Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here [PINK FLOYD RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

Wish You Were Here topped the charts in the U.K. and the U.S. and has sold an estimated 13 million copies. The nine-part "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" bookends the record, and the title track is one of the most-loved songs Pink Floyd ever recorded.

This edition

• Pink Floyd Records pressing (cat# 88875184261)
• Hipgnosis cover art

About the album

Despite having logged one of the most celebrated and biggest-selling rock albums of all time and becoming a proper stadium act with 1973's landmark Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd didn't waste much time in getting to work on a follow-up.

Wish You Were Here, which arrived in September of 1975, was written while the U.K. quartet toured Europe in the wake of Dark Side's smash success, so it shares many of the same musical qualities (an emphasis on synthesizers, for instance) as well as a similarly caustic, anti-corporate lyrical tone. It opens with an extraordinary ode to former bandmate Syd Barrett in the form of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," while much of the rest finds Roger Waters airing his distaste for the music business in fine, cranky form on tunes like "Have A Cigar" and "Welcome To The Machine." It's a little dreamier than Dark Side Of The Moon and maybe a little slower to take, but history has shown Wish You Were Here able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its predecessor. It routinely turns up on lists of the best albums of all time. Occasionally, lightning does strike twice in the same spot.

Also at Kops: more Pink Floyd on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Pink Floyd Records (cat# 88875184261), a reissue of the 1975 album.