JOIN USThe Endless River
Pink Floyd
Parlophone Columbia, Rs 1,424
After a hiatus of two decades, the legendary British band Pink Floyd has released a new album — ‘The Endless River’. It mostly comprises instrumental music based on 20 hours of unreleased material Pink Floyd wrote and recorded in 1994 with the band’s keyboardist, Rick Wright, who passed away in 2008.
Pink Floyd, founded in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright, was best known for its psychedelic rock music, the likes of which was never heard before. Syd Barrett (the “crazy diamond” of the band) left the band in 1968, while bassist and songwriter Roger Waters left the band in 1985. This 15th and final album features David Gilmour (guitarist and vocalist), drummer Nick Mason and the late Wright.
‘The Endless River’ is predominantly an ambient and instrumental album, with the closing track Louder Than Words, the only song with vocals, written by Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson. Without the vocals, there is something clearly missing in the album despite the fact that the album is heavily layered and textured with rhythmic and melodic variety both haunting and enticing.
Ebb and Flow features Gilmour’s slide guitar blending seamlessly into electric piano. Skins is a two-and-a-half-minute drum solo. Anisina, an excellent guitar solo by Gilmour, could have been a great song with words and vocals. Talkin’ Hawkin’ features astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s voice from a Stephen Hawking speech recorded for a British Telecom commercial.
This is certainly not the Pink Floyd of ‘The Wall’ or ‘The Final Cut’. Roger Waters’s contribution as songwriter and bassist that was instrumental in their success during the early years is missing. A lot has happened in electronic music and digital technology since the time of psychedelic music of Pink Floyd. The music may not turn out to be the fix of a whole new generation, which is exposed to EDM. Besides, both the audio CD and vinyl versions of the album are rather pricey.