P-U-L-S-E

P-U-L-S-E is one of those weird live albums that, at the time of its release, was meant to appeal to the band's aging fan base who would pay for any new Pink Floyd recording coming their way. The first edition of the album even featured a light-emitting diode in its design, a gimmick that was sure to make people pay little more just so they could show it off to all their friends. Fortunately time has been kind on this live album and, considering that the band hasn't released any new studio material since then, it now functions almost like a live retrospective of the ensemble that was Pink Floyd.

Since P-U-L-S-E was partially intended as a promotional album for the band's release of the new material, there are quite a few tracks from Division Bell and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason featured on the set-list. This is something that I, even to this day, tend to skip through just to get to the good stuff from the classic era Pink Floyd. Most of the new tunes come off sounding much more dated and there are also times when the band seems almost like a bunch of old-timers being sentimental about their past. High Hopes is a prime example of this very sad experience where the song's lyrics actually get a whole new meaning it the context of the performance.

The biggest highlight of this live release has to be its second act that gives us a complete version of Dark Side Of The Moon and this is definitely where the band looses their sad-face act and start sounding like the professionals that they really are! Classics like Breathe, Us And Them and the album's outro are just as intense as their original studio counterparts. Downsides comes with the much more extravagant sounding version of The Great Gig In The Sky which, I guess, was meant as a show-stopper that didn't work too well in the context of the live performance. I'm also not too keen on the over the top performance of Money with a sax solo that doesn't sound as pleasant as it was originally intended to be.

The combination of classic material like Astronomy Domine and the LP/Video-only version of One Of These Days with the later tracks from The Wall make this live album a nice little retrospective of the band known as Pink Floyd. There are a few lesser moments that make most of their appearances during the first half of the show but overall P-U-L-S-E is a good, but non-essential album that gets more recognition with each passing year.

***** star songs: Breathe (2:33) Us And Them (6:57) Brain Damage (3:45) Eclipse (2:37) Wish You Were Here (6:35) Comfortably Numb (9:29)

**** star songs: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (13:35) Astronomy Domine (4:20) Keep Talking (6:52) A Great Day For Freedom (4:30) Another Brick In The Wall (7:07) Speak To Me (2:30) On The Run (3:47) Time (6:46) Money (8:54) Any Colour You Like (3:21) Run Like Hell (8:36)

*** star songs: What Do You Want From Me (4:09) Learning To Fly (5:15) Coming Back To Life (6:56) Hey You (4:39) Sorrow (10:49) High Hopes (7:52) The Great Gig In The Sky (5:52)

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