A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

After all the argues with Roger Waters and the separation of the two strongest creative forces of the band, Pink Floyd releases this work 4 years after their last Studio Release and the absence of Roger is really visible. The album has some good points, but the magic touch of Mr. Waters is really missing, some great ideas that stay only as ideas. So let's start the review.

The Album starts with a majestic track "Signs Of Life". The ambient sounds, the characteristic sentimental playing of David Gilmour, everything makes the perfect mix to create this melody that prepares the flight.

"Learning To Fly" is a very poppy song, although the lyrics and the instrumentation is pretty good, it changed or at least it tried to get rid off the sound of the two previous albums ("The Wall" and "The Final Cut") with Roger Waters as a leader, and trying to recover the orchestration achieved on "Dark Side Of The Moon". The psychedelia is very remarked on the style of these British guys.

In "Dogs of War", a cathartic explosion takes David Gilmour's voice and gets its climatic points in the guitar solo. A very energetic sound spiced with the sax flavor which of course adds an special taste and it's the responsible of the growing of the song, and takes it back to Gilmour's voice for the closing scene. The sound of the drums is very tight carrying on all the arsenal of war. This is definitely one of the tracks that save the album.

"One Slip" pretends to continue with the experimentation on keyboards. Unfortunately, it's just a very simple intro, but without stopping the rhythm of the songs and keeps it as an excellent background and goes perfectly with the drums. The changing groove in some kind of duet between the bass with the unique Tony Levin and the guitar makes the songs sound very interesting, but at the same point the release starts to sound in my opinion very monotone, following the same formula in all the songs. In some parts the album sounds exactly the same melody or rhythm.

When the album starts to decay, appears "On The Turning Away", that brings them back, pretty much in the style of "The Wall" songs, those wonderful tracks with piano and voice, sparkled with some moody guitars and very basic drums without pretensions of starring. The guitar opens a path that instantly grabs you and invites you to an inner exploration and gloriously concludes the song.. This is one of the strongest album tracks, letting the people know who Pink Floyd is.

"Yet Another Movie/Round and Around" is the fusion of an intro theme or a simple transition track, followed by an attempt of giving more importance to the keyboards that obviously is beaten ny the invincible guitar of Mr. Gilmour. But the lack of ideas turns this album very simple and plain.

"New Machine, Pt. 1" tries to be an experimental track with some robotic voices as a chorus or background for David Gilmour. Another vain attempt because it lacks of some elements of the Pink Floyd Sound present in all their previous releases.

"Terminal Frost" has a pretty poppy but melodic, sweet and amazing starts. Once again, the mixture of the guitar and in this occasion the soprano sax brings a sense of a fresher sound from this band. A complete instrumental theme that leaves you with a great feeling, the bass arrangements are excellent and the space sound that Gilmour adds with his guitar fade outs is awesome. An outstanding job, this is by much my favorite track on the album.

"New Machine, Pt. 2" leaved me an awful sensation after the previous track, this is just a simple fill up song.

"Sorrow" is the best way to close the album and the track that finally saves the disc ofr Pink Floyd, a very solid sound and one of the classic Pink Floyd guitar riffs, the intro takes you inside the song, everything is on its right place.

In conclusion, the idea of the album has its fragile points but some of the songs really make a support for the weakest tracks. A good album, not a great one. So I'm going to give it just 3 stars.

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