A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

I have been at a gig of Australian Pink Floyd. They opened the show with "Learning To Fly", an unexpected choice. What impressed me a lot is that this song was really better in their version respect to any official Pink Floyd's release of this song. Why? They played the bass as if Roger Waters was in the band.

I am a Gilmour's fan and I would have appreciated this album even if released as a Gilmour's solo as originally planned. Lot of the material was ready for Gilmour's next album when he and Mason won the lawsuit for the use of the Pink Floyd's name.

Gilmour and Mason tried to arrange the songs for a Pink Floyd album, so there's not the funky or the heavy guitar of "About Face", but the absence of Waters is evident. This album tries to go in the "missed" direction of Wish You Were Here, and this is why Waters is missed.

Also Wright is not officially back. It means that he plays in the album but he doesn't contribute to the songwriting.

No concept, then. Just a collection of songs with more attention to the music than to the lyrics. Gilmour wasn't a great lyricist until he wrote High Hopes, and even if some social obsessions are present, everything is lighter respect to the usual Waters.

Dogs of War is emblematic. It's a bluesy song that contains a reference to Animals and a not very hidden message to Roger Waters. The other big Floyd's obsession: Syd Barrett is present also in this album. In terms of lyrics there are very weak moments, like "On The Turning Away".

However the album is very well played and arranged and the sound is the Pink Floyd's sound. Of course it's not the album to start with for a newbie and it's not musch better or worse than The Final Cut. It's just "The brigth side of Pink Floyd" respect to Waters.

Good but non-essential.