A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

A bit like its predecessor TFC, AMLOR is much maligned and controversial. Highly lauded by Floyd unconditional fans who forced themselves to love it, and hated by those who were scandalised that the name of Floyd went to a non-original member (in the light of Waters' lost court battle, Mason should've inherited the name), this album is just as much a Gilmour solo album as TFC was a Waters solo album. Obviously written hastily to prove his ownership point, Gilmour and Mason in tow were definitely not ready for a Floyd album without Waters or Wright; but instead, it (Lapse) was a pretext to a gigantic two-years-tour to capitalize and replenish bank accounts. In this regard, the picture of the all-too-content and connivingly smiling David and Nick is another punch in the face of Roger. Coming with an ambitious concept ala Waters and a no-less Waters-ian title, this album has an intriguing Hypgnosis artwork that defies reason, but was probably a little too whacked-out for credibility. On the guest list, we find Supertramp's Helliwell, returning the favour to David's collab in the epic title track of Brother Where You Bound, but Scott Page is the main sax man. .Gilmour was never a prolific (or very good) lyric writer, so he hired someone for almost half the album, like he would in all future albums of his.

Just like TFC and The Wall before it, Lapse presents most of its song in a very conventional canvas of verse & chorus, thus sending Animals and the older siblings to another galaxy. Gilmour can't help but involuntarily showing his lack of inspiration by plagiarizing himself in the opening Sign Of Life, a rewrite of Shine On You, but this can also be seen a nod to it. The album is plagued by weak songs with pedestrian rhythms like the boring Learning To Fly and the equally un-moving Dogs Of War (despite a wink to Time with the electronic alarm clock tones). Most of the songs are linked musically, thus ensuring a semblance of cohesiveness, but it is clear that Wright's chord arrangements are missing. The most atrocious floyd tracj must be the electronic-paced One Slip and the Bono/U2 ?inspired On The Turning Away, with a cheesy sing-along chorus and a fine Gilmour solo.

The flipside is slightly more substantial, starting with a rather correct Yet Another Movie, and the average instrumental and tape-effect loaded Terminal Frost, unfortunately sandwiched in cheesy and outdated (even in 87) vocoder vocals of New Machine (we prefer the Welcoming one of 75), but nothing much happens in a very static slow tempo. Sorrow is a correct closer, but again it uses this mid-to-slow pedestrian tempo (and these friggin' 80's drums, most courtesy of Carnine Appice, but this is Gimour's bravura moment of the album.

If TFC showed Waters' songwriting limitations and musical universe, AMLOR shows Gilmour's just as blatantly. Clearly this album was a bit of a rushed job songwriting-wise, thus not even giving themselves enough time to re-integrate the returning Rick Wright ? his small contributions are more than solidly underlined by a third-in-order appearance in the list of musicians, but at least this was giving the trio a bit of legitimacy. Roger is probably wondering if someone would even remember this album if it had not been released under the Floyd moniker. Personally I think this Lapse is certainly no better than Final Cut (or Roger's Hitch-Hiking and Radio Kaos for that matter) or David's very own About Face, his only other work. in the 80's. Lapse is an album that hasn't aged well, mostly due to the then-obligatory use of actual digital/numerical technologies and ranks probably a tad lower than TFC, but compared to other prog giants (Yes, Genesis, Tull and ELP), Floyd (and solo projects) has not to be ashamed of its weaker decade, despite a change of leader.

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