Album Page: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

However, I only really listen to the 3 middle tracks and not the Shine On You Crazy Diamond segments (Even though I have given them a few spins and deem them to be decent). So my rating is generally speaking for Welcome To The Machine, Have A Cigar & Wish You Were Here, which are all fantastic.

Although "Dark Side of the Moon" might have become more iconic, "Wish You Were Here" to me is the peak of Pink Floyd's achievement. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", in particular, sums up all the qualities that made me a hardcore Floyd fan for years. I first heard it on the Saturday night rock show on Radio 1, wondering what on earth was that bluesy guitar solo floating through the air, over a dreamy wash of synth. Then there were those four notes, resounding into silence, and the four notes again. It was David Gilmour of course, and the whole band's playing is spaced and timed to perfection. The song itself, when it eventually arrives, is a powerful and deserving tribute to their original lead singer Syd Barrett, filled with nostalgia for the times before his mind disintegrated. After the song, as if it couldn't get any more perfect, it finishes with not one, but two exquisite sax solos over a glittering layer of guitar arpeggios.

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