Pink Floyd - The Endless River

I'll probably come off a bit bias here because Pink Floyd is my favorite band. The Endless River is Pink Floyd's first album in twenty years. Most of this album grew out of the jam sessions Floyd were doing, as Gilmour put, "just for the love of it". Out of those jam sessions also grew The Division Bell too. Initially, The Division Bell was to be a bit like Ummagumma. One part studio and the other part ambient music. Then of course that ambient part of it was rumored to be called The Big Spliff. While some of those tunes were leaked over the years they never really caught on, at least to me. I was never interested in them as much as I normally am with Floyd's stuff. The Division Bell was released in March of 1994. I was about 15 years old then and wasn't really into Pink Floyd, outside of The Wall. I didn't get into Floyd until I was about 19 or 20. Anyways...

That's a pretty big "Oh By The Way"... (Floyd pun intended)

When Polly Samson tweeted her bombshell back in June I was completely beside myself. Personally... I've always been a Roger Waters guy. I still am. But... I do love Gilmour too. I love both of them but I've always clung to Waters probably because The Wall was the first Floyd album I owned. Momentary Lapse of Reason, the first Waters-less Floyd album, I thought was pretty weak. It's easily one of their weaker albums without question. There are a couple gems on it but it just doesn't quite rank up there alongside other Floyd albums. The Division Bell on the other hand is fucking outstanding. I really love that album and easily rank it high up there with the best of them.

Initially I wasn't too worried about not having Roger Waters on The Endless River. After all, Waters hasn't been in Pink Floyd for about 30 years. Of course I was hoping he'd be on at least one track.... but he isn't. And that's okay. Roger Waters is okay with it so that's good enough for me. I was however a little bitter that there would be only one song with lyrics. I got over it though and was just grateful and happy that there would be one more Pink Floyd album.

Now that I've listened to The Endless River I can say it is nothing short of astounding. It's fucking brilliant. The entire album sounds like Gilmour and Mason went through the vaults and picked bits and pieces from the cutting room floor from most of their earlier albums and tweaked them here and there and adding more. For example, the song It's What We Do, sounds like it was cut from Wish You Were Here. Then there's Allons-Y (parts 1 and 2) that sounds like an early version of Run Like Hell. I say part 1 and 2, but in between Allons-Y 1 and 2 there's a song called Autumn '68. Obviously, the name is a throwback to the Rick Wright song Summer '68 from Atom Heart Mother. This minute and a half song is Rick Wright playing the pipe organ at the Royal Albert Hall... back in 1968. It's haunting and it's beautiful. It also reminds me a bit of the Phantom of the Opera. The song Skins reminds me a bit of Saucerful of Secrets with a dash of Atom Heart Mother. Almost every song sounds familiar and I really love that. So when you hear Rick Wright's piano and organ, the recordings date back to 1968 all the way to the Division Bell sessions. It doesn't disappoint.

The album closes with the only track with vocals, Louder Than Words. The song was written by Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, and she wrote it with the meaning of that there's something special to what Pink Floyd has done over the years with their music... and of course the opening lyric touches on the band's turmoil over the years as well ('We bitch and we fight, dis each other on sight, but this thing that we do...).

After the album was over I immediately started it over. It's really good. David Gilmour confirmed that it is in fact a tribute to Rick Wright and that this is the last time we'll get to hear the three of them "playing for the love of it". Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant.