Wish You Were Here

Just received my album for my 70th birthday. Listening as I’m writing this review. Saw Pink Floyd in the early 70’s Dark Side of the Moon. The album is awesome. One of the greatest bands of all time.

Wish You Were Here is frequently referred to as the best Pink Floyd album, by fans and by half the band. It isn't my favorite, but I would still put it somewhere in the top 5 out of the 15 Floyd official studio albums. It contains one of the greatest elegies in classic rock, or any genre, in the form of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. The only thing that subtracts from it is the fact (and by "the fact" I mean "my dumb opinion") that parts 8 and 9 seem real unfocused and low on ideas compared to the rest of the thing. Shine On is a behemoth and it dominates the majority of the album. But the other three songs all stand up; I'd categorize them all as classics. Really, with that in mind, it's no surprise how many people say this is their best. They're highly distinct from each other: Welcome to the Machine is cold, industrial progressive rock, albeit with acoustic guitars, Have a Cigar is futuristic electric Blues-rock, and Wish You Were Here is like an English stoner's version of the Country & Western genre. While the songs are thematically connected, the extreme musical differences between all of them, gives Wish You Were Here a disconnected patchwork quality. The contrast between, say, Have a Cigar and the title track, for example, are so jarring that it sounds like two different bands. I suppose this is appropriate for a band that's said to have been struggling with its own identity by the mid 70's. This apparent disconnectedness works to the album's advantage, making it seem a bit like a nonlinear, surrealist TV or radio drama. Lyrically, you're dealing with a seriously haunted record. It's Roger Waters trademark mixture of human compassion and mechanized cynicism at its most focused. The guy's heart is clearly being pulled in at least two or three directions, and it's messing with the essence of his very soul. If the album could speak it'd say something a bit like this: "Look what they've done to us. Look what they did to Syd Barrett. Look what we did to ourselves. Look what we did to Syd Barrett. Get us out of here, we just want to be a band again." Anyway, right, the bonus material. The coolest cuts on the bonus disc are Raving & Drooling and You've Gotta Be Crazy. They're not quite "lost" songs because they turned into Sheep and Dogs, respectively, but they're different enough from those songs to be pretty fascinating. Without the Orwellian stuff that would later be added, the songs fit in well with the themes of Wish You Were Here. You've Gotta Be Crazy is about sacrificing your sanity to get ahead, to be a "success". Once again there's that underlying, unspoken message: "For God's sake, get us out of here." Raving & Drooling, meanwhile, is brutal-sounding song about the violence of human nature, and the act of "pretending the rest are not real". Without the comical "Sheep" metaphor it's quite disturbing for mid-70's Pink Floyd, a sort of sonic portrait of a full-on psychopath. In addition to those two there's a version of Have a Cigar with Roger's originally vocals on it, the ones he was unsatisfied with and replaced with Roy Harper. I like it better than the version that made the cut. The alternate take of the title track, with the violins, and the live version of Shine On, performed in its entirety, are also great. The two-minute 'wine-glasses' instrumental is kind of underwhelming; it just sounds like the first movement of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, standing on its own.

There's probably little reason to write a review about the studio album Wish You Were Here. What else can be said about this beautifully amazing album that hasn't already been prosed upon? So I'll concentrate on the 2011 remaster and, more importantly the second CD of the Experience Edition. I have to say that, so far, with the possible exception of Ummagumma, most of the 2011 Floyd remasters have been excellent. I do think that WYWH seems to benefit less than, say, Animals did. Why? I believe it's because that I think WYWH already sounded stellar to start with. There wasn't as much room for improvement as some of the other albums. What does that mean? It means this 2011 remaster of WYWH sounds incredible. If you already have any of the previous CDs and are thinking about getting the single CD Discovery Edition I might think twice. If you've never owned WYWH before you should just as well get the 2011 version to ensure top sound quality. However, the Experience Edition isn't just about the studio album. It's about the second live CD. Let me just spill the beans right here and say just buy it. The sound quality of the 1974 performance is stunning. With the Dark Side '74 live CD and this '74 live CD they are amoung the best I've heard from a live rock performance on CD. The bonus is you get to hear Pink Floyd strut their stuff in concert with Roger, David, Rick and Nick all at their peak. And peak it is. The entire ensemble cast together. What more can you ask for? Shine on You crazy Diamond (SYD) is just something you have to hear and sounds somewhat different than the studio version. I was never a huge fan of Have a Cigar but this alternate take is great and has an acoustic sound to it that adds warmth to the (intentionally) cold song. The title song Wish You Were Here (this is not a live version but an alternate studio version) is a wonderful rendition even if the violin is a bit too forward in the mix. Again, it doesn't seem to have a studion sound and comes through a bit more raw in the best sense of the word. The Household Objects track is interesting but a filler. EDIT: I forgot to add the songs Raving and Drooling and You've Got to Be Crazy live. These were Dogs and Sheep before they were finalized for the Animals album. I prefer You've Got to be Crazy. But that's just me. Either way both songs sound sweet and are a nice treat to hear. My only wish would have been to hear a different take on Welcome to the Machine. Other than that great stuff! I think WYWH and the DSotM Experience versions are essential if you're a Pink Floyd fan. 5 stars without hesitation.

Only recently have I delved back into the world of vinyl, having put away my turntable in the late 80's to venture into the world of cd's and digital recording. I recently bought a rebuilt Harmon Kardon A500 tube amp, refurbed a set of Jensen TF-3's from the early 60's, and brought my trusty Rega Planar III out of the crawl space. Pink Floyd recordings are definitely in the realm of hi-fi and "Wish You Were Here" is a sonic gem. I was very happy to find it on Amazon in the vinyl format, and even more pleased when I dropped the 180 gram record on my Rega's platter. I can honestly say I was hearing nuances and subtle instrument sounds on the vinyl that I never noticed on the cd version that I've been listening to for years. Nick Mason's high-hat sounds like he's playing in the corner of my listening room throughout the recording. The music actually comes alive. "Welcome to the Machine" in particular stands out--almost to the point where you think you've been thrust into some strange sci-fi film if you turn the lights down and close your eyes. I'm sure a lot of what you hear on the record depends heavily on the quality of your turntable and cartridge, and the amp and speakers as well. If you have a good hi-fi setup I don't think this recording will disappoint. My record also came with a few extras. It's packaged in a black plastic envelope that's resealable. The record itself comes in a nice anti-static sleeve. A nice 24" x 24" poster was included + a postcard and the original cardboard sleeve from the 1975 release. One of the coolest things was what fell out of the sleeve last. A coded card allowed my kids to go to Pink Floyd's website and download the entire "Wish You Were Here" album in a digital format, so now they are listening to the album on their iPods. All-in-all this is a 5-Star purchase. I can only hope that Pink Floyd releases the rest of their catalog in 180 gram vinyl. .

Seems like people have been staying away from commenting on this record after the DSOTM fiasco. Since I blasted that release, I feel that it is fair to give praise if praise is due. My copy of this release is of much higher quality than the Immersion Series release of DSOTM. I went through two Amazon copies of that and gave up. Wish You Were Here comes in a black plastic resealable bag with the original album cover inside. The record itself is in a pink poly sleeve, not a paper sleeve like DSOTM. The quality of the vinyl and pressing is immaculate. The edge of the record is smooth and there are no physical marks on the vinyl. I just listened to both sides all the way through and heard NO ticks, pops, etc. This is a very nice pressing, one of the best newer pressings of any record I've recently purchased. How this high quality can be 180 degrees from the poor effort of DSOTM escapes me. Perhaps EMI United States ditched the pressing plant of the US version of DSOTM and used the European plant after hearing all the negative comments? (An Amazon user suggested European pressings of DSOTM for the Immersion Series were better than the US versions, but I have yet to buy a European version to verify that.) If anybody has an answer, please comment. About the sound quality: I mentioned the lack of surface noise. I do not have any other vinyl copies to compare this to. However, I can say that the dynamics are incredible. I have the volume turned up to hear the detail in the low-level passages, but the dynamic peaks make this dangerous! I have not heard detail or dynamics like this in either my old CD copy or the Sony Super Bit Mapping gold CD. (Played back on a Sony SCD-1 player.) Some DSOTM comments hated on audiophiles for being so negative about the DSOTM Immersion release sound quality. I don't understand why. These records cost $30 retail. To me, that is not a trivial amount of money. Furthermore, Capitol/EMI is hyping up these releases as the latest and greatest. Supposedly the 30th Anniversary vinyl edition of DSOTM was supposed to be the greatest. When that went out of print, its price went up. A month or so later, the Immersion series was announced and was suggested to be the best yet. If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. This record was cleaned on a VPI HW-16.5 wet/vacuum cleaner with L'Art du Son solution. Warning: the center label of this Wish You Were Here release seems to be very sensitive to wetness. Be especially careful to not splash any solution on the label.

This Analogue Productions Pink Floyd WISH YOU WERE HERE SACD has to be the best sounding cd version of this classic LP. The synthesizer really just superbly stands out. Wright's keyboard parts just literally speaks volumes and shows just how versatile and innovative Richard Wright was. Great guitars by Gilmour is just so enthralling. This version is the best cd version to own.

This review is for the 2018 SACD Re-issue First off, it comes in a really nice package. The hardcover book-style case feels sturdy and includes a few photos of the band at work in the studio. The photos are unremarkable but the postcards from the original vinyl album are lovely. I also love the robot handshake image printed on the CD itself. But the cover of the book case is a disappointment. Yeah, I get the joke, but it's a muddy, ugly image and vastly inferior to the original Hipgnosis shot of the fiery handshake. Or the original image of the phantom record salesman out in the desert. I wish they'd stuck with one of those two images. But the main focus of this review is the overall audio quality of the 2003(?) mix used for this re-issue. It's. . . pretty good. But to my ears (and I admit this is quite arbitrary) not as good as the 5.1 mix of DSOTM made at around the same time. I just found that the choices of which instrument lines and sounds to move to the rear channels to be somewhat arbitrary. For example, there are those four very distinct strums of the acoustic guitar just before the first words of Welcome to the Machine are sung. The first strum comes out of the left rear speaker, then the next strum comes out of the right rear, then the third jumps to the front. . . left?. . . channel. As if whoever is playing the guitar were running around my living room. Nor did I care for a tendency of whoever mixed this version to add a slight echo to the voices of the lead singers in a couple of songs. Thank god they didn't mess with the title track in this way, which still retains the wonderfully raw edge of Gilmour's singing. But in some of the Shine On You Crazy Diamond sections, they went with an echo-chamber effect on the voice. It's not bad but, like the choices for where to place various instruments, a bit arbitrary. Admittedly, there's so much going on in this album (which is one of the things I love about it) that it must have been very hard to decide where to place everything. The thing is, I have a quadraphonic mix from the 1970s and I like it better. Unlike the quad mix of Dark Side of the Moon from about the same time (1970s) they didn't scrub all the bass out of it. I can only assume that someone was pissed off at Roger when they did that. But then, from what I understand, there was almost always someone pissed off at Roger. Anyway, I think I prefer the old Quad mix. Just my 2¢.

Excelente sonido, muy buena compra.