A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

David Gilmour gets a chance to captain the mighty ship Floyd. AMLoR is an album of its time in that it has an "80's" sound to it. Sequencers, keyboard washes, guitar solo's abound. The lyrics do not have the conceptual depth of PF of the late 70's albums, but there is nothing wrong with what Gilmour and his cowriters offer. Gilmour and company is correct in that Nick Mason provides no writing credits and actually barely played on the album. A missed opportunity. Rick Wright contributed even less as he rang up Gilmour late in the recording sessions and there was legal concerns of him being a member of Pink Floyd. He contributed very little as a session player.

The album starts off with "Signs of Life", a mellow instrumental with a wonderfully tongue in cheek title. The next is the MTV and radio friendly "Learning to Fly" followed by the song that routinely and unfairly gets ripped by PF fans. That is "The Dogs of War". Not a light subject matter with good vocals and guitar solo. Actually, if there is a problem with this album, it is the predictible mid tempo song with a guitar solo or two. A better balance between the keys and guitars would have been welcome.

There is alot to enjoy here. " Sorrow" , "Yet Another Movie" and "On the Turning Away" are standout tracks without a bad one in sight. The pro-Waters camp will bash AMLoR as not having the musical dynamics of glories past and lyrics not worthy of the name Pink Floyd; just as the pro-Gilmour backers will hammer the Final Cut for not being musical enough and full of The Wall leftovers. Both camps are partially correct with the two albums combined with their solo albums and including Rick Wright's, show that they were better together.

Still a very good album.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.