Sábado 13 Jan 2007, 16h:13
Cluster One has a nice ambient opening that evolves into a very slow piano piece with some synth ambient background and sparse guitar. It ends up carrying this very good sorrowful ambience throughout and doing it very well when the drums come in later and ends very well. Then What do you Want from me comes in with a funky baseline and a very jazzy piano. Gilmour’s bluesy guitar comes in and his strong vocals. It ends up being a fun bluesy track, but the lyrics are weak and it never really changes up. Poles Apart opens up with a nice ambient riff backed up by an organ of some type. Gimour begins singing a hooky emotional set of lyrics with a slide guitar to back up. Then there’s a seemingly unnecessary but nice interlude around 3 minutes in that goes back into verse a minute later. Ends nicely with guitar solo. Marooned comes in with what sounds like a synth kind of xilaphone. Followed by lead guitar and some piano and baseline for rhythm. Later a standard drum beat comes in and it becomes a relatively simple and easy to listen to instrumental track. Not as strong as Cluster One. A Great Day for Freedom comes in as a sort of lackluster vocal heavy track that isn’t as strong without the well written lyrics. Song ends up progressing into a stronger more dynamic piece but ultimately doesn’t hold up to well. Wearing the Inside Out opens up with a decent drum beat and a sax with synth behind it. Later a decent ping pong vocal match goes on between Gilmour and back up singers and works pretty well. What really sticks is the brass instrumental about 3 minutes in and makes the song more dynamic. A patient but good song. Take it Back starts with a very nice guitar opening and some sort of synth. The song results in a very 80’s but good 80’s inspirational balad type track that is well supported by the rather unchanging instrumentals and Gilmour’s strong vocals. Lyrics are the weak part. Coming Back to Life plays. A nice echoey guitar from Gilmour and typical synth to open with. Sorrowful vocals come in from Gilmour nicely. The song comes in with a rythmy baseline and drums. Afterwhich doesn’t change up that much, but is a good track regardless. Keep Talking is one of my favorite tracks on the album. The baseline is very good and the vocal ping pong works even better than Wearing the Inside Out. Lost For Words plays. A nice little song. The Spanish guitar kind of works. The lyrics again aren’t strong enough to support the vocally heavy song though. Then comes High Hopes, the last track, which is clearly the most powerful track on the album not to mention one of the best track’s the band’s ever done. Such a strong consistent set of instruments as the bell ringing every ¾ or so. Piano so strong and the baseline powerful. This is the best set of lyrics Gilmour’s ever written as well. Such a great way to end an album and makes it one of my favorite Floyd albums even with the absence of Waters.
8/10
Cluster One
What do You want from me
Poles Apart
Marooned
A great day for freedomWearing Inside OutTake it Back
Coming Back to Life
Keep Talking
Lost for Words
High Hopes