Jetzt mal eine Rezi von einem der das Teil schon 10x gehört hat:
Teil 1
Ron Toon vom SH-Forum
Here’s my review for The Endless River. Unlike most professional critics who were only able to listen to the album once I’ve spun it almost a dozen times since Saturday and have modified my review with each subsequent listen. I’m looking forward to reading other forum members‘ opinions as well, whether they agree with me or not. This album has really grown on me and due to its nature (ambient/instrumental) it’s almost unfair to compare it with any previous Floyd release.
The Endless River – A Pink Floyd Tapas-try
I’ve listened to The Endless River, the new Pink Floyd album (never thought I would type that last bit again in my lifetime), nearly a dozen times and I really like it for what it is (and then some) and its shortcomings seem quite forgivable.
I’m certain that this album will divide fans with little compromise; they’ll either love it or hate it and the haters have a lot of ammo here. The Endless River is indeed an ambient, at times trippy, instrumental album featuring enough classic sounding Gilmour, Wright, and Mason to offer some tried-and-true familiarity to the four suites referred to as “sides.”
For the most part the individual tracks work well within each side but at first may feel like disconnected bits and pieces stitched together as four Frankensuites. This isn’t to say that they don’t work well together – they do, although not quite as well as their contemporaries like Atom Heart Mother, Echoes, and Shine On. These classic songs are all made up of bits and pieces and coalesce as a single, seamless composition. After the first few listens the ambient instrumental tracks on this record appear to come and go without purpose but the more familiar I become with this album the more their place and purpose in the sonic architecture becomes apparent.
The Endless River is a wonderful gift. It’s Pink Floyd strolling down memory lane offering instantly recognizable pieces of their history in both the sounds and textures. The Endless River is a musical tapestry which rewards fans with each successive listen. After I finally stopped paying attention to where each song (and side) begins and ends and have finally given into “go with the flow, wherever it goes” I’m able to enjoy it a lot more. This new album doesn’t come off sounding like a bunch of Division Bell rejects and if the back-story of this album was not revealed I don’t think many people would have guessed that some of these tracks had their origins 20 years ago. From the sounds of Piper through the more modern-day Floyd (including Division Bell, On An Island, and Broken China), the sonic history of the band is faithfully represented on The Endless River. Richard Wright does not merely contribute to this album but is a featured musician who is offered the spotlight on numerous songs. And the production values are as good as one would expect from a band that has always been sonically at the top of its game.
Gilmour appears to be correct in stating that this music isn’t for the iTunes generation who tend to download select tracks rather than an entire album. This release has the potential to inspire that generation to plug in their headphones and light up to an entire album listening experience. And the 5.1 crowd should love this as well regardless of whether or not they like it as a Pink Floyd album.
Side One begins with Things Left Unsaid, a sonic collage and fitting prelude to this ambient album. Dialogue from all 3 band members is strategically placed amidst a wash of synthesizers which crescendo, crash, and subsequently mellow out. Rick gets time to slowly stretch out his trademark multi-layered keyboard sound before Gilmour joins in with a floaty electric and acoustic guitar. Quite spacey and ethereal at times, this track takes its time and sets the tone for the album. A successful lift-off.
The aptly titled second track, It’s What We Do, almost immediately shifts into synth mode featuring Rick’s instantly-recognizable keyboard sound from Shine On (Part I). When Nick and David finally join in the song really comes together (which at first reminded me of the title track from On An Island) and continues with that On An Island/Barn Jam vibe and Gilmour eventually gets to kick back with some wonderful blues licks. This track has a classic Floydian sound augmented by a modern production and at over 6 minutes in length I wish there were more songs like this on the record.
Ebb And Flow begins with Rick’s light multi-layered synths ping-ponging across the soundscape and Gilmour joins in with a very mellow guitar (I think both electric and acoustic). It’s a short 1 ½ minutes of music used to end the suite and is a pleasant track, almost an unspoken lullaby. Ambient noises take up the final 20 seconds of this song and I feel that the three songs on this “side” form a fairly cohesive suite and work better as a whole rather than pulling them apart and dissecting them as individual songs as I just did.
Side Two kicks off with Sums which after a very short ambient introsimilar to Cluster One quickly changes upwith a keyboard soundreminiscent of the opening of Astronomy Domine (very exciting to hear this!). It’s repetitive, a bit hypnotic, and doesn’t prepare you for the crash of Gilmour’s guitar or the disco beat of Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) which follows. Gilmour, Wright, and Mason all have the opportunity to shine here and the track soars. The feel of the song reminds me a bit of the instrumental break from Keep Talking but this has more bite to it with a driving rhythm and once it takes flight it never looks back. A perfect wake-up call after being mellowed out by the previous track, an emotional balance found throughout this entire album.
Skins continues to feature Nick, this time in a repetitive drum pattern, a distant cousin from A Saucerful of Secrets but less abstract and once again leaning towards the tribal side. Nick is the focus of this track and he’s immersed in spacey keyboard and guitar washes. You gotta have balls to attempt stuff like this and these old guys have “a nice pair” indeed. This song, and its place on this record, reminds me of the percussive breaks during The Man & the Journey suites. The final 25 seconds or so are another generically spacey, ambient segue into the next track and luckily these guys are good at spacey, ambient segues.
Rick’s flurried synths are quickly answered by Gilmour’s familiar high-octave guitar tone in Unsung. A series of long dramatic piano and guitar chords follow almost suggesting that this could have been a lost piece from The Wall. It doesn’t really go anywhere other than the purpose of stitching 2 songs together. And at a fleeting 1:07 it surely serves that purpose well.
Most people have probably heard Anasina by now. It’s one of the songs that I felt could have benefitted from lyrics as well as the opportunity for a grand anthem of a chorus. Simple tunes and simple chord structures are perfect for anthems (they’re so easy for everyone to sing as well) and this could have been a real Floydian classic. This track sounds less like an ambient piece and more like a traditional song which would lend itself to having lyrics/vocals. Despite this, I still really love everything about it, a great track to end the second suite and Gilmour’s final solo is a wowzer! One of my favorite tracks on the album. A bit of thunder and rain and Side Two is over as is half of the new album.
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Wenn ich meinen Hund beleidigen will nenne ich ihn Mensch. (AS) „Weißt du, was ich manchmal denke? Es müsste immer Musik da sein. Bei allem was du machst. Und wenn's so richtig Scheiße ist, dann ist wenigstens noch die Musik da. Und an der Stelle, wo es am allerschönsten ist, da müsste die Platte springen und du hörst immer nur diesen einen Moment.“