Is this the life we really want VS Rattle that lock

[Annoying Twit]

I think it's interesting to note that the votes are very similar.

In my opinion, the two albums are of very similar quality, but that their good points and weaker points are different. They show that at least in 2015 that if miracles happened and Rog and Dave worked together again that there could have been a very good 'Pink Floyd' album - whether labelled as PF or not.

However, I'm a glass half full kind of person, and I'm happy that we have the two albums which I think are the best two solo albums by Dave and Rog.

I've always been interested in creating a playlist of selected tracks from the two albums to make a mock PF album. I see that someone on Spotify has done so, and I'm listening to it now. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1rlT0 ... 4c101242ad But, I think that playlist cheats a bit by including lots of tracks to make a long album.

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

Knuckle nerve putting A Boat Lies Waiting after The Last Refugee!
I know you didn't make that playlist, Annoying Twit.
Still not voted or got around to listening again. I'm Pink Fatigued! Treatments or just let it play out of system?

EDIT: Picture That better opener for "Picture that! Waters and Gilmour working together again!".

[Annoying Twit]

Yes. I think the playlist works better musically than it does lyrically. It's a bit of a surprise to jump from one lyrical style to the other.

There's clearly a lot of very good music in the list. I'm perhaps too familiar with the albums to appreciate the playlist as a single 'album'. I notice the jumps more than I would if I wasn't familiar with the albums.

I'm not hearing jumps in quality though. Listening to the albums has not disabused me of my belief that the two albums are similar in quality.

[Gslatner]

I’ve been listening to these guys my entire life and have much love for their work. Is this the life is god awful and I can’t make through a single song. Rattle that lock has a few excellent songs on it. I consider Faces of Stone one of Gilmour’s best but Girl in the yellow dress and Today are skips for me. I’m actually surprised this poll is so close. If you are a Pink Floyd fan how can you not love 5 am & and then…

[ZiggyZipgun]

An album that tries to sound like weak Dire Straits vs. an album that tries to sound like Pink Floyd...?

Dire Straits is an odd comparison...Gilmour was a fan and a friend when they were just starting out, as they were very much in the same scene as Unicorn who he working with on a regular basis. He even asked Dire Straits to play at his wife's birthday party in '78 or '79. I think the later Dire Straits albums were clearly influenced by Pink Floyd, and to some extent they took advantage of Pink Floyd's absence in the mid-80s. With that said...I don't think Rattle That Lock sounds anything like Dire Straits.

[DarkSideFreak]

I voted Rattle That Lock, but it was a closer vote than I expected for me.
I will always lean more to David Gilmour's work as a rule, but Rattle That Lock for me his weakest album. I do still really love some of the tracks ("Faces of Stone", "In Any Tongue"), but as an album it doesn't flow particularly well and the production choice of having every single song fade out is one that, once I noticed, is overly distracting to me. It's definitely an album that benefitted from a live rendition - the Pompeii version of "In Any Tongue" is pretty damn good for example.
Now, Is This the Life We Really Want? has a very good flow to it, and Nigel Godrich's production is for my money pretty good (Radiohead runs a close second for me in the music department, so I have a bias to Godrich's production there admittedly). However it also succeeds in being... I don't know. Much of it is just Waters pontificating over music (especially on the title track), and as a listener that's not particularly engaging. It's also a bit boring in places - "Broken Bones" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" being the worst offenders. And thinking of "Broken Bones", the references to Pink Floyd songs of old are the most mixed bag ever - the synth interlude on "Bird in a Gale" is kinda neat, but the cough at the beginning of "Broken Bones" is a massive "oh come on" moment.
In general, I'll take Rattle That Lock any day.

I agree on your assessment of ITTLWRW. I'm not sure I'd mark Rattle That Lock as David's worst solo album. I find it certainly has a better mixture of tempos/moods than On An Island and more standouts than About Face - although it's probably a bit TOO eclectic for its own good.

Still, any album with "Faces of Stone" and "In Any Tongue" on it is going to win this competition unless the other contender were really strong, and considering I can tolerate exactly one song from Roger's album (the title track) there's no two way about which way I swing.

[Eclipse]

Waters' amazing album easily kicks Rattle out of that dock.

[ZiggyZipgun]

Waters' amazing album easily kicks Rattle out of that dock.

Roger's album is pandering pop music. David really couldn’t care less if you don't like his music.

Roger didn't want to make an album in the first place, so he handed over a selection of unfinished songs that he couldn't be bothered to work into something else, and let other people pretend they were making a Pink Floyd record.

David wanted to make another album with Rick, and when he lost any chance of that happening, he put his own album on hold to finish the rest of the Division Bell material. He then felt liberated by the true end of Pink Floyd to put out whatever the fuck he wants.

[Eclipse]

Waters' amazing album easily kicks Rattle out of that dock.

Roger's album is pandering pop music. David really couldn’t care less if you don't like his music.

Ohhh geez! Now I felt really kicked out of that dock too, if he does not care.
No Dave, pleaaase, care for my opinion!!!!1111oneoneone

[DarkSideFreak]

Oenone?