Pink Floyd Discography Review Part 3 - The Last 4 Albums

Welcome back to my Pink Floyd Discography Review! We are now taking a look at the very last albums from this legendary group.

After the success of The Wall Roger Waters initially suggested a new project called Spare Bricks, intended to be the soundtrack to the The Wall movie. Instead Waters was inspired by the Falklands War and what he thought was the poor handling of it by Margaret Thatcher and dedicated the next album to his late father.

The Final Cut

The Final Cut was released 4 years after The Wall, in 1983 and in my opinion it is pretty bad. As a whole the album is boring and mopey and actually mildly frustrating to listen to because NOTHING HAPPENS. The Hero's Return teases at a build-up but goes nowhere, The Gunner's Dream is boring, the instrumentals are boring, and when it actually gets louder (suddenly, it's still dumb) and does something it only does it for 20 seconds at most and then gets really boring again??? Not Now John also completely clashes with the rest of the album. Although most of the album is bad there are a few good songs. Paranoid Eyes has some nice piano segments and the title track is definitely the most musically interesting, it actually flows and progresses. I suppose you could say this album is melancholic but I think it's just boring and while the song quality isn't awful it's just so boring to listen to.
There's a hilarious but slightly savage review I found by Katamari101 on rym that I really like:
hi
im roger waters
my father died in world war II
thus im going to complain about war for 46 minutes
did i mention my father died in world war II
4/10

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

After The Final Cut Roger Waters left Pink Floyd and went to court attempting to claim ownership of the name of the band, calling it "a spent force creatively". He failed and Pink Floyd continued on under David Gilmour.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) is, similarly to The Final Cut, a bit boring. I'm not really a fan of Gilmour's vocals, he's definitely the weakest singer Pink Floyd have had. A lot of the songs overstay their welcome and don't really go anywhere with their ideas. They sort of float along being acceptable but not all that good (Terminal Frost fits this description very aptly). Dogs of War tries to have an impressively big sound but it just doesn't work for me. All the aspects clash and don't mesh well and the song sounds very claustrophobic. I'm also not a fan of the guitar tone on most of the album and I think it actually sounds quite weak. On the Turning Away is sappy and emotional but I think works quite well and Sorrow is a properly solid song with good instrumentation. The guitar tone works well on this song too. Not awful but not very good, this album is the definition of 'eh'.
5/10

The Division Bell

I really wanted to like The Division Bell (1994) and things were looking up in the first half. Cluster One is a great atmospheric New Age/Ambient-influence rock track which I really enjoy and Marooned is an excellent instrumental showcase of Gilmour's talent on the guitar with more solid atmosphere. Unfortunately in the second half this album descends into boring, sad pop-rock (At least that's what it feels like to me). I love the atmosphere and tone of the album, very melancholic and forlorn and I get a real sense of "this is the sad end to Pink Floyd" (is that a good or bad thing?). The cover is cool also, and is meant to represent the lack of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters in the band. Like A Momentary Lapse of Reason a few of the songs go on too long (High Hopes).
6/10

Pink Floyd played their full tour in 1994 but had a reunion for Live 8 in 2005. After Waters commented on how he regrets his part in the animosity that came about in the band, especially after 1994. In 2006 Syd Barrett died and David Wright died of cancer in 2008. Previous band members Gilmour and Mason reunited to record an album made up of recordings with Wright, mostly from when making The Divison Bell.

The Endless River

The Endless River was the result and was released in 2014. It's pretty decent! It's nothing special but it's perfectly acceptable music. It sounds nothing like anything Pink Floyd has released before so it seems very odd to release it as a full album under the Pink Floyd name. It is nice that they did something for Wright though, From what I've heard I quite enjoy New Age so I was a bit excited at the start of this album. It's What We Do is actually a pretty great song, it has some great guitar moments and like the whole album, a soothing atmosphere. Even though it's not musically impressive the album is just really pleasant, and would work excellently as background music. I like it enough (also the album art is beautiful).
6/10

After The Endless River was released Pink Floyd were officially broken up. Gilmour said "I think we have successfully commandeered the best of what there is ... It's a shame, but this is the end" [Source] and that Pink Floyd was "done".

And that's Pink Floyd! What do you think of Pink Floyd's discography? Favourite album? Least favourite?
My Favourite: Wish You Were Here
My Least Favourite: The Final Cut
Favourite Song: Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Thanks for reading! Be sure to tell me any suggestions for album or discography reviews you have!

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