Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" Album Review

The album "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd was made to depict the coldness of the music industry and how it eats new and old musicians. The album cover is an image of a man on fire shaking another man's hand; this was done to show how the music industry has a tendency to burn artists. Five songs make up this album, but technically four because one in split into two parts; "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Welcome to the Machine", "Have a Cigar", and "Wish You Were Here". The songs "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar" are both songs about the music industry, describing how they pull you in for a cigar, then throws you into the machine to be eaten alive. The other songs, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here", are about Syd Barrett and his sudden departure from the band after having a mental breakdown. Roger Waters, singer for Pink Floyd, says the song "Wish You Were Here" is not about Syd, but the rest of the band claims otherwise and that the songs about Syd were put in the album to show how the stress from being a musician pushed him closer to his mental breakdown. The album doesn't have much songs, but the five that it features are pretty good in length and add up to about forty-five minutes of music. After listening to the album, I was prompted to give it an eight out of ten rating. The album is definitely one of the band's best, but after listening to it for a while, it starts to drone on and become a little boring to listen to.