The Big Spliff, Re-lit

September 22, 2014 11:18 AM

After two decades of very little activity (with one notable exception), Pink Floyd has announced that a new album, titled The Endless River, will be released in November. Arriving in a variety of formats with the now-obligatory bonus tracks and multimedia content, The Endless River is based on material developed during writing and recording sessions for the group's last album, The Division Bell, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

In spite of the reunion at Live 8 and renewed friendships/relationships with former bandmate Roger Waters, the release will not feature contributions from their former lyricist and primary songwriter (who recently wrapped up his record-setting world tour revival of The Wall, which will be encapsulated in a narrative/performance documentary film entitled Roger Waters: The Wall), but rather "ambient" compositions generated during writing sessions for The Division Bell album (small portions of which have circulated among collectors in recent years). The official press release for the album says that the album is intended to be "a tribute to Richard" Wright, who co-founded the band some 50 years ago, and who passed away in 2008. The album "is a mainly instrumental album with one song, ‘Louder Than Words’, (with new lyrics by Polly Samson), arranged across four sides and produced by David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson."

posted by gern (95 comments total)

Ugh...I want to be excited for this, but Gilmour w/o Waters is just not that great.

Also, I haven't visited a website with a "flash" landing page in so long that I didn't even remember to instantly search for the "SKIP" link at the bottom of the screen.
posted by sparklemotion at 11:28 AM on September 22, 2014

An album based on outtakes from the fucking Division Bell?
Are they engaged in some obscure competition to produce the least essential artifact in the history of the human race?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:34 AM on September 22, 2014 [29 favorites]

Well I hope its good, if only to give Richard Wright - whose contributions to PF's sound are often underrated - the tribute he deserves. Here's a short clip of him describing a particular transitional chord in 'Breathe.'
posted by googly at 11:34 AM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

I absolutely adored Gilmour's solo record "On an Island" and the live DVD that came a little later, so I'm optimistic about this. He's getting better with age.
posted by jbickers at 11:36 AM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, I don't know... Gilmour without Waters has his moments...
posted by gern at 11:37 AM on September 22, 2014 [5 favorites]

Oh no, is that really the album cover they went with? That's 2000's Rush album levels of cornball. What is it that causes all the great prog bands to completely lose their taste in graphic design in their advanced age?
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 11:38 AM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

thatwhichfalls: "Are they engaged in some obscure competition to produce the least essential artifact in the history of the human race?"

Which reminds me: how are your memoirs coming along?
posted by boo_radley at 11:39 AM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

Oh, I don't know... Gilmour without Waters has his moments...

Echoes was written in the 70s though, and I don't mean to denigrate Gilmour's performance/virtuosity. I just haven't been blown away by Gilmour's compositions since the split. I mean, On an Island is an OK album...but it's just missing something.

I want this to be good though. And I want to go back in time to keep myself from being too cheap to buy tickets to The Wall when Waters came through here a few years back.
posted by sparklemotion at 11:44 AM on September 22, 2014

Gilmour gets a free pass from me forever for getting Kate Bush her first gig.
posted by bonehead at 11:47 AM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

Well, I mean, it's not really Pink Floyd is it?
posted by dejah420 at 11:52 AM on September 22, 2014

What is it that causes all the great prog bands to completely lose their taste in graphic design in their advanced age?

You're saying prog bands had taste to begin with?
posted by entropicamericana at 11:56 AM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I love Pink Floyd all the way up through Momentary Lapse of Reason. But Roger Waters' leaving was the first block in the partition-made-of-blocks for me. (Maybe there's a better metaphor than that.) Or maybe it was when Syd left. He really gave the band a lot of character.

Without Waters, Pink Floyd wasn't as good, and without Pink Floyd, Roger Waters wasn't as good. (See Also: Van Halen/David Lee Roth). After his couple of kind of lackluster solo albums, Waters mainly went on to mine an old Pink Floyd album's material over and over again, tour after tour.

But without Richard Wright, well, eh. I guess I'll give it a listen and try to be optimistic. But goddamn, he was such a huge part of The Pink Floyd Sound.

I can't believe it's been 20 years since The Division Bell, which I still think of as "that new Pink Floyd album that I don't like."
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:00 PM on September 22, 2014 [12 favorites]

I for one am hugely excited about this. I am an absolutely massive Pink Floyd nut, and The Division Bell is probably my favourite album of theirs. This has absolutely made my day. Yay!
posted by Dysk at 12:04 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

But without Richard Wright, well, eh.

I'm not sure I understand your comment; Rick is in there, he just wasn't able to finish up the final polishing. It's all based on improvisations he participated in, and presumably using those tapes as the basis of everything. In fact, one of the more intriguing tidbits that came out was that it would include portions of a 1969 improvisation of Wright's.
posted by gern at 12:08 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

dejah420: "Well, I mean, it's not really Pink Floyd is it?"

How many bands from that era still have all of their defining members? I can't think of one off of the top of my head.
posted by octothorpe at 12:08 PM on September 22, 2014

This is your brain. Not on drugs. Is what I am afraid this will sound like; or as a long sequence of yawns. Worked good for 'breathe in the air' and a lot of DSOTM. Hope for the best; expecting little; and a $43 two LP set gatefold is too much honorarium for me to contemplate. I've got the DB if I want to contemplate the 'bought once and listened to twice' return of Pink Floyd.
posted by buzzman at 12:10 PM on September 22, 2014

The Division Bell, which I still think of as "that new Pink Floyd album that I don't like."

For me, that album is A Momentary Lapse of Reason which now feels very forgettable and very, very 1987.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:14 PM on September 22, 2014 [6 favorites]

Gilmour w/o Waters is just not that great.

Well, I mean, it's not really Pink Floyd is it?

But without Richard Wright, well, eh.

I'm surprised we haven't gotten back to "It ain't Floyd without Syd Barrett" yet - - but then again, I suppose it's already past the really old farts' bedtimes.
posted by fairmettle at 12:30 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I haven't really paid attention to Pink Floyd in a long time, but I'm oddly pleased to hear that Rogers and Gilmour made up.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:30 PM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

No Waters, no Floyd.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:42 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised we haven't gotten back to "It ain't Floyd without Syd Barrett" yet -

Hey! I did say that too!!
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:45 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't have high expectations for what appears to be the musical equivalent of a Jersey Turnpike, but I do think The Division Bell is a very good album, far better than the consensus here would suggest. There are a few filler tracks, but that could be said about any of the two albums that came before it.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:46 PM on September 22, 2014

Though to be honest, Floyd with Waters was kaputt anyway after The Wall. There he finally had given free reign to all his obsessions and it turned out he still couldn't get rid of them after all.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:46 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised we haven't gotten back to "It ain't Floyd without Syd Barrett" yet

Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett is also not that great.

Good Pink Floyd is a very delicate balance.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:49 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm also one of those heretics who thinks that the brief Syd Barrett era yielded several of the band's best songs along with many more of its worst ones.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:50 PM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

Next release on the gravy train: A Saucerful of Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before.
posted by hal9k at 12:51 PM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Rick is in there, he just wasn't able to finish up the final polishing.

Yeah, I worded it wrong. Would have been correct of me to say "Without Wright being alive, well, eh.". That there will be bits and pieces that he recorded is a plus, and is the reason that I'll try to be optimistic.
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:53 PM on September 22, 2014

I can always rely on Metafilter to remind me that my favorite band sucks.
posted by wallabear at 12:53 PM on September 22, 2014 [8 favorites]

I can always rely on Metafilter to remind me that my favorite band sucks.

To be fair, no one who is commenting in this thread is not a Pink Floyd fan. It's like ice cream, but we just have different opinions regarding the optimal toppings for our sundaes.

This new album seems like it will be Neapolitan, I mean, it would be better without that weird pink slice but I'll still eat some of the chocolate and vanilla.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:00 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I can always rely on Metafilter to remind me that my favorite band sucks.

Yeah, they had great albums. But releasing this stuff pretty much undermines everything Animals and Welcome To The Machine stood for back when I followed them in my youth. I'm pleasantly surprised at myself to have still held true to those ideals when my once favorite band cannot.
posted by hal9k at 1:02 PM on September 22, 2014

HEy! The weird pink slice is my favourite part!
posted by bonehead at 1:02 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

HEy! The weird pink slice is my favourite part!

And you're a Kate Bush fan. Case in point.

but really, kate bush is awesome and I would share my ice cream with her any day especially if that means that she will get on a plane or boat or something and come on a North American tour.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:07 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Curiosity will overcome my skepticism over this project to find out why the only song with words is titled 'Louder than words'. Surely the entire thing won't be that dopey.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:08 PM on September 22, 2014

I'm just gonna wait until iTunes tosses this on my playlist for free.
posted by TDavis at 1:08 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've got Waters solo stuff and the post-waters Floyd albums. Waters is a great lyricist but got far too strident (we get it, your dad died and war is bad). He's also thin on musical ideas. Gilmour, Waters, and Wright couldn't do lyrics but got the music right. Apples/Oranges.

This album is an auto-buy for me. Gilmour's last solo album and the Division Bell weren't up to the standard the band set in the 70s but still better than 90% of what's out there. But if they really wanted to pique my interest, issue an immersion box of Animals complete with one live show from that tour. I'd wait in line for that box.
posted by Ber at 1:08 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

An album based on outtakes from the fucking Division Bell?
Are they engaged in some obscure competition to produce the least essential artifact in the history of the human race?

Correcting for their mega-hit disco-beat albums, Division Bell is one of their best. The Gilmour/Waters debate ends with Final Cut. Now that's a shit album. (though, to be fair, Wright was not on the recording so it was doomed)
posted by GrapeApiary at 1:12 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I want to believe, but...

A couple of months ago I downloaded a boot of their '77 Boston Garden concert, which was mostly supporting Animals. It's 12 songs, including the encore:

Set I
Sheep
Pigs on the Wing 1
Dogs
Pigs on the Wing 2
Pigs (Three Different Ones)

Set II
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
Welcome to the Machine
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)

Encore:
Money
Us and Them

All killer, no filler; it's really good. Or maybe a little better than that -- the playing is powerful, dynamic, and brilliant. They pulled off live what they pulled off in the studio, which is no small feat given Floyd's flights of fancy in the studio. The live music explores some very nice spaces, and hearing it put a huge smile on my face. Back in the day -- or on this tour, at least -- these guys definitely brought it.

With that in mind, I'll listen to their new album with an open mind, although my hopes aren't very high. Most older musicians -- and I say this as someone who's now on the opposite side of 50 -- rarely reconnect with the energetic songwriting they had in their youth. They may still be able to rock and roll on any given night, but when it comes to writing new music, the new melodies tend to be musically complicated in ways that rob the music of its raw energy. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but they are just that -- exceptions. Nonetheless, I'll give it a listen and see if 20 year old PF, remixed and reheated, still packs the some of the punch of their earlier stuff.
posted by mosk at 1:13 PM on September 22, 2014 [6 favorites]

sparklemotion: "I'm surprised we haven't gotten back to "It ain't Floyd without Syd Barrett" yet

Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett is also not that great. "

YOU SHUT YOUR STINKY PIE HOLE!

It's a different Floyd, but honestly I prefer it generally. That said, 70s Floyd is strong - 80s Floyd, well...

I have such complex thoughts on Gilmour. I used to kinda hate him, seeing him as a late-comer (I admit I didn't know much about the band beyond the music til a few years ago), but it can't be denied he did provide some great tunes to the band. And some of Waters' work is a bit weak, but without Waters, yeah, I dunno - it just doesn't feel like it's really Floyd.

It's coming up on a year since my sister killed herself. She was 49, approaching 50. She loved Pink Floyd. My earliest exposure was probably through her. She tried to relate to me via such music, but other things prevented that. Before she killed herself, before I had known she was going to (we were mostly incommunicado) I was already doing a massive Floyd binge. So when I heard she died and was listening to Floyd so heavily, it really really hit me doubly so, because of that.

It's hard to listen to Echoes without that moment in time stuck in my head.

I probably won't give this one a go, just as I really didn't give Division Bell a go. But still, even if it's not my thing, I think it's great they're still going all these years, and haven't totally sold out or broken up.
posted by symbioid at 1:14 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

If you liked the Boston Gardens show, you should definitely track down the MSG show from July '77. The second set especially is so clear as to almost sound like an official release.
posted by gern at 1:15 PM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Man, I love me some Pink Floyd. But yeah, DB was a terrible album and it hurts me deep inside to downthumb it when it comes up on Pandora - but just so.... blah.

I want to like it, but I just do not.

I will check out this album, however, because when Pink Floyd connects, they hit it out of the park. It is unfortunate that Gilmour and Waters hate each other so much, but, well, so it goes.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:22 PM on September 22, 2014

I'm in full agreement that Pink Floyd without Roger Waters is not The Pink Floyd Sound. If you want a real horror, go back and try to listen to Roger Waters' execrable solo album Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. Bring some benzos for recovery.

Unicorn chaser: Live at Pompeii to remember what Pink Floyd really was.
posted by Nelson at 1:27 PM on September 22, 2014 [5 favorites]

boo_radley:"Which reminds me: how are your memoirs coming along?

Pretty well, thanks for asking. I've led a complex, interesting and, at times, rather weird life and by the time I get to the third draft my prose is pretty good.
Of course, it doesn't contain twenty year old material originally rejected from my poorest work for being too weak, so you may not enjoy it.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:37 PM on September 22, 2014 [9 favorites]

I'm just going to have to admit that my curiosity is going to get the better of me on this. on the other hand, I didn't fall victim to the overpriced boxed sets that were released over the last couple of years, so maybe I'll be able to wait until some tracks are on YouTube and I can judge for myself rather than buy it unheard.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:45 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Nelson: I'm in full agreement that Pink Floyd without Roger Waters is not The Pink Floyd Sound. If you want a real horror, go back and try to listen to Roger Waters' execrable solo album Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. Bring some benzos for recovery.


Pros & Cons is genius compared to Radio KAOS.

I do rather like Amused to Death, though. Closest Roger's come to Pink Floyd quality since going solo. Better than either Gilmour-led Floyd record.
posted by SansPoint at 1:50 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

How many bands from that era still have all of their defining members? I can't think of one off of the top of my head.

ZZ Top
posted by stenseng at 2:06 PM on September 22, 2014 [6 favorites]

Are they running out of money or something because they have really been milking the well over the past few years with the box sets and the remasters, and now this. I wish they could just get together and make a fucking album.
posted by marienbad at 2:09 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Proposition: Animals is the best Pink Floyd album. Not as over played as DSotM, not as overwrought and pompous as The Wall, more coherent than Meddle, less waffly than Wish You Were Here.

Plus it has sheep learning karate and murdering everyone which is possibly Pink Floyd's only truly funny moment.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:21 PM on September 22, 2014 [8 favorites]

The album "is a mainly instrumental album with one song, ‘Louder Than Words’, (with new lyrics by Polly Samson), arranged across four sides and produced by David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson."

honestly, this is about the best I would ever have hoped for. David Gilmour may not be much for songwriting but he's got a great ear for texture. And that recent album he did with The Orb wasn't bad. So here's hoping
posted by philip-random at 2:25 PM on September 22, 2014

Proposition: Animals is the best Pink Floyd album.

I can get behind that.

However, I still have a real soft spot for Atom Heart Mother. That and Animals are the two albums I still listen to with any regularity.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:33 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I can always rely on Metafilter to remind me that my favorite band sucks.

To be fair, no one who is commenting in this thread is not a Pink Floyd fan.

Metafilter: My favorite band sucks
posted by polecat at 2:33 PM on September 22, 2014 [13 favorites]

Pretty well, thanks for asking. I've led a complex, interesting and, at times, rather weird life and by the time I get to the third draft my prose is pretty good.
Of course, it doesn't contain twenty year old material originally rejected from my poorest work for being too weak, so you may not enjoy it.

I'm already far more interested in your memoirs than this crusty-ass cash-in.
posted by Edgewise at 2:51 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

However, I still have a real soft spot for Atom Heart Mother. That and Animals are the two albums I still listen to with any regularity.

Ooh good call. Naming that as the best would smack of hipsterism, but I unironically love the 30 min title track, that cello line is so lyrical and lovely.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:52 PM on September 22, 2014

Expectation/Reputation is a funny thing. The Wall (and its legions of followers) just takes itself so fucking seriously as The Greatest Most Important Album Of All Time that I can't stand listening to it, although in reality it's got a few songs I do enjoy and the a bunch of other meh's. Division Bell, on the other hand, is generally shrugged at and forgotten, and I can play it without any accompanying baggage, and I fucking love it. Yeah a few meh filler tracks, but overall I think it's a great album.

All that being said, I made the mistake of saying I preferred DB over TW on another site awhile back and boy did I get shit on. Hell hath no fury like a The Wall fan scorned.

I think I'd agree with Animals and Atom Heart as my two personal favorites of theirs, but they're also the first two I ever heard.
posted by mannequito at 3:07 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Bottom line: more Gilmour guitar to listen to. There's no downside to that.
posted by davebush at 3:09 PM on September 22, 2014 [6 favorites]

Sebmojo: Proposition: Animals is the best Pink Floyd album.

I would rank it as the most underrated, but I don't see why one would dock an album for being overplayed. Dark Side of the Moon still wins on the merits in my book, even though it's the "chalk" pick, and yes, it gets a lot of airplay.

Ooh good call. Naming that as the best would smack of hipsterism, but I unironically love...

Sigh. It's so sad that one feels the need to include a disclaimer like this just to defend liking something. Remember when "this sounds great / makes me think / makes me feel things" was good enough?
posted by tonycpsu at 3:14 PM on September 22, 2014

Hah! I listened to the Division Bell on repeat last Friday for the first time in probably 10 or so years. It was excellent! The best part was that I didn't know every song cold. I actually got to listen to the album. I'll agree Animals is good, but I heard the snot out of it before the Division Bell and also subsequently after. I can't say I've gotten to hear the Division Bell as much - which meant that it was really really fun to listen to. It's okay to like things that aren't as good as other things.
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:28 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

mannequito: I think I'd agree with Animals and Atom Heart as my two personal favorites of theirs, but they're also the first two I ever heard.

Lemme guess: The Wall and Zabriskie Point are your least favorite?
posted by gern at 3:28 PM on September 22, 2014

Proposition: Animals is the best Pink Floyd album.
I can get behind that.
Not sure about 'best', but it's probably the album that I listen to most often. I'm not sure it's even possible to pick a 'best' album when there is so much variation.

I'm in the camp that believe the Pink Floyd that included Waters and Gilmour was the best incarnation by a log shot. Their songwriting styles balance each other out nicely and I think that's clear in both their solo work - it's great, but it could be so much better if they didn't have their own way quite so much.

I guess only hard-core fans are really going to buy the album (and kids looking for something to buy Dad for christmas - no coincidence in the timing of the release, I'm sure). It's not the sort of thing that grabs people on first listen and you need to hear most of their stuff several times before it really grabs you. One of the strengths of the Waters/Gilmour writing duo was they produced such a wide range of work that there was something on an album that resonated with everyone. Writing alone, they don't quite have the knack of creating work that appeals broadly.
posted by dg at 3:34 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's okay to like things that aren't as good as other things.

This. I get so frustrated by people casually dismissing huge chunks of a band's discography because the albums aren't equal to their (perceived) apex.
posted by davebush at 3:56 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Mmmmm. The latest product from Pink Floyd, Inc. I can't tell if it's irony or not.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:05 PM on September 22, 2014

Pros & Cons is genius compared to Radio KAOS.

I really wanted to like "Radio K.A.O.S", I really did...but I didn't. Gilmour & Co. did better that same year with "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" but yeah, it just wasn't the same.
posted by MikeMc at 4:10 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh by the way, which one's Pink?
posted by Pendragon at 4:13 PM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

SILENCE IN THE STUDIO!
posted by parki at 4:25 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Atom Heart Mother also has "Summer '68" which is a really good Richard Wright song.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:28 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think the pinnacle for Pink Floyd happened in Pompeii.
posted by parki at 4:31 PM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

There have been a few times in my life when Pink Floyd really hit home as deeply as any music can. They were all a long time ago, and never when that music was new - it was all coincidence, of discovery, of where I was, of what was happening around me, of the particular paths I was hacking though the jungle. The music was out there and had been for a while but when I found it, it stuck and it bound.

Those dice will never fall that way again. I am more barnacle than hull, these days. Does my favourite band suck? The me and the music are none of us what we were. But I don't blame the boys in the band for that.

There's no car I can drive today that has half the thrill of he Mini I had when I was 19. That's not the fault of the car maker.
posted by Devonian at 5:33 PM on September 22, 2014 [13 favorites]

Gilmour can do no wrong IMO. I am glad that if any PF material is laying around it is seeing the light of day. I don't get downing it before you've even heard it?
posted by chip mcdonald at 7:00 PM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

There was a concert at Knebworth, 'round 90 or 91 which MTV ran the highlights of. The Watersless Floyd headlined. By the time they came on it was raining. I remember Gilmour soloing with that big circular screen behind him and the rain pelting down. It was a magnificent image.
posted by Ber at 8:55 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pink Floyd's been releasing the weirdest little b-sides lately. I mean, they even released a piece of their unreleased album Household Objects a few years ago. (I actually kind of like the piece a lot)

With all this, they still haven't seen fit to release Seabirds, the really fantastic song that at present is only available half-audible under poorly acted dialog in the film More. They should really get on this!
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 9:19 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Careful With Those Outtakes, Eugene
posted by infinitewindow at 9:40 PM on September 22, 2014 [6 favorites]

I'm with Hans Keller. It's too loud. ;)

Pretty cool moment to be able to anticipate the release of a Floyd album. A first for me. I feel doubly-spoiled with the prospect of David and Roger both releasing solo albums next year. I've loved a ton of their solo work, as much as I wish for more of it together.

But alas, as with smoking cigarettes, it took me a long time to get into Floyd. I tried everything, but nothing worked. With Floyd I certainly enjoyed the cuts that made it to radio play -- mostly "The Wall" cuts like "Saturday Night", "My Charona", and "Sussudio" -- but never "got" them, never hooked onto that special meaning that their albums held for other musical friends of mine. With cigarettes, same thing: I'd tried everything: hypnosis, the patch, subliminal tapes. The few cigs I managed to smoke, I didn't smoke well. So, defeated, finally, I gave up. Clearly the tobacco industry wasn't trying to reach me.

But at least Floyd was. A lot of their revered tracks and albums didn't click with me for years. But when they finally did, it was that "Oh!" moment. Like that guy at the party that finally gets the joke that was told 20 minutes ago. Or 20 years ago. So when It finally clicked, I was like a parakeet stuck on permababble, I then wouldn't shut up about how awesome Floyd was, to any person or vaguely human-looking painting or garden sculpture in the neighbor's yard.

Anyways, this unexpected thrill will do. Wonder if they've got it yet?

tl;dr: I like Floyd. New album? Yay.
posted by Flippervault at 10:35 PM on September 22, 2014

After WYWH, Waters' influence grew and PF's quality dropped. I mean, The Wall and Animals, esp the latter, are great albums. But as was said above, post-Barrett PF is a delicate balance between Waters and Gilmour. After 1975 it tipped in favor of Waters, with ever worse results.

I like MLR, but mainly for sentimental reasons. It's not great work, and really hardly is even PF. DB I never got into. I suspect the others who have similar reactions and I are all early 40s.

Some of the Syd PF was genius. Some was filler. Almost none was as good as what they put out in 72-75. Then again DSM and WYWH are surely two of the ten greatest rock albums ever.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:47 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Btw, this thread is why I love MF.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:48 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm really sorry, symbiod. That's tough.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:50 PM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't want to spam the thread. But here I go. Gilmour is one of the 10 greatest rock guitarists ever. Just brilliant.

Ok, Animals is their third-best album. Though I can't hear it anymore for reasons not totally different from symbiod's. Anyway, it has too much of Waters' influence on it. I think Piper is better than the Wall, though. So maybe I'm just too anti-RW.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:55 PM on September 22, 2014

I think the pinnacle for Pink Floyd happened in

wherever they were playing when they recorded the live sides of Ummagumma.
posted by philip-random at 12:17 AM on September 23, 2014

The Final Cut is underrated. I've been saying that since even before Pitchfork has been saying that.

(pushes up several pairs of thick-frame glasses)
(smirks until the corners of the mouth turn into spirals, a la The Grinch)
(winks three times in the right eye and four times in the left)
(explodes)
(cue "The Gunner's Dream")
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:37 AM on September 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

Here is the list, ranked in definitive order. You're welcome. Carry on.

1. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
2. Animals
3. Ummagumma
4. Atom Heart Mother
5. The Dark Side of the Moon
6. A Saucerful of Secrets
7. Meddle
8. Obscured By Clouds
9. Wish You Were Here
10. The Wall
11. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
12. The Division Bell
13. The Final Cut
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:00 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

ooooh, let me try one:

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

favorite song: "Free Four" from Obscured by Clouds
posted by GrapeApiary at 7:40 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Final Cut is underrated.

I'm with you, except for me it'd be "Paranoid Eyes".
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:17 AM on September 23, 2014

Pink Floyd, ranked:
Studio Albums:
1. Wish You Were Here
2. Meddle
3. Dark Side of the Moon
4. Animals
5. The Division Bell
6. The Wall
7. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
8. The Final Cut
9. A Saucerful of Secrets
10. Piper at the Gates of Dawn
11. Atom Heart Mother
12. Ummagumma

Soundtracks:
1. Obscured by Clouds
2. (Re-recorded stuff for The Wall film)
3. More
4. Zabriskie Point

Live Discs:
1. (That 77 MSG show I mentioned earlier)
2. Pompeii
3. Pulse
4. (70-74 BBC Stuff)
5. Is There Anybody Out There?
6. (Unreleased, Pro-shot Atlanta '87 Show)
7. Delicate Sound of Thunder
8. Ummagumma

Solo Albums:
1. David Gilmour
2. Amused to Death
3. Pros & Cons
4. About Face
5. Wet Dream
6. Broken China
7. On an Island
8. The Body
9. Fictitious Sports

(I suppose this outs me as a bit of a fan...)

Oh, by the way, fans of the Wish You Were Here/Animals era (and/or Pink Floyd's legendary studio prowess) should track down a disc that leaked not too long ago called The Extraction Tapes.
posted by gern at 9:33 AM on September 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

(I should probably have mentioned somewhere in the original post that "The Big Spliff" was the original name given by Nick Mason to the album of Division Bell outtakes. They discussed releasing a collection back when that album first came out, but it got shelved.)
posted by gern at 9:37 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Proposition: Animals is the best Pink Floyd album.

It's a good album, not a bad choice for a best album, as would Wish You Were Here or Atom Heart Mother (Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is a favourite) but really, Dark Side of the Moon is better than all three of them, no matter how boring a choice it is. They got everything right on it: music, lyrics, themes, all that hanging on in quiet desperation but not without some humour.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:05 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Final Cut is underrated.

I probably agree, but I can't listen to it because it releases all of my Late Cold War, Operation Ryan/Able Archer nuclear paranoia (two suns in the sunset).
posted by MartinWisse at 11:11 AM on September 23, 2014

And no love for Tonite Let's All Make Love in London?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:13 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Gilmour/Waters debate ends with Final Cut. Now that's a shit album

I like to think of The Final Cut as Roger Waters' first & best solo album (which is more less true, given the diminished and/or complete lack of particpation from the rest of Pink Floyd on that record), in which case it's Roger Waters' best work.
posted by KingEdRa at 11:27 AM on September 23, 2014

Sorry to say everyone's favorite unappreciated album sucks, but I just listed to The Final Cut again and the best I can say for it is that it's not very long. It's just full of shouty Waters shouting unmusically. And all the politics stuff hasn't aged well, I could only appreciate it as a period piece. To put it a different way: Maggie Thatcher makes for a shitty muse.

But now I've put on Meddle and I'm happy and transported back to my feckless high school youth. both Echoes and One of These Days are some of my favorite music of theirs. I remember when I was 14 and making my pirate cassette tape on a 90 minute tape. I reversed the two album sides so that Echoes would be at the beginning of the tape so I could more easily listen to it over and over again.

Now where did I put my copy of Blue Bell Knoll?
posted by Nelson at 11:49 AM on September 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

You guys with numbered lists of albums are forgetting the fact that the greatest thing Floyd ever made didn't originally appear on any album.
posted by jbickers at 12:01 PM on September 23, 2014

Heh - I just saw this little treat posted on Reddit.

Object in the new Wasteland game...
posted by symbioid at 12:54 PM on September 23, 2014

I like to think of The Final Cut as Roger Waters' first & best solo album ...
I get where you're coming from and it seems right, given that it's almost entirely his work with the other band members acting as session musicians mostly, but I still prefer to think of it as Pink Floyd's last real album. Which I know is kind of unfair on the rest of the band, but it's simply not the same without Waters in much the same way it would have not been the same had Waters stayed and Gilmour gone. Still good, but just not the same.

I also think The Final Cut is well underrated - it's not something you can listen to in the background because it makes no sense that way, but worth listening to and it's often my choice when I'm on the train and don't feel like reading - plug the headphones in, turn the volume up and dive in. Two Suns in the Sunset, especially. I definitely don't think the album was improved by having When the Tigers Broke Free tacked on the end in the later release, but easily fixed in these days of MP3 - I just removed it from that album. I think, though, that it might have been a good addition at the start of the album, had it been there from the beginning. I've often wondered why it wasn't included in the album version of The Wall (which I played almost to death on cassette in my first car).
posted by dg at 1:50 PM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

I definitely don't think the album was improved by having When the Tigers Broke Free tacked on the end in the later release, but easily fixed in these days of MP3 - I just removed it from that album. I think, though, that it might have been a good addition at the start of the album, had it been there from the beginning. I've often wondered why it wasn't included in the album version of The Wall (which I played almost to death on cassette in my first car).

But it wasn't included at the end... it was inserted as the fourth song.

Still, not a substantial addition to the album. Seemed more like George Lucas-esque historical revisionism.
posted by gern at 3:15 PM on September 23, 2014

it was inserted as the fourth song.
Huh, didn't know that. The only 'revised' copy of the album I have is a downloaded one that has this numbered as the last track. Still doesn't seem to fit well there, but I might listen to it in that order and see.
posted by dg at 5:15 PM on September 23, 2014

Reliving that Cold War paranoia and constant underlying dread of nuclear holocaust is why I love The Final Cut. Maybe you had to be there.
posted by bigbigdog at 5:29 PM on September 23, 2014

Speaking of solo work from the PF crew, Nick Mason has done some interesting stuff.

Fictitious Sport
Profiles
A Tree Full Of Secrets
posted by Pouteria at 7:07 AM on September 24, 2014

The consensus here saddens me. The Division Bell is a beautiful album, and stands up well after all these years. Poles Apart, Lost For Words and High Hopes in particular are elegant classics. And its two instrumentals - Cluster One and Marooned - are exquisite, favorably comparable to the chilled-out instrumental passages in Echoes, Shine On and Dogs. A whole album of instrumentals from the same era? Yes please!
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 7:25 AM on September 26, 2014 [2 favorites]