more annoying to me.
I’m tempted to steer you away from “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” in that case, which is the bulk of Wish You Were Here. It’s downbeat and the vocals start eight minutes in. Waters moved the band gradually more towards a focus on lyrics, but the band’s trademark is atmosphere and melodic instrumental passages.
Shine on You Crazy Diamond is just a bunch of musical noise with some words that make little sense. I mean
You were caught in the crossfire
Of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze
So come on you legend, you raver, you martyr,
And shine
what does that even mean? If you go in cold and just listen to it, you will be unimpressed.
On the other hand, if you understand what it is about, it can be deeply affecting. But, in order to understand it, you have to dig into the biography of Syd Barret and probably listen to Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Relics. Probably more work than you want to do.
If you listen to Wish You Were Here, just listen to the other three tracks and skip that big piece until you are ready for it.
Okay, listening to Meddle now…
…which is only about an hour long. What’s up with these short albums? Animals was short too, only about 47 minutes. At this rate a person could listen to everything Pink Floyd has ever put out in about half a day. C’mon, where’s the CDs that are supposed to last two or three hours? Was this even worth buying back in the day? You get, like, 45 minutes worth of music here. A 45 minute episode of a TV show on VUDU costs, what, three dollars? Was that how much this album cost when it came out? Things WERE much cheaper back then, after all. Still, I dunno…just seems weird. I came into this expecting albums that would take hours to listen to. I mean, the two that I didn’t like so much (so far): The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon…THEY were both over an hour…
…but then the first album I actually really like (Animals) is 47 minutes? What gives?? What a rip off. I want my money back, even though I didn’t even spend any to listen to it. :mad: Isn’t that how Murphy’s Law is? The one you like the best will be the shortest one. Pfft.
And already, this one (Meddle) it’s…less than stellar. The first song, One of These Days, starts out with music. And more music. And still more music. I guess it’s just gonna be music and no words, this one…unless it’s like that one song by Death Cab For Cutie that I hate so much due to it’s excessively and annoyingly long intro. You know the one I’m talking about if you know Death Cab For Cutie.
So anyway, not a huge fan of One of These Days, although at least it was upbeat and had a fast paced tune/melody. It was vaguely catchy, I’ll give it that. But, as with most “just instrumental” songs, I find it hard to fully enjoy just listening to an instrument play and nothing else. I’m not a huge fan of classical music either, in case you couldn’t surmise that. 
I know…I know… “anyone who doesn’t like classical music will already have their opinions about music be something I don’t really give a shit about” will probably be the thoughts of many people upon learning that. But…meh…I just could never fully get into that stuff.
Some wordless music (especially classical like Mozart or Beethoven) are powerful and beautiful enough to affect a person without ever needing lyrics…but I’ve often found this is the exception, not the rule. I most classical to be boring and dull, but there are always exceptions. There are a lot of classical pieces by musicians I really like and even love…
…but in this case, it can often overlap into other forms of music…and so, songs without words/lyrics is something, as a whole, I’ve just never overly preferred.
I’m getting off track, though… back to Meddle.
So One Of The Days is okay. It’s not horrible or bad, certainly. Just not to my tastes. And what is WITH the GOD-AWFUL “stuttering” stuff that starts about halfway through? That stuff IS annoying. Extra annoying. It’s like a version of murder on the ears. What does this song have to do with the title, I wonder? What “One of These Days” this annoying song will end? That’s the only thing I can think of.
Now the next song, that was much better. A Pillow Of Winds was nice and pleasant. I liked it. It was light and breezy, very pleasing to listen to, like a light feather on the hearing. It reminded me a bit of some other bands like The Byrds or Chicago. And after that, Fearless, another very, very good one. I liked it a lot. In fact, I think that one might have been my favorite on that album. Great song. Great singing, great guitar…Hm, it says this one was written, in part, by Rogers and Hammerstein. Nice. I like a lot of their stuff. That makes this album two to one on songs I really liked. Not bad.
San Tropez continued the pattern of pretty good songs. It had a different sound from most of Pink Floyd’s songs so far…almost a jazzy-type of beat. Like a mambo sound, almost. Like five guys bobbing, in sync, down an alley, all snapping their fingers at the same time and wiggling their shoulders. Very catchy. You know how I said Fearless would have to be my favorite? Well, scratch that. …San Tropez is. By far. I liked it so much, I listened to it twice. The piano really sounded great in it too. It was very unexpected…it’s just…so weird, you’re telling me the same people who wrote and sang and made DARK SIDE OF THE MOON wrote and sang this one? Why couldn’t all their songs be like this album and Animals was? What happened to them? Looking at the timeline, it’s weird. I can’t really say they “got worse” because Animals came AFTER Meddle…but I can’t say they got better either, because Dark Side of the Moon also came after Meddle (and before Animals)…and then came The Wall…
…so it was like “Great album”, “bad album”, “Great album”, “subpar album”…that’s been the pattern so far.
And now Seamus has started and is over and you know what? THAT WAS A FREAKING FANTASTIC song! It was seriously great. Again, it was almost like a jazzy, bluesy, folksy type of song and I LOVED the dog sound effects that it had. The barking and howling. It was wonderful! Holy crap, if not for the first (ALL INSTRUMENTAL) song on this album (One of These Days) I MIGHT say this one would rival my love of even Animals, which I didn’t think would be an easy feat. See, this is good music now. The last four songs (A Pillow of Winds, Fearless, San Tropez, and Seamus) have been EXCELLENT. Very, very good…nay, great…songs. I really liked them.
Okay, so the last one on this album is Echoes and, at first, I heard similarities of “Brain Damage” (which is a song that I like, quite a lot) on Dark Side of the Moon. It’s almost like I kept expecting the next line to be “I’ll see you on the dark side…of the moon…” in a few places. It wasn’t OVERLY bad, at first; I actually found myself liking most of it. It was filled with a lot of instrumentals, but they weren’t horrible or annoying or boring… and it was pretty light and enjoyable. it was very good. Like “Brain Damage” a bit, like I said. I could hear similarities between tones and singing styles and chords and melody. And the solos in this song were really great and well done…
… But then, around TEN MINUTES IN, it changes. It changed DRASTICALLY. It became a whole other song, pretty much, and not one that I liked. It started sounding so drab and creepy and ugly…like the sort of music you’d hear while going through a haunted house. Oh, come on…why do this? You were doing so good, Meddle. Don’t end it this way. Don’t make the last song turn into a shitty crapfest…this was my hope and prayer as I listened on.
But no, Echoes got worse. Why did they do this? Why did they suddenly change the song’s tune? It’s like they suddenly thought “Hey! Let’s turn this happy-sounding, uplifting song into ONE OF THE MOST FUCKING DEPRESSING SHITTY PIECES OF MUSIC WE CAN THINK OF!” Look, I’m all for a song evolving over time…but this was just a bit ridiculous. It had SUCH GREAT potential. It sounded pretty good…but then it got to the point where I just wanted to turn it off, that’s how lousy it sounded.
Obviously I didn’t, though…and (and I kinda EXPECTED it might do this) eventually it built up again, bit by bit, into a good, “happy” sounding song again. Seriously, for awhile there it was channeling that theme from The Exorcist or something. Again, a song evolving like that, I can understand a lot of people liking and appreciating and thinking is a great work of art or spawn of genius. I’m not really one of them, however. In the end, Echoes was just as it began. As if it DIDN’T ever take that detour into a muck pit of TOTAL SHIT (or SHITE, since they’re British). I mean, I really would have liked to pretend it had just been that nice all the way through…but it was extremely hard. I don’t know or understand why they thought it’d be a good idea to just deviate from a song that was already good, just to go back to how good it was in the first place. What was the point of going off that track, into that “dark” place? What, just to show how far your musical genius or limits can stretch? It was a good song without that dreary part. The dreary part just made it…well, dreary. Or maybe they wanted to invoke a WIDE RANGE of emotions from the listener…happiness, contentment…then sadness and fear and dread…then peacefulness, etc… I can understand that a bit…
…but I just didn’t like it personally. I would have liked it if it had just been the first ten minutes and the last five. Cut out minutes 10 to 17. Ugh.
Overall, it was a pretty good album, though. Not THE BEST I’ve heard from them…but pretty damn good. I’d rank it number 2, my second favorite so far, right below Animals. If the first song (One of These Days) wasn’t a totally instrumental song…and if ECHOES had actually stayed on track and not tried to EXPERIMENT with itself like a 14 year old girl wanting to rebel and who starts to dress funny and wear black nail polish, it might be tied for my favorite…or even RISE ABOVE my opinion of Animals, because those four songs in a row? Really great. Echoes, however, dropped the ball, I felt. It wasn’t near good as A Pillow of Winds, Fearless, San Tropez, and Seamus were…but it wasn’t bad, either, I suppose. It started and ended good and strong, at least… whereas those other four in a row were VERY good and some even damn near great.
So…
Best Pink Floyd album I’ve heard so far:
Animals
Meddle
And then there’s quite a large gap…
…and then we have The Wall. The Wall was okay. Not horrible. Not great.
Dark Side of the Moon is my least favorite. I disliked half the songs on it.
My hope is the other albums will either fall somewhere between Meddle and The Wall…OR…with hope, maybe even be ABOVE Meddle somewhere.
Most of Pink Floyd was mastered for vinyl. A 33rpm album had a physical limitation of around 23 minutes on a side, so the music was put together to fit the medium. The longest vinyl side I can remember seeing was something like 25 minutes. The Wall was longer because it was two discs (four sides), and if you pay attention, you can see where each side breaks (Mother ends side one, Goodbye Cruel World side 2, Comfortably Numb side 3). Back in the day, we had to physically flip the record over (touching only the edges, to avoid getting any oil or dirt on the surface) in order to hear the whole thing.
I rather like the way vinyl sounds, but that is mostly just me. Digital music is just too crisp. But it takes a lot to get it to sound that good.
So been pondering the next few I’m going to listen to. Most seem to be saying either Atom Heart Mother or Wish You Were Here, so I think those will be the next two I’ll listen all to.
I guess I’ll just go ahead and listen to every album eventually, over the next week, though.
Atom Heart Mother is largely instrumental. Just an FYI.
Yeah, I still think in terms of side breaks.
Anyway, pretty much any album from the vinyl era is around the 40-45 minute mark:
[ul]
[li]Thriller: 42 minutes[/li][li]Born in the USA: 46 minutes[/li][li]Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: 39 minutes[/li][li]Damn the Torpedoes: 36 minutes[/li][li]Led Zeppelin IV: 42 minutes[/li][li]Purple Rain: 43 minutes[/li][li]Rumours: 39 minutes[/li][/ul]
I think it’s the ideal length unless you want the excess of a double album.
Some future “First time listener, tell me what’s good regarding [band]'s albums” I’ll be doing, by the way (eventually) is Rush (next), Jethro Tull, Steely Dan, Van Halen, Journey, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, Electric Light Orchestra…those for sure…
…and many others, MAYBE/PERHAPS, …possibly ones like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Yes, Dire Straits, Santana, BeeGees, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Bon Jovi…the possibilities are endless. There’s a lot of 70s and 80s music I missed out on by only hearing the radio stuff. I can think of ONE Rush song I know I’ve heard (the Tom Sawyer one). And one Steely Dan song (Rikki Don’t Lose That Number…that’s them, right?). Jethro Tull, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard ANY songs by.
But all of those in good time. Coming soon.
I love Chicago (FYI, you’ll also see them called Chicago Transit Authority and CTA). Go for the older stuff, the “newer” 80’s stuff is when they got into the sappy soft rock love songs.
Their first album, the self titled Chicago Transit Authority is amazing. However, quite a bit of it is just them playing. But taking guitar, horns and percussion and making them a rock/jam band instead of jazz or ska, it’s amazing to listen to. Don’t fight it, just put it in, turn it up, sink in to your seat and go for a drive…and skip Free Form Guitar, that shit used to scare me wide away when I’d fall asleep with the album on.
Wait—what?
The Dark Side of the Moon: 42:49
Either DSotM felt way longer than it is, or you were listening to some sort of extended version that had bonus tracks tacked on. Which, as a general rule, I advise skipping if you’re new to an album.
Yeah, most albums from the vinyl era are going to be under 45 minutes long (and a few are under 30), unless it’s a double album, in which case there’s a good chance people are going to be arguing over whether it’s Too Long, Padded, Bloated, etc. If an album was longer than 45 minutes, you’d notice, because it wouldn’t fit on one side of a 90-minute cassette. 
The other thing to keep in mind, Idle Thoughts, is that most albums are meant to be listened to repeatedly. I wouldn’t expect to fully appreciate an album, or even be able to judge it fairly, on first listen.
It may help you enjoy instrumentals better if you imagine David Gilmour’s guitar (and Dick Parry’s saxophone) as another “singing” voice.
See? This thread is amazingly insightful! I am on record saying that Umma Gumma might not be the best starting point, and then Idle Thoughts likes Seamus! (Which I’ve always pronounced Sea Muss). It’s not a bad song, and I like it, but it’s sort of like a throwaway. I don’t think I know anybody that calls it a favorite.
Echoes I love. I especially like the middle, where it goes off on some post-apocalyptic turn. I have always envisioned that part as looking over a long-abandoned city at twilight. There are sounds coming from there, but you don’t know what is making them.
When I was a kid, Floyd was classed as “drug music”. People even asked me, “You listed to drug music??” Like it had this evil reputation. For the record, I’ve never done drugs once, and Floyd is one of my favorite bands. So you don’t need shrooms or weed, just a good attitude. And headphones!
I wish there was a bit more love for The Division Bell. To me, it’s the only post-Waters Floyd that sounds like Pink Floyd. I find A Momentary Lapse… a bit tedious and lacking. Of course, it’s not perfect. It’s missing something, and that something is Waters. But, conversely, the band needs more than Waters. Without someone to moderate his whining, you get the worst of The Final Cut, and side four of The Wall (which after 38 years, I can no longer tolerate.) Without Waters, though, what you get is…almost there.
Something I was thinking about this morning…many of the songs you mentioned earlier in your rants are meant to be run together and not separated out and listened to by themselves. For example, most classic rock stations play “Breathe”, but what they actually play is “Speak To Me/Breathe” . Similarly, you’ll typically hear “Brain Damage/Eclipse” and “The Happiest Days Of Our Lives/The Wall (Part 2)” played as a single song, in fact, many people wouldn’t even know the beginning part of The Wall part 2 (with the person yelling at the kid) is actually a different track.
I must nit pick - that’s not true.
The movie came out three years after the album. In actuality, the movie made the already-there sounds fit. I love how the screetching in Vera Lynn was seen to be a train braking at the station. I always thought that was just a sound.
Of course, they left out Gomer Pyle. I had read that PF didn’t know how recognizable that voice was. It really stood out from the otherwise obscure samples.
How many people here have looked for the Gunsmoke episode Pink is watching, with Diana Muldaur? And who is Rose Toaster? 
(I know- she was Miss Armored Division.)
Anyway, this Roman Meal bakery thought you’d like to know.
Nevermind, I see my mistake now. I originally started listening to THIS version of DSOTM, before I realized it wasn’t the right one. So my mind remembered 2 hours.
However here was the version of The Wall I heard, which was over an hour.