During an annual road trip from Washington, D.C. to New York this past Summer, my Dad and I stopped for a fun detour at a record shop in Catonsville, Maryland. We quickly embarked upon our ritualistic trawl through the store, starting at the ‘new arrivals’ section and then splitting up to more quickly cover all the alphabetized bins of used LPs. I decided to start at the end of the alphabet this time, rapidly passing Frank Zappa, Yes, The Who, and eventually stumbling upon an original Columbia pressing (JC 35559) of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright’s 1978 solo album Wet Dream.
Though David Gilmour’s self-titled solo album from that same year seems to be plentiful in used vinyl shops around the Northeastern United States, this was the first time I’d come across a Wet Dream LP in person. While perhaps not a ‘rare’ album, the $30 price tag–well above the store average for used vinyl–seemed to confirm my suspicions that it was at the very least an uncommon sighting.
To my surprise, the shop owner saw me handling it and quickly remarked “Don’t bother with that, there’s a new edition coming out in a few months with a remix by Steven Wilson.” Of course I’d already known that, but the exchange brought a smile to my face nonetheless–it’s not often that I encounter people outside of online discussion groups that are familiar with Steven Wilson and his classic album remixes.
He was 100% right though, the new 2023 remix edition from WB/Rhino (with much-improved cover art) is absolutely the only version of Wet Dream that you need. For considerably less than that old LP would have cost me, the standalone Blu-Ray features Wilson’s remix in four different flavors (stereo, instrumental, 5.1 surround sound, and Dolby Atmos) plus a high-resolution digital transfer of the original 1978 mix. The new 2023 stereo & Dolby Atmos mixes are also available to stream.
As Wilson and other commentators have noted, Wet Dream is a bit of a hidden gem in the Pink Floyd canon. The subsequent solo outings of Roger Waters and David Gilmour seem to enjoy a much higher profile in the public consciousness, and it doesn't necessarily help that the album’s September 1978 release date found it sandwiched between two absolute juggernauts in the band’s catalog: January 1977’s Animals (which received excellent new stereo & 5.1 surround sound mixes from James Guthrie in September 2022) and November 1979’s The Wall (hopefully coming in 5.1 or Dolby Atmos someday soon).
Interestingly enough, Wet Dream isn’t at all reminiscent of either of those records. It instead harkens back towards 1975’s Wish You Were Here, abandoning the aggressive tone and caustic lyrics that came to define Pink Floyd’s late-70s output in favor of a more-serene meditative experience.
For me, the defining element of this album would have to be the amazing musicianship. Wright assembled an incredible band to record Wet Dream, including drummer Reg Isidore (Robin Trower), saxophonist Mel Collins (King Crimson), and Pink Floyd's touring guitarist Snowy White. White in particular really shines, sprinkling in some scorching guitar solos throughout the album–especially in “Cat Cruise” and “Summer Elegy.”
“Mediterranean C” kicks off the proceedings with Wright’s synthesizers spread across the rear speakers, soon accompanied by Collins’ sax in the center channel and Isidore’s drum fills crashing all around the room to spectacular effect. Tambourine strikes rain down from the front height speakers, along with some electric rhythm guitar from the sides.
Piano holds down the front stage for “Against The Odds,” with White’s acoustic guitar extending from the center channel up into the front heights. Wright’s lead vocals are hauntingly isolated in the center speaker, as the harmonies on key phrases (“I don't want to fight no more tonight,” “Can there be a way out of here,” etc) pop up in the rear height channels.
As a big fan of Richard Wright’s vocal contributions in classic Pink Floyd songs like “Echoes” and “Time,” I was a bit disappointed to find that six of the ten songs on Wet Dream are instrumentals. That said, the vocal performances in “Holiday” and “Pink’s Song” are among his best and most impassioned I’ve heard.
“I knew the record and I knew that it had never been given a proper opportunity to be re-appraised, or even appraised. It kind of got buried at the time; there’s never been a proper re-issue campaign that I’m aware of. So if you imagine there’s a long-lost 1970s Pink Floyd album that you’ve never heard, this is kind of it. There’s a lot of what you associate with classic Pink Floyd, especially Wish You Were Here. The Hammond organ, the slight jazz chords, his voice, it’s all there in this record.”
Steven Wilson, August 2023
The extended instrumental “Cat Cruise” is a showcase for Dolby Atmos, featuring blistering solos from both Collins and White in the center channel while the rest of the band wraps around the listening space. I particularly liked how the guitar delays rotate around the height speakers, yielding a really immersive and chaotic swirl of sound.
As is typically the case with Steven Wilson’s Dolby Atmos mixes, the top speakers are used not only for ambient signal but also distinct instrumentation–Snowy White’s steel guitar throughout “Summer Elegy” audibly circles the height array, with his solo towards the end of that song also appearing almost entirely from above.
Wright’s double-tracked lead vocals throughout “Holiday” are split between the center and rear speakers, creating a trippy effect where his voice seems to move through your head. Strummed electric guitar fills out the side speakers, while synthesizer parts alternate between the rear surrounds and front heights. As the song builds to its conclusion, the layered backing vocals chanting “sail on” appear from behind.
The brooding “Waves” similarly makes full use of the expanded soundstage, with the wave-like keyboard patterns starting at ear level and gradually cascading up into the height speakers. The funky “Drop In From The Top” is another highlight, showcasing Wright’s organ in the side surrounds as a rhythm guitar rises from the front left height speaker and synthesizers oscillate in the rears.
The final vocal track, “Pink’s Song,” features an extended flute solo in the top speakers while strummed acoustic guitars hover beside the listeners and keys pop up from behind. Wet Dream then concludes with “Funky Deux,” another upbeat instrumental with more swirling synth in the height speakers and center channel guitar & sax solos.
In conclusion, the new Blu-Ray release of Wet Dream makes for yet another outstanding title in the Steven Wilson remix discography and is undoubtedly the best way to experience this outstanding overlooked entry in the Pink Floyd canon. The new mix offers considerably more power and impact than the original 1978 version, and the layered production lends itself perfectly to an immersive presentation.
If I were to have one minor critique, it’s that the Dolby TrueHD/Atmos audio is significantly quieter than its two-channel PCM stereo and DTS-HD 5.1 counterparts. Upon investigation, I found that the TrueHD/Atmos audio was encoded with a dialogue normalization value of -26–so it plays back 5 dB lower than intended. That said, I’m thrilled that this album received an inexpensive physical release and having to crank the volume a bit more than usual is only a minor annoyance.
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