The Wall by Pink Floyd: Great album or Greatest album!?

[ArtZealot]

I can listen to it a million times it seems and never get sick of it. Why can't more music be this damn good. Anyone know of any other totally epic "good songs on every track" albums?

[ChaoticKnight]

I actually never liked it that much. "Momentary Lapse of Reason" and "The Division Bell" were better Pink Floyd albums for me.

[Brendan N]

I know, right?? Sadly, I haven't come across much that competes with it. Dark Side of the Moon is often considered their best, but I honestly like Wish You Were Here far more - slightly darker and more brooding than DSotM.

Nine Inch's Downward Spiral album is great - no bad tracks really. I'm a huge fan of their Broken album as well - same deal for me, it's all great.
I'm also very partial to Mars Volta's Frances the Mute - it's more of an opera than an album with individual tracks, and as such it's better when you listen it from start to finish.

Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick album has only one track by the same name, but it's almost 44 minutes and achieves the same type of unity as The Wall. I don't quickly tire of that one, but some people I know do.

[Psypomp]

Oh, I dunno. To me, The Wall is their most "radio-friendly" album (as much as it hurts to say it). I don't care for it as much as the others.
I'm kind of with Brendan N on this one.. Wish You Were Here is probably my favorite, but Dark Side of the Moon definitely flows better. Other albums, like Animals, Ummagumma and especially Meddle are arguably better, but if I had to choose...
Anyway, it's a shame the band is recognized mostly for DSotM (great album, though) and The Wall (which doesn't really represent their style as a whole). I guess the people who really matter will be familiar with all of their work, though, so I can't really complain.

[Jacob Kobryn]

Wish You Were Here is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better!

[Grief]

Psychedelic Rock has never been my thing.

Beethoven's 9th has always gotten the blood and ink flowing for me.
497786

[Moai]

I like Wish You Were Here better too. In fact, right before I woke up this morning, "Welcome to the Machine" was playing in my dream. It was awesome.:rendered: The Wall is good, but very few songs on the album excite me the way "Time" or "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" do.

[tomwaits4noman]

dark moon is the one album I would listen to if I want to listen to Pink Floyd, the problem for me is that though the music is has amazing technical skills it can often leave me cold on a emotional level.

as for greatest album ever that's debatable.

[Kagemusha22]

Personally I thought The Wall was one of their duffest albums. (Or should I say Roger Water's most well known solo album?) If you want a great album along the lines of introverted psycho-analysis, you should try Joy Division's "Closer".

I'll personally say Syd's work, "Dark Side..." and "Wish You Were Here" were much better than The Wall.

[ArtZealot]

I won't lie, i dont honestly mean to say it's the "greatest album ever" that's a shallow thing to say with music in general being so subjective but it's definitely one of my favorites, with a close second being the same as Brendan N, The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails. I could go on another completely different rant on why downward spiral is so awesome but i'll stick to the wall

I've never actually seen the movie, "the wall" and i almost want to not ever see it. It kind of works like a good book for me, the mental images and guesswork in my imagination each time i listen to it is always changing and i almost don't want everything spelled out for me visually when the music does it all on it's own. Anyway i'm kind of rambling but yeah, it's definitely my #1 favorite album, not only as mentioned before for the narritive but for how well they capture emotions throughout the album.

[Kagemusha22]

I've never actually seen the movie, "the wall" and i almost want to not ever see it.

Seriously keep it that way, you won't be reimbursed with the hours you spend on that movie. Though if you do end up watching, watch it with a spliff in hand.

[AlexC]

I like animals the most, although it sadly goes unnoticed by a large majority.

Dogs is epic

[Moai]

I like animals the most, although it sadly goes unnoticed by a large majority.

Dogs is epic

"He was breaking away from the pack."
Love that song. *Goes off humming "Dogs"*

[Psypomp]

I like animals the most, although it sadly goes unnoticed by a large majority.

Dogs is epicAnd I thought I was the only one! "Dogs" is easily my favorite PF song, just beautiful.

@ kagemusha: There are so many other albums that could have received their own movie ("Animals" a la Watership Down/Plague Dogs comes to mind), why did it have to be their worst one (in my eyes, at least)? I appreciated the idea behind the album/movie, but it didn't really translate.

[Gory]

I've never been a big Pink Floyd fan, really... But as far as your "every track is great" question... Hmm...

My favorite band is probably the Who. Tommy and Quadrophenia are excellent albums, as well as being rock operas like the Wall. I like every single song on them, but they're definitely albums I have to listen to from start to finish. The Who Sell Out is also a fun album. ;P

Umm, I have a strange affinity for musicals... Hedwig and the Angry Inch has a fucking awesome soundtrack. It's not for the super conservative listener, however. Although incredibly short, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is brilliant.

There isn't a single song that I dislike on any of the albums I've mentioned.

I could probably go on... but I feel like the music I've already listed is different enough from Pink Floyd to begin with.

edit- Oh yeah and I wanted to second whoever mentioned the Downward Spiral. It's hard for me to go wrong with most NIN, actually.

[Kagemusha22]

Well the film was made by Alan Parker, who's done some great films. But he just didn't get it right with the film, though I saw scenes of the Rock Opera and that seemed equally as arrogant. Still the animation in there was amazing.

My personal favourite Rock Musical would have to be... 24 Hour Party People. I also heard that Performance (starring Mick Jagger) is a classic.

[AndreRuben]

It's hard to select stuff from pink floyd and choose favs, for me all their music is quite unic.. anyways, the wall is indeed the album i listen the most.. although the song "Echoes" is not on that album and i can classificate it as my fav.. ehee

[Clochette]

My favorite album is Dark side of the moon.
And I'd say some epic songs from them in my opinion :
Wish you were here (album Wish you are here)
Shine on you crazy diamond is pretty unic too.
And Eclipse of course.

Other epic songs :
The end (The Doors)
Life on mars (David Bowie)
A space oddity (idem)
Stairway to heaven (Led zep)
Heroin (Velvet underground)
London calling (The Clash)

[Jacob Kobryn]

I like animals the most, although it sadly goes unnoticed by a large majority.

Dogs is epic

Animals is great but I prefer the experimentation of DSotM and WYWH over it.

[Vulgar`]

Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein

Check it out.

[Psypomp]

Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein

Check it out.Will do.
Also, I love your avatar. Is it your own creation?

[guggemmaneuver]

really, early floyd is more raw. the later stuff is pretty good, but yeah... compared to the early albums i think it can be kind of boring musically.

More importantly, If you find yourself really starting to think that any one album is the best album it's a pretty good indication that you need to expand your tastes and branch out a little bit. there are thousands of rock-solid albums out there just waiting for you to discover them. it's like saying someone is the best artist ever. shortsighted view of what's out there at best.

i know a mouse and he hasn't got a house
i don't know why i call him 'gerald'
he's getting very old
but he's a good mouse

m

[Jasonwclark]

Points to whoever figures out when we need to start playing The Wall, in order for Heston to sync up properly.

:)

EoAIY_6qkmU

8SOT0ofuscU

[Vulgar`]

Psypomp, no it's not mine I saw it in the deviantart Horror section.

[Chris J. Anderson!]

I know this is a re-make of there best songs, not a album with new songs, but my favorite all time Pink Floyd album is Pulse, live. The sounds of their instruments sounds very up to date and clear in it since it was recorded in 1995. They chose the greatest songs to re-sing. They also re-did the entire Dark Side of the Moon album on the second cd, with a few Wall classics. To me the songs were so well done that each one sounded like something brand new. Awesome stuff.

My favorite actual album is Dark Side Of The Moon. It all flows together well.

[aefx]

My favorite is Darkside of the Moon, and I also think it would easiest to say that is maybe their greatest album... if not but for the fact they admit it's first time they created an album after truly finding their own sound. They talk about this in the documentary Which One's Pink which is pretty good. Also, someone mentioned that DSotM is Syd's work... how do you figure that?