Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Discussions about Pink Floyd and Solo Official Album CDs and DVDs.

Rate This Album

5 - Best
14
10%
4
30
21%
3
40
28%
2
29
20%
1- Worst
30
21%
 
Total votes: 143

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Keith Jordan
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Keith Jordan »

I guess the albums arouse certain passionate views with the fans due to how bad the album is! :lol:
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by David Smith »

drafsack wrote:swelling organs (no puns please)
Genius... Just genius.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by jtull »

I have always refered to this album as A Momentary Lapse of Talent. :-;
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Jacek »

I, too, am one of those rare creatures: a proud (!) fan of this album. I will admit readily that Dogs of War is a bad song (with some good parts, that failed to come together into a coherent or enjoyable whole, however), and on my last listen through the album I found myself not too sure about One Slip (though, interestingly, many of the naysayers here cited it as one of the decent tracks, and I always liked it before... maybe it just didn't click on that particular day) but I love the rest. Signs of Life is a good, ambient intro, and Learning to Fly an excellent pop song. I love the lighter feel of this album's opening as compared to the darkness of the previous three Roger-helmed records, and it's this light, happier tone (plus the dominance of Gilmour) that got me liking it in the first place.

On the Turning Away (a top-class Pink Floyd song if ever there was one, especially live!) through to the album's end is spectacular, and even almost flawless. I love the eerie, echoey feel of Yet Another Movie / Round and Around; the haunting New Machines enclosing the lovely Terminal Frost, and finally my favorite song on the record (and one of my favorite Gilmour showcases of all), Sorrow. That intro blows me away every time I hear it, and the rest of the song delivers on its promise in spades.

I can understand the hatred or indifference that most feel toward this album, but I can't share in any of it (except for slagging Dogs of War, though even in that case there are a few things I like about the song). The Division Bell is definitely the stronger record, and the Delicate Sound of Thunder & P.U.L.S.E. renditions are at least as good & often better than the studio takes here, but I still consider A Momentary Lapse of Reason to be an excellent record. Hell, I'd even feel confident giving it a 5 if it were not for Dogs of War and One Slip!

4/5
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

So I scored it a 3. Yes, the 80's production is too much, yes it tries too hard, yes too many session musicians spoil the broth, but I don't think a "White Stripes" reworking of just Dave and Nick would have saved most of the album. And yet providing you don't look at the credits it's not a bad listen? I... I get cravings for it sometimes?
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by paul10 »

After reading all the negative views about this album, I had to put it on and have a listen because I couldn’t understand why all the hostility towards it. Now that I have listened to it again, I still don’t understand the hostility, particularly towards the track “Dogs Of War”. To me “Dogs Of War” is the epitome of what a good Pink Floyd track should sound like. The segue’s that join the songs together are typical Floyd and the use of the sound effects is typical Floyd. Personally I think it’s a bloody good album and it leaves Floyds earlier albums, at least up to “Meddle” (which sound incredibly dated now) way behind. This album would have to be in my top three Floyd albums after “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “The Wall”. After the huge disappointment I felt after buying “Ummagumma” and “Atom Heart Mother” this album was like a breath of fresh air to me, and it got even better when I bought the video. Yep, good album.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by J Ed »

since we dont have a Delicate Sound of Thunder thread, what do people think of the related live album? its the one Floyd album Ive never owned in any shape or form

its sudden apearance when it came out seemed to me further proof the preceding album and tour was a cash-in, as thered never been an official Floyd live album since Ummagumma despite their ever growing reputation and demand ... all other bands of their era had put out double live greatest hits type albums by this point, usually being the least essential part of a bands discography and usually appearing in the wake of a breakthrough hit when no immediate followup was forthcoming ... the fact that Floyd previously had never felt the need to put out a double live album gave them artistic integrity, in my eyes, and thus MLoR live proved theyd lost that integrity and were now content just to put out redundant product with the brand name in big letters

of course we also know that days after the Ottawa debut of that tour a slick 3lp bootleg had been issued with artwork scanned from the tour program, and that the band had found copies on sale in Bleecker Bobs or some such Greenwich Village store while playing in New York (Im sure this story is in Schaffner) ... thus, like Get Your Yayas Out decades earlier, the release of an official live album was necisitated to beat the bootleggers, so maybe Im being too cynical, and thats one reason for all those other seemingly pointless double live type albums from other stadium rock dinosaur bands as well

then theres the video ... I think in this case the video is much more essential than the album, and its odd PFco have never rereleased it on dvd ... fortunately for us obsessives, some flybynight company has released it under a different name and it is showing up in mainstream chain stores, as discussed in another thread
PULSE is indubitably better (and the setlist is almost identical) but the MLoR live video does show us what this 80s version of the DaveFloyd was all about better than the audio only album, doesnt it?
seizure inducing edits, a mulleted sax player who thinks he's Daves co-star, a frenzied 2nd percussionist, and gratuitous slomo zoomins on the backup singer to Daves immediate left while the other two ladies barely rate a closeup all concert long ... and decades later, in an interview Dave reveals he was "the guy with the coke" on that tour, why am I not surprised?

essential viewing to understand the history of our heroes, but as out-of-print VHS concert films go, I prefer Daves 1984 solo tour document
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by paul10 »

I have to admit that I didn’t know there was a live album called “Delicate Sound Of Thunder”, I thought there was only the video of that name, so I can’t comment on that album. I have to say though J Ed, you certainly know how to pull a video to pieces and somehow infer that Dave Gilmour/Pink Floyd were responsible for it not to be to you particular liking, this was the eighties after all. In fact video’s nowadays are far more frustrating in so far as you’re lucky if you get more than two seconds of a shot before it changes to another, ending up like a bloody strobe show.
And what’s all this about losing their integrity? Bloody hell mate there’s an ex member of the band currently doing a tour of an album that’s over thirty years old. Stop over analysing everything and making things up, it’s just an album :)
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by J Ed »

paul10 wrote:Bloody hell mate there’s an ex member of the band currently doing a tour of an album that’s over thirty years old.
I completely agree with you on this point, the same goes for all of Rogers touring this millennium ... he's now exploiting the backcatalog just like Dave etc were doing back in 87
and overanalysing is what I do!
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by my breakfast. »

Listened to this again recently, and I like it. I fucking enjoyed it. Duh. As for it being Pink Floyd or not, I don't care about lineup changes, there is not a set rule book on what or what does not constitute the original band. They took eachother to court over who could use an inflatable pig, and I bet they had the sharpest most expensive lawyers pouring over blueprints for inflatable pigs for months...


The music does not sound like 'classic' Pink Floyd, but what does? The sludge and bile of Animals and WYWH, the sludge and bile of The Wall, the sludge and bile of TDSOTM? These albums all sound different and are only similar in terms of Waters' Mr. Angry pose on the lyrics front. Then you get the Meddle stuff and the albums before Meddle that most people seem to slate (unfairly if you compare it to some of the dreck peddled in the 1960s and 1970s... ever heard Robert Wyatt's End of an Ear?).

The album is big on 1980s sounds, gated drums and the like, but that is the sign of the times. Would you make an album with a massively different mix to the accepted norms now? If Metallica's next album had the 1980s thrash gated drum sound? Not going to happen. The mix reflects the times and these changes only get pushed in small increments.

Most people seem to read far too much into Waters' supposedly complex lyrics. I like his high-concept solo album stuff, and I like the ambiguously trans-Atlantic stuff Gilmour and co pumped out at the same time. :D
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by mastaflatch »

i may bitch this album a bit but a thing needs to be said: i genuinely loved it when it came out. i have the feeling that, maybe with a little less bombast, it was the album PF needed to make at the time because let's face it, they were no longer an experimental band and with Gilmour at the helm, this only sounds like a logical and better-written follow-up to About Face.
now, calling it Pink Floyd isn't more shocking than calling TFC Pink Floyd. they both sound like their respective leader's expanded solo albums but it happens that AMLOR was a product of 1987. late 80s were an awful time for pop music. and this album didn't really gain any new-found hype from the 80s revival because it stood on the fence between being downright pop (sound-wise) and experimental (ie: not fun) and in there lies the main problem of AMLOR: it tried to interpret what Pink Floyd was but kind of got it all wrong. even on their biggest sounding songs before it, you could still feel a little unit, tightly locked together in the middle of it which was nowhere to be found in '87. it's a shame that the "musically-led" PF overlooked the faceless, band aspect of itself.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Idisaffect »

Earthbound misfit, I. hahaha The lyrics on this album are terrible. So is the sound. Considering how many people were involved in the creation of this album, it's surprising how empty it all is.
my breakfast. wrote:Would you make an album with a massively different mix to the accepted norms now?
Yes. But not if I was making the album for the sole purpose of generating massive amounts of money. In that case, I would play by the "rules".

Since when was pink floyd about "accepted norms"? Since 1987, I'd say.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by my breakfast. »

Idisaffect wrote:Yes. But not if I was making the album for the sole purpose of generating massive amounts of money. In that case, I would play by the "rules".

You reckon that was the driver behind that album? I thought it was Gilmour's need to make music... but maybe that is impossibly naive of me.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Idisaffect »

Well, I don't know anymore than you.... BUT...if it was simply the drive to make music that was the reason behind Momentary Lapse then why not make a solo album?
Why fuss and fret over the songs so much and worry about record company and fan reactions? Just do your thing. You're David Gilmour, someone will distribute it. And if the album was simply born of a desire to make music why only 2 original albums in 15 years? Gilmour obviously didn't have a huge desire to create and release new music.

It was a business move and I respect that.

My post is certainly not a criticism of Gilmour. I look up to him. I've never forked over any money for AMLOR so I really can't complain. AMLOR was an obvious cash grab/power move. Along with the mega tour that followed. I don't say that as a put down. It's only right that he should cash in on all of his hard work and subsequent popularity. It was a smart thing to do. Artistic integrity means nothing to me if I am broke. Making money is more important than making music. I don't feel like playing if I don't have food in my belly..... or 25 Lamborghinis.....Or slaves!! haha. (see what I did there?)

The thing is, I don't like those songs on AMLOR and I don't like the way they sound. YET.... I like or love almost everything that came before it under the pink floyd name..... So, I must conclude that it is a piece of calculated, commercial fluff ( as opposed to, say, TFC).

At the same time, if someone likes it I don't say they have terrible taste or anything. I just try to turn them on to Live Ummagumma. :lol:
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by nosaj »

J Ed wrote:since we dont have a Delicate Sound of Thunder thread, what do people think of the related live album? its the one Floyd album Ive never owned in any shape or form

its sudden apearance when it came out seemed to me further proof the preceding album and tour was a cash-in, as thered never been an official Floyd live album since Ummagumma despite their ever growing reputation and demand ... all other bands of their era had put out double live greatest hits type albums by this point, usually being the least essential part of a bands discography and usually appearing in the wake of a breakthrough hit when no immediate followup was forthcoming ... the fact that Floyd previously had never felt the need to put out a double live album gave them artistic integrity, in my eyes, and thus MLoR live proved theyd lost that integrity and were now content just to put out redundant product with the brand name in big letters

of course we also know that days after the Ottawa debut of that tour a slick 3lp bootleg had been issued with artwork scanned from the tour program, and that the band had found copies on sale in Bleecker Bobs or some such Greenwich Village store while playing in New York (Im sure this story is in Schaffner) ... thus, like Get Your Yayas Out decades earlier, the release of an official live album was necisitated to beat the bootleggers, so maybe Im being too cynical, and thats one reason for all those other seemingly pointless double live type albums from other stadium rock dinosaur bands as well

then theres the video ... I think in this case the video is much more essential than the album, and its odd PFco have never rereleased it on dvd ... fortunately for us obsessives, some flybynight company has released it under a different name and it is showing up in mainstream chain stores, as discussed in another thread
PULSE is indubitably better (and the setlist is almost identical) but the MLoR live video does show us what this 80s version of the DaveFloyd was all about better than the audio only album, doesnt it?
seizure inducing edits, a mulleted sax player who thinks he's Daves co-star, a frenzied 2nd percussionist, and gratuitous slomo zoomins on the backup singer to Daves immediate left while the other two ladies barely rate a closeup all concert long ... and decades later, in an interview Dave reveals he was "the guy with the coke" on that tour, why am I not surprised?

essential viewing to understand the history of our heroes, but as out-of-print VHS concert films go, I prefer Daves 1984 solo tour document
Where to start?

Okay, with my reaction to the release of Delicate Sound of Thunder. I was at the second show in Toronto at the beginning of the tour. I was one of those people who bought a couple of bootlegs two months later (November, 1987 - one was on clear vinyl no less!!). Before listening to DSoT, my disappointment was that they did not include a number of songs. Where the hell was Echoes, Signs of Life, Welcome to the Machine and One Slip????? Seriously, they released live videos very early in the tour and I am convinced they must have recorded Echoes!!!! ](*,) ](*,)

So, set list was not complete. The other thing was the album sounds dead. I know the concert I was at sounded much better in the flesh. Maybe the ambience of the audience is missing (the bootlegs sound better to me for some reason). Maybe it was the lack of the quad sound system? It just did not sound like the two shows I was at on the tour (other date was Friday the 13 1988...must have been May. Oh, and I passed on seeing a Dayglo Abortions show that night with a super hot chick - by choosing Pink Floyd, she 100% lost interest in me).

The video? I actually like it better than PULSE. I watched it last week, and I love all the trippy little fades. It is way more interesting for me to watch than PULSE. Come on, the guy at the beginning with the sun glasses and the pig fade? Brilliant. How about the groovy Mr. Screen in One of these Days, going around in little circles, then big and having Pratt's bass come through (btw, I am sure I heard a longer bass intro to the song at the gig I was at, than appeared on the album)? PULSE puts me to sleep.

Anyway, I don't listen to this album...oh, and I generally skip Money, but how the 1987-1994 Floyd performed it was unbarable (at the shows, the audience was noticably nodding off with all the "whooos" section).