Review: Pink Floyd- The Endless River

Pink Floyd have returned in a big way, and I was very eagerly awaiting this album. When I first heard of the release of this project, an extension of the 'Big Spliff' sessions that were conducted in tandem with those for The Division Bell, I nearly had a stroke. Pink Floyd have been a huge musical impact on my life, and I was extremely excited for the idea of more material.

In response to the negative criticism this project has received, I feel like people put way too much pressure on this release. It was kind of obvious that Roger Waters was not going to be involved, and as to there being only one song with vocals, who cares? Honestly, the weakest parts of the Gilmour led Floyd were the lyrics. Also, the fact that there is not that much here new sonically makes complete sense. This album was mostly recorded 20 years ago, and would share a lot of the same sound as the project the majority of it was recorded in tandem with. 

I feel like this album was a great closer for Pink Floyd, as it showcased their classic sound with references to many of their other endeavors, and did more for the legacy of the band than anything released post- Wall. There are plenty of sonic similarities between The Endless River and 'Echoes', 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond', their spacey period, and of course the David Gilmour led iteration. Gilmour obviously is going to receive the most credit for this project, with his signature syrupy, powerful guitar sound, but a lot of this album was designed to showcase the talent of the late Rick Wright. 'Autumn '68' was a great addition; just Wright playing around, but perfect in its own little way. I feel like this album is very nostalgic, and a bittersweet career retrospective for the Floyd. People for some reason were expecting this big, bombastic behemoth, even though it was billed as an ambient project. While this has way too much rhythm and melody to be classified as ambient, I feel like people should appreciate this for what it is, which is some very beautiful, if imperfect, music.

The album is far from perfect (the second Stephen Hawking cameo was a little unnecessary), and will not replace any Floyd album before 1980s in my heart, but in true fan boy fashion, I'll listen to anything they put out with open ears. And they hardly ever disappoint.

Out of a total of five stars, I give this:

What did you think of Pink Floyd's return? In other blog relatedness, I'll be taking a look at the New Basement Tapes and the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways in the near future, so stay tuned.


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