There will be a new album

[raisemyrent]

I like artists that don't evolve in 30+ years. That's how I define creative genius.

Greatest piece of music ever crafted is a bit intense for me, btw.

[Massed Gadgets]

Sure, a bit re-hashy, but good too. I like that Waters still wants to rock. Maybe I've become less critical over time, but I really enjoyed listening to it. I'm actually looking forward to the album now.

[Flathead]

From the comments:
- 'Have A Cigar', 'Echoes' and 'Any Colour You Like' bass solos...
- 'Welcome to the Machine' and 'Dogs' effects
- 'What God Wants'
- a little 'One of These Days' at 2:08

Join the quiz!

Are you implying that TDB and TER don't have recycled Floyd?

[kjek1]

Roger should never end his shows with Comfortably Numb. It's such a flat ending given his minimal involvement in the performance

Anyway I hope he's got some new stuff in the album and it's not just a whole album of watered down PF songs with fresh lyrics

[Flathead]

Regardless of what you think of the music, thank god these are not the lyrics of Polly Samson. These lyrics contain bite, fire, edge. Even at 70.

[Bigmanpigman]

I've always remembered reading some quotes from Robert Smith, of The Cure. He put his everything in to his output when he was younger as he had a belief that an artist would produce his/her best work before the age of 30. This doesn't quite link in with Pink Floyd, as their best stuff was probably when the were in their early '30s, but you can see where he was coming from. I will be buying the new album, but FFS are we really expecting the cutting song writing edge that Roger had 40 years ago?

[kjek1]

I don't think so. But I also didn't expect him to re-record old Floyd tunes with lesser quality and just stick some updated lyrics over them.

I still think he's a top lyricist but I did cringe a few times during the track. "What up and smell the phosphorous"? Christ

[Wolfpack]

Are you implying that TDB and TER don't have recycled Floyd?

Why would I imply that TDB and TER don't have recycled Floyd?
Waters's 'Smell the Roses' sounds to me like joining the recycling of old ideas.

[Djgilmour]

I don't think so. But I also didn't expect him to re-record old Floyd tunes with lesser quality and just stick some updated lyrics over them.

I still think he's a top lyricist but I did cringe a few times during the track. "What up and smell the phosphorous"? Christ

Well at least he doesn't sing about some handicapped Welch boy

[Follix]

Can't really stand Roger's voice tho it's so lost in the mix.

[kjek1]

There's something really off about the vocal, it almost sounds karaoke like.

I don't know how it was mixed but it sounds like an old bloke having a sing alone to a backing track.

[danielcaux]

If this song had Gilmour singing and guitar solos in it, it would be hailed as a modern classic* by the Gilmour fans. Or perhaps not, because most of them seem to believe that modern Floyd should sound like Poles Apart. Me personally, I missed the 70s sound that had some byte and wasn't as bland. Guess that's what Roger's musical input added to the band. I'm glad to hear it back!

And also to be noted: there's lyrical economy here. These lyrics are closer to 70s Waters lyrics, where he used few words to convey a message, than to the bloated Waters lyrics of the 80s and 90s, where he was more like telling stories and delivering rants instead of singing songs. Another point for the new stuff!

The weak point though, as expected, is the voice. Too bad about that. But on the bright side, the singing ladies seem to be under control and not in fully unleashed mode like in his previous records. Another point there for the producers.


*I actually don't think of it as a modern classic. IMO it's more like a Frankenstein monster made of parts from different songs of tbe 70s, and as a result kinda functions as a reminder of all the other tthings the Floyd also used to sound, beyond the anthemic guitar solos and pleasent soft acoustic textures that Dave Floyd seemed to focus on and favour the most. It's like Roger saying "hey! This also used to be 'the pink floyd sound'! What the hell happened to that boys?"

But as I said, add to this song some Gilmour's "harsh" vocals and a epic solo, and you get something that could be easily mistaken as an Animals outtake!

So good to hear Roger doing this type of stuff again!

[raisemyrent]

It's really well produces but there's absolutely no substance. It goes from familiar bit to familiar bit to keep you amused (lol), but barely achieved it. As kjek says, the vocals sound amateur. THte chorus, have you caught yourselves singing it? It's pretty poor. The scarcity of lyrics to emulate the classic 70s gets lost in the ultra specific bits like smell the phosphorus. That's another change that took place circa the final cut, but by then, everything waters every wrote was genius on account of the glory of the 70s so it was instant dogma. I don't care for it. If your claim to fame is being a lyricist and that's what you put out, well...
I forgot to add, Is there anybody out there? To the list of rehashes. The quiet bit before the guitar with the sweeping synths.
Speaking of which, this song resorts to an old trick. When faced with not enough substance for a full song, insert a quiet bit in the middle with lots of sound effects. The more it surprises you the first time, the better. This is all over the final cut, parts of the wall I think, and to some extent, animals (though the goal there I think was to make the songs long at all costs). TO BE FAIR, the same thing happens on poles apart and to a greater extent Lost For Words. So it's an old Floyd gimmick so to speak, perhaps derived from the olden days of long jams and breaks like in Echoes or Childhoods End (an I right on that one?), Obscured by Clouds, Interstellar, etc.

[kjek1]

If this song had Gilmour singing and guitar solos in it, it would be hailed as a modern classic* by the Gilmour fans. Or perhaps not, because most of them seem to believe that modern Floyd should sound like Poles Apart. Me personally, I missed the 70s sound that had some byte and wasn't as bland. Guess that's what Roger's musical input added to the band. I'm glad to hear it back!

And also to be noted: there's lyrical economy here. These lyrics are closer to 70s Waters lyrics, where he used few words to convey a message, than to the bloated Waters lyrics of the 80s and 90s, where he was more like telling stories and delivering rants instead of singing songs. Another point for the new stuff!

The weak point though, as expected, is the voice. Too bad about that. But on the bright side, the singing ladies seem to be under control and not in fully unleashed mode like in his previous records. Another point there for the producers.


*I actually don't think of it as a modern classic. IMO it's more like a Frankenstein monster made of parts from different songs of tbe 70s, and as a result kinda functions as a reminder of all the other tthings the Floyd also used to sound, beyond the anthemic guitar solos and pleasent soft acoustic textures that Dave Floyd seemed to focus on and favour the most. It's like Roger saying "hey! This also used to be 'the pink floyd sound'! What the hell happened to that boys?"

But as I said, add to this song some Gilmour's "harsh" vocals and a epic solo, and you get something that could be easily mistaken as an Animals outtake!

So good to hear Roger doing this type of stuff again!

Yeah but the missing Gilmour guitars/vocals and Wright keyboards are EVERYTHING.

Without that it's just diluted PF licks we've already heard, it's decent but who can really hail that as something great? Who can get excited for that?

You can go back to PF type sound without rehashing the licks. In addition to that, I'm a Gilmour fan and I wouldn't say he's done anything particularly great in a solo sense. It's all just proof that PF was about the collective sum.

It's just a tad funny in Rogers sense because he's the "creative"'genius who's been sorey lacking in creativity for 35 years

[danielcaux]

Well, Gilmour's guitars and Wright' keyboards were definitely not EVERYTHING, as AMLOR and TDB very well proved. There was more to the PF sound recipie than just that. And this track kinda is a nod to those missing elements. That's the sad thing about them three never working together in a studio ever again. This album it's sounding good so far, but just imagine how could it have sounded with Gilmour on board! A true Pink Floyd album for the XXI century. Sad that that never happened. But still, it's really good to have this "approxima/tion" to listen to, at least

Also, you seem to have a grudge against Waters for calling himself "the creative genius of Pink Floyd". I also find that not very humble at all, to say the least, but, if it helps, view it like this: he WAS "the creative genius of Pink Floyd". But he no longer is in Pink Floyd, so he no longer is necessarily a creative genius anymore!