Pink Floyd

For many Pink Floyd fans the Immersion and Experience release of Dark Side of the Moon last year was the most keenly anticipated of the collections, offering delicious insights into how the 1973 classic was recorded and how many of the tracks transformed from demo to final cut (as it were).

1979’s The Wall is a very different album. After Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals continued to display Floyd’s melodic side with all four members fully involved, this 1979 album reveals how cracks had started to appear. The band was heading towards the now infamous spilt.

The Wall was the brainchild of Roger Waters, who took almost full control for the recording; so much so Rick Wright was jettisoned during the sessions (he later returned for live dates). To review it now seems pointless. Most people have made their minds up on whether it is a classic piece of rock opera or overblown and over-rated. No one is going to change their mind now that they have even more versions of the tracks to listen to.

What these releases offer though, is the chance to discover how the album developed. The journey that led to the final recordings of Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) and the epic Comfortably Numb for example. All this and more is offered here in a wonderfully and lovingly put together collection. The Doctor is a section that explores Comfortably Numb’s transformation to a rock classic, with early demos also included of Run Like Hell.

Alongside the music there is a DVD featuring clips from the 1980 tour and a Behind The Wall documentary. The Wall feature film is also included; which proves to be an even harder watch than the album is a listen to the uninitiated. It also looks a lot more out-dated than the music, which still holds up remarkably well.

There is plenty here to keep The Wall fans busy for many hours, and more than 30 years later, it underlines what an extraordinary record it is. There is no way such an album would be released now. It marks the end of an era for the 70s concept albums. Punks hold on the popular music scene was about to give way to New Romantics and the hatred towards the perceived over-indulgence of prog-rock was to fade, as its popularity faded.

For Floyd this was the last album recorded as a cohesive unit (the subsequent Final Cut is a Waters solo record in all but name) and it is a thousand miles away from where they started in the 70s. The journey for the band and their fans was a fascinating one and the snippets we get into the whole process in this Immersion box-set remind you just how special it all is.