Pink Floyd Releases 7 Disc Expanded Version of THE WALL

Two of Pink Floyd's greatest releases include THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and THE WALL. Now Pink Floyd is launching a hugely expanded and remastered edition of THE WALL that reportedly includes 7 discs, 6 audio cds and one DVD, plus a beautiful booklet as well. This special "Immersion" edition of THE WALL is available at Cd Universe for a discount price of $131.95, and includes tons of rare demo material from both Roger Walters, David Gilmour and the entire band. If you're really into this great album, then this appears to be the definitive boxed set.

But, all of this sure doesn't mean that this box set isn't very disappointing to some fans of the album and Pink Floyd. Some fans were miffed that a lossless Bluray disc of the audio wasn't included in this package after it was rumored to be added to the set before the official release was made. The included DVD only includes some excerpts from THE WALL, when a wonderful 5.1 dolby surround sound Bluray audio of the album would have been so much better. And what's up with the cheaply made scarf included as a bonus? What's the deal with that? it looks much like some cheap dollar store item.

EMI was also in a real hurry to rush this box set out to stores as a moneymaker for the company. That simply meant that some wonderful quad mixes of the album were neglected because they would have required a lot of cleanup time to add this album. That's not to say that the remastered stereo sound isn't an improvement over previous versions of THE WALL. It is. But, when better audio quality was available, EMI apparently didn't want to invest the effort or time here.

So essentially you have discs 1 and 2, a newly remastered version of the previously released THE WALL album. Discs 3 & 4 are rare demo tracks, and disc 5 is a remastered version of IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? and disc six THE WALL LIVE.

So you have to decide if shelling out $130 or more dollars for this latest high priced box set is really what you what to do. It's pretty worthwhile on some levels, but pretty much a letdown in many other ways. Probably, this isn't the final re-release of THE WALL. No, not by a long-shot. The album no doubt has a few more high priced re-releases in it. And maybe those might be a little bit better than this. But, for now this box set isn't particularly bad or anything. Just a little disappointing.

to paraphrase Bob Dylan here, "I shall be re-released".