Pink Floyd

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Lapsed Floyd

Review Score:

(4/10)
With the demise of Pink Floyd in the mess following "The Final Cut", Roger Waters unsuccessfully sued to prevent the remaining bandmembers from performing under the name "Pink Floyd". Maybe he was on to something, even if his solo career was a horrid slide into the kind of repellent, self-important yuppie-rock that made better magazine copy than albums.

It wasn't until 1987 that another Floyd album emerged from the remains, as led by David Gilmour. If anything, the results showed that the Floyd had been a group effort in every sense -- without Roger Waters's presence, however overweening and cynical, the band had lost its searing edge. "Learning to Fly" was a radio-friendly hit that sounded like a "Wish You Were Here"-era track with an 80s rewrite, but the rest went from inoffensive to ineffectual -- "Dogs of War" sounds just plain embarrassing today, and "On the Turning Away" is even worse, a misty-eyed Live Aid-esque piece that's all machine-made surfaces and no heart.

The band hadn't lost its superb technical skills or its amazing use of studio technology, but those things were pretty much all they had left. There are points on this record where the use of production is so accomplished that they almost make the album's problems of songwriting and spirit irrelevant, and if they had managed to make that stick they would have created something truly remarkable.

Sadly, nothing of the kind happened. The credits for the album are telling: Rick Wright was brought in late in the game and didn't even get a sleeve photo, and the rest of the band's sagging tunesmithing was supported by a succession of session musicians and co-writers. Whatever feeling remained in the band at this point was either drowned or pushed aside by the gloss -- and under that gloss is only more gloss, and under that a hollowness to chill the soul of any listener left with one.

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