448. Pink Floyd - The Wall

Release Date: 1979
Label: Harvest

This is the last Pink Floyd album on the list (I imagine) and it's the last of theirs I already own. It is also one that I can never decide how I feel about it. It has some of their best material, but it is also bloated in various places. Mind you, I like the idea that the final notes of the last song match perfectly to the opening notes of the first track.

Rating: 8/10

420. The Saints - Eternally Yours

 

Release Date: 1978
Label: Harvest

There are many reasons why an album appears in this book, but for once I'm not sure why they decided to include this one. It's not a classic, it's not the first of a new genre, or the culmination of a lifetime's ambition. It's just another punk album. I'm not saying it's terrible, but it's not brilliant either. There's some innovation - horns - but it isn't enough to propel it from landfill punk.

Rating: 6/10

380. Wire - Pink Flag

Release Date: 1977
Label: Harvest

I bought this album a few years ago. There are twenty-one tracks and the album lasts less than 35 minutes.

Rating: 8/10

345. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Release Date: 1975
Label: Harvest

'Wish You Were' was an ITV travel/holiday programme presented by Judith Chalmers throughout its twenty-nine year run. Following the success of 'Dark Side of the Moon', Pink Floyd were invited to record the soundtrack to the popular programme. The results were rejected by the ITV producers, but the band decided to release the album anyway as an unofficial tribute. The album is bookended by the sprawling, magnificent 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond' - Roger Waters' ode to Judith Chalmers, whilst Dave Gilmour was inspired to write the title track after watching a feature on the south coast of Spain.

Rating: 10/10

292. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

Release Date: 1973
Label: Harvest

For once I can remember the first time I heard this album. I would've been sixteen or seventeen at the time, and it was at Harriet Vickers house. I loved it immediately, and it rekindled my interest in Pink Floyd. Before then I'd bought a recent 'Best Of', but hadn't been able to get it into it. This is one of my favourite albums and evidence that the band were better after Syd.

Rating: 10/10

204. Syd Barret- Madcap Laughs

Release Date: 1970
Label: Harvest

Like Skip Spence - who we listened to earlier in the book - Syd Barrett was an unfortunate casualty of the drug scene in the late 60s, and is arguably more famous for his subsequent personal life than his music. Having already been forced out of Pink Floyd, this album was recorded over a period of twelve months, using a number of studios and producers. Unfortunately, the genius that wrote 'See Emily Play' and 'Bike' is already on a never-ending downward slide here, and no amount of hindsight or reappraisal can make me enjoy this album more than I did.

Rating: 4/10
Favourite Track: Here I Go

188. Deep Purple - In Rock

Release Date: 1970

Label: Harvest

We've had a number of rock albums recently - Led Zeppelin, Sabbath - and this is another. Technically the musicianship on this album is streets ahead of anything Ozzy Osbourne and his mates have achieved thus far, but unfortunately this doesn't make the listening more enjoyable. 

Rating: 4/10

Favourite Track: Child In Time