pink floyd the wall album comfortably numb what album

The poetics of maturity and well-being are notoriously hard to pull off in rock, as recent records by Eric Clapton and Ray Davies have witnessed.īut this is something else altogether: the sound of a man of a certain age and status making music from inside a vault, numbed by comfort. But more fundamentally, On an Island is undermined by its own torpid insularity. 'When We Start' provides a warm memory of psychedelia before the rot sets in. Much of the problem lies in Gilmour's instantly recognisable guitar peal, like fingernails down a chalkboard for anyone who prefers their Seventies punk rather than prog (guilty).

The guitarist takes up the saxophone on 'Red Sky' and manages to play it with more subtlety. The delightful Robert Wyatt plays cornet on the borderline lovely 'Then I Close my Eyes', as mercifully un-Floyd a track as you'll find on this album. More of his digressions into folk and blues would have helped when he takes off his guitar, he loosens up a bit. This album is hermetically sealed, solipsistic, muffled, a view of Gilmour's navel masquerading as a peek into the universe. The lyrics paint a hazy and contented picture, exploring a similar wistfulness to his longueurs in Floyd. Waters may be the one touring Dark Side of the Moon this summer in France, but Gilmour isn't in any hurry to cast off the past either. The genteel lethargy of Gilmour's work-rate is matched by the sounds he crafts. Gilmour's last solo work came out 20 years ago the last Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell, was in 1994. On an Island is the album he was finishing at the time. He cited his age (60 tomorrow) and his current serenity working without (most of) his erstwhile bandmates as two reasons the Floyd would never fly again. Pink Floyd fans remember it as the day Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters briefly buried the hatchet, sparking rumours of a full-scale reunion. Most people remember last year's Live8 concert for its good works. This was the last great album by Pink Floyd, and any fan of the band should own a copy, as it displays the bands most remarkable album, and one that contains all the hallmarks that made them great ethereal, haunting at times, uplifting at others music, lyrical genius, and instrumental work, particularly from Dave Gilmour, that makes the ideas reality.

Pink floyd the wall album comfortably numb what album