Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Midway through the sessions for Wish You Were Here in 1975, an overweight man with a shaved head wandered into Abbey Road Studios. It took the band a long while to recognize him as Syd Barrett, their founder, who had left the group seven years earlier. The album they were making was already about him.

Wish You Were Here is built around "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a nine-part tribute to Barrett that bookends the record, opening with David Gilmour's four-note guitar phrase and Richard Wright's shimmering synthesizers. Between its halves sit "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar," two bitter takes on the music business sung, in the latter case, by guest Roy Harper. The title track, a simple acoustic lament, became one of the most beloved songs in the band's catalog.

Coming after the enormous success of The Dark Side of the Moon, this was the record where Pink Floyd wrestled with absence, industry, and their own fame. Both Gilmour and Wright have named it their favorite Pink Floyd album, and Hipgnosis's burning handshake cover is iconic in its own right.

This 180-gram pressing comes from the band's own remastering campaign, cut from the original analog tapes and presented in a faithful reproduction of the original packaging.