David Gilmour
sang about an endless river on "High Hopes," the last song on what appeared to be the last
Pink Floyd
album, 1994's
Division Bell
. Twenty years later, the same phrase became the title of
The Endless River
, an album designed as
's last. Assembled largely from
outtakes initially intended as an ambient project dubbed The Big Spliff, the record was sculpted into shape in 2014 by
Gilmour
,
Youth
Andy Jackson
, and
Roxy Music
's
Phil Manzanera
by adding guitar and
Nick Mason
's drums to original tapes that were laden with keyboards from the late
Rick Wright
. He's not the only missing member of
Floyd
, of course.
Roger Waters
is absent, as is the long-gone
Syd Barrett
, but their ghosts are present throughout the primarily instrumental
. Mortality is on the mind of the two remaining
Floyds
, mentioned obliquely in "Louder Than Words," the only song with lyrics here, but felt through allusions to all their possible pasts. A song unfurls with washes of synth pulled from "Welcome to the Machine," the four sides are structured like an ongoing amorphous suite a la "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," snippets of
Atom Heart Mother
slide against guitars that beat to the rhythm from "Run Like Hell," creating an impression of a band in a state of repose: they're not indulging in their past so much as reflecting on it, watching a tide of memories repeatedly roll in and out. Although very little about
is risky by design -- it is one of the most popular bands of the 20th century returning to slowly pulsating aural waves that characterized their biggest albums -- the very shift away from vocals realigns the band with not only
Wish You Were Here
(which this often resembles) but their pre-
Dark Side
records for
Harvest
, undercutting the arena-pleasing aspirations of the
-led reunion while underscoring how
always were an arty band at their core. Instrumentals are also a savvy solution to the trouble of working with uncompleted tapes -- it's easier to turn them into an ever-shifting suite than to graft on melodies -- but the comforting sway of swelling synthesizers and the soaring
guitar are sometimes unexpectedly moving.
and
Mason
know this is their farewell, so they're saying goodbye not with a major statement but with a soft, bittersweet elegy that functions as a canny coda to their career. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine