Pink Floyd Retrospective: Album 13- A Momentary Lapse of Reason

 

We heard a Pink Floyd album that was almost all Roger Waters.  How about a Pink Floyd album with everyone but Roger Waters?

Album:  A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Year Released:    1987

Lineup:

Pink Floyd

• David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, keyboards, fretless bass guitar, drum programming, sequencers, production
• Nick Mason – electronic and acoustic drums, spoken vocals, sound effects
• Richard Wright – backing vocals, piano, Hammond organ, Kurzweil synthesiser

Note: Wright was credited among the additional musicians on the original release. All reissues since 2011 credit him as an official band member.

Additional personnel

• Bob Ezrin – keyboards, percussion, sequencers, production
• Jon Carin – keyboards
• Patrick Leonard – synthesisers
• Bill Payne – Hammond organ
• Michael Landau – guitar
• Tony Levin – bass guitar, Chapman Stick
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Carmine Appice – drums
• Steve Forman – percussion
• Tom Scott – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
• John Helliwell – saxophone (credited as John Halliwell)
• Scott Page – tenor saxophone
• Darlene Koldenhoven (credited as Darlene Koldenhaven) – backing vocals
• Carmen Twillie – backing vocals
• Phyllis St. James – backing vocals
• Donny Gerrard – backing vocals

Track Listing:

No. Title                                                         Length

1. "Signs of Life"                                   4:24

2. "Learning to Fly"                                4:52

3. "The Dogs of War"                            6:05

4. "One Slip"                          5:10

5. "On the Turning Away"                    5:42

Side two

No. Title                                                         Length

6. "Yet Another Movie"                            6:14

7. "Round and Around" 1:13

8. "A New Machine (Part 1)"          1:46

9. "Terminal Frost"                          6:17

10. "A New Machine (Part 2)"                   0:38

11. "Sorrow"                                  8:47

Total length: 51:08

Overall Thoughts:

"The Final Cut" was a Pink Floyd album in name only; it was a Roger Waters album with little input from David Gilmour and Nick Mason (Richard Wright was no longer a member).  

The album was not a success and Waters left the group, calling Pink Floyd a spent force and saying the group was disbanded.

Gilmour and Mason felt otherwise.  Lawsuits followed, and in the end, Gilmour and Mason recorded three more studio albums as Pink Floyd.  "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" was the first.  

Unlike the previous albums, there is no central theme around the album.  Gilmour took over primary songwriting duties, and other musicians were brought in- including a returning Wright, though Wright was no longer legally part of the band.

The results?  Much better than the 'Final Cut'.  It's a collection of singles instead of an album, so if you go in expecting a coherent theme, there isn't one.

And the songs are excellent- the lyrics might not as good as Waters, but they aren't bad.  "Dogs of War", for instance, evokes excellent imagery but doesn't really go anywhere.

But the music is significantly better- and there's an energy on "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" that is lacking in "The Final Cut".  The guitar work is outstanding and some of the songs are instrumentals ("Signs of Life", "Round and Around, "Terminal Frost""), which had been missing from Pink Floyd albums since "Dark Side of the Moon".

It's not a perfect album.  The music starts to get repetitive towards the final few songs.  But I enjoyed listening to "A Momentary Lapse of Reason".

Ranking of Pink Floyd Albums (adding as more albums are reviewed):

1. Wish You Were Here
2. Dark Side of the Moon
3. The Wall
4. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
5. Meddle
6. A Saucerful of Secrets
7. Obscured by Clouds
8. Ummagumma
9. Animals
10. More
11. Piper at the Gates of Dawn
12. Atom Heart Mother
13. The Final Cut

Top 10 Pink Floyd Songs (changing as more albums are reviewed):

1. "Wish You Were Here", Wish You You Were Here
2. "Comfortably Numb", the Wall
3. "Money", Dark Side of the Moon
4. "On the Turning Away", A Momentary Lapse of Reason
5. "Us and Them", Dark Side of the Moon
6. "Learning to Fly", A Momentary Lapse of Reason
7. "Welcome to the Machine", Wish You Were Here
8. "Time", Dark Side of the Moon
9. "Fearless", Meddle
10. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)", Wish You Were Here