Review Summary: Although a nice goodbye, Pink Floyd is unable to produce anything new to get excited over.
Pink Floyd is without debate one of the most revered and praise bands of all time. Albums such as The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, and Pipers at the Gates of Dawn have had a great impact and influence on the development of psychedelic and progressive rock. After a while, the band hit a writer’s block and struggled through the 80’s and 90s, finally calling it quits after their 1994 release, The Division Bell.
Now twenty years later, Pink Floyd is releasing their fifteenth and final studio album, and the first without keyboardist Richard Wright, although he appears posthumously on this record. Now without Wright or Roger Waters, this David Gilmore led Pink Floyd compiles hours of unreleased material recorded in the Division Bell era into a composite work entitled The Endless River.
The Endless River is constructed of mostly instrumental material, with no vocals appearing until the final track. Most of these recordings are very reminiscent of what we all know Pink Floyd as, sorrowful guitar leads and vast ambient backdrops. This album doesn’t bring much new to the table except for maybe nostalgia.
The standard edition of The Endless River is almost an hour long and that does seem to be a bit much for this record. Although there are some enjoyable moments on this record, especially towards the beginning of the album on tracks like “Skin”, these get a bit lost in this expansive project that doesn’t really go anywhere.
Many of these tracks are under two minutes long, and feel more like samples of unfinished ideas instead of fully developed songs. Although Gilmore does a fine job of making these tracks flow into each other rather smoothly, it doesn’t feel like they have any direction. There never is much of a climax to The Endless River, and eventually listening to it just becomes a blur.
“Louder Than Words” is the final track on this album and serves as its single. The track opens up with some synth and a piano melody accompanied with acoustic guitars. Subtle guitar leads flourish over the tracks as Gilmore sings Floyd’s trademark philosophical lyrical ideas. In other words, this is pretty much classic Floyd attempting to create something fresh in a new era of music. Unfortunately, this song just isn’t the monumental finisher and goodbye I think the band wanted to create. It just somewhat exists, much like the entirety of this album.
The Endless River has its moments. Although it was not entirely necessary, it is a nice goodbye from one of rock’s greatest acts. This record just never really has the chance to pick up momentum and doesn’t bring any excitement to the listener. If you are looking for the next great installment in Floyd’s decorated catalogue, you may be disappointed.
