Thursday 2nd July

Pink Floyd have been a pretty moribund money-making entity for some years yet they still call themselves a group.  Roger Waters, who wrote most of the great songs left about twenty years ago and Rick Wright, the keyboard player is dead.  That leaves two, Dave Gilmour  the guitarist and the drummer Nick Mason .  They very rarely turn up as guest musicians, occasionally for Roger despite the rancor of their parting, or at events like Live 8.  But of course, the first genius of the band was Syd Barrett, who was kicked out in 1968 because of his mental health problems and he died in 2006.

The last album proper was the Division Bell in 1994 and that was seven years since the one before that.  To be honest I thought the last two albums without Roger were pretty ordinary affairs, no spark of anger, just a resigned and accomplished sound of a band no longer pushing the boundaries.  Mind you Roger had probably pushed them far too hard.  So it was with only a modicum of interest that I read that there was a new Pink Floyd album coming out – Endless River.  It is almost all old music with only a few overdubs and is supposed to be a tribute to Rick who died in 2008.  Are you asleep yet, or still reading?  I wasn’t going to buy it, figuring I might pick it up cheap one day on e-bay, but my daughter Laura got it for me for my birthday and I have been listening to it lately.

It is almost entirely instrumental and is okay, but it hardly adds to their body of work.  It is more an afterthought, or the sort of stuff you find on re-issues, where 30 year old half-finished tracks are tacked on to a classic album.  It is quite peaceful and there is some great guitar work from Dave, but it doesn’t go anywhere, it doesn’t take you on any sort of journey – so the title is very apt.  It is an Endless River of quite nice, flowing but utterly meaningless music.  Still I expect it has sold millions of copies and added to their already overflowing coffers.  I just wish they could be bothered to actually decide to write something new and of today and record (with session men if needed) and show the world just how brilliant they could be if they tried.   But I am pretty sure it won’t happen.