P-U-L-S-E

My opinions about Pink Floyd are very controversial. For one thing I don't really think they are a progressive rock band. I also don't particularly like some of their most popular albums. But this live album blew me away! David Gilmore's guitar sound is amazing here, very distinctive and his vocals are flawless and distinctive as well. Judging from this live album, it seems to me that Gilmore is the true star of Pink Floyd (another very controversial statement).

When I first heard this live album I knew several of the older studio albums - that for some reason never impressed me that much. I knew The Wall, Dark Side Of The Moon, Animals and some others. But the tracks that impressed me the most on PULSE - and this is another controversial opinion of mine - were the tracks from the two most recent albums A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell.

Since then I have heard these two studio albums as well, and they are among my favourite Pink Floyd albums for sure, but the live versions of these songs as presented on PULSE are better than on their respective studio albums. Learning To Fly, Coming Back To Life, A Great Day For Freedom, Sorrow and High Hopes (particularly in their PULSE versions) are now among my all time favourite Pink Floyd songs! The loud and well defined bass guitar on Sorrow is great. And, as I have already mentioned, the guitar sound is fantastic throughout.

But we also get some great classic songs here like Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Wish You Were Here both from Pink Floyd's best album, Wish You Were Here as well as the 60's Astronomy Domine. And these versions are all great! I also think - and this is yet another controversial matter - that this double live album is much better than the double DVD set. I think that the PULSE DVD set has way too much theatrics that distract from the music. The stage is so huge that Gilmore, and the others on it, look so tiny in front of those outrageously large screens showing art films. There is even an aeroplane flying across the auditorium crashing by the side of the stage! There are even inflatable pigs! This is all too much for me and it takes away from the music. I prefer to see musicians playing their instruments without too many distractions.

Also the set list is shorter on the DVD compared to the CD version and some of the best material has been edited out. So I definitely would recommend going for the CD version over the DVD version.

The first disc of the double album is better than the second disc. And the newer songs on the first disc are better than the older ones. On the second disc we get a full live performance of Dark Side Of The Moon, an album that I think is one of the most overrated rock albums of all time (I would put The Wall on that list as well). Still, this performance betters the original album, I think!

All this is probably contested by Pink Floyd fans, but this is how I see it anyway.

PULSE is not only the definitive Pink Floyd live album, for me it is the definitive Pink Floyd product full stop, and an excellent place to start your Pink Floyd collection.