A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

Roger Waters left in 1985 and assumed Floyd was finished. Apparently David Gilmour disagreed. The first post-Waters Floyd album is just as much a mess as The Final Cut, but it's a completely different kind of mess. Along with Gilmour, Mason returns. Rick Wright plays on the album but he is only a session musician here. Gilmour wrote most of the music with help from friends not in the band. Waters replacement on bass for this album is none other than Tony Levin. Bob Ezrin is in the producer's chair again.

A lot of this sounds like a Gilmour solo album. The production dates it severely; only the first two Floyd albums are more "dated" than this is. This is alright for a late 80s rock album, but for a 'Pink Floyd' album, this is terrible. As much as I don't like The Final Cut, AMLOR is worse because there are less interesting moments here. There is nothing here as good as "Not Now John" or the title cut. The only songs that stand out here are "Learning To Fly", "The Dogs Of War", "On The Turning Away" and "Sorrow".

"Signs Of Life" is a nice opening instrumental. Includes Mason talking. "Learning To Fly" has Mason talking in the middle section as well. This is the best song here but this version pales in comparrison to the one on P-U-L-S-E. "The Dogs Of War" has not much going on for the first half. Then drums come in, a guitar solo, back up vocals and sax. "Terminal Frost" is a decent instrumental. Just before halfway it gets to a good section with sax solo and back up vocals. "Sorrow" is maybe the second best song. Great guitar playing from Gilmour. Features the best use of back up singers on the album.

Mediocre songwriting mixed with very 1980s production values. At least The Division Bell was a major improvement over this. The best songs from AMLOR appear in better live versions on the Delicate and PULSE albums. Floyd's worst album but The Final Cut is not far behind. 2 stars.