Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

The Endless River (Pink Floyd) | 2/5

SINGAPORE - It’s hard to be completely objective about this project, dubbed the final Pink Floyd album. It almost comes across as the ultimate middle finger to former member Roger Waters - who famously remarked that the band was a spent force when leaving 30 years ago. First of all, The Endless River is mostly instrumental (Waters wrote all the lyrics previously); secondly, the tracks rehash (and echo) many of the musical themes from the iconic Pink Floyd back catalogue and finally, it’s a tribute to the late keyboardist Richard Wright (whom Waters had sacked during the recording of The Wall). But, once one is able to think logically, it’s clear that Waters was absolutely right. As inferior as A Momentary Lapse of Reason and Division Bell were, at least there was a semblance of a concept to sell them. There is no point to The Endless River whatsoever. The music is bland and empty even if superficially containing all the elements of Pink Floyd music. Ironically, the only song Louder Than Words (with lyrics by David Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson) seems to reflect the Floyd acrimony - “We bitch and we fight/Diss each other on sight/But this thing we do” - and ends up highlighting how shallow the entire exercise is. Time to put the creaking machine down.

SINGAPORE - It’s hard to be completely objective about this project, dubbed the final Pink Floyd album. It almost comes across as the ultimate middle finger to former member Roger Waters - who famously remarked that the band was a spent force when leaving 30 years ago. First of all, The Endless River is mostly instrumental (Waters wrote all the lyrics previously); secondly, the tracks rehash (and echo) many of the musical themes from the iconic Pink Floyd back catalogue and finally, it’s a tribute to the late keyboardist Richard Wright (whom Waters had sacked during the recording of The Wall). But, once one is able to think logically, it’s clear that Waters was absolutely right. As inferior as A Momentary Lapse of Reason and Division Bell were, at least there was a semblance of a concept to sell them. There is no point to The Endless River whatsoever. The music is bland and empty even if superficially containing all the elements of Pink Floyd music. Ironically, the only song Louder Than Words (with lyrics by David Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson) seems to reflect the Floyd acrimony - “We bitch and we fight/Diss each other on sight/But this thing we do” - and ends up highlighting how shallow the entire exercise is. Time to put the creaking machine down.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.