A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

"A Momentary Lapse of Reason" is the 13th full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The album was released through EMI/Columbia in September 1987. Bassist Roger Waters left Pink Floyd after the release of "The Final Cut (1983)" creating quite a drama in the process but the rest of the band opted to continue recording and touring using the Pink Floyd monicker. "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" is not far from sounding like a David Gilmour solo project though and indeed the writing sessions initially started out as sessions for David Gilmour´s third solo album. David Gilmour felt that the quality of the material and the sound of said material would be better suited to be released under the Pink Floyd monicker. Drummer Nick Mason joined forces with David Gilmour and gave the project a bit more credibility. Keyboardist Richard Wright also plays on the album but only as a session musician. In addition to the three members of Pink Floyd there is a host of guest musicians contributing to "A Momentary Lapse of Reason". Prolific artists like Tony Levin (bass), Carmine Appice (drums) and Bob Ezrin (keyboards, sequencers, percussion). The latter mentioned also functions as co-producer along with David Gilmour.

"A Momentary Lapse of Reason" opens in pretty convincing style with "Signs of Life", "Learning to Fly" and "The Dogs of War", which is also a pretty decent track. Unfortunately the remaining part of the album is also only decent and very seldom does it reach the heights of the first couple of tracks. The tracks often comes off as too polished and uninspired with female soul type backing vocals, cheesy sax playing and a dominant use of eighties synth sounds. There are redeeming features on the album like David Gilmour´s excellent guitar solos and pleasant vocal delivery, but they don´t manage to pull the project enough in the right direction.

The sound production instantly gives away the fact that this is an album recorded in the eighties and in this case it´s not necessarily a good thing. The warmth of earlier releases by Pink Floyd is nowhere to be found on "A Momentary Lapse of Reason", which sounds quite soulless compared to it´s many predecessors. No body wanted Pink Floyd to be over because of Roger Waters departure from the band, but listening to "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" it´s clear to me, that he took the soul of Pink Floyd with him when he left, and that this album should probably have been released as a David Gilmour solo album. It´s definitely the weakest release in the band´s discography and a 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.