Pink FLoyd - The Endless River

Tom Ozric wrote: ^ Oh, it will .......   I always come back to Side 3 - that Talkin' Hawkin' is just tops......

It's become my favorite too.

The more I listen to the album, the more I like it. It's beautiful, really. A solid 4.

Tom Ozric wrote: ^ .....book-ended with Allons-y I &II - just WOW !! Still, I wouldn't say the album is a 'masterpiece', but it sure is excellent.

It is not a masterpiece indeed... but I feel it could have been. If they had got Dick Parry for the sax on Anisina, that one might have ended much better. Perhaps if they had united a bit better the pieces on side 3... the first two pieces have an uncomfortable stop before the Allons-Y things, and the build up it had been going through was just broken. And also, perhaps if side 4 had been better unified it could have helped... specially to make the "song" (louder than words) better; I feel that if the first two songs of this side had worked as an intro for "Louder than Words" (without a pause between them), and then "Surfacing" had been used at the end as the final guitar solo for the song, it would have ended up being a much better song than it ended up being.

Yep - Side 3 is my favourite. And the weakest track is Anisina - thanks to that sax...but it's still a very nice track.
I love Wright's Farfisa at the start of Side 2 - kinda like the intro to Umma Gumma live Astronomy Domine....

I just want more of On Noodle Street

Argonaught wrote: Tom Ozric wrote: After all that, I can agree with a 2 rating - for collectors/fans - it doesn't say it's good or bad, it could well be an excellent album for collectors/fans..... Me, I'd rate it a solid 4 - excellent addition to any Prog collection. A 2 is almost better than a 3,- good, but non- essential...... I can see what you are saying, but most of the people see numeric ratings on PA and elsewhere as notches on a linear scale scale: 1 is awful (in my definition, "non-music") 2 is bad 3 is a passing grade .. so-so .. average .. if I don't (didn't) have it already, I may never buy it 4 is good (nice-to-have; should buy as soon as I can) 5 is great (must-have) In other words, for 99% of people who see 2 on the scale from 1 to 5 will interpret it as "bad", which PA substituted with a PC euphemism "for fans only".

I don't think 99% of PA users regard the ratings like that, and if they do they haven't read the ratings description.

The Bearded Bard wrote: Argonaught wrote: Tom Ozric wrote: After all that, I can agree with a 2 rating - for collectors/fans - it doesn't say it's good or bad, it could well be an excellent album for collectors/fans..... Me, I'd rate it a solid 4 - excellent addition to any Prog collection. A 2 is almost better than a 3,- good, but non- essential...... I can see what you are saying, but most of the people see numeric ratings on PA and elsewhere as notches on a linear scale scale: 1 is awful (in my definition, "non-music") 2 is bad 3 is a passing grade .. so-so .. average .. if I don't (didn't) have it already, I may never buy it 4 is good (nice-to-have; should buy as soon as I can) 5 is great (must-have) In other words, for 99% of people who see 2 on the scale from 1 to 5 will interpret it as "bad", which PA substituted with a PC euphemism "for fans only".  I don't think 99% of PA users regard the ratings like that, and if they do they <span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">haven't read the ratings description.</span> <span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> </span> <span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">As for TER, I think it's yet another good, but not great, PF album. Nothing spectacular, but, like their three previous albums, not bad either, and nice to have in ones collection, i.e. three stars.</span>

Guys. I could never Agree with a 2 rating for this album under any circumstances. This album has quality all over it no matter even if it doesn't measure up to a person's musical standards for what they (Pink Floyd) have done early on. One of the pit falls of being so successful for such a long time people will always just assume that the artist will be able to razzle dazzle them every damn time. The endless river is simply beautiful music and really shouldn't be weighed and considered to such albums like Darkside and wish you were here. It's not fair because those were very special albums for the time when they were made. I say just focus on what you are hearing. For me it's an easy 4/5.
Especially hearing this album in 24/96 no less. It's a beautiful experience.
No way that could ever warrant a 2! Man. That is an awful rating.

In agreement with Progbethyname: whoever bothers to invest their $$$ into TER (i.e. presumably like this kind of music) could never fairly grade it below 3 - on universal merits alone. It's just too well made, which will be noted even by those who do not live and die for the Pink Floyd sound. The compositions are tasteful. The sound it fantastic. The musicianship is flawless.  

Edited by Argonaught - December 14 2014 at 12:11

Was listening to DSOTM again the other day.....timeless......It's what they do

Argonaught wrote: Angelo wrote: Here's what I wrote earlier tonight about The Endless River:"It's a good album, but it is massively overhyped, which kills it for a lot of people - because they expect more than they get. "  The problem is, obviously, with the "lot of people" described herein above, not so much with TER. I can think of maybe 7 albums that I have recently laid my hands on because they had been "highly spoken of" by the good people of PA, with abundant use of superlatives. Well, three of them (albums, not people) turned out to be rather meretricious; three more were a little below expectations, and one was excellent. Would it be fair for me to give the first 3 album one-star reviews, which would be a point or two lower than their real overall value, just because they didn't meet my hypothetical list of my expectations?

Tom Ozric wrote: More like WYWH than Dark Side.... .........can't fathom the fact that some folks are let down with this album - unless this is some folk's first taste of the band.....

Edited by Chris S - December 16 2014 at 00:17