The Floydathon wends its weary way to 1987, and A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
This is a return to Floyd's stadium oriented content, with the echo already there. Sweeping guitar interludes and occasional bursts of vocals bring "Wish you were here" to mind. I can well imagine people saying it's Floyd's return to their roots. As a new listener, I wouldn't know, but this is so reminiscent of WYWH that I could easily play them back-to-back and not see the join.
This isn't altogether a bad thing, and I can now see how Floyd get their reputation for performing mindblowing gigs, but does that transfer well into a format that's accessible to the new listener? Does it grab the guy who isn't cranking up his record deck and minutely adjusting his quadrophonic speakers? Can someone who's just stuck this on his walkman to listen to on a crowded bus get as much as the audio geek out of this album?
No. WYWH and Lapse are in danger of alienating the casual listener. Like Judge Dredd the movie, it's one for the die-hards.
Not that I didn't like it, it was OK, but I haven't found a new favourite - not by a long stretch.
Next on my chronological slog through Floyd's back catalogue is Division Bell, which I'm not looking forward to.
