A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

With the departure of Roger Waters many fans would likely call the band dead in the... er... water - but this was not so for the legendary progressive band. It may have been a long hiatus since the release of their last studio album before this one, The Final Cut, and we may be knee deep in the 80s now, but this album somehow turned out quite good! The songs are not really as ''progressive'' as some people would likely have liked to have them - there's no psychedelic jams and no long suites named after newspaper headlines and cows and whatnot, but there's still many of the ingredients of classic Floyd. True, they've been rearranged and mixed around, but that doesn't mean they're not present.

Gilmour's Floyd is a completely different beast than it was under the command of bass playing songwriter Roger Waters. It also doesn't help that the 80s are upon us, but the style is wildly different. Shorter, catchier songs get heavier radio play these days than some of the other songs in the Floyd catalog (see, for example, the soft and moody Learning to Fly) but in general they still pack a heavy punch. Faster and heavier songs such as One Slip and the brooding Dogs Of War still hold the classic Floyd sound in small doses, but offer a unique look at the band while instrumentals such as the opening intro Signs Of Life and the excellent Terminal Frost offer a new side to the band that's been seemingly hidden until Gilmour had the chance to take over.

Likely the best song on the album, though, has to be the closer. This is one of the best examples of blending the 80s style that many prog bands were using (and not doing well with in most cases) as Sorrow is an excellent piece. Driven by a heavy bass and some haunting vocals Gilmour and the boys really make the best of what they've got here. This really is one that can compete with most of the other material in the band's catalog, believe it or not.

The increased use of the 80s synth and the heavy beat to the album may make it a threatening one to listen to at first - not exactly at kin with any of Floyd's other albums (including the sole album to follow it, The Division Bell), but it really does have a certain charm that some of the others don't have. Between it's interesting cover art and it's unique style this one really is a fun one to listen to.

All things considered this is not one of Floyd's best albums, but it's not one to be shrugged off either. Not for people who are not fans of the band, but people who have avoided it simply because of it's date should reconsider if they want to hear something very different by the band. In the end this one gets 3.5 New Machines out of 5. Definitely not the album to start with by the band, but certainly not one that has to wait until the completionists get around to it. Recommended to people who have an interest to what happened to prog in the 80s, and anyone who thinks that The Division Bell needed a bit of extra 'oomph'.

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