Pink Floyd

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
(Sony)

7.5/10

By Paul Davies


In essence, this wonderfully packaged heavyweight vinyl issue, with a 24-page booklet, is the remix from Floyd's 2019 The Later Years box set. It includes the late great Richard Wright’s original keyboard passages and the re-recorded drum tracks by Nick Mason. Interestingly, this half-speed vinyl release gives Floyd fans another collectable artefact to squirrel away in their bulging cache of Pink passions.

Originally released in 1987, AMLOR was the first studio album released by Pink Floyd following the acrimonious departure of Roger Waters which rumbles on still. Bringing Wright back in on a salary and Mason on the drum stool, Gilmour co-composed tracks with Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera and Anthony Moore. All of which added to the assumption that this was a Dave Gilmour solo release in all but name. Released to mixed reviews in 1987, the 2019 remix added a sprinkle of stardust missing from the original production. As the Pink Floyd production machine tends to be slightly ahead of the technological curve, this ‘360 Reality Audio’ edition updates the sonics to supply an immersive, lively, and warm sound upon close listen, especially through an excellent set of headphones. Tracks such as Dogs Of War and Terminal Frost benefit greatly from this as does Learning To Fly. In many ways, the 1980s production does imprison this album in gloomy aspic. Nevertheless, it's an aspic that has chinks as the new mix proved back in 2019. This desirable imprint widens them and measurably improves upon both the original and 2019 iteration of this inaugural Water-less recording.