DELICATE SOUND OF THUNDER

With David Gilmour at the helm, Pink Floyd decided that there was still life after Roger Waters, following the temperamental musician's troubled departure after the completion of 1983's highly personal "The Final Cut". Four years later, the release of "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" placed the English band in the spotlight of the musical universe, embarking on an extensive promotional tour of almost two years with a massive audience that made no major objection to Waters' absence and that "Delicate Sound of Thunder" (1988), a recording taken from the Long Island performances of the same year and divided into two clearly differentiated parts, vividly testifies to.

The first part, after the introductory and portentous "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", is dedicated to the tracks from "A Momentary Lapse of Reason", which are related to the most grandiloquent Pink Floyd, conveying the sensation of greater robustness and vitality compared to the studio versions, and where the corrosive and super-distorted opening guitars of "Sorrow" with Gilmour in the lead role, the dramatic and stark "The Dogs of War" with the contribution of Scott Page on sax, and the beautiful ballad "On the Turning Away" with an emotional chorus and great final instrumentation stand out.

The second part is a selection of the band's unmissable songs, and although they are impeccably executed instrumentally, with great moments such as the tense and disturbing "One of These Days", the determined initial percussion of "Time" and its guitar solo, or the crystalline acoustic introduction of "Wish You Were Here", it seems more like a collection of hits without much articulation. Hence, the band's natural flow is perceived as choppy and even with some dull passages such as "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" or the central improvisation of "Money" that doesn't contribute much. The apotheosic "Comfortably Numb" and Gilmour's solos revitalise the final stretch fantastically and the escapist "Run Like Hell" gives an extra intense emotional charge to the closing of the album.

Backed by a full backing band and a female trio that lends a lot of harmony and consistency to the melodies, "Delicate Sound of Thunder" was, at the time, incredibly the first official 100% live record released by Pink Floyd (the very distant "Ummagumma" from 1969 only contained one live side).

3.5 stars