The Wall- Experience Version [Original recording remastered]

Pink Floyd | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 28, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 1979
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol Records
• ASIN: B004ZNANZA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,170 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,753 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Experience editions are expanded versions of classic albums in a Digipak bonus disc format. Included are the original remastered album, a disc of additional material and an expanded CD booklet. Product description: One of the most acclaimed concept albums of all time, The Wall from 1979 is renowned as Roger Waters’ Rock Opera dealing with abandonment and personal isolation. Adapted for cinema by Alan Parker featuring Bob Geldof in the lead role, and featuring the unique artwork of Gerald Scarfe the album also yielded the hit single Another Brick In The Wall Pt2. The new experience version presents the original studio album (2 CDs), digitally remastered by James Guthrie with a bonus CD featuring a selection of original album demo recordings from different stages of the album. Also featuring a newly designed Digipak and a new 32 page booklet designed by Storm Thorgerson. CD 1&2: The Wall digitally remastered by James Guthrie, 2011 CD 3: The Wall selected album demos (previously unreleased)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

939 of 977 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside The Floyd's Wall October 30, 2002

By Alan Caylow

Format:Audio CD

"The Wall," Pink Floyd's 1979 concept album about a rock star's mental breakdown, is a towering monster. It's an album with SO many audio, lyrical, musical & emotional nooks and crannies contained within, that one listen simply will not cut it. "The Wall" is not just an album to listen to, it's an album to be *explored*. It was inspired by then-bandleader Roger Waters' own mental collapse at the end of the Floyd's tour for the "Animals" album. Due to the grind of the mammoth stadium tour for "Animals," and sickened by seeing his own band, in his opinion, become part of the rock business "circus," Waters was mentally & emotionally exhausted beyond comprehension. At the final gig in Montreal, Waters finally snapped, spitting in the face of a young fan sitting up front. Coming home to England to recover, Waters finally decided to exorcise his demons by writing a conceptual piece about his disgust with his life as a rock star, and he began building "The Wall"....With the bulk of the double-album composed by Waters (with a few co-writing contributions from guitarist David Gilmour & producer Bob Ezrin), "The Wall" tells the story of a rock star named Pink and his downward spiral into madness, and all the things in his life that led him there: his father killed in the war when he was only a baby ("Another Brick In The Wall Part 1"), being smothered by his overbearing mother ("Mother"), subjected to abuse at school ("The Happiest Days Of Our Lives"/"Another Brick In The Wall Part 2"), and later, the pressures of his rock-star lifestyle ("One Of My Turns") and the breakdown of his marriage ("Don't Leave Me Now"). Quite simply, "The Wall" is a rock masterwork, and arguably Roger Waters' greatest achievement as a composer. However, to think of the album simply as a "Roger Waters production" would be wrong. Though Waters IS, indeed, the main architect of "The Wall," bravely wearing his heart on his sleeve with his powerful songwriting and tortured singing (not to mention playing a mean bass throughout), the album still would not be what it is without the excellent contributions of guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour, who also shines on tracks like the smash hit, "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2" (featuring his most famous guitar solo ever recorded with the band), "Goodbye Blue Sky," "Young Lust," "Hey You" and "Comfortably Numb" (featuring yet another classic Gilmour guitar solo). Keyboardist Richard Wright & drummer Nick Mason are, admittedly, dwarfed somewhat on "The Wall" by the inclusion of various session players (that's Jeff Porcaro playing drums on "Mother," to name one example). Still, Mason & Wright appear often enough, and they make their contributions count. The production on "The Wall" is also astounding---from the great stereophonic mix of the tunes themselves, to the treasure trove of sound effects & voices (such as fighter planes, helicopters, objects being smashed, singing schoolchildren, a telephone operator, a TV set playing "Gomer Pyle," and on and on), "The Wall" is truly a listening *experience*. Thankfully, Roger Waters, having left Pink Floyd in 1983, is living quite comfortably these days, no longer bothered by his rock star demons, and he continues to make great music on his own (he's also much more appreciative of his live audiences these days, thank goodness). Obviously for Waters, making "The Wall" was much-needed therapy. For Pink Floyd, "The Wall" became one of the group's biggest best-sellers, second only to "Dark Side Of The Moon." For the listener, "The Wall" is a spellbinding musical journey. It's music is at turns beautiful, haunting, and unquestionably powerful, and it's story is an absolutely gripping one. "The Wall" is a timeless, undisputed Pink Floyd classic.

83 of 87 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Remaster, But Description Contains a Major Misrepresentation on Amazon's Part February 28, 2012

By Christopher Larkin

Format:Audio CD

My main purpose in purchasing this CD was for the bonus material. However, the Experience Version contains three CDs, not four as stated by Amazon. Furthermore, this edition contains twenty-seven demos on one disc, not thirty-five demos over two discs. So, unless Amazon is selling a special edition (I did extensive research in deciding whether to purchase this or the $119 Immersion version, and did not see any mention of this anywhere), this version contains three CDs.

Discs 1 and 2 are the 2011 James Guthrie remasters of the album. Disc 3 contains 27 demos, all of which are "band" demos rather than Roger or David's "home demos." Since the demos were my main interest and reason for buying this, I will address that topic first. The Immersion version does contain two CDs worth of demos, containing a total of 64. Since I do not have that version, I will not address whether I am lacking anything essential by not having the 37 additional demos that appear on that version. Based on my research I am not. At least 22 of the 37 demos on Immersion are excerpts of Roger's home recordings totaling about 15 minutes. Two others are David's demos of "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell." Other than that, the remainder appear to be additional band demos at various stages of development, all of which appear in at least one form or another on Experience. The actual demos themselves are titled "Work in Progress" and are aimed at giving a glimpse into how the project came to its final form. My interest was more in hearing alternate versions of songs and the two songs that did not make the album. In my opinion, except for completists, the Experience version does a good job at this. The two titles that did not make the album are "Teacher Teacher (later appearing as "The Hero's Return" a B side from the "Final Cut.") and "Sexual Revolution," (later re-worked as "4:41 a.m.") from Roger's "Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking." The remaining 25 demos range from interesting to "I only need to hear this once." Probably the most interesting item here is "The Doctor" which is an early version of "Comfortably Numb." The sound quality of the demos varies from mediocre to passable. In my estimation, there are probably no more than ten that are substantial and that I will listen to again. After listening to all 27 (totaling 75:04) minutes, I cannot imagine listening to another disc of demos. Therefore, for my purpose, I think the Experience Edition was the appropriate choice. Please note, I am merely comparing the Immersion and Experience versions for demos. There are numerous other reasons one might wish to purchase the 7 disc Immersion set.

As far as the Discs 1 and 2, I will not comment on the music because it has all been said before. The album is a classic. The main issue here is the quality of the remastering. I compared my copy from the "Shine On" box to this on high end equipment and honestly could not hear any dramatic difference between the two. The 2011 remaster sounded slightly less bass heavy, slightly louder, and the vocals and drums appeared to be more upfront in the mix. However, I had to strain to hear this and the difference was very slight.

Like the other "Experience Editions" ("Dark Side" and "Wish You Were Here"), "The Wall" is packaged in a cardboard case. The booklet is similar to the LP in attempting to recreate the artwork and handwritten lyrics. However, no information is provided regarding history, guest musicians, etc.

So how do I rate this? I give it four stars. Five stars for Discs 1 and 2 and three stars for Disc 3. I think it is the weakest of the three expanded albums from the series because it has the least essential bonus material. There is also less of difference in sound quality, which is excellent, over the earlier remasters. This is likely due to the fact it is a newer release and always had excellent fidelity.

If you are interested in getting a new copy of "The Wall" with an extra disc of material you probably won't listen to more than a few times, this is a great purchase. If you have either of the previous two "Wall" remasters, there is no substantial difference in sound here. If you merely want a new copy without the extra disc, the standard 2011 remaster is the best option. If you have the money and can spring for the Immersion Version, I would say go for it. It is the most complete version of this classic album available at this time. However, I do want to stress again that the Experience Version contains 3 CDs with 27 demos on Disc 3. Anyone interested in more than this must purchase the Immersion Version.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Immersion Set Review - Slight Disappointment February 28, 2012

By Stephen M. Lerch TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

When the Immersion sets were announced, I was quite excited by the fact that included in the sets were to be the original quad mixes, along with a Blu Ray of the stereo, quad and 5.1 mixes for these albums. Unfortunately this set does NOT come with a Blu Ray, which IS disappointing as it means we are not treated to phenomenal lossless audio at higher quality as we had with previous Immersion sets. For me, the price just isn't worth what you get as what I wanted wasn't included.

HOWEVER, that being said, what you get is some amazing stuff. You just don't get lossless 96/24 Blu Rays.

First up is The Wall, digitally remastered by James Guthrie, just like we had with the previous sets. It's a two disc set, so this encompasses discs 1 and 2. You won't hear anything you haven't heard before and the audio doesn't have its dynamics compressed. I think, side by side comparison to previous sets, you would probably really struggle to hear a difference between this release and past releases.

Discs 3 and 4 contain The Wall demo tracks, which are actually nice to hear given alternate takes of songs.

Discs 5 and 6 are what the set really needed. They are remastered CDs of the Is There Anybody Out There: The Wall Live. This is, as far as I can tell, the best these tracks have ever sounded.

Disc 7 is a DVD. I'm kind of on the fence with this one. You get a promo video for Another Brick in the Wall prt 2, a pretty good Behind the Wall documentary and an odd short film from the Earls Court Concert. Why excerpts? Why not a complete performance? I don't know. Oh, there's also a Geral Scarfe interview included, which was a nice watch but not something I'll sit through again.

Then you have all the in box extras, which are all pretty much worthless, other than the fact that you actually have to pay for them to get the CDs and DVD, which is all I really wanted. Do I REALLY need a poorly made scarf? No, and anyone that uses it as a scarf would probably be disappointed. The photo book is nice, but for quite a bit less money they could have included all the discs in a much smaller package with just the photo book and Floyd fans would have been happy to buy. At the current MSRP though, most fans would do well to struggle over whether they really want this set. And by dropping the Blu Ray, it really lost a ton of value for me.

For those of you wondering why there is no quad mix or a 5.1 mix included, the answer is simple. EMI wanted this out as quickly as possible. The quad tapes exist, but apparently are in HORRIBLE condition and require a lot of cleanup. A lot of clean up that wouldn't have been completed by the time EMI wanted to push this set out upon the music buying masses. Instead of waiting and creating a true Immersion set, they gave into greed. They are, supposedly, cleaning these up or remixing the album for 5.1 and will release that later... great! Just what I want, to purchase another version of The Wall! And yes, I'll buy it. I love the quad mixes from the other Immersion sets and if there is a quad or 5.1 mix made, I'll stand in line like a sheep waiting to get it.

So the question is, if you're a Floyd fan and already have The Wall in it's CD iterations, do you need this Immersion box set? If you're a passing Floyd fan and don't care about the demo tracks, I would say you can probably pass on this one. There isn't really anything Earth shattering for me, however what is presented is of the highest quality.