September 7, 1987 - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

About two weeks since my last release and a long four years since "The Final Cut", Pink Floyd released their thirteenth studio album "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" on September 7, 1987. After the release of "The Final Cut" the three remaining members of Pink Floyd all took a break to work on solo albums and in 1985 bassist, songwriter and original member Roger Waters announced he was leaving Pink Floyd. He would end up in a legal battle over the rights to the name Pink Floyd with David Gilmour and Nick Mason, who would end up winning. They worked with producer Bob Ezrin (who also co-produced "The Wall") and began work on a new Pink Floyd album with several session musicians. Towards the end of the recording of the album, original member Richard Wright rejoined the band as an official member. This is really great news as Wright is an amazing keyboardist and a key cog for Pink Floyd, but most of the keyboards had already been recorded. Mason didn't contribute a bunch either due to session drummers and occasionally electronic drums so Gilmour is the real driving force of this album. There are several different session musicians on keyboards and drums and even additional guitar, but although not an official member, Tony Levin (of the 80s King Crimson line-up) plays all the bass on this album including his favored Chapman Stick. This will definitely be a different Pink Floyd album, but I'm still excited to check it out. Let's dive in!

The first song on the album is "Signs Of Life" and aside from spoken words by Mason it's an instrumental opener. It starts very quietly with sounds of water and splashing and this continues in the background as we hear some slow and trippy keyboards start to take over. There are several different types of keyboards heard and while some might find this boring and unexciting I think it's really refreshing. After "The Final Cut" it's really nice to just get lost in a trippy instrumental song that sounds way more like a Pink Floyd song should. We hear Mason talking in the background and it's not until after the 2:30 mark that we finally hear some guitar. Gilmour plays slow and echo-y to fit the mood perfectly, adding some nice slow and epic guitar to the atmospheric sound. The end of the song flows nicely right into the next track "Learning To Fly", which was the big hit single off this record. Gilmour comes in and out with a short but very loud and epic guitar bit that is the driving force of the song as Levin plays some decent bass in the background with the space-y keyboards. Gilmour begins to sing a solid verse and I'm thrilled to have David back as the full-time lead singer. Waters performed some songs well, but I've always preferred Gilmour on vocals and am really happy that he's at the helm once again. The verse leads into a similar chorus and with a few female singers backing him up Gilmour sings a nice and catchy chorus and follows it up with a bit of classic Pink Floud guitar that sounds nostalgically great. They jam through another slow and smooth verse and chorus before moving into a new part with more spoken vocals from Mason. The music in this part is similar to the trippy opening song and overtop of the slow music the talking sounds like a pre-flight check as the pilot checks that all is working properly. Gilmour was taking flying lessons himself which inspired him to write this whole song, but this talking part in the middle of a catchy song I find really deflates things. It's not bad by any means, but there's not a whole lot going and it seems an odd choice to have this part in the middle of their big hit single. Gilmour plays some guitar at the end of this part that brings things back to another verse and after a final epic chorus Gilmour begins to slowly solo overtop the main riff until the end of the song. He gets some good licks in, especially towards the end, and delivers a fine solo to finish off this one. Track 3 is "The Dogs Of War" and it opens right into a dramatic-sounding riff with some epic keyboards (and I wish I knew who was playing which keyboards, because there are several different kinds at once, but I just don't know). It's another slow and epic main riff and while this era of Floyd isn't blowing me away so far like they have in the past, it's a welcome change from their last album for sure. Gilmour eventually begins the first verse overtop the epic synths and his voice sounds great as always as he leads the way. The female backup singers show up in the chorus again, but they are not over the top and provide a nice background to Gilmour's epic voice. The music is difficult to describe but it sounds very ominous as they play another verse. Mason ends the following chorus with a nice drum fill and this leads into a guitar solo for Gilmour. He sounds epic and amazing as usual as he plays a pretty great solo and out of nowhere Mason cues up another drum fill and the solo shifts and explodes with saxophone! The sax comes in strong and immediately takes over as we hear some pretty awesome stuff! I've always loved Floyd's use of the saxophone and they've done an incredible job once again as I think it sounds wonderful! After these back-to-back solos the sax sticks around for the main riff as Gilmour sings another epic verse followed by a final chorus as the song ends with some sweet final bits of saxophone. The next two songs were also singles, starting with "One Slip" but for a single it has a very odd opening. It begins very quietly with several different beeping noises until the drums take over. I'm not sure if it's Mason or a session drummer but we hear some solid drumming overtop the synths in the background and Gilmoir emphatically joins in to start the first verse. His guitar takes over as the lead instrument and he plays some solid stuff as well as singing a couple nice verses. Things flow nicely into the chorus as Gilmour continues to play some nice guitar and the synths sound pretty solid as well. After the chorus Levin takes over with a pretty cool bass riff and I really like this stop-and-start bass he plays. They jam out this part for a short while and then connect it nicely back to the main riff as Gilmour leads a final verse and chorus and Levin plays the song out with some more cool bass as things fade to an end. Track 5 is called "On The Turning Away" and all we hear at first is a long and droning low synth note. Gilmour begins to sing and his voice sounds especially nice and clear with almost no other music and his wonderful voice very nicely leads the way. The synths become more prominent, Gilmour adds some acoustic guitar that fits the mood nicely and when the slow drum beat finally comes in the main riff is completed. It's pretty slow but it sounds pretty epic and while it's certainly not a headbanger I think they do a great job with the space-y atmosphere and things sound pretty good. They slowly make their way through a couple verses and things get very quiet and it seems like a shift is coming. Instead they break out of the silence with a more full and emphatic version of the verse that now has backup singers and some more keyboards added to the mix. They seem to have improved upon an already solid main riff and after this grand version Gilmour begins a guitar solo that is over two minutes long! He does a fantastic job soloing overtop as he seems to play all the right notes at the perfect time for ample epicness! He ebbs and flows and masterfully leads the way all the way to the end of the song, and I think he might have had more to play yet! A great way to end a pretty cool song. Up next is "Yet Another Movie" and it has a pretty trippy opening with some slow stop-and-start keyboards. This trippy opening goes on for over a minute and they slowly build upon it with drums, bass and then guitar joining and eventually reach the first verse. Gilmour sings a solid verse overtop another slow and epic main riff and afterwards he delivers a short guitar solo that sounds pretty great. After another verse it's solo time once again and this one is much longer and as usual Gilmour plays some great guitar. He is so great at doing more with less; even though this whole solo has no shredding or anything terribly fast, it still sounds awesome. They return for a final verse, a final short solo, and then jam out the main riff while we hear what sounds like a movie playing in the background. The end of the song leads right into the next track "Round And Around", a short song just over a minute long. The synths from the last song carry over and form a droning backing riff and Gilmour comes in and out with some snippets of guitar. It's a pretty quiet minute of music and there's a few seconds of silence before the next song "A New Machine (Part 1)" begins. It's another shorter song just under two minutes and Gilmour begins singing right away as we hear his vocals as well as talk box. There are some synths as well and Gilmour's voice and the instruments sync up in a slightly trippy way and sound interesting for sure. There are long pauses between each line of lyrics, but every time they start another line they break out of the silence nicely with this synchronized trippy part. The end flows right into track 9, a six-plus minute instrumental titled "Terminal Frost". Levin and Mason play a simple but epic rhythm section and we hear some slow but cool piano followed by some epic-as-always guitar by Gilmour. They take turns playing short riffs and play off each other nicely as Gilmour follows each piano bit with some cool guitar. Some saxophone joins the mix as well and I'm really digging this jam so far as the guitar and saxophone take over and both play some pretty great stuff. They continue this great main riff for the whole song, never straying away really, but the constant epic guitar and sax keeps you happily jamming the whole way through. The end of the song fades into "A New Machine (Part 2)" and they do the same dynamic as in Part 1 and deliver another few trippy lines in this shortest song on the album at just 38 seconds! The album wraps up with it's longest song "Sorrow", coming in at just under nine minutes. There's a.continued low droning note in the background and Gilmour plays some distorted and interesting guitar overtop. This opening part continues for nearly two minutes until the drums and bass join in and they shift nicely into the main riff. It's led by a bouncing keyboard riff that is pretty catchy and things sound much more commercial than the past few songs in this catchy main riff. Gilmour sings a solid first verse and he follows it up with a pretty sweet guitar solo! After another verse they shift into a similar bridge riff that takes us to a trippy new part. Levin plays some thundering bass notes and we hear some cool trippy synths  before they nicely tie things back to the main riff. After another verse Gilmour takes off on another extended solo and he unsurprisingly plays some epic and great guitar as he gets lots of time to jam out and incorporate all kinds of little great licks as this solo is over two minutes long and takes us right to the end of the song. A splendid way to end a successful return to form!

That is the end of "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" and I thought it was a pretty good album and certainly a return to solid rock music after "The Final Cut", which didn't sound like a Pink Floyd album. This one I thought did a good job of returning to their roots and while it's definitely nowhere near their progressive awesome albums of the 70s I enjoyed it the whole way through and thought David Gilmour did a pretty good job. It easily surpasses their last album and I think it's better than both of Pink Floyd's soundtrack albums as well. It is there where I draw the line though as I don't think it was better than their psychedelic debut "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". While 10th out of 13 seems low, this was a fine return to form for Pink Floyd and with Wright back as a full-time member I'm sure the next album should be a more collaborative effort. I'm looking forward to it!