Pink Floyd – Zonker.net

September 19, 2016

“The Wall” by Pink Floyd (No. 22)

The Who‘s Tommy pioneered the “rock opera.” Pink Floyd perfected it with The Wall.

Like Tommy, The Wall is a sprawling two-album work. Running more than 80 minutes, The Wall covers a lot of musical ground – ballads, pseudo-opera, rock, and even dabbles in disco. The Wall is Pink Floyd’s, or at least Roger Waters’, magnum opus.

Since The Wall came out when I was nine years old, it’s hard to remember a world before it existed. It’s just always been part of the classic rock canon, right? Even though it was ever-present on the radio, at least snippets of it, it wasn’t until I was well into high school that I got a copy of the full album. And then I listened to The Wall over and over again.

Continue reading ““The Wall” by Pink Floyd (No. 22)”

September 3, 2016November 9, 2024

“Animals” by Pink Floyd (No. 38)

Pink Floyd responded in part to the punk rock movement’s fast, short, and aggressive tunes by… putting out an LP with five complex and relatively languid songs, three of which are longer than 10 minutes. And it is awesome.

1977’s Animals is an album that’s best experienced as an album. I suppose you could play “Sheep” or “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” as stand-alones, but why would you? If you’ve never listened to this one, you need to clear an hour (actually about 45 minutes) and sit down and give it some attention. Continue reading ““Animals” by Pink Floyd (No. 38)”

August 26, 2016

“Vs.” by Pearl Jam (No. 46)

Pearl Jam‘s Vs. hits all the sweet spots for me as a fan of the band. All the band’s metaphorical engines are firing at full, and there’s not a wasted track on the album. You certainly can’t credit MTV for this album’s success – the band decided not to create videos for the album, and didn’t release singles either.

Vs. represents a band that got super-successful all at once and freaked out a little bit. Long-term I think this resulted in some self-sabotage (e.g. some unlistenable tracks on Vitology and shying away from “Better Man” which is one of the band’s best), but Vs. actually turned out quite well. Continue reading ““Vs.” by Pearl Jam (No. 46)”