New Pink Floyd album

Cirrus

Funny how so many people are down on Water's musical abilities. He's the one who wrote most of the songs, don't forget - great lyrics and melodies, and often very interesting rhythms and riffs- he came up with the 7/4 in Money for example. And yes, I saw Ca Ira performed in Poznan a few years back. Also as a bassist I think Roger has a great sense of groove having seen him live several times. That's something very few people have. I actually think Mason is musically the weakest link - part of the Floyd sound is his ability to boil every part down to essentially 4/4, and even 20 years ago there was another percussionist often playing the more intricate rhythms.

Meanwhile, I think Gilmour is essentially a blues musician who knows the old blues lead tricks but has taken them into a different musical context with added delay and fuzz. He can play an awesome lick but usually his songs are atmospheric vehicles for his soloing.

I guess I'm more of an ideas /concept guy.

Octahedron

Pink Floyd? New album? I guess my trip to the doctors ($35) for sleep pills prescribed (additional $50) could've been significantly a smaller bill then. 

Boring. Overrated. Done. Endless river of boredom. Never understood the need or hype over Floyd. Someone wanna try and convert me? I'm demanding a refund from the doctor. 

Danny1969

Cirrus said:

Funny how so many people are down on Water's musical abilities. He's the one who wrote most of the songs, don't forget - great lyrics and melodies, and often very interesting rhythms and riffs- he came up with the 7/4 in Money for example. And yes, I saw Ca Ira performed in Poznan a few years back. Also as a bassist I think Roger has a great sense of groove having seen him live several times. That's something very few people have. I actually think Mason is musically the weakest link - part of the Floyd sound is his ability to boil every part down to essentially 4/4, and even 20 years ago there was another percussionist often playing the more intricate rhythms.

Meanwhile, I think Gilmour is essentially a blues musician who knows the old blues lead tricks but has taken them into a different musical context with added delay and fuzz. He can play an awesome lick but usually his songs are atmospheric vehicles for his soloing.

I guess I'm more of an ideas /concept guy.

Amen to all this

Fact is if it wasn't for the genius of Waters they would all have been bankrupt in the late seventies, Waters pretty much saved the band with the choice of 2 completely written albums, The Wall and The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. The hardest musical skill of all is the writing 

People play different parts on albums all the time. One of the trickiest tracks on the Wall is Mother. Waters is playing the acoustic guitar, session drummer Jeff Porcaro is playing the drums. Gilmour couldn't get the guitar part right on "Is there anybody out there" so they got a session guy to do it. Gilmour plays bass on some tracks  but you can hear a lot of the bass is Waters as well. 

Fuzzdog

I'm still not sure where people get the idea that Waters never played bass on Floyd records - the closest Gilmour has come to saying that is saying that he played 'maybe half' of the bass on the later stuff, purely as he liked to go in and get things done and not wait for Waters rather than any lack of ability on the Roger front.  

Roger has a certain groove on bass which is actually quite hard to imitate - it's sloppy and basic, yet still somehow rather funky.  You can hear it all over the Floyd catalogue, whereas David's is a lot more precise and, dare I say, dull.  It's quite amusing that most of the reputation Waters has for being a bad bass player probably comes from stuff that he didn't actually play bass on.

Back on topic, I relented and gave The Endless River another listen last night - it's still okay.  Some good bits which don't really develop into anything more.  I still don't like Gilmour's recent tone, and I want to do very violent things to his Whammy pedal to ensure he never uses it again.  Love Nick's drum sound, even if it doesn't really sit that well with the rest of the mix at times.  I think there was bass on there, but can't remember a note of it.  Keyboards were superbly classic Rick.  Still 6/10.

Now I'll have some coffee and possibly become less of a grumpy bastard.

stickyfiddle

I've listened a few times to the new one. It's, erm, ok, I guess. Not bad at all, just nothing that grabs me in any way. The first 2 tracks are such an obvious nod to WYWH (album, not song) that they make me feel I'd rather just listen to that.  

Cirrus

Octahedron;408906" said:

Pink Floyd? New album? I guess my trip to the doctors ($35) for sleep pills prescribed (additional $50) could've been significantly a smaller bill then. 

Boring. Overrated. Done. Endless river of boredom. Never understood the need or hype over Floyd. Someone wanna try and convert me? I'm demanding a refund from the doctor. 

I guess Animals is for me the best album. Hard hitting socio-political commentary from the lyrics, and great songs that while long somehow seem more urgent and vital than most of the rest of their catalogue.

Gassage

Re using a line here, but I have to say, after the bleak visions of the Waters post apocalyptic world, listening to modern Floyd like Learning to Fly seems to be more about the eternal humanitarian struggle that is tax offsetting.

mike_l

I rather enjoyed the new Floyd album. Although I could definetly hear "The Division Bell" style coming through. I don't think it'll do any harm to Floyd at all.

I daresay regurgitating The Wall, DSOTM or WYWH may do the legacy a bit (with the older fans)

Alnico

I discovered Floyd in 1980 when my dad bought 'The Wall' brand new. I was 8 years old and it had a profound effect on me. That was the year I started playing guitar and some of the acoustic parts on that album were my first songs I learned to play on my dad's guitar.
In 1981 after hearing his copy of 'Wish you were here' I got him to get me a copy of 'Dark Side of the moon' and 'Animals' and that formed the basis of my listening until 1983 when I got my first electric guitar and started learning to play as much of it as I could.

Those four albums are not only the soundtrack to my youth but for me they typify what Pink Floyd is, or more to the point, was.

What has come since Roger Waters departed has always been good in its own way but it's never been the same sound or the same feeling. They should never have carried on with the Pink Floyd name, neither should Roger have done. Without each other they are not Pink Floyd.

I am a massive fan of all of their music and I love hearing the Pink Floyd classics played by any of them but I only have to play a live performance from the 70's to realise is just a modern jam session with lots of expensive equipment.
'is there anybody out there', 1979/80 Earls Court is possibly the finest live performance I have ever heard from any band. Sheer class. This happened at the height of the tension between them all but that maniacal whirlwind produced such amazing results.

I think a huge amount of David Gilmour and I still mourn Rick Wright and the loss we have all endured but I can't ever really hear their music post 1984 as anything other than David Gilmours band.

The new album is a lovely piece of music and while it seems to be lacking in structure I think it's a great piece for fans, especially musicians. I don't think it's an album as people expect but as a concept I like it and I'm glad I can add it to my collection.
I'm certainly grateful that they released it.

richardhomer

My copy hasn't arrived yet.

My expectations aren't terribly high, based on my understanding of how it was made and the limitations those circumstances present.

That said, I love Gilmour's playing, I love Richard Wright's playing and can't wait to hear it.

mike_l

@richardhomer  ; Don't expect anything. Don't go in with pre-conceived ideas. and enjoy the listening.

It did make my drive to work much better less shit this morning.

richardhomer

mike_l;409101" said:

It did make my drive to work much better less shit this morning.

Is that what is known as 'damning with faint praise'?

Fretwired

richardhomer said:

My copy hasn't arrived yet.

My expectations aren't terribly high, based on my understanding of how it was made and the limitations those circumstances present.

That said, I love Gilmour's playing, I love Richard Wright's playing and can't wait to hear it.

Basically if you buy the deluxe version there are enough tracks to make an excellent album by ditching the dross. It's grown on me so I'd now give it 8/10 based on the fact I've created a playlist on my iPod of the best bits.

mike_l

richardhomer said:

mike_l;409101" said:

It did make my drive to work much better less shit this morning.

Is that what is known as 'damning with faint praise'?

The drive, as always, was shit, listening to the Floyd album wasn't. It may be an album of stuff that was cut from the album(s) but I really enjoyed listening to it.

richardhomer

^ I have every expectation that is how I'll find it. Or to put it another way, I'd rather hear it than not - even if it is stuff from the cutting room floor.

mike_l

^^ I really enjoyed it, possibly more so than I expected......

ElectricNoodle

Loved it, wasn't sure what to expect, but I loved all the nods to previous work in it, there was even a bit that came straight out of the weird thing they did where they had Arther C Clarke talking about fractals and the Mandelbrot set, with Gilmour playing guitar in between!  

ToneControl

Guitarse said:

As for Waters, I've not really liked anything Floyd did after he left - he may have been a curmudgeonly old bastard, but I think Dave needs that sort of conflict to make interesting music and bring out the best in his playing.


Couldn't agree more! Without Waters he's Dave Gilbore!

When Waters left, I spent money I couldn't afford too easily on the Pros and cons of Hitch-hiking LP. Personally I hated it, and all the other Waters stuff I heard later. Also hated "The Final cut" - which I felt was a fake PF album - that I also foolishly bought.

Conversely, whilst not the same style as it had been, I still really liked the Pink Floyd stuff that followed Water's departure

I think I preferred stuff like Echoes to all the DSOTM type stuff (even though I do love DOTM). Not saying Waters isn't a good writer, just I think PF's strength was not songs, but instrumentals

I would have thought the difference since Waters left was less about no one bringing out the best in DG's playing, and more about having a different dominant band leader, with more focus on Guitar - even though ironically DG's vocals are far better. DG & his Mrs seem to go for more impressionistic lyrics, rather than angst-loaded narratives, which is a bit of a relief sometimes

richardhomer

^ I like 'The Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking' - not least of which is because it contains some fantastic guitar playing from Eric Clapton.

He seemed to really push EC on that record - and having relit the fire in him, he went on to make 'Behind The Sun' which featured some of the best playing of Eric's career.

Danny1969

Clapton did the tour in 84 as well, not sure who did the 85 dates. I really like that record as well