It’s been 20 years since Pink Floyd’s latest release. Most of The Endless River is comprised of recordings that were made back when they laid down all the tracks on The Division Bell. This is Pink Floyd’s final album (according to Gilmour) and some what of a tribute to the late Richard Wright.
Some of us took a listen to the final album for Pink Floyd and here are a few of our First Impressions.
Rich Moses
I’ve always been a bit more of a David Gilmour fan than a Roger Waters fan, and The Endless River is very much a Gilmour directed record. I really like this record, yeah, it’s not as flashy as Dark Side or The Wall, but it really is a record to get lost in, similar to Wish You Were Here or The Division Bell. Richard Wright was probably the most underrated member of Pink Floyd, his contributions to the band were tremendous, try listening to any of their albums without organ and it just won’t feel the same. It’s a fitting tribute to him, it includes some incredible keyboard parts he recorded over his career with Pink Floyd. For the most part, I love how they do so much with so little words, and when Gilmour sings, it’s during the song “Louder Than Words” where he sings “Louder than words, the sum of our parts” which puts this album in context quite nicely. There’s also some really dreamy wordless harmonies throughout. The Endless River exceeded all expectations I had for it.
Wendy Redden
If I could have things my way, there would have been some amazing reunion, Gilmour and Waters would have put their differences aside just like some of the sampling on “Things Left Unsaid” suggests and the last album for Pink Floyd ever to be released would have been amazing. The Endless River is definitely not bad, but it is familiar and makes sense that it was compiled from numerous unreleased recordings around the time of The Division Bell. It’s very nice to hear the work of Wright on this album and is definitely a fitting tribute to him. I had already heard this was mostly an instrumental album and as far as that goes – it is great. I will definitely be spinning a few of these tracks again to use on my playlist for my commute to work. A few of my favorite tracks are “Things Left Unsaid”, “Calling” , “Talkin’ Hawkin'” and “Louder Than Words”. It would be great for someone to make a movie to go along with this album – a space odyssey cartoon movie would be pretty cool. Maybe Alan Parker and Bob Geldof could have a reunion. The Endless River is no The Wall or Dark Side but in terms of the last album for a band that has spanned almost 50 years of success in spite of all the drama between Gilmour and Waters, it is pretty good as a whole. Pink Floyd will always shine on in my book of rock n’ roll pioneers and even though The Endless River isn’t their best work, I’m thankful it has been released and we can have a final send off for Pink Floyd.
Ben Yung
It’s been an interesting year for some of the most iconic artists in music history. Before Kim Kardashian tried to “break the internet”, U2, with Apple’s help, broke into our iTunes libraries and left us a free album, which actually isn’t bad as the band tried to recapture the music of its youth. Neil Young put together a weird album that had symphonic arrangements, but most of the songs ended up sounding like something from a cheesy Disney movie. Now Pink Floyd have returned with largely an instrumental album. It’s not as psychedelic of Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall, but it is an otherworldly experience in a different sense. The Endless River sounds more like music for a rock opera or space orchestral music – basically, mixing M83 with Explosions in the Sky (some of the tracks would have been great for the Tom Cruise film Oblivion that Anthony Gonzalez scored). Is it a great album? At first listen, no, it is not. Is it a terrible album? Not at all. It’s actually a surprising album, but in a good way. It won’t blow your mind like their previous efforts, but it also won’t disappoint. Maybe the European Space Agency will use the music in its documentary of the landing of the Rosetta’s Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. That would be ironic yet timely.
Follow The Revue On...
Share This Article On...
