Pink Floyd

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

If only there were Negative Stars....

Review Score:

(2/10)
Now, I was born on Floyd. Literally. Me mum and dad listened to them when I was still in her tummy. I first watched the Wall when I was 10, I think. And I have most of the albums (I don't have Pulse or Distant Sound of Thunder... Go figure, heh).

So, I'm what you would call from the Waters school of thought: I absolutely cannot stand Momentary Lapse of Reason. The only good "Floyd" song on it is Yet Another Movie (and Round and Around). Most of the songs are either too flat (lacking the Waters Bass touch), or too high (the horrible Learning to Fly) to be good Floyd.

I hear people all the time bashing Final Cut, which I absolutely cannot fathom. FC is infinitely better than MLR, as the moodiness of it fits the drug theme pervalent throughout most of the bands music.

Much of MLRs music almost does seem to be imitative of older Floyd: "The Dogs of War" == "Dogs"? Or "A New Machine" == "Welcome to the Machine"? The first time I listened to the album, I figured, "hey! I liked The Division Bell, and that didn't have Waters!"

It seems to me that for the short instant after winning Floyd to himself, Gilmour was on a power trip, and tried to steer the band along lines of music more hip at the time. MLR just doesn't feel like old Floyd. It doesn't have the length and ambiguity of Animals. It doesn't have the surrealistic acid trip feel of Saucerful of Secrets. Nor the wonderful instrumentals of Ummagumma. Nor long pieces like Echoes or Atom Heart Mother.

I star, my fellow Floydians, is too high a mark for this disappointment.

More Reviews: