P-U-L-S-E

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.

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