What can a mere mortal like me say about The Wall . Agreed it’s not the best Pink Floyd album by any criterion (except, maybe, public appeal), that has to be either Dark Side of the Moon or Meddle , IMO. But Wall is surely one of their most creative albums.
It’s a pity, really, that The Wall in public memory is about Another brick in the wall (or rather, We don’t need no..) I think it’s one of the most overrated songs in The Wall. It’s easily likable, and has some good guitar works (and stunning lyrics), but it comes nowhere close to either Comfortably Numb (which has probably the best PF guitar works, except for Shine On .. ) or Hey You .
The Wall has Roger Waters stamped all over it, with deep lyrics, and a measured, crisp, renditions. Gilmore really asserts himself through Comfortably Numb, signalling that the third phase of Pink Floyd is just over the horizon.
More noteworthy songs are - In the flesh , which is an excellent opening for side one; subtle ones like Goodbye Blue Sky and Mother ; and the excellent lyrical, Nobody Home ; and of course the junta ka favourite, Another Brick in the Wall (2) .
However, The Wall isn’t really about individual songs; just like Dark Side of the Moon (and more so), it is about a complete story, where songs just play their part as units, not as a whole. There are alternative interpretations to what they say, and I won’t go into that here. My advise is, listen to it, from start to end, at least five times, and then take home what you feel like.
The Wall is an experience , take it.