A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

Pink Floyd

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.06 | 1933 ratings

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i know that most folks slate A Momentary Lapse of Reason as more of solo Gilmour effort, "uninspired", tedious, cheesy and simply "not Floyd".

however, released as it was when i was not even in my teens, this was my introduction to Pink Floyd and a gateway to the vast universe of rock, progressive and otherwise. so it has held a very special place in my heart from the moment "Signs of Life" segued into "Learning to Fly" ...i was hooked!

besides, not having heard (or even heard about) Dark Side of the Moon or Animals or the anthemic Another Brick or any of the legal shennanigans between Waters and the rest of Pink Floyd..."Learning to Fly", "On The Turning Away", "Terminal Frost" and "Sorrow" were my early Floyd favourites.

no one but Floyd can quite have the nerve to come up with 4 minute intro made up almost entirely of the sound of someone rowing a boat and much less (Signs of Life), the talent to make it sound awesome.

Learning to Fly is a "modern" classic accompanied with an equally awesome video.

then, someone went to sleep and came up with 1. the utterly horrible Dogs of War and 2. the disco/ trance look-alike One Slip. the enigma of Momentary Lapse for me was "Dogs of War". to this day, i dont get this "song" - what were they thinking or trying to make of it? and the following song "One Slip" was pretty average but these two were clearly out of place on the album (on any album for that matter). i went on to discover several more "strange" anomalies charading as songs in Floyd 's history (Seamus from Meddle", The Great Gig in the Sky from Dark Side) but "Dogs of War" wins that race by a mile.

things begin to get back on track with the subtle, yet gripping On The Turning Away (with fresh vocals which Gilmour can never to justice to while playing live)

i see the next 4 songs as kind of like a suite - they flow into each other and could well have been re-worked into a 15-16 min long "epic"...

Sorrow is the crowning glory of the album with the intriguing guitar intro, the lovely (for Gilmour) lyrics and the majestic 4+ minute "outro" guitar solo...i wince every time i hear the fade out since i never want it to end (i wore out at least 3 tapes before i could afford to get the CD)

best summed up in Floyd's own words that close the album: "And silence that speaks so much louder than words, Of promises broken...

sv_godspeed | 4/5 | 2011-7-1

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