The Wall

I feel like in contrast to many concept albums, The Wall is more than music that happens to tell a story, it's a story first and foremost, in the form of music. You often hear that writers should "write what they know", and I think it's clear this was a very personal project for Roger Waters, it's about a protagonist who lost his father at a young age, struggled to really become themselves in a society that perhaps frowned upon individualism, before rising to fame and finding it overwhelming, all contributing to a descent into madness. I couldn't speculate on the last part, but Waters's father was killed in World War II when he was just 5 months old, and I can see a lot of emotion in this album of the type that one simply cannot make up.

I think The Wall is a lot like fine love making. It has it's highs and it's lows, both in tone and emotion, but it's a cohesive movement where all the parts work in concert to achieve a satisfying climax. Some have found a few songs "boring" or non-essential to the album, I'm kind of surprised by that. Where many people might prefer the hit songs such as Hey You or Comfortably Numb, I consider some of the less-heralded songs to be perhaps the most powerful and memorable tracks from this album. Goodbye Blue Sky is a beautiful song with an almost haunting meaning, and Mother may very well be my favorite track from this album. The sudden and abrupt changes in tone that exist throughout the album are beautifully executed, and I find conclusion over the final four tracks to be especially rich and satisfying.

I feel like this is an album where each time a person listens to it, they'll come away with new things they hadn't previously noticed. The Wall is not merely an album that can be enjoyed, listening to it is an experience, a breathtaking one that delivers time and time again.