PINK FLOYD
Music by Pink Floyd
Lyrics by Polly Samson
PINK FLOYD:
David Gilmour: Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Bass Guitars, Keyboards, Synthesizers, Vocals
Nick Mason: Drums and Percussion
Richard Wright: Piano, Keyboards, Organ, Synthesizers
Produced by David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson
Released November 10, 2014
Out of all of the new music that has been released and that I have listened to in 2014, this was the album that I would have never expected to hear (that is next to the still unreleased third studio album from D'Angelo, an album that has been rumored to be 99% completed for the last three years now, but I digress...).
New music from Pink Floyd was just something I figured would never occur again. While the band never officially disbanded or even made any official statements whatsoever proclaiming that the end of the road had been reached, it has been 20 full years since the previous studio album, "The Division Bell" (released ) entered the world and truth be told, having the band reunite with bassist/singer/songwriter Roger Waters for the Live 8 performance in 2005 was more than I could have ever wished for. If that was to be the end, then so be it. And logically, with the advancing ages of guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and the 2008 passing of keyboardist Richard Wright from cancer, it understandably felt that there was no more music to be heard or to even be expected.
And then, the news hit the world this past July that Pink Floyd would resurface just one more time with new material...sort of.
The new material in question was born out of the sessions that birthed "The Division Bell," and while there are a few guest/additional musicians present there and there, the nucleus of the music was chiefly composed and performed by the three remaining band members, as well as it should be. Yet, there was an even greater purpose behind the material than simply placing a new album adorned with the Pink Floyd moniker in the shops.
For a band as faceless and certainly as enigmatic as Pink Floyd, it is indeed surprising to realize just how personal quite a bit of the band's landmark albums actually are. As "Wish You Were Here" (released September 12, 1975) served as a tribute for the departed and mentally ill band founder, the late Syd Barrett and "The Wall" (released November 30, 1979) served as an autobiographical account of Roger Waters' childhood and inner demons, the new Pink Floyd album, in addition to serving as a farewell, is an album of solace and tribute towards the late Richard Wright, I would argue is the one member of the band who never truly received their fair due of the credit regarding the iconic sound of Pink Floyd, and in some ways this may have partially been to his own doing.
Think about it. Certainly, Syd Barrett received his seismic notoriety as he created the band, was originally the chief songwriter and guitarist and he introduced the band's identity of disturbingly surrealistic, cosmic visions to the world. Roger Waters truly became the band's dominant force throughout the 1970's, through his conceptual foresight as well as arguably being one of rock's finest lyricists. Frankly, if David Gilmour had only recorded his towering guitar solo to "Comfortably Numb" he would still be one of the best rock guitarists of all time plus his singing voice is instantly identifiable with the sound of Pink Floyd. Even drummer Nick Mason's laid back yet powerfully percussive presence contains its hallmark.
But what of Richard Wright? I would argue that in regards to the overall sound of the band, every piece of the musical web of Pink Floyd hangs tightly onto the gossamer threads of Wright's keyboards. What would tracks like dreamlike "Echoes," "Time" (on which Wright sings as well) or the epic "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" be without the pillows of pianos and synthesizers through which every other sound flows? Certainly, the Pink Floyd canon would not be complete without the orgiastic yet solemn "The Great Gig In The Sky," composed by Wright for the band's timeless album "The Dark Side Of The Moon" (released March 23, 1973). And after Wright's unceremonious firing from the band by the then dogmatic Waters, his absence from "The Final Cut" (released March 21, 1983),left a massive hole in the proceedings despite that album's brilliance. For my ears, simply stated, Richard Wright gave Pink Floyd an essential and irreplaceable element of ethereal grace and soul.
And still, he was "the quiet one," even to members of his own band. In a recent interview with the British music magazine MOJO, David Gilmour expressed the following regarding his feelings towards Richard Wright during the band's heyday and his reflections now that Wright has passed on:
"Rick had his years of troubles, problems, as we all did to some extent. His were quite serious in those periods of life people often aren't very lovable. Rick and I were never that close. None of us in the band were that close as friends. Nick and Roger were at one point. I always liked what Rick did. But I didn't quite believe in him as much as I should have done in times when he should have been given more support."
And with that sentiment fully intact, we are now graced with the new, and yes, final album by Pink Floyd. Adorned with a poignantly surreal cover image of a man sailing away into the sunset on a sea of clouds, "The Endless River" is a nearly 60 minute double album that serves as a surprisingly warm and intimate statement of reverence and regret, tribute and musical fellowship as well as serving as quite the anomaly in regards to the nature of this release in our ADD, low attention span 21st century. For you see, "The Endless River," is not a song based album as it is an entirely instrumental experience (except for the final selection "Louder Than Words"), that is essentially divided into four distinct movements that seamlessly weave into a whole. But I shall provide you with just a few more words of caution. There are no social political diatribes or psychological traumas to be found. There is no sense of stadium psychedelia as it is more suited for your headphones or some other form of solitary listening. But most of all, "The Endless River" is not designed for immediacy. This music is designed for immersion.
"There's certainly an unspoken understanding. Uh...but there are a lot of things unsaid as well." And with those spoken words from Richard Wright himself, taken from an interview so long, long ago, Side One's sequence of "The Endless River" opens and closes with "Things Left Unsaid" and "Ebb And Flow," two tracks that bookend and perfectly illustrate the purpose and intent of this mostly wordless album. Both selections offer a musical conversation between Wright and David Gilmour as the layers of keyboards and the guitars caress each other with a gentle, elegiac elegance. But in between those those moments in the six minute centerpiece, "It's What We Do." With the entrance of Wright's organ and synthesizers, which carry a familiar echo (ha ha) of chords from the classic "Welcome To The Machine," Gilmour's space blues guitars and now Nick Mason's languid drums, Pink Floyd settles into the precise astral groove that has transported listeners for over 40 years. Those drum fills, that swan dive slide guitar, and of course, that galaxy of keyboards, all so familiar and so unique to this collective of musicians when they congregate.
Tension, release and rhythm characterize Side Two as "The Endless River" grows initially more propulsive and downright tribal. Where Gilmour's guitars growl and churn melodically, Nick Mason's drums take center stage on both "Sum" and "Skins." After the dark ambiance of the interlude "Unsung," where those "Welcome To The Machine" chords make a brief return, Pink Floyd glides into the stately "Anisina," oddly enough a track on which Richard Wright does not appear (David Gilmour handles the piano and keyboards) but feels and sounds like the most overt tribute to him. As I listen to the track while writing, it struck me that this selection is precisely what the album cover would sound like if it could play music on its own.
In addition to the recurring themes of communication from "The Division Bell," as featured in "The Lost Art Of Conversation" and "Talkin' Hawkin'" (which again features the voice of Stephen Hawking) to my ears, Side Three's sequence feels as if it is all about movement and travel. The songs grow from the meditative lounge funk of "On Noodle Street" to the centerpiece "Allons-Y Part 1" and "Allons-Y Part 2" where David Gilmour's chugging "Run Like Hell" guitars resurface, providing the music its momentum. Yet sandwiched in between that two part track is the regal "Autumn '68," a selection of Richard Wright's unreleased organ work as recorded in the Royal Albert Hall in the year indicated in the song's title.
Side Four's sequence begins with some of the album's most ambient and even cinematic material, music that quite often made me think of Vangelis' iconic score to Director Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" (1982). A feeling of disturbance and even menace arises within "Calling," the album's only other track to not feature Wright yet strongly suggests his presence, as Gilmour's swan dive guitars circle overhead as an ocean of keyboards suggest turbulence underneath. "Eyes To Pearls," featuring Gilmour's delicately plucked and almost folk styled guitars and Mason's dramatic cymbal washes continues the murkiness but the appropriately titled "Surfacing," starring Gilmour's stellar slide guitar work truly takes flight.
And as a final statement, the instantly recognizable and unchanged singing voice of David Gilmour gives us the only sung words on the album as he wraps up the story of Pink Floyd. "We bitch and we fight," Gilmour sings referencing the bitter in-fighting that existed between the band members for many years. "But this thing we do/These times together," he continues and giving profundity to how despite the struggles, what music was created just by having this collective of people merged in musical union. While some may bristle at the simplicity of the lyrics by Gilmour's wife Polly Samson (especially when compared to the staggering, peerless lyricism of Roger Waters), for me, the plainly spoken sentiments felt as grounded and as honest as the song needed to be. No mysterious backwards message or coded meanings. Just a peek at the wizards behind the surrealistic curtain of Pink Floyd right at the end of the story, sending us and themselves...onwards.
The legacy of Pink Floyd is firmly intact within the history of rock music and certainly, there was really no reason for the band to record and release anything new. But with "The Endless River," Pink Floyd has given us a most poignant raison d'etre to take yet another musical journey one more time. This is music created in honor for a fallen musical comrade, to demonstrate that it is never too late to offer tribute and gratitude. It is clear upon listening to this album that aside from David Gilmour's masterful, one-of-a-kind guitar heroics and the grit of Nick Mason's percussive grooves, the heart and soul of "The Endless River" is firmly centered around and completely belongs to Richard Wright. It simply amazes me how seamless of an album Gilmour and Mason have created from a variety of recorded sources and unreleased material and it is also so deeply touching to hear just how lovingly they did orchestrate this material and weaved it together into this glistening tapestry.
Pink Floyd's "The Endless River" has continued to grow on me the more I listen to it, leaving me emotionally moved more and more. While this album may not quite be the album some Pink Floyd fans may necessarily have wanted them to make, it is undeniably the very album they needed, wanted and just plain had to make.
And if Pink Floyd were to indeed release new music in 2014, then an album that contains this much love and passion is the only album from them that I could wish to have.
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