By Julia Chirls, Staff Writer ||
After its successful nearly 50- year runs, Pink Floyd, a the world-renowned English rock band, has decided to say a warm goodbye to the music industry. Their final album, The Endless River, released on November 10th, marks the end of their lengthy career. The legendary band that has left an unforgettable impression on all of us, yes, even an endless mark on music. However, as the album title spells out, their legacy is far from over—it is endless.
During the 50 years of presence in the music industry, Pink Floyd has won countless awards and has received many honors. In 1996, the band was inducted into the US United States Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and as of 2013, the band has had sold more than 250 million records worldwide. At the 1980 Grammy Awards, they won “Best Engineered Non-Classical Album” for The Wall, and in 1982, they won “Best Original Song” for “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”. If you do not know it, ask an adult in your life!
Formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright, Pink Floyd were performing and writing performed and wrote music until 1994 when they toured for the last time. Briefly in 2005, they reunited to perform at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park in London. The band has since lost two members, Barrett in 2006 to diabetes and Wright in 2008 to cancer.
The remaining members of Pink Floyd describe The Endless River as a tribute album to their late keyboardist, Richard Wright. He was the driving force of Pink Floyd after he gave up writing music due to minimal success. Wright focused on contributing his unique style of composition to the songs with lengthy instrumentals. The Endless River is primarily comprised of this instrumental music and is described as a “swansong” for Wright. The majority of the album is music performed by him during 1993 and 1994.
Since its recent release, The Endless River has received mixed reviews by listeners, music magazines, and online websites.
Metacritic, a website that reviews music, movies, and TV television shows, gave the album a 59 out of 100, based on 15 reviews from individual critics. If I were one of those critics, I would certainly give this album a significantly higher score, perhaps a 90 out of 100. How could you go wrong and fail to appreciate a song list written and performed by Richard Wright, a member of Pink Floyd with an ever-growing legacy?
I enjoyed listening to the album because it is unique in that it is almost solely made up of instrumentals. The one song that contains words is “Louder Than Words”, featuring the vocals of David Gilmour, another member of the band, throwing a bit of variety into the music half way into the album.
I appreciate when artists branch outside of their comfort zone and produce something new or different from their norm because it shows their confidence that they will become more successful and gain as much support and appreciation from fans. as they can.
Although the album contains a track list of 27 songs, each one is entirely unique in terms of style and timbre. “Skins” features an electric guitar, which adds a nice edge and creates vibes of rock and roll. In contrast, “Autumn ’68” contains a very prominent organ sound, which adds an element of mystery and spookiness. According to iTunes, “Allons-y (1)” is currently the most popular song on the album, with “Louder Than Words” following close behind.
The Endless River is a blast from the past that you will not want to miss out on. It is a milestone album for Pink Floyd and it represents your chance to be a part of their legacy and experience music history.
Although you can no longer see Pink Floyd perform live, you can enjoy their music just the same by listening to this stellar album performance.
Sophomore Julia Chirls is a staff writer. Her email is jchirls@fandm.edu.