Pink Floyd

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Pink Fraud

Review Score:

(2/10)
This is the album for you if you believe that Ringo Star could go and hire 3 other guys and call it "The Beatles".
Although Dave Gilmour did contribute much to the band, he was not an original member of Pink Floyd-lest anyone forget.
Many years later, by his own admission, founding member Nick Mason didn't even drum on the record because he was "out of practice" (read the credits, several drummers names appear), but Gilmour could not carry on using the name with Mason being part of the mix. Also Nick Mason wrote NOTHING here. I doubt he was even around for any of the sessions to be honest.
The other founding member here, keyboardist Rick Wright also admitted much later to just adding a bit of keyboards to the backround of ONE TRACK which was already really finished, keyboards and all, before he came along. This was a device by Gilmour to lead creedence to the law suit filed against him using the bands name, since he could then state that founding member Wright technically did appear on the album. Wright also wrote NOTHING here, and he was a big part of the sound and music of the original band, as well as the strongest musician in the band (although the over-rated Gilmour always seems to get credit for this).
I don't think I need to mention also that primary writer/founding member Roger Waters left the band at this time, as did founding member Syd Barrett many years before.
What you have left is a Dave Gilmour solo album and it should be called that.
It was noted by record company executives at the time that the record needed to sound more like Pink Floyd, so reportedly Gilmour and producer Bob Ezrin (Gilmour's real writing partner on this album) kept going back into the studio and playing about with the material to get it to sound more like the mass public's general concept of what Pink Floyd should sound like.
I was in my mid-20's when this record was being recorded and I remember in great detail reading all about the court cases with Roger Waters, the greedy Pink Floyd managers and the record company that led up to this recording. They were many articles published about this at the time and immediately after and it became apparent to anyone reading these that the Pink Floyd name was simply a pawn to be used to make the record company, Dave Gilmour, and Floyd's managment richer.
If the Beatles had been an 80's group, you can bet that the greedy vultures in the music industry would still have new Beatles product being put out with a band that consisted of maybe just Ringo, or even his son, as the only "original" member touring and recording as the Fab Four.
Give me a break.
As far as the music goes, well, I don't think they suceeded either. This is a Dave Gilmour solo album all the way. No Pink Floyd album was this guitar heavy and some of the solos go on forever endlessly, and say nothing. Gilmour's writing isn't even up to par with his own previous offerings during the "Dark Side" album.
There's only one exception here. The wonderful instrumental "Terminal Frost". This track just simply works. But make no mistake about it. This is a Dave Gilmour solo track. It even sounds like an outake from his "About Face" album.
The real reason this band continued is because of the failure of Dave Gilmour's 2 solo discs and the money hungry record company dudes who figured (or hoped) that nobody knows who is in the band anyway. But weren't these folks rich enough already?
At least things looked up with the much better follow up album "Division Bell" where Rick Wright actually composed, played, and sang on, and reportledly Nick Mason as well, though I still have my doubts as to Mason's actual involvment with this band, except on tour and when it comes to collecting the bucks.

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