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  1. The Endless River by Pink Floyd | Modern Rock Review
    December 28, 2014 @ 5:27 pm

    […] and a moderate beat. This track sounds like it would have been right at home on the 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which had the moody instrumental, “Terminal Frost”, that included a cool sax solo, […]

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  2. Blood E Murder
    January 2, 2015 @ 8:54 am

    I think of this album as a “Necessary Lapse of Band Participation.” Had we lost the Floyd after Final Cut, the legacy of the band would have fizzled, I think. Sure, Gilmour was a much a driver of aMLoR as Waters was of FC, but it wasn’t that he was trying to force his own vision into the PF container for egoistic reasons. Gilmour needed the Floyd – let’s be clear. His solo tours were no more successful than Waters’ would turn out to be (other than the Wall presentations, of course). But he was committed to a larger Floyd vision and it seems to me that his construction of the album with Ezrin and the carnival of supporters was designed to INCLUDE Mason and Wright. (I still haven’t come across any real detailed descriptions of Mason’s contributions to the album’s productions. It’s clear he was around and provided support. Did he review the recordings and make artistic decisions? One would think so.) While the album itself is not a “band” album, the two years of touring healed the wounds all had suffered under Waters’ final cuts. If you listen to the progress of the musical presentation over the course of those two years in available soundboards and various videos, you can hear the joy of playing together return. Sure, it’s a stadium show. There are lots of performers other than the core and it’s no longer anything like the flexible Floyd live unit of the past. Why shouldn’t Floyd grow into its shoes and take on its growing legacy by fulfilling the promise of huge live shows? Most older rock bands have done the same. Just go to a Rolling Stones concert. The point is to fill the stadium with sound and visuals to make even the most distant seat-holder feel that they’re part of the moment.
    As for a critical view of aMLoR, I’ll only say that I think there’s more thematically consistent going on in this album than most reviewers give Gilmour credit for. He didn’t write all the lyrics, but he was clearly involved in the entire production. It’s a dark album for the most part. Industrial Floyd and a good counterpoint to the flashier sounds produced by most bands in the 80’s even if it suffers some of those same production values. Well, it WAS produced in the 80’s, why shouldn’t it sound like that? I think it has withstood the test of time. I still listen to and love it to this day. I think Division Bell sounded much more like a Gilmour solo effort. Just listen to his stuff and you can see that aMLoR isn’t anything like the ‘collections of songs’ that Gilmour puts out on his own.
    Finally, A Momentary Lapse of Reason captures the essence of what Pink Floyd is about – glimpses of madness, mistrust of conventional values, missed opportunities and regret, and the persistence of hope in the face of dark forces that seem overpowering and all-controlling. It’s about our humanity and I would say that the second side of the album is as coherent and exploratory as some of the best “mid-era” Pink Floyd.
    Thanks for your balanced review of the album!

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  3. The Endless River by Pink Floyd | Modern Rock Review
    June 11, 2022 @ 12:00 pm

    […] and a moderate beat. This track sounds like it would have been right at home on the 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which had the moody instrumental, “Terminal Frost”, that included a cool sax solo, […]

    Reply

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