P-U-L-S-E

I have to admit that I saw this performance in concert myself during the U.S. tour and it was absolutely phenomenol. I didn't think Waters absence was a large drawback at this point because he'd become too negative anyhow. The energy was great, the show was absolutely incredible, and to be able to see a performance of Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety was like a dream come true. I own the video of the concert as well as the P-U-L-S-E double CD and it really captures the show wonderfully. I think it, and the Division Bell, were two great "swan songs" from a great band. What a way to go...

I personally think that post-Waters Floyd is still very good. Unfornately only in the studio. David Gilmour is of course great guitarist but the quality of his singing is a very controversial matter. He seems to be horribly tired from time to time. Not to even mention that he sings as if he doesn't care about anything (and especially what he's singing about). There are some great moments here however. Astronomy Domine is my favourite part of album. Powerful! The whole of the second disc is pretty good too (although don't expect Dark Side to be better than original). By the way, I wonder what the hell is Nick Mason still doing in the band? Dick Wallis plays almost everything that requires at least some technique. I have never excepted Mason will be playing like Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Manu Katche, Danny Carey or Neil Peart(!) but I have a strange feeling that he's quite a poor drummer nowadays.

This album contains a few classics that are played well as always. Pink Floyd live shows have always been amazing but this collection can be quite a dull experience. The band are quite old and do not play with half as much energy as in the 60's or 70's. There are much better live albums on offer such as "Is There Anybody Out There?" and "Ummagumma" and i would strongly recommend these over PULSE. It is nice to see the live attempt of Dark Side of the Moon and to see how it has evolved from the studio album and this is probably the best part of the album. The new material is played just as weakly as on the studio album and really is a strain to listen to. This album is for the collectors but i would recommend buying this over The Division Bell as it contains the best songs from that album.

i've got double feelings about this live album. The choice of some songs seem very strange and why putting the whole "Dark side of the moon"album on disc two? This smells like making some easy money. i would have liked it more when the songs were more varied. Next to that it is a great pity that Roger Waters is not in the band, because you miss him at some songs of "the Wall" and other, but hey who's to blame? On the other hand this live album is a registration of a great liveband and David Gilmour shows he's a very good guitarplayer. Some songs are made longer and intenser so that's nice. And for everyone who didn't had the change to go to a Pink Floyd concert -including myself unfortunately- this album is worth listening.

You can't dismiss the quality of Pulse. By now Pink Floyd were the masters of anthem type stage shows, special effects etc.The visual effects on the video of Pulse is awesome especially on ' On the run' where a small plane crashes into the theatre at the climax. the DSOTM played live is a success, even their thanks to an old friend Roger at the end after the encores. As a CD Pulse is very good but I just can't help feeling that a double live album after each studio album is pushing it just a bit! ' A great day for Freedom' and ' High Hopes' are the best of the rest on disc one.

We have to be honest with this album. It's an OK farewell, but nothing more. It sounds well and it's well played, but nothing more. Just drops of the genious of these musicians are in PULSE, and Pink Floyd had lost more that they'd thought with the departure of Roger Waters, who's double live album "In The Flesh" is powerful and stronger than this. Anyway, some versions are very enjoyable (mostly from non-Waters Floyd album, as High Hopes or Coming Back To Life) and the Dark Side of the Moon set is a bit innecesary. I always throw the Pulse one out and put the original!

The songs from "The Division Bell" were played better in these live versions. There are again the "obligatory" Roger Wates`s songs in Compact Disc One for some old fans who still missed him. There is a very good live version of "The Dark Side of the Moon" in Compact Disc Two, followed by other very good old songs. I don`t like the recording of this album very much, but this live album is better than "Delicate Sound of Thunder" in some points.

When I watched this video it was like being at the concert, and for me that's about as close as I will ever get to a real pink floyd concert. starting off with shine on you, not to mention a most pron job of doing this touching tribute to former founder of the pink floyd one syd barrett. capturing his Triumph to fame and his fall from stardom, if you love the pink floyd every note speaks to you in different ways allowing you too feel syds climax and ending in fact it almost brought tears to my eyes. something roger waters couldn't do in the later "roger waters live" where the guitar players do a very creative job on some of the tunes but Yield in comparison to david gilmours exact key and perfect Metronome timing and cystal clear sound he is Obviously famous for. As well as the wounder job on "high hopes" full toned sound which gave me the Shivers, such a haunting tune. for a moment lets talk about the light show, the special effects Pyrotechnics never stopped from start to finish, I don't have to talk more really about that anyone who has seen the video can agree the lights almost blind you, I mean what performing can do that today? who would dare because pink floyd is the greastest live bad to ever walk the face of this earth. Exactly job on dark side of the moon as well, time,speak to me,great gig, us and them heck every song on this tape made smile and anxious just wounderful Masterpieces of mondern music. Unfortunately I will never get to witness the pink floyd in concerts im sure in my life time although it would be nice just once. until then I can't wait for pulse to come out on DvD sorround sound DTS my goodness I don't know if I would be able to handle it I Recommend PULSE to all die hard pink floyd fans because you will love it sometimes you have to have a special place in your heart for some music, pink floyd truely has the number one spot for all time

thank you. floyd lover.

I risk admission of how new a FLOYD fan I am...but this was my first album, bought when it very first came out. It was through this album that I actually got to know the band. I still see it as a very enjoyable album, even in light of the large collection of studio albums that I now own. In fact, I even believe there are certain cuts on PULSE that are far superior to the studio versions.

Believe it or not, I actually found that the studio album of Dark Side of the Moon (most particularly the 20th anniversary edition--the 30th was an improvement) paled in certain places to this version, in terms of sound quality! I much prefer the effect of the guitar and drums thundering through the stadium at the beginning of "Time"--this resonant, rich sound gives it a certain air of...magnitude...like the beginning of Creation, for lack of a better metaphor.

While I would say that on "Great Gig" Clare Torry's original singing is probably better--I don't think there's anything at all lost by the choice of the three background singers who take up her role. Also, WRIGHT does not stick note-for-note with the original; he improvises where possible. The other real standout track from DSotM is "Any Colour You Like"...for some reason, there is just something so entrancing about that synth solo.

Another song that benefits from the stadium performance is "Learning to Fly". Somehow, it really takes on that spacey sound that it ought to have had in the studio album; one can really imagine speeding down the runway and suddenly lifting into flight. A switch that I believe was made that made the most dramatic moment of the song twice as effective: I cannot tell for sure, but it almost seems as if that dinky prop plane was replaced with a massive jumbo jet. This is also a case where that reverberating stadium sound really transports the listener "above the planet on a wing and a prayer". The studio album doesn't even come close.

The one mistake, however (despite the fact that I love it to death!) is in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". I only call it a mistake in retrospect, now that I am familiar with Wish You Were Here. Somehow, as I was not familiar with the story of BARRETT or WYWH at the time, I took this for an uplifting, inspiring piece. Though musically very beautiful and I will always love it, I have to say that leaving out the "darker" parts of the song rather interferes with its mood--even causing a new fan to miss the point.

Of course, beyond doubt the most powerful performance is "Comfortably Numb". This surpasses the studio original by so much that it is almost beyond explanation; however, I will attempt it! It is in this song that you can truly see just how stifled the musicians (GILMOUR and WRIGHT in particular) were during the production of the studio original...because it is incredible what gets free in the live setting!

Much of what I write here will be a sort of reverse reaction--I actually reacted adversely when I heard the studio original, after being used to this one--I simply could not stand it! The thing felt wrong from so many angles. Almost immediately, the first thing that separates PULSE from the studio original is the slowed tempo--this creates a swaying feeling...as though things really are coming through in waves that push the "numb" listener back and forth...a feeling that was very much lacking in the less expressive studio version. Also, the guitar throughout the whole song (not just the famous solo) is far more passionately played--and in the second solo, there is even a screaming noise that sounds as if it could be all of the agony that Pink held inside until then.

The sound itself is very flowing, so rich that it is almost tangible, lifted upwards by the beautiful synth playing of RICHARD WRIGHT. Without knowing a thing about the circumstances of the breakup, this is something I immediately noted in the studio album as a hollow absence...as though the music had been forcibly sucked dry. But how wonderfully things changed, in the creation of this new FLOYD fan seven years ago. It is none other than WRIGHT himself that takes over for the now absent ROGER WATERS. He really takes well to the role, and his enthusiasm shows clearly in the musical result.

Forever it will be his haunting, ethereal sounding voice that I associate with the "doctor" in "Comfortably Numb". WRIGHT can pull off an incredibly spooky effect when he wants to--you can almost imagine the nearly walled-in Pink hearing this voice coming through as though from another plane, one in which he no longer fully functions. This, and the incredible musical power of this song, both in the guitar solo and in WRIGHT's contribution, make this easily the best version of "Comfortably Numb" in existence.

All in all, this is probably the FLOYD's best concert album.

I must admit, i think that Pulse is probably one of the essential live rock albums/video/soon to be DVD of all time. I think Gilmour's guitar playing on Comfortably Numb is mind blowing. It's the best version of Comfortably Numb out there. I don't think it matters that Waters isn't there, the sound fantastic without him. I think that Shine On You Crazy Diamond was done very well on the album. The idea of Having a live version of Dark Side of the Moon was brilliant and is diffenenatly a draw towards the album.

Now this is considered the live masterpiece of the so-called post-Waters era. While it certainly gives an excellent (acoustic) idea of what happened during Floyd concerts in the mid-1990s, it is by no means a masterpiece. Until the early 1980s Pink Floyd used to be highly influential only in terms of its studio ventures anyway, not as far as their live performances are concerned. Too big has the discrepancy between the quality of the studio recordings and their live renditions always been. If you want to listen to live recordings on which such a discrepancy is almost non-existent, you had better check out some King Crimson live albums. A nice introduction to the Floyd catalogue for new would-be fans, but no substitute for the 'real, i.e. studio, thing'.

While not FLOYD's best ever live offering, "P-U-L-S-E" is still a marvelous journey to behold. A wonderful choice on song selection was done for this release, with respectful numbers of new, older and even some really old obscure tunes for the longtime fans. Everything on P-U-L-S-E from the production of the music, to its seemless track flow (a FLOYD standard), right down to the packaging is top notch. This is an historical document of FLOYD's work and worth acquiring. Especially if your version has the oh-so-very trendy pulsing red light...

While having a decent number of 'new' (i.e. five "Division Bell") songs, P-U-L-S-E does not overdo it; whereas maybe "The Delicate Sound of Thunder" did have too many new "AMLOR" songs on it. As usual with FLOYD, the live versions of these newer songs have new life breathed into them and generally sound fresher than those offered on the original studio versions.

"Lime and limpid green, the second scene.."

The most enjoyable thing about this double-CD is the FLOYD 'classic era' stuff. I remember people leaving the Olympic Stadium in Montreal in 1994 saying joyfully "I can't believe they actually played 'Astronomy Domine'!" While a little faster paced than the original, it was still quite remarkable to hear the band crank this old chestnut out live. Listen to the roar of the crowd when the initial guitar riffs of 'Domine' are recognized.

Many reviewers have mentioned that they actually prefer the complete live version of "Dark Side of the Moon" offered here over the original studio gem. I'd tend to agree with them, except for one small point. There is the glaring absence of a certain Mr. Waters that should be singing the climactic 'Brain Damage/Eclipse' portion of this prog masterpiece. For this reason, a star HAS to be deducted from the final rating. But aside from that, hearing the band play 'Speak To Me', 'Any Colour You Like', 'Great Gig in the Sky' and 'On The Run' in the full live version of "Dark Side" is priceless, and for this reason alone is worth buying this release.

A final note about the packaging. Marketing directors take note! This is how you should release music to your fans! The limited edition "P-U-L-S-E" flashing red light, combined with the lavishly illustrated book, and the little box set case is a sight to behold. It draws comments from collectors and disinterested parties alike. The "P-U-L-S-E" Iris image on its cover is unique in its display. Look closely inside the image, what do you see? A bike...clock machinery...a children's doll with red slippers... Surely these are references to BARRETT's 'Bike', WATERS' 'Time' and the female doll with the ruby slippers, well that's Dorothy of course! It is by paying attention to little details like these, that FLOYD and Storm Thorgerson have acheived an almost cult status among its followers.

Dave Gilmour is in top form here. His singing and note-bending on his stratocaster is untouchable, especially on "Numb". A mind-boggling 2 and 1/2 hours of live FLOYD music. 4/5 stars, highly recommended, if only it had Roger, it would be perfect...

Good but not that good...The sound is ...I don´t know how to say it, but ther are just too many sounds and instruments at the same time...personaly I like my Floyd with one guitar, one voice, one keyboard, one bass and one drum. There are like three guitars, two keyboards, two drums and I don´t know what else, but it´s just too much. There are better live Floyd albums than this one (Delicate sound of thunder, Anybody out ther?..). But not everything is lost here, I think "Wish you were here" is here even better than in the original format...but the rest...not that intersting...

PULSE is the best live album ever!!! It's splendid and you will never forget this music experience! The sound is surprisingly very good and the effects are enormous. Bye it, and don't say it wasn't good. Because this album is one of the exceptionally good live albums.. And watch the video, it couldn't be better!!!

This live concert was captured to very well designed and produced releases, and there are some fine soundscapes to be heard during the show. Nevertheless I must admit that this stuff sounds somehow hollow when compared to the classics of the band's early days. The performing of the album "Dark Side of The Moon" is a nice idea, but I prefer to listen some parts of the original instead. Also playing songs like "Astronomy Domine" without Barrett or Waters sounds silly. Forgive me...

I attended the Pulse-era concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was one of my all-time favorite concerts and this video captures it perfectly. It gives me goosebumps. Perhaps my live experience influences my perception of this video but I think that any Pink Floyd fan would enjoy this very much. The sound quality, video quality, direction and performances are all top notch.

I first listened to this album when I was about 4 years old, i'm now 16 and I still love it. It might seem pretty crazy that a teenager like me in the 21st century like music that old, but I don't care. The music on the album is speaking to your soul, and you can listen to it again and again without getting tired of it. That is often one of the things that characterize great music. I've never listened to any other albums by Pink Floyd and maybe I should before I write such a shiny review, but of what I've heard of Pink Floyd, they are my favorite band, and everytime I listen to the album, I wonder how human beings managed to write such in all ways PERFECT music.

On disc two the song Comfortably Numb.......it is how you say.....AWSOME!The sound of the song just takes you in and holds you there, even more so on the guitar solos.Floyd was, is, and always will be one of the greatest bands in all of time.This album is all around good, I love it, but Comfortably Numb......it surpasses all the other songs on this set.Shine on you crazy diamond is another great song, just got to love the lyrics to it.Now go on and Shine You Crazy Diamond

Don't you think music is a contagious disease? I do. The reason I spin this cd was due to my experience the day before when I watched David Gilmour in Concert DVD. When David Gilmour played lap guitar during High Hopes, I suddenly remembered that this track was featured in PULSE live set. This live set was recorded during the band's tour between March to October 1994 from various stages in Europe and in the UK using Levoyageur II Mobile, produced by James Guthrie and David Gilmour. Original band members remained three without Roger Waters, backed with a lot of musicians who have become the band's regulars, like energetic bass player Guy Pratt, guitarist Tim Renwick, backing vocal Sam Brown, saxophonist Dick Parry, etc.

It's a joy enjoying this double CD set in its entirety last night while I was flipping the full colour 50-page wonderful booklet that accompany the set - of course with a cup of coffee. I turned the volume quite high to get the detailed sound perfectly. For a live recording, the sonic quality is great as it has sufficient bass sounds. Some variation of styles from the original studio version are the real treat that elevate my listening pleasure.

The album kicks off with Shine On You Crazy Diamond which I have a little regret because as there are at least three music bars truncated, i.e. exactly before David's vocal enters the music at the first time: "Remember when you're young .". The guitar solo before this lyrical part is truly stunning; unfortunately truncated. It has reduced my respect on this first track. Overall, the song was performed well and continued seamlessly to guitar driven Astronomy Domine in energetic fashion and followed with What Do You Want From Me (from the Division Bell album) where the music turns into a heavier blues influence style. Another three tracks coming from Division Bells album that follow: Learning to fly (5:06), Keep talking (6:56), Coming back to life (6:31) are also performed smoothly by the band.

The peak of enjoyment (for me) is when the album reaches track 9, Sorrow (10:30) where the band plays the music in floating style with firm drum beats. And also, as I said before that High hopes (7:48) is another highlight of the show. Composition-wise, it's a great track where it combines a smooth musical moves from opening to interlude part.

CD2 brings us to the performance of The Dark Side of The Moon which I find a bit of regret when the female voice of The Great Gig In The Sky was not performed to my expectation as it's worse than studio version. But overall performance of The DSotM is excellent. Wish you were here (5:40) with acoustic-guitar based music is another excellent track. The show concludes with two tracks from The Wall: Comfortably numb (9:10) and Run like hell (7:58).

Overall, I enjoy this live set very much. It's probably I have seen the laser disc (double discs) version of the show. It's an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Progressively yours,

GW

This is a wonderful live set that worked perfectly where Delicate Sound of Thunder failed. It contains amazing versions of both the AMLOR and Division Bell albums, plus a neat disc with an entire performance of DSOTM and the best guitar solo ever done live by Dave on "Comfortably Numb", a true special moment (i don't have words to describe how that solo affects me emotionally, and seeing it live may be an even more out of this world experience). Tracks like "Astronomy Domine" are brought back in perfect shape, and even without Syd this song manages to be a magical psychedelic trip. "Another Brick in the Wall II" sounds great here, with an amazing new arrangement at the intro based on "The happiest days of our lives", and the live rendition of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with part seven together is amazing, especially on part three's keyboard solo, carried with pure wonderful emotion. The highlight here, though, is of course "High Hopes". Magical as the studio version, here we have one of the most special moments at the ending solo together with an orchestra giving that extra feel. The violins work in a very neat way, and at the ending you'll feel that what your soul just experience was pure magic. The "Dark Side of the Moon" songs are well played, not as greatly as the others on disc one, but it is always convenient to have a live performance of such a great album. The extended time given to the applauses on "Speak To Me" really bothers me, but well the FLOYD surely deserve such praise - although waiting for almost one minute of clapping until the song's arrival is quite boring. The encore set, containing "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell" has amazing versions of its respective songs, and that intro on "Run Like Hell" shows that Dave is the definite master of guitar.

Overall an amazing set of live songs that can be very enjoyable if people remember that FLOYD without Waters is still quality FLOYD - as i pointed on my AMLOR review. So, get both the audio and video of this performance. You won't be disappointed, you'll be actually dazzled by how great this band is live.

P-U-L-S-E is a pretty damn good album, altogether, and there's been a lot said about its various strengths. However, its weaknesses don't get quite as much attention as they deserve, so here it is.

RUN LIKE HELL is crap. I'm not sure why some people consider this the 'definitive' version, because it's horribly clumsy and clanging. The REAL definitive version appears on "Is There Anybody Out There - The Wall Live 1980-1981". It's one of those songs that bites without Waters - and here's why. Pratt's base is terribly undermixed. You need Waters to counterpoint Gilmour's voice, the way it is on this recording it's two guys who sound alike screaming; Waters' tortured voice vs. Gilmour's on ITAOT is incredible. In the intro Gilmour waffles around on the guitar in a way he thought was cool but isn't. Waters' live rants from The Wall's tour really made the song what it was, next to the flying pig (but you don't get that in an audio recording anyway, so...)

The Division Bell had some good songs. Okay, two good songs - WEARING THE INSIDE OUT and HIGH HOPES - and one okay song - WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME. P-U-L-S- E, for reasons I don't fully understand, leaves out WTIO, Wright's triumphant vocal return, and instead gives us the truly awful KEEP TALKING and the majestically boring COMING BACK TO LIFE.

HIGH HOPES is purely brilliant both in this and the original recording, however.

Pink Floyd have NEVER done LEARNING TO FLY well live. The studio version is pure bliss, the two live versions suck in a previously unknown way.

MONEY is very very good. It's essentially the version from Delicate Sound Of Thunder with the SUPREMELY IRRITATING 'Woo woo!' from the backup singers toned down a notch.

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART TWO, obviously included to sell copies and for no other reason, is done so terribly that Cyndi Lauper is probably pleased as punch.

The end guitar solo on COMFORTABLY NUMB is, as mentioned before, utterly brilliant. However, without the howling-in-tandem effect from Delicate Sound of Thunder, the replacement for Waters' vocal parts is terribly lacking, especially when every word is pronounced like it came out of a dictionary (a little inflection doesn't hurt guys). If it was the howling from DSOT with the guitar solo from P-U-L-S-E it'd be the best version of the song ever; as it is, the best is still, sadly, the studio version. Oh, yeah, David? It's "A distant ship, smoke on the horizon" NOT "a distant shipsmoke on the horizon". You got it right on the album, why do you continue to make an ass out of yourself?

The live set of Dark Side is tremendously good with the exception of BRAIN DAMAGE and ECLIPSE, which (I sound like a broken record but it's TRUE) is a Waters-sung song and Gilmour doesn't put the same effort into it. And on ECLIPSE he sounds like he's reading the lyric sheet, because there's too many ands.

WISH YOU WERE HERE is done very blandly, contrary to what most people seem to be saying. If you want the perfect version of this song listen to the FULL lineup perform it at Live8. No person who likes this song should be able to disagree with that. That version was chilling and tear-jerking.

BREATHE is great, ON THE RUN is great, TIME is great but the Wright sections are lacking in vocal quality, MONEY is excellent, US AND THEM is great, ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE has never been done right live so this is no surprise.

ASTRONOMY DOMINE is the best version ever recorded, beating the original and the live Ummagumma version hands-down.

SORROW is pretty decent, but the DSOT version is much better. And SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND is decent too, but I miss Waters voice. Gilmour doesn't hit the same notes.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED that I find most of Waters solo-performance versions of the Pink Floyd songs are lacking where David's vocals are supposed to be, even when he has someone to mimic Dave, so it's not bias so much as personal preference.

All in all, P-U-L-S-E, despite what I've said about it, is a great album. Just be sure to flick Disc Two off before it gets to the encores.

Wow, OMG it couldnt be better. Its not only the best Pink Floyd´s live album, but also the best live album ever ! Well, I´d add some early PF songs like A Sacerfull of Secrets and Dogs, but sadly it was never in their setlist, I just dont like The Division Bell and AMLOR songs that much, even though some songs had really impressive performances, like A Great Day for Freedom, High Hopes and Coming Back to Life. That would be enough for this album, I think they focused too much on it, but i understand they were just releasing The Division Bell by that time, it couldnt be any diferent. Luckly, as i said there were some great performances, and all of them were good overall.

PULSE was just the biggest project/tour a band could ever do. You can imagine then, why some people say if you were in the moon you could still notice Pink Floyd was concerting on earth, watch the dvd and see for yourself.

I´m not used to give 5 stars to a Live album, its not of my politics to consider a collection of songs as a masterpiece, but this is the best live I ever had the chance to hear, so i guess it deserve 5 stars because i consider it a masterpiece among live albums.

Firstly the stand out tracks: Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Astronomy Domine, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell, they all sound very impressive. Gilmour's guitar work on Comfortably Numb is stunning, though i find the fact that Pink Floyd must have so many other players on stage with them as interesting, two drummer's, can't Nick Mason handle it.

Now if anyone is expecting an awe-inspiring live version of Dark Side Of The Moon, it just is'nt there, it's just bland, eg, The Great Gig In The Sky, especially the original stunning vocal's by Clare Torry on Dark Side Of The Moon, comparing it to the version we have on PULSE, what we have here is just repulsive screaming.

Recording an impressive live version of Dark Side Of The Moon, was always going to be a near impossible task especially without Roger Waters, Pulse is a dissapointing recording, as so many live recordings always end up being, a live recording must offer something different too studio recordings, and Pulse offers just an interesting version of classic Pink Floyd..

I'm the biggest Floyd fan in the world. I (unlike many people) have grew up with Floyd since the day I was born listening to their music. I have also met 3 out of the 4 band members so far.

I think it's Sooooooooooooo wrong that people judge their albums the way they do, just remember, if you're a true fan of Pink Floyd, you'll love every album just like me.

I think Pulse is the Definition of Pink Floyd. It is wihtout a doubt a follow up from the "delicate sound of thunder" tour (not to mention, years ahead too) so they had listened to what fans wanted to hear & what they wanted to see.

They had just released "The Division Bell" which is such an amazing album from start to finish (you've got to remember, this is Pink Floyd in the 90's, you can't live in the "Syd in 60's" days your whole life). I understood they would perform there new album live to the fans who stongly anticipated a new album. So putting a few songs from the new album in the first half of their set was good. I mean, they played classics too like "Shine on you crazy Diamond" and "Another brick in the Wall" & also some songs from the album "A momentary Lapse of Reason".

The second half of the show was for all the pure die hard Floyd fans. The entire Dark side of the Moon setlist all in one with no gaps, just one song into the other. Brilliant & also this was my first experience to Dark side of the moon in 1994 when I saw the gig as I was only 10 at the time.

The encore selection was perfect. Wish you were here, Comfortably Numb & Run like hell. Of course for me growing up with Pink Floyd, when I saw the gig I instantly knew what the last 2 tracks would be just becuase I had seen them play that kind of setlist so many times. What I didn't expect was how much BIGGER the crystal ball would be in the guitar solo of Comfortably Numb. I knew there would be one but not that big! It was huge!

I think the overall album is Pink Floyds finest work. They stopped having "fun" on the delicate sound of thunder tour & got back to basics with this album. The music in every song is spot on, the light show is out of this world & has not been matched ever since & the choice of songs is perfect for all types of Floyd fans.

All i can say is, if you're interested in Pink Floyd & are wondering what album to buy first? get this, it's Pink Floyd in a nutshell!!!!!!!!!!!

The definitive Pink Floyd live album celebrating the release of their new and final studio album 'Division Bell' as well as the twentieth anniversary of their best-selling classic 'Dark Side of the Moon,' performed here in its entirety to a delighted audience.

With a musically diverse 28-year back catalogue, a penchant for lengthy, progressive songs and a natural desire to include a large proportion of then-new material, any collection like this isn't going to please every Pink Floyd fan, but it impresses a damn sight better than their mutilated 'best of' from 2001.

The stereo sound quality is excellent, especially for a live album, and guitarist / vocalist David Gilmour proves to all but the most stubborn old-schooler that the band performs just as well without long-gone ego-crazy Roger Waters, tackling Waters-era classics 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' and 'Comfortably Numb' just as well as his predecessor and churning out ever more impressive guitar solos, while Richard Wright's keyboard playing is stricter to the studio material but still impresses. Not bad for a bunch of old farts.

The double-CD version of Pulse features an oddly different setlist on the first disc to the LP, including the ancient Syd Barret song 'Astronomy Domine,' 'Hey You' from 1979's The Wall and the new 'What Do You Want From Me?' and 'A Great Day for Freedom,' all omitted from the LP but replaced with the excellent 1974 instrumental 'One of These Days.' The tracks taken from the album the tour was promoting, Division Bell, could have been better chosen and are all performed pretty identically to what was recorded in the studio the year before, but the first side of the album is still highly enjoyable listening; the crowd predictably goes wild on the band's radio-friendly singalong 'Another Brick in the Wall part 2.'

The second disc is the selling point for most fans: a recreation of the entire 'Dark Side of the Moon' [album / song] from the opening heartbeats and mad ravings of 'Speak to Me' to the brief conclusion 'Eclipse.' Some aspects of the highly polished studio album don't sit too well in a live environment, such as Gilmour's efforts at speaking the looped voices from the LP on stage and the replacement of wailing Clare Torry for the more sprightly Sam Brown for vocals on 'The Great Gig in the Sky,' but other than that it sounds just as technically impressive. Previous live offerings of classics like 'Time' and 'Money' didn't do the songs justice, but perhaps it's due to the commemorative nature of this performance that everything fits perfectly. I don't care, it's bloody good though.

The delights keep coming after this momentous feat, as the band perform three more songs: 'Wish You Were Here,' from the excellent eponymous album from 1976, sounds better here than ever, Gilmour's acoustic guitar and Wright's haunting keyboard making for the most emotional section of the album's 146 minutes. 'Comfortably Numb' sees Guy Pratt taking over as the band's second vocalist for this excellent dual performance, while 'Run Like Hell' is the perfect ending to this disc.

Fans of 'Dark Side of the Moon' should be pleased, unless they're miserable curmudgeons (and let's face it, many dedicated prog fans are), while those more loyal to 'The Wall,' the band's landmark concept album, received 'Is There Anybody Out There?' in 2001, a release of the vintage 1980/81 tour that recreated that album in its entire whole etc.

As mentioned before, 'Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd' tried to offer newcomers a taste of the band by chopping up and reworking some of their epics and sticking them onto a double CD. Oh, with 'Another Brick in the Wall' of course. The taste this gave was something like chilli chocolate, something that I hope I never encounter again, but that I thankfully probably never will. (Sometimes things are difficult to find for a reason, as I often remind myself when browsing my CD collection).

For anyone interested in Pink Floyd, or any other long-running band for that matter, I would always point to their most acclaimed live album to get a real insight, or failing that, the cheapest second-hand studio album you can find in small, odd record shops that have comic book sections in the back.

This album does what a live release should do best, by involving the crowd and truly bringing across their enthusiasm for the event. The clichéd drawback with albums like this is that they don't include everyone's favourite songs, and it is a shame that areas of the band's discography are left on the shelf: there is nothing from the excellent 1977 album 'Animals' and only one track ('Astronomy Domine' on the CD version, 'One of These Days' on the LP) from before Dark Side of the Moon. But cheer up you crazy psychedelic prog man.

Pulse The Division Bell is a great album, with a masterful treatment of the guitar by David Gilmour. However, but the songs from this album didn't work well live, for many reasons. 1-The music of the album is in some points very calm, and Pink Floyd didn't know how to pass this calm atmosphere to the live versions. 2-Gilmour's voice, which was magnificent in the studio album, seems tired and old here. Ok, he's 50 years old here, but on Division Bell it's impossible to be noted. A good example of tired voice is Coming back to life. 3-The orchestra passages were not well played, they didn't manage to substitute them for keyboards or something else. Shine on you crazy diamond was totally disrespected, they took out important parts of it, to make it shorter. They cut the last guitar solo after the first sung part, and I really hate them for doing it, it was my favourite part of the song, and was always amazing in live versions. Dick Parry plays well his sax parts, but they didn't let him play even half of the sax solo he played in studio. This live version was a lesson of how to destroy the greatness of a progressive epic. The Dark Side of the Moon wasn't well played live either. Breathe is awesome, and Gilmour shows us how his voice is still crystal clear (unlike several rock singers, whose voices suffered greatly with time, such as Ian Gillan, Greg Lake - and of course Roger Waters). Time and Us and Them were really better in Delicate Sound of Thunder (their live album from 1988), because here they didn't have the courage to change it, and improvise, they just tried to played it like they were in studio, and results aren't bad, but don't add anything to these songs. The Great Gig in the Sky was the opposite... the backing vocals improvised so much, but I don't like the way they yell, seeming they forgot the melody of the song, so they're doing anything, and pretending they know what they're doing. Money has irritating "woo woo" by the backing vocals, but the instrumental section is very good. The last three songs from Dark Side have good performances, saving the performance from the total disaster. The other songs are well played, but they didn't add anything new to standards like Hey You and Wish You Were Here. Run Like Hell is excellent, with an exciting introduction by Gilmour, and good vocals.

I'd like to add that Pink Floyd really didn't need to make a show with five guest musicians and three backing vocals (or was it more? Did I count it right?) They sounded incomparably more cohesive on Live at Pompeii or The Wall Live.

This live album is not bad, I could give it 3 stars, but I really think it doesn't have anything a prog lover can't live without, so I give it 2 stars, because only fans and collectors need to buy it, others can listen to it just once.

The final Pink Floyd tour sure would have been a sight to see (my uncle always tells me about how it was the best show he's ever seen, and from the live release and video from that tour, I can't say I wouldn't disagree with him). The live incarnation of Pink Floyd at this time was a touring unit that consisted of many different musicians (but at the core was still Wright, Gilmour, and Mason) giving the overall sound a more complete and full vibe, and it doesn't really end there. Add a stellar setlist that includes newer pieces and live favorites (and then some) as well as some great extensions and live bits that aren't originally on the studio pieces and you have yourself in a brief word PULSE. The only thing I really complain about with this release (and it plagued the Division Bell, but it wasn't too bad) is that Gilmour gets a bit too over indulgent in his guitar solos (although some pieces really call for that) and really not enough light is shed on Wright.

The first disc is a nice mixture of newer and older Pink Floyd pieces, and it all starts off with the concert version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. What's different about this piece from the studio version is that some of the instrumental bits were cut out so they could put both parts of the song (which would originally go on for 25-30 minutes) together for a concise 14 minute piece. It's a really nice live piece, with Gilmour's signature solo being still the focal point of the piece, but Dick Perry really shines as well with his spectacular saxophone solo (which actually involves him switching saxes seamlessly at one point). Other little live additions made are the extended guitar intros and outros to Sorrow (which in my opinion was the second best song on the underwhelming A Momentary Lapse of Reason behind Learning to Fly) from Gilmour. The material in between, though, is pretty faithful to the original piece and doesn't really stray far away (especially Astronomy Domine, which is a fitting tribute to Syd following the epic tribute to Syd). The version of Another Brick in the Wall part 2 here is also rather nice (it has a nice instrumental introduction of The Happiest Days of our Lives) with a nice extended solo from Gilmour.

The second disc is comprised of the entire Dark Side of the Moon album and the three encores. The Dark Side of the Moon, in my opinion, was one of the most overrated albums ever, but it still was a pretty good piece in the end. The overall rendition of it here is rather nice, with great performances of all the pieces (Time and Us and Them particularly). Add an unreasonably long middle section in Money (it really should have been an extra 30 seconds or a minute, not two and a half) and you have yourself a pretty solid and cohesive rendition of one of the most important albums in rock. The encores exceed the overall quality of The Dark Side of the Moon immensely, though. The first is Wish You Were Here, which as always the case with Gilmour is nothing short of tear jerking, his emotive guitar/vocal solo really giving the perfect eulogy piece a more at home feeling. Comfortably Numb is severely benefitted from the largely extended solo from Gilmour (who belts out easily a 4 minute guitar solo), who really shows his prowess and emotive strength when he plays the guitar. The final piece, Run Like Hell, begins with some noodling from Gilmour before becoming the stomp beat piece it is. Add in an extended synthesizer experiment from Richard Wright and you have yourself the final piece to the final Pink Floyd live album.

In the end, the live album aspect of PULSE would ultimately not be as rewarding as the visual aspect of it. The Division Bell was one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums, and this is probably the best live album Pink Floyd ever released (despite the absence of Roger Waters), although the Ummagumma live album was nothing short of brilliant. Still, those looking into getting a Pink Floyd live album that has a comprehensive look at all eras of the group, then this will be the purchase to make. It's not a masterpiece live record, but it still is the best Pink Floyd has to offer in live terms. 4.5/5.

given that i'm a huge Waters fan but also acknowledge the contribution of the other members of the band, i'm a bit torn...

the setlist is very good, they all perform great and the show is as always excellent... still, sometimes, when i listen to Pulse i'm under the impression that i'm listening to the best tribute to Floyd band...

then again when it comes to songs like Comfortably Numb or Time, it feels like it should...

so, i guess a three star rating should be fair...

Pulse is simply the best live concert of all time and it shows why pink floyd is the greatest band of all time. Anybody who thinks floyd live shows don't compare to the studio recordings need to hear this record. The comfortably numb version is the best one out there and the studio recording looks stupid in front of it. And they didn't need Waters to do it. Gilmour just rips it in the solo and the lead is just nothing short of divine. The second cd before the encore which is basically a dark side of the moon medley is nothing short of brilliant. Throw out your DSOTM cds because this performance beats the [&*!#] out of the studio recording. Every song at pulse for that matter probably beats the original or any other live version, except maybe shine on you crazy (I liked the delicate sound of thunder version better). The video is equally brilliant and the lighting is simply a work of art. My favourite album of all time. Period. Five stars. Because i can't give it a hundred.

The Floyd has always sounded better live (IMO). I would categorize their live work in several stages :

1. The early days (1967 - 1970) : their gigs had little to do with their studio efforts. They extended their numbers quite significantly injecting the most psychedelic flavours to make their live sets always a happening (even a track like "Mathilda Mother" was often played in excess of fifteen minutes). The Floyd could turn an average song into whatever they wanted in a live set.

2. The "post early days" or "pre-DSOTM" (1971 - 1972) : still lots of long jams, but the tendency will, little by little, be to get "closer" to the original.

3. The DSOTM - The Wall era : the shows will be more and more a replica of the studio work. Their incredible light shows and visual effects providing little room to improvisation (or then as I call it : organized improv.). They will usually play the entire albums, in the same sequence than the studio work.

4. The "Gilmour" years : gigantism at its peak (although "The Wall" paved the way). These sets will return in a certain way into a more classic scheme: a collection of Floyd songs throughout time (and space).

I love each of them almost equally.

So, when the live set consists mostly of great original numbers one can only expect to reach heaven. A fabulous packaging (but this is another Floyd trademark), an hypnotic small light "pulsing" like your heart beats on the edge of the cover, great photos from their live tour etc. The more important though is the music, right ? The numbers played here are taken from lots of different shows (twelve to be precise - but most of them being recorded at Earl's Court). So, what do we get here ?

Well, lots of jewels. Although it was the supporting tour for the Division Bell album, the first disc contains some earlier work as well. And what a work !

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is one of my two preferred Floyd songs ever. The rendition here is great. The link between "Shine" and the following track "Astronomy Domine" is obviously Syd. It is a beautiful homage to him (David and Syd were friends before the Pink Floyd adventure started). The remaining section of CD one contains songs from their last studio efforts (including "The Wall" and each track deserves to be here (specially "Hey You", "Sorrow" and "High Hopes").

Second CD consists of the full rendition for "TDSOTM" for the very first time in an official live release. Then three encores : "WYWH" - again in homage to Syd (I guess) and two great numbers from "The Wall".

Interesting enough is what Dave said : "The reason for Pulse is Dark Side Of The Moon, obviously. We weren't going to do a live album for this tour; it seemed a bit superfluous having just done one a few years ago. But, as we started out on the tour, we were looking for ways to change the show around and make ourselves a little more flexible and have a little fun, and Dark Side Of The Moon was one of the ideas that came across."

"So we did it on the end of our American tour, and then when we carried it over to Europe, we started thinking,'Well, it would be nice for us...and for posterity...to have a live version of Dark Side Of The Moon, which I always particularly wanted."

"I'm not big on playing small places with Pink Floyd. I mean, when we'd been doing this tour for six months and finally got back to London, we played Earl's Court, which holds about 18,000 people. That was a nice small club, like being in Madison Square Garden." (laughs).

At the start of the tour the track list was as follows : Part one : "Astronomy", "Learning To Fly", "What Do You Want from Me", "Take It Back, "Lost For Words", "Sorrow", "A Great Day for Freedom", "Keep Talking", "One Of These Days".

Part two : "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", "Breathe", "Time", "Breathe Reprise", "High Hopes", "Wish You Were Here", "Another Brick Part II", "The Great Gig in the Sky", "Us and Them", "Money" and "Comfortably Numb".

In October 1994, the Floyd performed the end of The Division Bell tour at Earls Court (London).The proceeds from all 14 of the shows performed (one was cancelled due to seating collapse) were donated to benefit Greenpeace, Amnesty International and other groups.

Some special events during this tour :

May 6th : the band's mirror ball attracted a giant cloud of fireflies, who made an unexpected but beautiful contribution to the show.

May 10th : the day of a total eclipse of the sun, Pink Floyd played in Raleigh, North Carolina

May 14th : Dave Gilmour states that his performance of "Comfortably Numb" was the best he had ever done.

July 15th : Detroit audience was treated to the first performance of "Dark Side Of The Moon" in its entirety since Knebworth 1975. September 7th : President Vaclav Havel was among the 115,000 crowd for the Pink Floyd first ever show in the former Czechoslovakia. He then entertained the band to dinner, apparently talking well into the night with David Gilmour.

At some point during one of the Earl's Court shows, Roger Waters was in attendance with a group of friends. David invited Roger to come on stage and perform during DSOTM but Roger refused.

The Division Bell tour was one of the most ambitious tours ever staged. The daily operating costs came to more than $752,000.00 per day. There were three stages, and three separate crews (red crew, blue crew, green crew). The size of the crew varied according to the venue, but the average was in excess of 200 people. Each stage took three days to build, approx. 18 hours to prepare, approx. 7 plus hours to break down, and two days to fully dismantle for load-out. Feeding the crew, technicians, family and friends of the band, was no small feat, they daily consumed 1,200 bags of tea, 1,200 cans of soft drinks, 1,000 eggs, and lots of bread baked on site, amongst other foodstuffs.

What else can I say ? Nine out of ten ? Four stars ?

The light went out years ago (but only on the box)

While we patiently waited and waited for the DVD version of "Pulse" to be released, we could at least enjoy the music on CD in the meantime. "Pulse" is a double live album record by the band on their tour subsequent to the release of their final (and to date at last) studio album "The Division Bell". This of course means that Roger Waters plays no part in the performance, although many of the songs he created with his fellow band members do.

The first part of the album contains a good cross section of new and old, with tracks such as "What do you want from me", "Keep talking", and "high hopes" from "The Division Bell" sitting well alongside older classics such as "Astronomy Domine" and a composite version of "Shine on you crazy diamond".

The centrepiece of the performance though, is a rendition of "Dark side of the moon" in its entirety. Even though "Money" is the only track which is substantially different, as it has an elongated centre section, the album is given a wonderful new dimension here. The performance is exemplary, every song sounding fresh and reinvigorated. Things are brought to a conclusion with a triple encore, including a superb rendition of "Comfortably numb".

With the entire concert (minus two of the tracks on this collection, "Hey you" and "A great day for freedom") now being available in full 5.1 surround sound on DVD, this double CD is something of a poor relation. The DVD is definitely the one to go for, for the full audio and visual experience. Nevertheless, seen in its own right, this is a mighty live album.

The original packaging included a flashing red LED which looked great in the record shops when the boxes were lined up side by side.

Pulse was a 2-CD set recording of live material during Pink Floyd's Division Bell tour. Not having released much live material in their history (one LP of Ummagumma and 1988's Delicate Sound of Thunder, and later, 2000's Is There Anybody Out There?), Pulse is the most important work to acquire if you want to have a live recording by the band. There are probably countless bootlegs available out there that would contain much of their 1970s material, but none of it would compare with the sound quality of Pulse. Admittedly it would have been nice to hear material from Animals or more of their Pre-Dark Side era. Still you can only fit so much on 2 CDs and for as old as these guys were in 1994, you couldn't expect them to last more than the customary three hours on stage.

The first disc contains chiefly more recent material from Division Bell and A Momentary Lapse of Reason, but includes a resurrected Barrett-penned Astronomy Domine, the thrilling One of These Days, and a beautiful performance of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. The second disc contains an amazing performance of the Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety, followed by their classic live closers of Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell.

An excellent acquisition that every Pink Floyd fan should have. It would have been a masterpiece if some of the Division Bell material was replaced with some of their better earlier stuff. Four stars. Highly recommended.

One of the very worst live albums there are; absolutely bloodless. Just listening to that trio of female background singers alone makes me cringe, especially when all three of them are needed to sing Claire Torry's outburst from "Dark side of the Moon" NOTE FOR NOTE! How fantastic this could have been if just one female singer went on overdrive like Torry did and improvised her heart out. Instead they stick to the Torry performance note for note and divide the part onto three, so all can have a go. I don't need a band who try to reproduce their studio sound live. What I want from a band that plays live is showing a live spirit, but Pink Floyd here behave as if they are in the studio. There was a time when they were a good live band; just listen to the live parts of "Ummagumma". But this album makes me stick my fingers into my ears.

While often seen as the best live album by Pink Floyd, I would have to strongly disagree. The setlist is great, that's not where the issue is. The problem is the vocals. On Delicate Sound of Thunder I noticed that David Gilmour cannot perform Roger Waters vocals very well. Upon a second listen I began to fell OK about them. Here, however, Gilmour's voice seems to have worstened in the years between the two albums. Gilmour voice on Pulse is much worse. I can hardly stomach them. Gilmour should have taken a page from Waters' book and hired another singer for those parts. The musicianship is great but the overall expirience is not what it should be. If you saw a show on this tour and want to relive those days I would say get this, but if you want a great live Floyd expirience I would recomend Is There Anybody Out There? or even Delicate Sound of Thunder.

My opinions about Pink Floyd are very controversial. For one thing I don't really think they are a progressive rock band. I also don't particularly like some of their most popular albums. But this live album blew me away! David Gilmore's guitar sound is amazing here, very distinctive and his vocals are flawless and distinctive as well. Judging from this live album, it seems to me that Gilmore is the true star of Pink Floyd (another very controversial statement).

When I first heard this live album I knew several of the older studio albums - that for some reason never impressed me that much. I knew The Wall, Dark Side Of The Moon, Animals and some others. But the tracks that impressed me the most on PULSE - and this is another controversial opinion of mine - were the tracks from the two most recent albums A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell.

Since then I have heard these two studio albums as well, and they are among my favourite Pink Floyd albums for sure, but the live versions of these songs as presented on PULSE are better than on their respective studio albums. Learning To Fly, Coming Back To Life, A Great Day For Freedom, Sorrow and High Hopes (particularly in their PULSE versions) are now among my all time favourite Pink Floyd songs! The loud and well defined bass guitar on Sorrow is great. And, as I have already mentioned, the guitar sound is fantastic throughout.

But we also get some great classic songs here like Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Wish You Were Here both from Pink Floyd's best album, Wish You Were Here as well as the 60's Astronomy Domine. And these versions are all great! I also think - and this is yet another controversial matter - that this double live album is much better than the double DVD set. I think that the PULSE DVD set has way too much theatrics that distract from the music. The stage is so huge that Gilmore, and the others on it, look so tiny in front of those outrageously large screens showing art films. There is even an aeroplane flying across the auditorium crashing by the side of the stage! There are even inflatable pigs! This is all too much for me and it takes away from the music. I prefer to see musicians playing their instruments without too many distractions.

Also the set list is shorter on the DVD compared to the CD version and some of the best material has been edited out. So I definitely would recommend going for the CD version over the DVD version.

The first disc of the double album is better than the second disc. And the newer songs on the first disc are better than the older ones. On the second disc we get a full live performance of Dark Side Of The Moon, an album that I think is one of the most overrated rock albums of all time (I would put The Wall on that list as well). Still, this performance betters the original album, I think!

All this is probably contested by Pink Floyd fans, but this is how I see it anyway.

PULSE is not only the definitive Pink Floyd live album, for me it is the definitive Pink Floyd product full stop, and an excellent place to start your Pink Floyd collection.

This, THIS is a live album. Just, y'know, man... wow. Crikey... um, yeah, the review....

Some bands, like Rush, simply try and emulate the sound of their studio recording. That in itself is fairly boring: why buy a live album which sounds just like the studio album with applauses added? (Rush can get away with it because their musical proficiency makes it a delight to hear.) Some bands, like Tangerine Dream, sound almost like a completely different band live. PULSE shows Pink Floyd as somewhere in between these extremes.

Compared to their earlier live material, the versions of songs here match the studio versions fairly closely. On Ummagumma, for example, songs which were four or five minutes in the studio are extended to eight or nine minutes. Don't expect anything like that here.

That's not to say the renditions of songs on PULSE are note-for-note identical. Some songs have extended or drastically altered intros, others have very different or drastically lengthened solos. Sometimes the overall feel of the track will sound very different, sometimes instrumental sections will be expanded, and sometimes Gilmour will try delivering vocals in a different way.

Money expanded from 6:30 to almost 9:00? Yes please! Comfortably Numb's outro solo extended by three minutes? Oh yeah! Learning to Fly and Sorrow stripped of their cheesy '80s production sound? Give it to me! Comfortably Numb given a darker, more atmospheric and brooding edge and with Wright singing Waters' part? Honk honk!

Every Pink Floyd fan, as adoring as they are, has to admit that Roger Waters was the worst singer in the band. Even Nick Mason beat his mumbling/growling/screaming (listen to Corporal Clegg from A Saucerful of Secrets). On PULSE, Gilmour takes on almost all of the vocal duties. Gilmour is one of the few vocalists whose voice has actually improved with time. This is most evident on the performance of Dark Side of the Moon (more on that later), particularly Money and Us and Them. Gilmour sings Waters' parts on Brain Damage and Eclipse, and to incredible effect. Unlike on, say, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Gilmour's voice is very varied. He uses a lower register on Sorrow, his higher, emotional singing on Shine On, and spooky shouting (in a duet with Guy Pratt) on Run Like Hell. If Waters listened to that live version of Run Like Hell, he was probably kicking himself that, where he had screamed/wailed, Gilmour and Pratt gave a brilliant, unique and slightly terrifying performance which features on no other Floyd track I know of.

The majority of the time the changes are for the better, though there are a couple of exceptions. What there is of Shine On You Crazy Diamond is great, but my favourite part (the last one on the album, the spacey soundscape) is unfortunately absent. This is more of a personal preference, and maybe they couldn't get it to sound right live of something, but I think it's a pity it's not there. What Do You Want From Me, Coming Back to Life and A Great Day for Freedom do not have very radical performances - they sound pretty similar to the studio versions. I would have rather had live versions of Wearing the Inside Out or Marooned. Or One of These Days. Which was released on cassette but not CD. GRAAARGH.

The last of the "Hmmmmrrrnnnngggghhh" moments (for now) relates to High Hopes. If ever I have to choose between the studio version or the live version, I always struggle. The overall sound of the studio version is better: the live version has weaker instrumentation during most of the song (the iffy-sounding piano is a particular gripe of mine). Gilmour's vocal performance is noticeably weaker than on other tracks: he sings in what is pretty much a monotone and sounds quite tired - that may be intentional, given the songs's subject matter, but doesn't sound as good as the studio version. However! The lap steel guitar solo at the end, and the work of the other instruments to create a euphoric atmosphere easily surpasses the studio's offering. Overall, I'd probably choose the studio version, but that live outro solo... duuude...

The real treat on this album is the live version of The Dark Side of the Moon (you read it right, the whole album). I found that after listening to the live version on PULSE a few times, the studio version just felt... weak. Don't get me wrong, the studio version is very good, the production is top-notch, but the PULSE version feels superior. As mentioned before, Gilmour's singing is better. The instrumentation feels more accomplished and spacey. When Nick Mason hits the drums they make a real booming thump sound. BOOM! PSSSHHH! MMPPPHHH! The studio version sounds like... it was recorded in a studio. Which it was. The PULSE version makes that feel constricted, like there was a cap on the epicness of the music they were playing. This live version feel like that cap was taken off. It's not so much that the band play with more energy, but the acoustics of the album are more aesthetically pleasing.

Pretty much all the DSOTM tracks are a huge improvement. The renditions of Breathe, Time, The Great Gig in the Sky and Us and Them are truly exceptional. Speak to Me and On the Run are not nearly as spectacular. Speak to Me is expanded to more than double its original length - I find this removes much of the tension and makes it feel a bit weak and flabby. It doesn't help that most of it is drowned out by the cheering of the crowd. On the Run is, as far as I can tell, pretty much the same as it was in the studio. Its synthesised nature means that, by definition, it's not going to be an exciting track performed live.

But overall, this is probably my favourite live album of all time. It has its weaknesses in the performances of certain tracks, but these are seldom more than slight. The songs are still there in their great glory, and the setlist itself is magnificent. Given a choice between buying the studio version of DSOTM and PULSE, I would choose this version, no questions asked. And that in itself says a lot.

A nice selection here, played by a "band" that are consistently good but never amazing.

There were lots of people on stage for this tour, all adding something (some more than others; PARRY!) to the overall sound without things becoming busy. The ACTUAL members aren't playing at their best but, it had been a while since they last touched an instrument so fairplay to them. All the classics, plus some very un-classic material are showcased with a lot of fire and energy, especially in the 'DSOTM' recital. I think for the first half though, the Floyd had a momentary lapse of reason when choosing certain songs...

'Shine On' is abridged (shame, 'cos Water's did the lot when he went solo) but retains the "feel" nonetheless. 'Astronomy Domine' works so well that you sort of wish more Barrett-era songs were included; it sends a shiver down my spine. Then we have a whole bunch of mediocre tunes from the post-Waters albums. These are fine and loyal to the originals, trouble is, the originals weren't particularly great compositions. 'What Do You Want From Me?' is the only track from this section that fits with the older stuff, because it was written in that psychedelic blues-rock style in the first place. As for the 'Dark Side', we have a very retrospective yet developed song cycle with a lot of enjoyment to release. In particular, the 'Great Gig...', 'Money' (of course), and 'Any Colour You Like' have a lot of power. The latter song I've always loved anyway, I only wish they had extended the jam on stage. After these we have what I assume is the encore, a fairly straight rendition of 'WYWH', a cool 'Comfortably Numb' which is overrated as usual, and a much better 'Run Like Hell' that works well as a finale.

Nothing of immense glory here but probably the best live release from this era of Floyd. I know they never do, but if they had played some 'Animals', 'Piper', and perhaps 'Meddle', it would have been a perfect show.

Watch out for Publius Enigmas!

P-U-L-S-E is one of those weird live albums that, at the time of its release, was meant to appeal to the band's aging fan base who would pay for any new Pink Floyd recording coming their way. The first edition of the album even featured a light-emitting diode in its design, a gimmick that was sure to make people pay little more just so they could show it off to all their friends. Fortunately time has been kind on this live album and, considering that the band hasn't released any new studio material since then, it now functions almost like a live retrospective of the ensemble that was Pink Floyd.

Since P-U-L-S-E was partially intended as a promotional album for the band's release of the new material, there are quite a few tracks from Division Bell and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason featured on the set-list. This is something that I, even to this day, tend to skip through just to get to the good stuff from the classic era Pink Floyd. Most of the new tunes come off sounding much more dated and there are also times when the band seems almost like a bunch of old-timers being sentimental about their past. High Hopes is a prime example of this very sad experience where the song's lyrics actually get a whole new meaning it the context of the performance.

The biggest highlight of this live release has to be its second act that gives us a complete version of Dark Side Of The Moon and this is definitely where the band looses their sad-face act and start sounding like the professionals that they really are! Classics like Breathe, Us And Them and the album's outro are just as intense as their original studio counterparts. Downsides comes with the much more extravagant sounding version of The Great Gig In The Sky which, I guess, was meant as a show-stopper that didn't work too well in the context of the live performance. I'm also not too keen on the over the top performance of Money with a sax solo that doesn't sound as pleasant as it was originally intended to be.

The combination of classic material like Astronomy Domine and the LP/Video-only version of One Of These Days with the later tracks from The Wall make this live album a nice little retrospective of the band known as Pink Floyd. There are a few lesser moments that make most of their appearances during the first half of the show but overall P-U-L-S-E is a good, but non-essential album that gets more recognition with each passing year.

***** star songs: Breathe (2:33) Us And Them (6:57) Brain Damage (3:45) Eclipse (2:37) Wish You Were Here (6:35) Comfortably Numb (9:29)

**** star songs: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (13:35) Astronomy Domine (4:20) Keep Talking (6:52) A Great Day For Freedom (4:30) Another Brick In The Wall (7:07) Speak To Me (2:30) On The Run (3:47) Time (6:46) Money (8:54) Any Colour You Like (3:21) Run Like Hell (8:36)

*** star songs: What Do You Want From Me (4:09) Learning To Fly (5:15) Coming Back To Life (6:56) Hey You (4:39) Sorrow (10:49) High Hopes (7:52) The Great Gig In The Sky (5:52)

I have this album since it came out, and it was one of the last monster live albums (Genesis Live over Europe was the other). The overall thing here is great. The package, the set list, and the performance of the band. Of course the main goal is the inclusion of The Dark Side of the Moon in a complete way.

Disc 1 includes mainly tracks from A momentary lapse of reason and Division Bell, with some old ones as Shine on you crazy diamond, Astronomy domine and Another brick on the wall part II. Shine on you is a good version, a bit longer than the one in Delicate sound of the thunder (DSOTT), but not better in my opinion. Here Wright seems to be improvising a bit more. Astronomy Domine is in a nice version. The new songs are played in a really good way. Some of them as Keep talking and High hopes are outstanding versions. Another brick is far better here than in DSOTT.

Disc II includes the overall Dark side of the moon (DSOTM) album and the encores. DSOTM is very well performed and those tracks originally sung by Waters, shines here sung by Gilmour, as Brain Damage and Eclipse. Simply amazing. The rest of the DSOTM performing sounds really good too. At the encores we have Wish you were here, in which the crowd sing with the band in a great version. Comfortably numb sounds more like than the original track here than in DSOTT and Run like hell is far weaker than the one in the DSOTT album.

The band sounds really polished, with Rick Wright in a full shape and demonstrating that they didn't need Waters anymore. Pulse is in my opinion between the best live albums that I ever heard.

Sure, there has only been one studio album released since the last Pink Floyd but given that they had been around for over a quarter century at this point, with only one LP from Ummagumma, and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, this is a welcome addition.

The packaging on the original release is beautiful. A hard shell box, with a pulsing red light on the end (I hope you didn't store it with the original batteries in it) encloses a hard cover booklet and pockets for the two disks.

The unfortunate thing is that about half of the songs were on The Delicate Sound Of Thunder, and I prefer the versions of Money and Run Like Hell from that album. Otherwise, the performances range from good to great, The band sounds much more comfortable than on the previous live album as well.

If only Roger were there.

In many ways this live set was my introduction to Pink Floyd, and prog in general. It was a fairly recent release when I got it; I think it was Christmas '95 I received it for a present(my request). I had the cassette version, which features tracks not on the CD version(more on that later). I'm not exactly sure why I wanted the cassette version(didn't have the blinking light!), I had a CD player. Anyway, I'm glad I had this in that format for the bonus stuff(now I'm not so happy I still have it because I have nothing to play it on!).

I was familiar with some of the Floyd's music already, but believe it or not, this was the first time I had heard DSOTM in it's entirety. In some ways I think this version is superior to the original(yes, I just said that). For one thing, Gilmour was always a better singer than Waters, and he does all the lead vocals except the ones by Wright. Disc/tape 1 has better versions of songs from TDB than the studio album. Also, the songs from AMLOR here are not only better than the original studio versions, they are also much better than the ones on the Delicate Sound live set. In fact, all the songs that are on both sets are much better on PULSE. "Astronomy Domine" was brought back to life for TDB tour; it was the first time the band had played the song live since 1971! This version is good and somehow doesn't manage to sound like either the PATGOD or Ummagumma versions. The version of "Comfortably Numb" here is perhaps the best due to the extended guitar solo(the studio solo gets faded out).

OK, now the bonus stuff. First of all, my cassette had an amazing version of "One Of These Days"(the one on Meddle is my all-time fav Floyd song). The buildup to the "one of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" part is very spacey and well done. On cassette, DSOTM was all on one side; the other side had the 3 encore songs that came after plus about 30-45 minutes of sound effects. Yep, nothing but sound effects! I have no idea if the LP versions also had this or not. But let me tell you that as a teenager "under the influence" this stuff was a wild ride for the ears! I wouldn't call PULSE essential but it's a good introduction to PInk Floyd.

I remember this double album coming in a digi pack with a pulsating red blink on the back of the album. The battery fizzled out many, many years ago and so did the music on this album too.

This double album was released on the back of the stadium filling tour with lasers and all manners of stage effects Pink Floyd did at that time, after the release of the Division Bell album. It was released seven years after the release of the Delicate Sound Of Thunder double live album.

Thankfully, Pulse has a lot more older Pink Floyd than the A Momentary Lapse Of Reason dominated above mentioned live album. Unfortunate, it also comes complete with female soul singers and a lot of extra musicians. The sound is massive. It also makes this a bit of a soulless live album where the magic of the old Pink Floyd again is omitted. It feels like a corporate affair, this live album. The additional musicians is far more dominant here than the Pink Floyd musicians. Nick, Rick and David is hardly there. Well, David is there and that is all.

The songs are good though. But that is all I can say about a live album without much fizzle. A live album I will only remember for the red pulsating light.

3 stars

An excellent show!

This has remained as one of my all-time favorite live albums. It of course has to do with my love for Pink Floyd, so since the very first time I listen to it (and watched the DVD) felt trapped under its charm and power. This live album released in 1995 represents the pinnacle of the Gilmour as a leader era. Here we can appreciate an outstanding show with a considerable amount of songs, performed in an impeccable way thanks to the maturity of the members of the band, and also with the help of guest musicians whose quality cannot be denied, people like Dick Parry, Guy Pratt and Jon Carin who had been collaborating with them for some time, joined the stage and together created an unforgettable evening.

"PULSE" was divided in two CDs, a cool and obvious decision due to the amount of songs and the long length of some of them. The first CD is the most Gilmour-ish, with several songs from "The Division Bell", such as "Coming Back To Life", "High Hopes" or "What Do You Want From Me", and a couple of "Lapse of Reason" tracks that represented the Waters- less era. However, this first CD also features older songs, opening with a wonderful performance of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", which is followed by a surprisingly good live "Astronomy Domine" track. "Hey You" and "Another Brick in the Wall" are also featured here.

In the second CD they offer a complete performance of "Darkside of the Moon" which is probably their most recognized and successful album. This performance is wonderful, with a clean, powerful, disarming sound that is inserted in the listener's mind and don't disappear until it finishes. So warning, you may be hypnotized. After those ten songs, the band offers three more representative songs, "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell", and once again, with excellent interpretations that with leave you with a huge smile.

Though I totally love it, I believe this live show is mainly adored by Pink Floyd fans and not really progressive rock fans overall; through the years I have read both positive and negative reviews regarding this album, and despite to me it is a personal masterpiece, I believe for PA and people it would fit better as a highly recommendable album, in other words, four stars.

Enjoy it!

The peak of Pink Floyd's power is encapsulated in a live extravaganza.

This concert is the one that really put Gilmour, Mason and Wright's Pink Floyd back on the map as at the time of release they were touring and promoting "Division Bell". Suddenly there was this flashing LED red light on the CD shelves beaming it's beckoning message to all those who dared to browse. As people flicked CDs such as Prince, and Procol Harum, the other P band was flashing incessantly out with that innovative CD cover. Of course the LED light soon died out after a while but it was a piece of marketing innovation that was a real stroke of genius. The album cover was part of the strategy to entice the buyer but they need not have bothered as the music is so brilliant it speaks for itself.

This remarkable performance begins with 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' for 13 wonderful minutes and then straight into the utterly entrancing 'Astronomy Domine' that is criminally missing on the DVD! The "Division Bell" songs contained include 'What Do You Want From Me', 'Keep Talking', 'A Great Day For Freedom' and the brilliant 'High Hopes'. 'Coming Back to Life' is a strange choice but 'Learning to Fly' sounds terrific live, especially the middle section. It is nice to hear 'Sorrow' live with a huge intro solo and the whole song is here at 10:30.

We turn to "The Wall" with the mandatory 'Hey You' and 'Another Brick in the Wall: Part Two'. The piece de resistance on the DVD is the awesome 'One of These Days', but unfortunately this one is only available on the LP version. Perhaps it is best seen than heard live with the incredible eyeball searing light show.

CD 2 is the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" concert and one cannot complain listening to this treasure in any format. The live version on this album is certainly masterfully executed. Sam Brown, Claudia Fontaine and Durga McBroom are the girls who power out 'The Great Gig in the Sky'. 'Money' clocks 8:46 and is as amazing as ever with huge sax solo from the incomparable Dick Parry.

The encore of the concert consists of 'Wish You Were Here' and two "The Wall" classics. 'Comfortably Numb' is always a treat in the live arena and Gilmour's stellar lead solo is incredible. The concert ends with 'Run Like Hell' and there ends a brilliant show; 146 minutes of pure Pink Floyd prog excess. There are other live albums of course, but this is the pinnacle. The DVD is definitely the way to experience the concert but the CD still encompasses the true genius of the legendary Pink Floyd. I give the CD 4 stars, and the DVD 5 stars. That is a fair assessment as the full audio and visual experience is unbeatable.

Culled from Floyd's last(ever?) serious tour, 'Pulse' doesn't capture the British group at their peak - indeed, founding member and chief lyricist Roger Waters is obviously absent - yet it does showcase just what an outstanding repertoire of material this most iconic of progressive rock groups has produced over the last four decades. With such nuggets as 'Money', 'Sorrow', 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Another Brick In The Wall Part 2' delivered in consummate fashion by the ageing-but-still-brilliant trio of David Gilmour(guitars, vocals), Richard Wright(keyboards, vocals) and Nick Mason(drums) - augmented, of course, by a stellar cast of session players - 'Pulse' must surely rank as the definitive 'live' Pink Floyd album, especially so for those many new fans who were simply too young to experience them in concert during their peak years. Add the extraordinary concert footage itself(available on the video and DVD companion) and the overall 'Pulse' show becomes a genuine extravaganza. Taken from the 1994 tour, 'Pulse' begins in customary fashion with 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' before the group elect to reel off half-a-dozen of the better tracks from 'A Momentary Lapse Of Reason' and 'The Division Bell'. Then, its a few oldies(including, for the first time in almost 20 years, a performance of the mysterious 'One Of These Days' from 1971's 'Meddle') followed by 'Dark Side Of The Moon' in its full luminous glory. Then, the final encore trumps virtually all the brilliance before it as Floyd say goodbye with an epic version of 'Running Like Hell', one of the few tracks not written solely by Waters for 'The Wall'.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2013

Tonight I'm going to see a show of Pink Floyd music, and the name of the Finnish tribute band happens to be PULSE! That's why I chose to make this review. In fact, the DVD of the same name and contents is quite dear to me (and naturally I've reviewed it already), whereas the CD version of P-U-L-S-E means next to nothing to me personally. But just for the heck I'll give my unnecessary thoughts focussing on the set list.

This nearly 2½-hour show is from the time when Division Bell was new (and when there certainly wasn't to be expected any collaboration between the Gilmour-led band and Roger Waters...). So it's pretty understandable how much Division Bell material there is in the set list. It is a stronger album than A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), but now I realize I actually haven't listened to either of them for ages as complete albums, even if both would contain some interesting material excluded from this concert. When watching the DVD, songs such as 'What Do You Want from Me' and 'Coming Back to Life', not to speak of the rather worn-out hit 'Learning to Fly' from the earlier album, tend to bore me. 'Keep Talking' is very effective as a live number, and 'A Great Day for Freedom' and 'High Hopes' truly deserve to be included. The Lapse song 'Sorrow', stretched here to ten minutes, is a strong choice too.

On the 2nd disc, The Dark Side of the Moon is performed completely. Count me among those who prefer this live version over the original 1973 album, sonically speaking. Of course on some places Roger's vocals are missed, but the large line-up does its best to compensate that. The rest of the set is a relatively thin and narrow selection, concerning the whole Pink Floyd discography. Apart from the obvious Wish You Were Here and The Wall outings, there is 'Astronomy Domine' from the 1967 debut. This is a brave and respectable move from Gilmour, who even wasn't yet in the band back then. It certainly works!

It's hard for me to evaluate this as a live CD. The set list has its pros and CONS, and the possibilities of what COULD have been included also is vast. The performances are well crafted and often perhaps a bit clinical. Three lame stars.

Ever since Gilmour took the leadership of Pink Floyd, the band has released a studio album (with Gilmour the sole author, and Wright only appearing as a session man), "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" and, after that, Pink Floyd did a world tour that has been immortalized by the double live "Delicate Sound of Thunder" (that I call Thunder, here). Subsequently, PF reunited after several years, with Wright again an integral part of the group, and they composed together " The Division Bell", an album that found harmony among the three survivors, and then embarked on another world tour also immortalized from a double live, "P-u-l-s-e".

For lovers of progressive I think it is a must to listen to at least one of the two live of Pink Floyd, given the uniqueness of their live performances (although in the absence of Waters). Which one to choose between Sound of Thunder and Pulse? Both are played and recorded beautifully; in Pulse the three musicians begin to have a certain age, and the weighting and slowness of the rhythms is felt, in certain passages. But Pulse contains a few tracks from the two previous albums, preferring to put in the lineup classic pieces of Pink Floyd, including a discreet number (five) of songs written by only Waters, absolute ruler from 1976 to 1983. In this way, the live concert showed in Pulse is an excellent documentary of the group's career and especially of the disk "Dark Side of the Moon" which is reproduced entirely. In fact, Pulse is a commemoration ceremony for that masterpiece... and for the group. Pulse certainly is more complete than Delicate Sound of Thunder. However I prefer Thunder. Why?

Because "Delicate Sound of Thunder" is more honest than "Pulse". In Thunder Gilmour sings half his songs, written especially for Momentary Lapse of Reason, and in the other half he sings PF classics in which he is coauthor (except in two songs, written only by Waters), and often the main voice. Here, however, in Pulse, Gilmour took possession of "Dark Side of the Moon", a project that belonged to the whole group, and in some cases as in three songs ("Hey You", "Eclipse" and "Brain Damage"), he replaced the voice of Waters.

Considering therefore that only one between Thunder and PULSE can be considered mandatory for every prog fan, my choice falls on Thunder. But Pulse has some moments, absent in Thunder, that could make the joy of every listener of Prog like the power of "Hey You" and "Brain Damage" (both signed by Waters) and the sweetness of "The Great Gig in the Sky" (by Wright). So, great music.

Vote album: 8,5/9. Rating: Four (and a half) stars.

This has remained as one of my all-time favorite live albums. It of course has to do with my love for Pink Floyd, so since the very first time I listen to it (and watched the DVD) felt trapped under its charm and power. This album does what a live release should do best, by involving the crowd and truly bringing across their enthusiasm for the event. "PULSE" is divided into 2 CD's. An obvious decision due to the amount of songs and the long length of some of them. The first CD has several songs from "The Division Bell", such as "Coming Back To Life", "High Hopes" and "What Do You Want From Me", and a couple of "Lapse of Reason" tracks that represented the Waters- less era. However, this first CD also features older songs, opening with a wonderful performance of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", which is followed by a surprisingly good "Astronomy Domine." Also featured here are "Hey You" and "Another Brick in the Wall" On the second CD they offer a complete performance of "Darkside of the Moon" which is probably their most recognized and successful album. For an encore the band offers three more representative songs, "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell", and once again, with excellent interpretations that with leave you with a huge smile. I recommend 'P.U.L.S.E' to anyone really, weather you're just getting into Floyd or if it's the only album missing from your collection. This is a great place to start, simply because it will help you understand just how great Floyd were live. Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.

Review #18

The second live album by Pink Floyd was recorded in 1994 and released in 1995 as a part of the "The division bell tour". The album features songs from "The division bell", "Wish you were here", "The wall", "A momentary lapse of reason", one song from "The Piper at the gates of dawn" (Astronomy domine), and the whole performance of "The dark side of the Moon".

The songs do not change too much from their original studio versions; even when the absence of Roger Waters is notorious, the band made a great job performing the classic songs in a very well-toned style. The first CD is more varied while the second album is the one with the whole performance of "The dark side of the Moon" and the three encores: "Wish you were here", "Comfortably numb", and "Run like hell".

This album is considerably more interesting and entertained than its predecessor "Delicate sound of thunder" but I don't think that makes this album an indispensable masterpiece of Progressive Rock music, maybe I'm not very much into live albums since there are not too many of them that I consider masterpieces, but I can't find anything in this album that makes a notable difference into Pink Floyd's music, just a bunch of excellent old-songs with no innovation at all (not musically at least, the video of the show must be quite more interesting).