Wish You Were Here

iTunes Review

David Gilmour, who’d replaced Syd Barrett as Pink Floyd’s guitarist early in its stratospheric career, pays tribute to his predecessor on Wish You Were Here with one soaring guitar solo after another. Indeed the whole album is in part the band’s anguished, glorious tribute to Barrett, the “crazy diamond” whose mental breakdown had ended his active involvement with music. As sprawling as The Dark Side of the Moon which it followed and more focused, Wish used lengthy excursions (the multipart “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” “Welcome to the Machine”) to wax gorgeous and awe-inspiring. Roger Waters’ lyrics also struck out at rock mythology and the music industry itself; guest Roy Harper’s vocal on “Have a Cigar” (“We’re so happy we can hardly count”) is one of the most mordantly hilarious pieces in all the Floyd catalog. In turn, the disc is as moving and as musically and conceptually complex as anything they recorded.