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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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Idisaffect »

danielcaux wrote:Oh yeah it is worse.
I disagree. I like Blue Light better.
danielcaux wrote:Nobody could have seen something like "Blue Light" coming from what David Gilmour was doing as a solo artist or with the Floyd.
That's great! I like surprises in music. It's good to try something new, even if you fail.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Hudini »

I don't understand why people keep bitching about "Blue Light" so much. It's basically a rewrite of "Run Like Hell" with horns section and terrible lyrics... BUT, the song itself is no worse than a lot of songs Gilmour had written and recorded both solo and with Pink Floyd at the time. It is certainly way better than "A New Machine". Yes, it does feature one the most awful music videos ever filmed, but if you judge the song by its video you should quit listening to albums and switch MTV on.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by azza200 »

danielcaux wrote:
Idisaffect wrote:The song is no worse than, for example, the totally overrated Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel.
Oh yeah it is worse. Although both songs are indeed in the same style, at least Sledgehammer sounded more "organic" so to speak, I dunno, this one sounds reeeeeally like a "forgery". Perhaps it's because Sledgehammer was a natural development of what Gabriel was doing in his previous albums, especially Security.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo9riZYUpTw

Nobody could have seen something like "Blue Light" coming from what David Gilmour was doing as a solo artist or with the Floyd. Although the intro, where Gilmour is seen hilariously rocking out the asphalt with his homies, has a little of Run Like Hell in it.

Also Sledgehammer was catchy and fun.
lol dude roger did some shocking videos in the 80's it wasnt just Gilmour :-({|= :-({|=
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by danielcaux »

Hudini, it's just that the Blue Light production (and the lyrics) makes the song sound really really awful. But yeah, perhaps if it had been recorded during The Division Bell sessions it would have sounded closer to something like Take It Back.

And the point of bringing that song into the conversation wasn't to simply bash on it, but to illustrate how Gilmour had tried to distance himself from the Floyd sound and be more pop and modern and up with the times, but failed. So in the next album he went on a holy quest searching for what he thought was an updated Floyd sound.
azza200 wrote:lol dude roger did some shocking videos in the 80's it wasnt just Gilmour
And what does Roger have to do with all this?

Anyway, is it true that rumour about Gilmour working on an upcoming "de-eightiesized" version of AMLOR? If that's true I guess he's going to have A LOT of work to do!

Basically, I think that he will need to re-record all the drum and bass tracks, and perhaps even some of the synths.

An interesting listen none the less.

Although perhaps my favourite track, One Slip, would just disappear into the air without the 80s production.


On a side note: Peter Gabriel looks a lot like Syd Barrett on that screencap.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Hudini »

danielcaux wrote:Anyway, is it true that rumour about Gilmour working on an upcoming "de-eightiesized" version of AMLOR?
I also heard that, but I forgot the source.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by TheFloydian1 »

Wow. A lot of hatred towards this album. I'm 20, and I actually enjoy a good chunk of it. My least favorites would have to be Dogs of War, One Slip. Learning to Fly is an okay song, but it's too...dry? I'm not sure how to put it. I just don't like how it was randomly put on the album right after Signs of Life. It seems like it just sticks out like a sore thumb, compared to the other tracks--not necessarily in a bad way, but not a good one, either.

All in all, though, I believe most of you seem to have forgotten that NOT all Floyd albums sound the same. Take Meddle and The Wall, for example. Yet, ALL of Floyd's albums together, seem to have this overall magical sound (even on this one, a bit). It's like they have this ability to add a 3D layer to music, and to play the right notes at the right time, and leaving the right amount of space.

This album does carry some of the Floyd sound, it's just not obvious straight on. Let me give you some examples of the things to check out in some of the tracks:

Signs of Life: Listen to the mysterious synth notes
One Slip: The keyboards right in the middle (3:20-3:35?)
On the Turning Away: Great guitar solo!
Yet Another Movie: Listen to the keyboard "pings" in the beginning. Also, fast forward to 5:50, and listen through to the end.
Terminal Frost: Great sax solo, and listen to the spaciness towards the end: 5:15-end
Sorrow: Just a badass deep rock track. It has its space, which a lot of rock songs typically don't. The guitar solos really sound like a "sorrow", in a good way.

Those are the main points that I actually really like this album, and honestly, I like it a bit more than Division Bell. It feels darker, which I sort of liked. I feel the same way about the tours that followed those albums, as well. To me, DSoT > Pulse. Pulse was great though, and had a bigger and better stage, but some of the lighting during the shows didn't "feel" right with some of the songs, and was a bit too pretty looking at times.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Hudini »

TheFloydian1 wrote:All in all, though, I believe most of you seem to have forgotten that NOT all Floyd albums sound the same. Take Meddle and The Wall, for example.
It seems to me that the whole story about "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" not sounding "like Pink Floyd" is simply a bad interpretation of an objective fact that it didn't naturally evolve musically or conceptually out of their earlier releases.

Although there are certain sonic similarities between "Meddle" and "The Wall", I agree that they sound pretty different. However, if you track the changes in sound and the underlying philosophy of Pink Floyd from "Meddle" through "The Wall", or even beyond (in both directions), you will notice that every album of theirs naturally evolved from its predecessor, improving and/or exploiting ideas that were already present in one way or another. "A Momentary Lapse Or Reason" is different there, because it doesn't follow up "The Final Cut" in any way, exploring the same approach to recording and even songwriting techniques from "About Face" instead.

Without intention to broaden the subject further, if you substitute "The Wall" and "The Final Cut" with "David Gilmour" and "About Face" in the Pink Floyd timeline, there is also an evident evolution thread there. It seems that after "Animals" (which was the last album fully recorded in the Waters/Gilmour/Mason/Wright line-up) things fell apart, and though the band continued to pursue Waters' vision of what Pink Floyd should become further on, Gilmour also picked up where they left on "Animals" in his early solo career.

People always speculate about what would have happened if Waters didn't leave the band in 1985 and what would have "Radio KAOS" and "Amused To Death" sounded if they were Pink Floyd albums, but it seems that no one speculates about what would have happened if Waters left the band in 1978, or if Gilmour was more insistent that his songs be used on the next Pink Floyd record at that point. Now, this is just another "what if" story, but I firmly believe that the "Animals"-"David Gilmour"-"About Face"-"A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" also follow an evolution thread, only from the point of view of David Gilmour.

Looking at it all that way, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" doesn't sound out of place, at least to my ears. But people always seem to compare it only to "The Final Cut" and nothing more.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Annoying Twit »

Hudini wrote: People always speculate about what would have happened if Waters didn't leave the band in 1985 and what would have "Radio KAOS" and "Amused To Death" sounded if they were Pink Floyd albums, but it seems that no one speculates about what would have happened if Waters left the band in 1978, or if Gilmour was more insistent that his songs be used on the next Pink Floyd record at that point. Now, this is just another "what if" story, but I firmly believe that the "Animals"-"David Gilmour"-"About Face"-"A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" also follow an evolution thread, only from the point of view of David Gilmour.
I agree that the A-DB-AF-AMLOR follow an evolution thread, and would tack TDB-OAI onto the end of it. I do realise that we're discussing AMLOR here, and therefore it's entirely sensible to talk of an evolution that ends in AMLoR.

We're all familiar with the politics of PF songwriting, but I think AF and AMLOR both show Gilmour trying too hard. For AF, trying too hard to make a hit album. And the 80s was a bad decade for albums where someone was trying to have a hit. AMLOR is for me a mixed bag. Gilmour is trying hard to make a PF album, and in some cases, he nails it. "Sorrow", "A New Machine", "Terminal Frost", "On the Turning Away". In other cases, I think the songs aren't there. "Dogs of War", "Yet Another Movie", "One Slip", even "Learning to Fly" which I think is an OK song, but not up there. TDB seemed to have much more confidence in the songwriting, and more classic production rather than too 80s production. RW coming on board would have helped. OAI has some very good songwriting on it, but I think suffers from a first half in particular without enough songs that stand out. Even "Take a Breath" really, in my opinion, needs a bit of "something" in the production. If RW had sung "Take a Breath", I think the variety would have boosted the album considerably. But, I think in particular the last three songs are some of the best songs that DG has ever written, and would fit right in to any PF album. If Dave had bought those songs to a PF reunion album, and RW had done his bit (no sign that the RW songwriting well has run dry), then they could have made an absolutely classic album. OAI is perhaps DG not trying quite hard enough. Overall it's a good album, and one of my favourite PF solo albums, but I think it could have been improved with a bit more variety in the production and possibly a guest lead vocal or two. I'm listening to it as I type and "This Heaven" is on now. There is musical variety here, and good songs. But something, I suspect the production and not enough variation in the lead vocals makes it a bit samey, were the songs themselves aren't as samey as the album. The production and songs of OAI makes it sound to my ears more like classic Floyd than any of TFC/AMLoR/TDB, perhaps that's what makes me expect and miss a lack of variety in the vocals and other production. Hmmm...... Rog could have sung "This Heaven" too. Hmmm..... Sorry if I've gone off on one and left the AMLoR thread topic behind, but to me AMLoR is all about Dave trying to find his songwriting voice, which never fully developed within PF as Rog grabbed the PF songwriting reins too tightly. OAI has Dave writing a full album of very good songs, way, way, above AF and I put it also better in songwriting than the DG album. And better overall than AMLoR and TDB too IMHO. It's just a sameyness of the production, even though the songs vary considerably, that lets it down. A bit.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by danielcaux »

Hudini wrote:I firmly believe that the "Animals"-"David Gilmour"-"About Face"-"A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" also follow an evolution thread, only from the point of view of David Gilmour.
I see your point, but while I can hear a common thread between About Face and AMLOR, I can't hear any connection between About Face and "David Gilmour", neither between that one and Animals.

IMO the "David Gilmour" album was not much of a step forward or evolution from what he was doing in Animals but more of a jump back to the things that he was doing in the early 70s, Fat Old Sun, One Of These Days, Childhood's End, Any Colour You Like, the instrumental jams and all that, but with a more updated production. The same can be said of The Division Bell and On An Island, both want to be early 70s Floyd albums, with the distinction that OAI centers more on his old mellow acoustic sound. About Face is a total anomaly, hence its title I guess. It' a complete make over, Gilmour trying to be a pop star, but of course there are traces left of his old sound to be found in there still.

AMLOR is kind of a fusion, it tries to be all kind of Floyd albums at the same time, but with the sound and production of About Face.

So more than an evolution thread, where he builds the sound of his next album upon the foundation of his last one, what I hear in the Gilmour output are constant changes in direction from one record to the next, with the exception of TDB-OAI, where you can really see the connection.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by Hudini »

What I see as an evolution thread in these albums is following:

"Animals" - lots of solos, lots of effects, very raw and wet sounding album
"David Gilmour" - another album with lots of solos and effects, another raw and wet sounding album, only with shorter songs and less bombastic. Here we see Gilmour trying to prove he can do all sorts of songs - rockers, ballads, atmospheric stuff, covers, instrumentals - but he still clings onto the sound he was exploring on "Animals". I might have been too assuming, and I must state that I don't think these two albums are too similar, but "David Gilmour" does naturally evolve from "Animals", as much or even more than "The Wall".
"About Face" - same shit as "David Gilmour", updated to sound more like 1980s; the fact that there are more bad songs on it than on its predecessor doesn't change the fact they do follow the same pattern. Gilmour is again trying to prove he can make all kinds of songs, only this time he is more diverse. The change in sound is evident, but his songwriting techniques have survived - mainly the song structure where a ballad abruptly changes mood before the final solo, which first appeared on his first solo album (I believe it was in "Cry From The Street"), and was still evident in AMLOR (namely "On The Turning Away").
"A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" - Another dated 1980s sounding album, with all kinds of songs, but with less diversion from "About Face" - which is understandable. The evolution between these two is evident and I don't think I have to elaborate here.

IMHO, "The Division Bell" is more different from AMLOR than "About Face" from "David Gilmour".
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by JackRegan »

Again, way too underrated. I do understand that Roger Waters fans wanna hear whisperin and shouting, but...
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

JackRegan wrote:Again, way too underrated. I do understand that Roger Waters fans wanna hear whisperin and shouting, but...
I see you've been away for a full year and still haven't changed. Is it possible for you to make a post on this forum without attacking Roger Waters/his fans? Perhaps join a David Gilmour forum?
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by rememberaday »

The Gunner's Dream wrote:
JackRegan wrote:Again, way too underrated. I do understand that Roger Waters fans wanna hear whisperin and shouting, but...
I see you've been away for a full year and still haven't changed. Is it possible for you to make a post on this forum without attacking Roger Waters/his fans? Perhaps join a David Gilmour forum?
So that was why it seemed like a deja vu! Well, suffice to say he's just like Flying Pig- a sad old tosser who can't express his opinions without flaming others needlessly.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by olzen »

I enjoy 3-4 songs from it, but overall, this is definitely a sub-par effort. With Mason playing on, as far as I know, but a few tracks and Wright being reduced to a mere session player, this might as well have been "David Gilmour & Friends". Also, the amount of completely redundant shit is mindboggling. Why on Earth are there two parts of "Dave Just Bought A New Vocoder" on this?! And the production is incredibly dated, though I suppose I should blame the 1980's rather than merely the Floyd; "Radio K.A.O.S" didn't fare any better. I kinda dig Tony Levin's performances, though. There's a bass player that would make Roger Waters weep!

Songs like "Learning to Fly", "One Slip" and "Sorrow" are actually pretty good and, in my opinion, they derserve the name "Pink Floyd", but Mason's and Wright's lack of proper involvement makes AMLOR seem either like an ill-guided attack on Roger or a cash grab. Both of which are unfortunate.

2/10, but mainly because I cannot award it with 2,5/10.
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Re: Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Post by rememberaday »

The production is fantastic.