Riding on the monumental success of 1973's Dark Side of the Moon, you can guess just how much anticipation and pressure there was to repeat that success in the next album, and what is truly amazing is that Pink Floyd, in my opinion, produces an album that ends up being light years better than Dark Side.

Wish You Were Here is an album that is dedicated to Syd Barret, who was the original founder of the band before he departed because of drug troubles.  The album basically goes on to describe how much the band misses him, and wishes that he was there to enjoy the success that they were having.  Because of it having a much lighter nature than the theme of human insanity in the previous album, the trademark Floyd sound effects and conversations are toned down a bit here, although there's still the classic tongue-in-cheek line "By the way, which one's Pink?" on Have A Cigar.

The album opens with Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part I-IV), which is arguably the greatest Pink Floyd song ever penned.  If you've ever looked around for fanlists of the best Pink Floyd songs, this song is always the one that bests them all.  It begins with a wall of keyboards, and then gradually transcends into a simple Dave Gilmour guitar solo.  The thing about Shine On, is that the guitar melody is just so unbelievably simple, but combined with the lush layering of keyboards in the background, it has this beauty to it that really conveys the message of this album.  And then the vocals start about 8 minutes and a half into the song, with everyone sounding in top form(yes, everyone, including Waters, believe it or not).  The barely 2-minute vocal section of Shine On became a traditional audience sing-along for Floyd concerts, and it's really not difficult to see why.  The lyrics are simple, yet beautiful, and Shine On manages to convey more emotion and depth to it in its nearly half-hour of music than any of their albums have.

The album then moves on to the next track, Welcome to the Machine, which is an almost industrial cut, with Wright providing some of his best keyboard playing ever.  The playing is effectively made to give the track a hollow, life-less feel, which is obviously an allusion to the "machine" of human society.  Have A Cigar is a witty shot at the music industry, with the classic line that I mentioned above, and has some of the best Floyd lyrics ever.  And then the title track next is a nice relaxing acoustic piece dedicated to Barret, with lyrics vague enough that allow you to apply it to anyone you miss, really.  I usually end up skipping this track, though, because of how much airplay it gets.  And finally, the album closes with the final parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

As you can probably guess by now, this album is mostly instrumental, but what is remarkable is that this album says much more in its instrumental sections than some other bands have attempted to do in whole albums.  Wish You Were Here is my personal favorite Pink Floyd record of all time, and if you haven't heard it yet, get it now.  It may not have the monster success of Dark Side, or a movie made for it like The Wall, but it has the most heart.