Lash arguably the most coherent and master-crafted concept album in rock history to its most gargantuan spectacle and of course you’d get the biggest-grossing solo artist tour of all time.
But take away The Wall’s staggering live show – the giant inflatable headmaster, the crashing Messerschmitt, the stadium-wide wall spewing political symbolism – and you have half of an overwhelming experience.
This is an immaculately rendered take on the Floyd’s 1979 album with the odd jarring detour – filler codas to Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3), an extraneous ambulance siren solo in Run Like Hell, some soul geezer called Robbie Wyckoff singing Dave Gilmour’s bits. There’s even a new country song, The Ballad Of Jean Charles De Menezes, followed by an angry speech from Waters in French, presumably about our trigger-fingered response to the terrorist threat.
Yet the vast breadth of the piece – pastoral folk, gospel balladry, doom metal, demon-child disco, operetta – remains a wonder, and producer Nigel Godrich keeps the live feed powerful, particularly on the operatic overload of Bring The Boys Back Home, the groin-to-the-fore funk of Young Lust and Run Like Hell, which virtually leaps from the speakers to batter any unsavouries listening at home. Still, trust us, get the DVD.
