Pink Floyd

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

A very fitting title

Review Score:

(4/10)
David Gilmous couldn't have picked a better album title for this CD if he tried. A Momentary Lapse of Reason accurately describes the career path of each Pink Floyd member in the post-Final Cut period. That goes for Waters as much as it does Gilmour.

Pink Floyd, and it pains me to say this, became a joke with A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Songs such as One Slip demonstrate the contrived language that Gilmour was slipping into as he wrote song after song that was more suited for sell-out stadium shows than it was great music or great art. His lyrics are laughable. Just read what he is singing on Sorrow or The Dogs of War. Granted, Gilmour did not have the gift for cynicism that Roger Waters had, but he could have at least tried to make something better than "the smell of sweet sorrow lies over the land" sung over two notes.

Pink Floyd had always been about challenge. Not all four of them were the greatest musicians ever (in fact, I'd say they had the most boring rhythm section in all of classic rock), but they always tried to push themselves just beyond their niches and into something new and dangerous. A Momentary Lapse of Reason absolutely couldn't be more contrary. Everything about this album is flat and predictable. Applying such adjectives to Pink Floyd's music would have seemed unthinkable in the seventies. But hey, here we are!

The Division Bell is a slight improvement. It's only a trifle less embarassing than this album. Unless you feel up to the task of collecting every Floyd album, you are well served not to hear it.

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