Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)

It's kind of a shame that the first Pink Floyd albums in this blog are the worst ones. Like I said in my previous post, I used to get Pink Floyd albums from my dad whenever he went abroad and this was one of them. A Momentary Lapse of Reason, in my mind, is not even a proper Pink Floyd Album as Roger Waters had left the band and the sound had changed significantly. Back in the day I never really even truly listened to this album, because I couldn't stand the strong 80's sounds. Now that I listen to this album as a part of this blog project and I have familiarised myself more with some of the 80's music that I didn't appreciate before, I actually enjoyed some bits. I feel like this album would be quite good in its own standing, but the fact that all the prior Pink Floyd albums are so much better kind of decreases its value.



As always, the album cover is very cool. The beds in the desert is an artistic image that drew me into this album back in the day. I remember being disappointed about the music though. Before I was introduced to this album I had always really liked all of Pink Floyd's music and I considered it one of the best bands in the world. When I took bass classes in a jazz school, my band teacher once pointed out that my bass playing reminded him of Pink Floyd. It was well spotted considering that back in that time when I was about 18 years old, Pink Floyd was one of my most listened to bands.

If I have to pick one song from this album that I like the best, it must be The Dogs of War. This song reminds me of some of the darker songs on The Wall, which in my opinion is the last true Pink Floyd album and one of the best ones at that.

One of the great things about the fact that Pink Floyd carried on making songs in the 80's is that they made some amazing music videos at that time. Pink Floyd has always been quite a visual band. Their live shows are known for their massive props and light shows. This music video for Learning to Fly is a true work of art. The landscapes are truly spectacular. But pay attention to some live footage sequences. There are some crazy 80's fashion choices in there.

I don't even quite know how the existing Pink Floyd was able to make an album in Pink Floyd's name after Waters had left the band. He had the rights to Pink Floyd name and this album is more or less a David Gilmour's solo album with some assistance from Mason and Wright.

As far as the 80's music goes, I'm starting to appreciate a bit more as I've come to understand the musical period historically better. So, today, this album sounds quite good to me, but I have still difficulties in seeing it as a Pink Floyd record. It would probably work better as a David Gilmour solo album. Of course if that was the case, I probably wouldn't even own the album.

Listen to the album on Spotify.