Top reviews jackhammer... I must admit early on Floyd for me seemed to be one of those bands that, whilst musically solid, with various great songs on each album, but never just had me at a point where I simply thought 'Wow'... I'm a bit of an oddball in that way, given that in one context something will explode my mind, yet in another similar moment would make me say 'meh'.

The closest I get to the wow feeling is the first 3 minutes of 'Hey You'... Numb is exquisite for Gilmour alone...

Dark Side has never done much for me (Blasphemy I hear?) :p Just never captured me... Us and Them is a must-listen but thats about it personally...

Their most complete album for me was Wish You Were Here... The Tribute... Welcome... Cigar... WYWH... This album made me say 'Wow' and is the only full Floyd album to do so for me... The others did grow on me (Particularly Animals) but nothing peaked WYWH...

And sad news about Wright... Often times, Floyd had the best melodic background music that actually helped the rest of the songs A LOT... Sad times indeed.

I have since found out that 'The Final Cut' is more of a rant about 'Thatcherite' Britain than his fathers (bonus point to ya) death. So we were both wrong :(

True, but he does tie a lot of it in to his father's death. For example the song "The Fletcher Memorial Home" is a reference to his father's name, Eric Fletcher Waters. And the album as a whole was apparently originally supposed to be the soundtrack to the movie The Wall, which of course had a lot to do with Waters' father.

Waters could have written The Final Cut about a button he found in his piggy bank and it would have been infinitely more interesting than what he wrote in the first place. I don't think it really matters what it was about; it was just...bad.

No, it is a great album, one of the most emotional and powerful floyd albums.

Bravo, Mr. Jack Hammer. Ummaguma was the watershed Floyd album that, as you say perfectly, "galvanized the band to become a whole songwriting unit and not a disparate bunch of ideas fighting to get noticed" and set the stage for Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, etc..

My parents are HUGE Floyd fans I am sending them the link to all your reviews here. Well done :-) This entire thread is excellent. 5 stars! You should write professionally; you have that flow and style of a seasoned writer and it is obvious that you have a passion for music and for writing about music, and have spent an awful amount of time listening with an open mind and trained ears.

Agreed! I think every true Floyd fan needs to do Dark Side Of Oz at least once in their life!!!

I couldn't think of a another Floyd example... but
how about Mark Knophler's/Dire Straits ( Sting too ) "Money For Nothing" ...we get to install microwave ovens, custom kitchens....that's the way you do it..money for nothing and your chicks for free...

Something Mark overheard when two working-class gentlemen were pointing at a music video on the televisions on display at an electronics store...

It helped introduce the MTV generation a little more to the world back in the late 80s. I can rememeber the video even though I was only about 5 years old at the time as it had animation graphics and I liked that very much.

Maybe I missed another post in here; but lately I have been listening to a lot of Barrett's work on The Madcap Laughs. "Terrapin" and "Dark Globe" are true gems. I think Pete Jenner (manager?) went on to produce Syd Barret after Glimour replaced him in the band. I don't think it is as much an "album" as it is a collection of Barrett songs since he was extremely hard to work with as his descent into LSD-perma-madness was exponentially increasing at that point in his life. Sad story about Syd...I tend to put Syd in the same category as Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis of Joy Division.

I now own Barretts solo output and I need to put reviews up for his other two releases. Thanks for the praise ninanirvana and as you are a music journalist yourself, it's high praise indeed!

Ha ha! I`ve never heard The Final Cut, but this comment just emphasis (to me) how important good music and songwriting is, compared to what the artist may have intended.

I love The Wall, because the music is VERY good, in spite of Dave Gilmours comments on the album. Obviously Roger wasn`t quite up to scratch with the next one.

I like quite a bit from the Division Bell, although I agree it's not a great album. Like Demonoid, I still think it was worth it. The last track, High Hopes, really feels like a goodbye and has, I think, an incredible steel guitar solo by David. Not technical or fancy, it's just so damn nice to listen to.

So .. aren't you gonna do Pulse? :)

Yeah I will update this with live albums and solo albums etc- promise!