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Yes - that's a good point about it being "post-'60s" - possibly part of the band aging, growing out of youthful experimentation into something more crafted, which ends in the '80s with millions of Batemans buying exquisitely crafted CDs?

More importantly, I'm glad someone else thinks that about The Wall. Thank you.

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Aug 12, 2023Liked by Tobias Sturt

I think it’s quite a good “comedown from the 60s” album: we were sold a dream and we fooled ourselves and it didn’t work. It’s also one of those moments where the available technology was too good for the music people wanted to make with it, and where a notion of “quality” outstrips having anything worthwhile to say. This is what culminates in all the music Patrick Bateman talks about liking in American Psycho. But I still like it. I still like the way it talks about the fear of death rather than just the excitement of getting laid, which is what rock music is mainly about. (And the actual _fear_ rather than the romance of being “half in love with easeful death” per Goth music). It turned me on also to the earlier psychedelic Pink Floyd, which really was underground and really was great. The Wall is and was and always will be Terrible and should be Destroyed.

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“And relistening to it for this piece, I didn’t all over again. In fact, I had to re-listen to it over and over again because my concentration kept wandering. Those pretty good songs get derailed into pretty tedious guitar solos and pretty self-indulgent production.”

Yes, yes, yes! This pretty much sums up how I feel about Pink Floyd generally. I love the comparison with Christopher Nolan too. As always, this has brought a smile to my face on Saturday morning.

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Thank you! I actually enjoyed it more than I was expecting, I have to be honest, but since I was expecting not to like it all, that possibly doesn't amount to much.

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