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★★★★☆
A fitting end to the Endless River of Pink Floyd's music?
According to Dave Gilmour `The Endless River' is based around more than 20 hours of archived recordings from `The Division Bell' sessions in 1993 not included in the final album cut, with the late Richard Wright's keyboard work and compositional skills dominating the action. TER is reportedly a tribute to Wright's memory from Gilmour and Mason, who set about cleaning up the original recordings and added in new sections to spice them up.
The result is an ambient and almost completely instrumental collection: only the closer `Louder than Words' is an actual song, penned by Gilmour's wife Polly, and Stephen Hawking's voice guest-samples briefly on `Talkin Hawkin'.
This is unmistakably classic Floyd, with grand instrumental pieces redolent in many places of the towering magnificence of their music in the 1970s bookended by `Atom Heart Mother' and `Wish You were Here,' prior to Roger Waters taking control of the band's persona with the lyrically verbose & preachy epic `The Wall.' Gilmour's wailing guitar weaves around Wright's melodious synth phrases underpinned by Mason's stately, energetic drumming with never a note out of place. At the same time ambient and majestic, many of these pieces bring to mind not only `The Division Bell' but the musical ghosts of `Echoes' or `Shine on You Crazy Diamond'.
TER is probably going to be Pink Floyd's last album release, and it's a fitting one. Whilst not breaking new ground, this is Floyd (minus Waters) on top form, doing what they have always done best. Production values are first class, and this music will no doubt be played and enjoyed in millions of homes, cars and iPods for decades to come.
November 2014 · CDs and Vinyl