Was it a momentary lapse of reason? Or a bold new start? On this day in 1987 Pink Floyd surprised some fans and annoyed others by putting out their first album after Roger Waters had left them. A Momentary Lapse of Reason was their 13th studio album and was clearly a vehicle for David Gilmour’s musical vision.
Which is no surprise since it was set against a backdrop of Waters suing Gilmour over the use of the name. Waters in turn says the remaining members threatened him with a massive lawsuit, as CBS Records had them under contract to provide another Pink Floyd record and could withhold royalties and block their future recording if they didn’t give them one. The result, allegedly didn’t please CBS that much anyway. The company’s Stephen Raalbavsky apparently told Gilmour “that doesn’t sound a f–in’ thing like Pink Floyd!” Or as Q magazine put it, “(it) is Gilmour’s album to the same degree the previous four under Floyd’s name were dominated by Waters.” If anyone had a hand in shaping it besides Gilmour, it was probably producer Bob Ezrin who co-wrote a couple of the tracks, added some keyboards and percussion to the record.
The overall reaction was middling. It was a #1 hit in new Zealand and top 5 in the U.S., UK and Canada and sold better in North America than its morose predecessor, The Final Cut. The single “Learning to Fly” was a top 10 in NZ and a rock radio hit in the U.S. – something they’d lacked since The Wall nearly eight years earlier – but didn’t really find its spot among the “classic” Floyd tracks. Although songs like that and “One Slip” had an easier, pop sound not heard from Floyd in years and it lacked a cohesive theme that Waters always strove for, there were still nods to the stylings of Waters, like the aggressive and dreary “Dogs of War.” And for every People magazine (which said of it “Waters may be gone but this album will give fans ample reason to keep thinking pink” and noted that in the age when LPs still were king the “complex sound quality cries out for compact disc.”) there was a Roger Waters admiring allmusic which rates it only 2 stars out of 5. For what it’s worth, we here thought it was a pretty good album!
A Sound Day 
It sounds Pink Floyd to me…that whispering vocal and the music…it doesn’t have that deeper theme but it IS Pink Floyd. Not their best but I like Learning To Fly.
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Agreed… not ‘Dark Side of the Moon II’ but a decent album that was among that year’s better ones and it certainly had something of a PF sound. why wouldn’t it with 3/4 of the core band still there?
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I know… it’s not like it was Pink Floyd sings Beach Boys… but I would pay for that
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Final Cut. It was nice to hear music given the focus rather than Waters’ increasing barrage of words.
I think Gilmour and label reps have suggested that comment as part of Waters’ “tissue of lies” but I could believe it. I reckon the recent remastering and remix did this one a whole world of good
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I liked the album , to my personal ears it was the best they’d done since ‘wish You Were Here’ or possibly – only possibly – ‘Animals’. Waters has talent, no question about it, both as a songwriter and bassist, but his personality seems a bit…tiresome… and he needed to learn it was a band, not Roger Waters and his hired hands. I didn’t think Waters first couple of solo records were bad either…but they weren’t as good as when he had Gilmour around. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!
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I personally enjoy this album, and do think of it as Pink Floyd. Roger’s edge is missing, but yet it speaks to societal issues, by calling for compassion instead of indifference or disdain. I love ‘On the Turning Away’.
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Yes! Somehow I didn’t get to mentioning that song but I like it a great deal too…that and ‘One Slip’ were my two favorites on the LP but I liked most of the album.
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This was big here thats for sure. ‘This is Floyd, Dave but not as we knew it’ to paraphrase Bones McCoy in Star Trek.
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But more pure than say Nimoy-less Star Trek? It was a good album, and to me when 3 guys stay in a band and one storms off pouting because he can’t call all the shots, it’s still the band- not the pouty guy who left.
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While “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” undoubtedly is no “Meddle”, “Dark Side of the Moon” or “Wish You Were Here”, it’s not a bad Pink Floyd album. As much as I respect Roger Waters, I think by the time they recorded “The Wall”, he had become very dictatorial. “The Final Cut” was the end of the line for his reign.
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yep! I liked the album. I found ‘the final cut’ to be unlistenable (I only tried because one of my bar-buddies in the 80s then was a huge Waters fan and he found the album quite good) and honestly wasn’t even very impressed with ‘The Wall’ (it had some good tracks but overall I found too dreary and dragging), so I found this quite a refreshing return to form, even though like you say it wasn’t on the level of their very best stuff.
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Overall I still like “The Wall”, though I can see why it can be a bit overwhelming to listen to the album in its entirety! “The Final Cut” is more of the same sonically but the songs are much worse. There isn’t one track on this album I find memorable – and I say all of this as someone who has dug Pink Floyd for many years. I feel “The Final Cut” by far is their weakest album.
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no argument there at all.
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Lot’s of pissy pants in this band between members but man were they creative with or without Roger and vice versa
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for sure. Waters to me seemed the most aggravating and selfish but Gilmour didn’t help the situation out much from what I can tell. I think Mason and WRight probably just stood on the sidelines and watched those two duke it out.
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