A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

"A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" is the thirteenth studio album of Pink Floyd and was released in 1987. After the release of "The Final Cut" in 1983, the members of the band went for separate ways until 1987. In 1985 David Gilmour began to assemble a group of musicians to work on his third solo studio album but in the end of 1986 he changed his mind, and decided that the new material composed by him would instead be included as a new Pink Floyd's album. So, he decided to revive the band with Nick Mason and Richard Wright. However, for legal reasons Wright couldn't be a member of the band. Due to that, he only participated on "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" as a musician paid weekly.

After the release of "The Final Cut" in 1983, succeeded a harsh legal dispute with Roger Waters who left the group in 1985, and Gilmour and Mason won the legal rights to use the name of Pink Floyd and Waters won the rights to some of the images of Pink Floyd, including almost all the characters of "The Wall" and all the rights of "The Final Cut".

So, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" is a very different and special album in the musical career of the group because it would became the first Pink Floyd's album since the departure of their founder member, the lyricist, bassist and one of the main composers of the group, Roger Waters. And mainly due to that, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" was heavily criticized for having less substance than an album released in the musical era of Roger Waters. It's commonly accepted that "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" is one of the weakest studio works released by the band and especially Roger Waters' fans never accepted it as a Pink Floyd's album. Waters himself, referred to it as being a reasonable forgery.

"A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" has eleven tracks. The first track "Signs Of Life" conjures a "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" throwback vibe on this opening instrumental, which is well-sequenced before the crashing opening of "Learning To Fly". Wright makes his return to the band with some synthesizer work. The second track "Learning To Fly" is a focused well-produced rock song with great backing vocals in the chorus, that nods to the band's spirit of experimentation, but still stays accessible throughout. The lyrics on this track are excellent. The third track "The Dogs Of War" is the song on the album where the lyrics sort of take center stage, is as unsmiling and strident as anything Waters ever wrote. It's not quite eloquent enough to catch my best full attention. The fourth track "One Slip" is an atmospheric track with some poetic lyrics. The lyrics get a bit clunky here and there. Still, the sweeping chorus and the pinball sound effects at the start give a kind of a fun touch to the song. The fifth track "On The Turning Away" has a beautiful melody. The melody is one of the loveliest in the band's catalog, while the words are humbly poetic and subtly stirring. Gilmour gets the chance for an extended solo at the end. This is probably the best song released under the Pink Floyd's banner after Waters' exit. The sixth track "Yet Another Movie" and the seventh track "Round And Round" are linked together. It's a cold and dark piece, monotone and repetitive that turns a bit into a predictable and boring song. It's very strange and difficult to understand why they decided to divide this song in two parts. Sincerely, I can't see any substantial difference between them. The eighth track "A New Machine Part One" and the tenth track "A New Machine Part Two" are also linked together. The two parts of this track are positioned as the bread of a sandwich for which "Terminal Frost" is the meat, making this one of the most askew and forgettable song suites the band has ever attempted. The vocoder effect on Gilmour's voice with the lack of any real instrumentation behind it is a striking effect, but that's all that's really here. The ninth track "Terminal Frost" isn't brilliant but sounds as a good jamming session. If you're looking for tasteful if passionless soundtrack material, then you've come to the right place. But you bought a Pink Floyd's album, so you're probably quite disappointed. The eleventh track "Sorrow" has some great playing of Gilmour as well as some lyrics from him that are good enough to get by. But, the whole thing never rises above the moody, airless atmosphere it maintains, making of it a closing track that fails to ignite. Still, it's one of the best tracks.

Conclusion: "The Final Cut" was a personal Roger Waters' bet, and is largely based on Waters' life, the loss of his father in World War II and his personal concept about the war. All composition duties belong only to Waters and its release was only exclusively decided by him. So, as I wrote before when I reviewed "The Final Cut", is less a Pink Floyd's album and more a solo project of Waters. Despite "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" be a totally different kind of a project, I think we can consider that there are some common points. The album was to be released as a solo project of Gilmour. Waters was no longer in the band and Wright only participats as a guest musician and not as a band's member. Almost all composition duties belong to Gilmour. The songs not composed by him aren't composed by any other band's member. So, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" can also be considered a personal project of Gilmour. So and probably, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" should never have been realized as a Pink Floyd's album too, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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