The Endless River (2014) 


 

  1. Things Left Unsaid
  2. It's What We Do
  3. Ebb and Flow
  4. Sum
  5. Skins
  6. Unsung
  7. Anisina
  8. The Lost Art of Conversation
  9. On Noodle Street
 10. Night Light
 11. Allons-y (1)
 12. Autumn '68
 13. Allons-y (2)
 14. Talkin' Hawkin'
 15. Calling
 16. Eyes to Pearls
 17. Surfacing
 18. Louder Than Words
 19. TBS9 *
 20. TBS14 *
 21. Nervana *
 
* on deluxe edition

 

If there's one thing you can say about the music industry these days, it's that it rarely catches anyone off guard. Thanks to the internet, we tend to know everything about a record before we ever get the chance to actually *hear* it. In the case of The Endless River—the final Pink Floyd album, whether they admit it or not—that kind of early transparency turned out to be a blessing. From the start, it was made clear: this wasn’t going to be your typical Pink Floyd album.

Then again, most people assumed Pink Floyd had already called it a day. It had been twenty years since their last studio release. They’d reunited once—for 20 minutes—at Live 8, and Roger Waters made it abundantly clear (and in that charming way only he can) that it wasn’t happening again. Then came the biggest blow of all: the passing of keyboardist Rick Wright, a foundational piece of the band’s sonic identity.

So what is The Endless River? Essentially, it’s a collection of unused recordings and ideas from the The Division Bell sessions—built around Wright’s playing and gently sculpted into shape by David Gilmour and Nick Mason. It’s mostly instrumental, ambient in nature, and about as far removed from The Wall as you could possibly get. But here’s the twist: it actually works. And in its own quiet way, it works really well.

Pink Floyd has always embraced spacey, dreamy soundscapes—whether as part of sprawling epics or standalone pieces—and that’s exactly the mode they’re in here. But what’s surprising (in a good way) is how many of these passages subtly echo earlier chapters of their long career. Whether it’s intentional or not, there are moments that recall Ummagumma, A Saucerful of Secrets, The Dark Side of the Moon, and yes, even The Wall. It’s like flipping through the pages of a sonic scrapbook, with Rick Wright’s keyboard textures holding everything gently in place.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. Talkin’ Hawkin’ reuses a spoken-word snippet from The Division Bell a little too literally, and the lone track with actual lyrics—Louder Than Words—feels almost jarring after nearly an hour of instrumental meditation. The tune breaks the flow, pulling you out of the calm waters just as you’re starting to drift.

Still, whatever raw material Gilmour and Mason were working with, they managed to craft something genuinely thoughtful—more a reflection than a revelation. As a final chapter, The Endless River doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t need to. Instead, it offers a graceful, introspective farewell. And fittingly, for a band that made a career out of atmosphere and mood, it floats away quietly, but with purpose. The Pink Floyd river, it turns out, really is endless.

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