Except this is Pink Floyd by numbers. A sort of facsimile of what a Floyd album should sound like without actually being a Pink Floyd album. Without the leading light of Roger Waters this album drifts from one cliché to the next; not so much a sum of its parts but separate 80s rock tracks with dourness at their heart. And to think I used to love this album. It was the entry point for my fondness for the Floyd.....well this and the hit single 'Another Brick In The Wall', but as I was only ten when that was a hit I rather suspect that I liked it more for its 'Hey teacher - leave those kids alone' chorus and the cartoon promo.
Anyway thanks to a mutual guitar playing friend and keen Floyd fan, I started to listen to this album and it made an immediate impact. I loved the epic sounding introduction, the pounding beat of 'Dogs of War', the anthemic 'On The Turning Away' and the rock-pop of 'One Slip'. If this was Pink Floyd then I liked it. And so I was off..... as soon as I delved into the back catalogue, however, I realised that 80s Floyd were a much different proposition to their 70s predecessors. Almost a totally different band. Almost a David Gilmour solo album with a Pink Floyd badge?
Maybe it was the effect of the 80s, perhaps it was an attempt to distance thmselves from their estranged bass player or could it be that without Roger Waters they are just ordinary? Another rock band with a penchant for misery?
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