The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

The Pros and Cons of this Album. Pros: - It harbours the same bleak and paranoid AOR tones as the ones found in its more famous "twin" *The Wall*, which left a mark on my soul when I was a teenager. - It is shorter than *The Wall*, and more cohesive than the latter's other off-shoot project *The Final Cut* (also recorded as a Pink Floyd album, contrary to what we have here) - Its four-note main theme / leitmotiv, as heard in the opening track and repeated a few times elsewhere, is simple, dreary and elegant all at once. - The album's title allows me to quickly write my review. Cons: - It is basically one long song going on at the same lethargic pace, divided into "chapters", but never going anywhere special compared to the couple of first cuts in the tracklist (bar one exception, but more on that later...). No real climaxes, no dynamic bridges, no revelatory moments on a musical standpoint... Roger Waters retrospectively admitting that the album "dragged a little" is probably the understatement of his life. The man is not usually prone to that sort of cautious remarks in public, is he? I guess he can only be cautious when he has to face his own shortcomings as an artist, lol. - The lack of variety in the music is near-maddening. One song / "chapter" out of two is anchored in the same A minor key, which only adds to the lack of rhythmical variety. This is where supposed "cohesiveness" becomes near-obnoxious. I actually prefer *The Final Cut* to this, even with the couple of duds in it. At least, there are some memorable "peaks" in that other album. In comparison, *The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking* is a decidedly "flat" affair. - Eric Clapton's guitar playing is surely impressive on a purely technical viewpoint, but it lacks that magic David Gilmour touch in Pink Floyd LPs. You can feel that Clapton is going through the motions at times. - The only reason the title-track stands out is because the rhythm section suddenly becomes livelier, after one side and a half of music laboriously plodding and trudging its way to the listener's ears. Yet taken on its own, that one song can't possibly reach the heights of *The Wall*. "Comfortably Numb" or "Run Like Hell" this song is definitely NOT. - Roger Water nicking some of the chord progressions found in *The Wall* feels so goddamn *lazy*. Having one example of such self-plagiarism in the FIRST MINUTE of the album (the chord sequence of the pre-chorus from "In The Flesh") had me roll my eyes so much I was tempted to do better things with my time than listening to this solo Roger Waters album again. Because, yeah, I did try to enjoy it before. And I tried again today, to no avail. - The story within this concept album also lacks the clear stakes found in *The Wall*. Midlife crises, adultery, paranoid delusions, the dread brought about by utilitarianism... Yes you could find all of that in *The Wall* as well, but there those topics felt "sublimated" by the artistry. The lyrics in *The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking* sound like ramblings found in a middle-aged man's diary instead, never edited into some final shape that could come off as moving or simply interesting to go through. This flaw only adds to the "clinical" feel of the album. The topics of alienation and solipsism link this record to the legendary work Roger Waters had previously accomplished in Pink Floyd, sure. But there's just no way you can emotionally respond to the protagonist of *The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking* in a manner as memorable as your response to "Pink" in *The Wall* is. - This is such a self-indulgent record overall. True, *The Wall* had some self-indulgent moments in it as well, but that sort of self-indulgence was actually in keeping with its storyline about a rock star descending into madness. One could even argue that it added to the dark story somehow. In comparison, *The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking* does indeed feel like an inconsequential bad dream -- one that will be quickly forgotten. Tellingly, the record is not even intense enough to be labelled as a "nightmare". And the near-absence of legacy this LP left actually seems to underline that sad state of affairs. Looks like the "Cons" clearly outweigh the "Pros" here. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 1 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 76 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 94 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 188 (including this one) ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham

This is a let down. It's bloated with no definition. The music is boring and the story is so Boomer it's embarrassing. This shouldn't exist.