DELICATE SOUND OF THUNDER

Now what do we have here? It looks like Pink, sounds like Floyd but it rocks like a bunch of old ladies in wheelchairs.

I am one of the few that really liked A Momentary Lapse of Reason though. I admit the album sounds overblown, that much of it falls back on old success formula's and that the absence of Waters left a brick-sized hole in the Pink Floyd experience. But somehow I always appreciated the songs very much and I felt an urge in Gilmour's playing to prove how essential he was to the Floyd sound, at least to that Floyd sound of Wish You Were Here where his involvement was more prominent.

There's none of those redeeming factors here. This is a man cashing in on his successes, blowing up the Floyd sound to unseen bombastic proportions and losing all edge this music once had. Much of the material comes from the maligned A Momentary Lapse of Reason album, and due to the lazy pace of the performance and the backing vocal kitsch, the songs really reveal how weak they are at the core. Stripped of that little bite they had on the studio album, only an empty carcass remains here.

The classic Floyd songs are OK-ish but everyone who has heard any random Floyd live album from 67-71 period will recognize that this is a routine and sterile show. Only the outrageous solo at the end of Comfortably Numb gives a glimpse why Gilmour is one of the best guitar players for me. His ability to get so much emotion out of so few sustained notes is a unique gift.

Not highly recommended to say the least, the rating should have told you that much.