Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason Review

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Did Pink Floyd benefit from the departure of Roger Waters? If A Momentary Lapse of Reason is evidence for the positive steps taken by the now David Gilmour-fronted band, then yes. But look further and at the attempts made by sloppy, Canva-made EP releases on Spotify and the answer is no. Where Pink Floyd holds firm is in their critical assessment of themselves, their business and their country. When this was loosened by The Final Cut it felt like a necessary lift to remove Waters from the picture. But A Momentary Lapse of Reason has big shoes to fill. A lack of self-belief and a rudderless experiment in what would happen when their ideas man abandoned them collapses A Momentary Lapse of Reason. This would mark a permanent slip of quality. It sounds more like the remnants of Yes are tied up in the studio. 

Signs of Life is an ironic flatliner of a piece but Learning to Fly has landed in the good graces. Through luck and luck alone, it lingers on as one of the more memorable Gilmour-led era pieces. Pink Floyd’s identity has slipped away by this stage. Instead of progressive rock makers, they become noisy guitar fiddlers. Even the highs of The Dogs of War sound lifeless. A motionless rock effort stuffed full of brass and saxophone. Gilmour is unconvincing as the steely and gruff frontman. It just does not work. These riffs and occasions, particularly One Slip, sound like what Mark Knopfler would come up with and subsequently discard. Flatlining, lifeless experiences. Every track. They do very little to bring with them the presence of a changing of the guard. Gilmour and the remnants of the band try their best to keep order but in doing so lose the chance to grow into something vibrant and new.  

Much like The Final Cut was a glorified Waters solo album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason is a simple attempt at a Gilmour piece. Flickers of basic rock life can be heard through On the Turning Away but this is a static period Pink Floyd had grown out of. They had experimented themselves away from this type of sound a decade before the release of this album. Even when Gilmour explodes with guitar envy on Yet Another Movie, it sounds jaded and hollow. An indifferent collection of tracks which come from the lacklustre tour Gilmour had experienced when releasing his solo work. A Momentary Lapse in Reason would not be overshadowed by the legal ramifications of the time had it featured an ounce of ingenuity or quality. Yet the stresses of the time mean the album flatlines and little of what makes Pink Floyd such an outrageous creative force is lacking here. 

Shallow at the best of times, A Momentary Lapse of Reason fails to mount a continuation of the fury Waters felt during his heyday. The final nail in the coffin is being unable to sound better or hold stronger experiences than the messy final album Waters provided, The Final Cut. Flat and underwhelming is the constant, heartbreaking feature throughout. Gilmour has a stunning lack of confidence in his lyrical appearances, and it means the likes of Terminal Frost become glitzy and underwhelming instrumentals instead. A hollow interpretation of Pink Floyd. The magic did not leave with Waters, it had long since dried up. What killed the flow was their positioning on the world around them. Personalised ineffectiveness torpedoed their momentum.