Richard Wright - "Wet Dream" (1978)

To me, Richard Wright is the same sort of figure as George Harrison - the number of songs he wrote wasn't that large compared to the two dominant persons in the band, but the songs he wrote were often really, really good. Wright was the creator of songs such as Remember A Day, Paint Box, Us And Them, and contributed a lot to suites like Atom Heart Mother, Echoes and others. A solo album with such a guy must be filled with treasures. Right?

For those who don't know him, Richard Wright (1943-2008) was the keyboardist of Pink Floyd. As a 12-year old, he taught himself to play guitar, trumpet and piano, and when he met Roger Waters and Nick Mason in the mid-60s, the embryo of Pink Floyd was born.

Wet Dream was created between the Pink Floyd albums Animals and The Wall. During the recording of The Wall Wright was forced to leave the band as he and Roger Waters ended up at odds with each other, he participated thereafter on the The Wall tour, as a hired keyboardist. Thus he was the only one of the Pink Floyd quartet that made money on this tour since it made great financial losses, which affected the people responsible (= the other three PF members). Well, of this Wright was blissfully unaware of the year of 1978 when Wet Dream was recorded.

On the album we hear Mel Collins on saxophone and Snowy White on guitar, both experienced fellow musicians to Pink Floyd. I found the album in Quebec last year for a sum that must be considered reasonable in this context. A great find, but I didn't have high expectations - I had never heard of it, which might be a sign that it didn't arouse much emotions in people, and I have another one of Richard Wright's solo projects (Zee) which is not too good, honestly. And frankly, it was probably good that my expectations were pretty low, it's not an album full of treasures.

It's music that is neither seductive nor challenging, rather it just passes quietly without arousing any reactions from me. Many of the songs are instrumental and the sound is quite soft and gentle, the music gives me some associations with summer, which in itself might be positive - sunny days, no worries, holiday from work but in this case also a fairly uneventful life. One almost longs for a heavy rain, lightning and rolling thunder. Somewhere, there is an embryo of something good, something that stands out and makes you curios, but Wright never takes hold of this and develops. Instead the flowing music continues along its soft lines. It doesn't feel as if Wright has a clear goal or focus with what he does on Wet Dream.

If I pick a song I like a little extra it's Waves, the finishing number on side A. Especially the end of it is beautiful, Wright's fat and powerful synth chords along with a saxophone that somewhere in the distance is heard playing. More of this would have been fun! The song before, Summer Elegy, is also quite OK. Pink's Song on side B is the top number on that side.

In summary, there is no real need to have this album in your record collection. It's not really a bad album, but it's not a very good one either. The problem is that it doesn't do anything for me - no joy, no disgust, no fascination. Neutral music, pure and simple. Maybe even a little bland and boring. Wet Dream made no success at its release, it passed without attracting much attention. As a true Pink Floyd fan, I am nonetheless very pleased to own it. Contradictory? Not at all.

Tracklist
Side A1. Mediterranean C 3:52
2, Against All The Odds 3:57
3. Cat Cruise 5:14
4. Summer Elegy 4:53
5. Waves 4:19

Side B1. Holiday 6:11
2. Mad Yannis Dance 3:19
3. Drop In From The Top 3:25
4. Pink's Song 3:28
5. Funky Deux 4:57