Richard Wright - Wet Dream (Harvest 1978) 24-bit/96kHz Vinyl Rip

Following the release of the 1977 album Animals and its accompanying "In the Flesh" tour, Pink Floyd went on hiatus, having become popular enough to support solo albums by bandmembers who were inclined to make them. Guitarist David Gilmour and keyboard player Richard Wright were. For his album, Wright assembled some of the backing musicians who had been accompanying Pink Floyd for years, in particular reed player Mel Collins and guitarist Snowy White. So it was no surprise that the resulting record, Wet Dream, sounded like outtakes from Pink Floyd sessions. Wright's keyboards had always been a major element in the Pink Floyd sound, and his singing and song writing had also been a big part of the group's music, despite the increasing domination of Roger Waters. On Wet Dream, he was interested in providing typically slow, contemplative, keyboard-based arrangements and singing (on about every other tune) in a becalmed, echoey voice of marital discord and escape. Wright's conflict with Waters shortly would lead to his being dismissed from Pink Floyd (and then, bizarrely, hired back as a sideman), and in a sense his release of Wet Dream could be seen as an attempt to step out on his own. But the material, while pleasant enough, seemed more like music he might have written to work on with Pink Floyd if he still had as much input into the group as he had had back around the time of Dark Side of the Moon, rather than like an independent solo statement. It was hard to imagine anyone but Pink Floyd fans wanting to listen to such an album, and as it turned out not even enough of them cared, since the album sold poorly. William Ruhlmann, AllMusic.

Track listing:

01. Mediterranean C
02. Against the Odds
03. Cat Cruise
04. Summer Elegy
05. Waves

06. Holiday
07. Mad Yannis Dance
08. Drop in from the Top
09. Pink’s Song
10. Funky Deux

Personnel:

Richard Wright – Vocals, Keyboards, Oberheim Synthesizer
Mel Collins – Saxophone, Flute
Snowy White – Guitars
Larry Steele – Bass
Reg Isadore – Drums
Produced by Richard Wright
Engineered by John Etchells
Recorded at Super Bear Studios, France
January 10th to February 14th 1978

Vinyl and artwork courtesy of 'The Purple Parrot'.