Yet Another Setback/Album Review: Roger Waters' The Wall: Live in Berlin

Well, so much for the all-clear. Just after getting over strep throat, I came down on Tuesday with influenza. I was struck with a high fever of 40 degrees and was stuck in the house with no appetite and no desire to do anything but sleep and rush to the bathroom for the rest of the week. It sucked. But finally, on Saturday, it seemed to have broken and I feeling much better now, though during that time I didn't listen to a single album. Believe me when I say that I had no strength to get up and grab a CD to put on. So that's why there was nothing all week, but I'm impossibly backed up now(with work, not well...ya know...shit), so I may not do some of the reviews that I'd hoped to do. But for now, here's a review that I was working on Monday night, planning to put up the Wednesday of last week. Sorry about that. Anyway here you go.

The Wall may be one of the greatest albums ever made. Live concerts of this album are near legendary. What many don't realize is that they sound(lease on CD) very poor. They really don't capture the excellence that the album perfectly did. But alas, you can't keep a good idea down, so in 1990, fresh off underrated solo albums, he flew to Berlin, where another longstanding legendary wall also had stood for many years, to perform his magnum opus, with a little help from his friends.

Now here I go, bashing guest stars again. Well, not really as some here are actually quite good, such as Van Morrison and Bryan Adams. That being said, the Scorpions do a awful opening number of 'In the Flesh?' that it kind of ruins the album from the get go. Cyndi Lauper's singing on 'Another Brick in the Wall Part 2' is, well not her best and a bit screechy for my taste.Also, what are the Band doing here? Shouldn't they be hanging in New York? Touring with Bob Dylan? Or staying broken up like bands should? Roger Water himself sings about half the songs, and sounds almost the same as he did on the album. Despite not having the best voice in Pink Floyd, he has become my favorite member, making smart concept albums with great musicians and bands. He's probably one of the most underrated and criticized composers of the 20th century. It's too bad.

The last song on the album, 'The Tied is Turning', is a rather thrilling and climatic ending to the concert, and seems to be a song that is for the moment, and not a song for the times, like the original ending to the album. It's not a bad song, just not something that I'd want to here at the end of The Wall, that's all. It's like The Beatles ending a album with 'We Are The World'. Neither good nor bad.

Overall, if a Pink Floyd tribute group tried to cover The Wall, this is what it would probably sound like. I hope that when I see Roger Waters live this summer, it sounds far better then this.

Rating: 3.5/5