Customer Reviews

Delicate Sound of Thunder (Mlps)

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In an attempt to understand this CD, I have listened to it for two days straight, at least ten times. While the CD may have its flaws, the dark, brooding sound and heavy wallowing bass matched my mood, and reminded me once more of Pink Floyd's eminence in Progressive Rock.

I have the advantage of being unfamiliar with Floyd's first live album, and thus I do not have a comparison point. Comparing this album to the other live albums I have heard, the principal thing I noticed was that the crowd noise was reasonably minimal. Second, the bass is very heavy and either represents the mixing or the way Floyd plays in concert. I suspect that at least some of the bass is due to the mixing since one effect of the deeper bass would be to mute the crowd sound somewhat. The result is a live album that nearly has a studio album feel to it.

As for the songs themselves, many of them come across very well. I particularly like "The Dogs of War" and "Run like Hell," but many of the other songs come across quite nicely as well. The live versions of the songs from "Dark Side of the Moon" I thought were interesting and serviceable. Admittedly the sound is different without Roger Waters, but the songs still come across with the distinctive Pink Floyd sound.

I have seen some negative comments regarding the saxophone and the female backup singers. Being a fan of the saxophone I thought the sax on the songs helped distinguish the songs from the studio albums. I generally expect live versions to be different from studio versions. Sometimes the live version works well, other times not. In this case I enjoyed the unique contributions of the saxophone. As for the female backup singers, there are a few places where they are a bit obtrusive and add little to the songs, but fortunately those places are relatively few.

The difficulty with recommending this CD is that Pink Floyd fans are technically astute people, and I think many Floyd fans will prefer the mathematical precision of a studio album over a loosely choreographed live album. Pink Floyd's music is well arranged and created in the fashion of classical music and the extrinsic distractions of crowd noise and special effects can spoil the effect for some fans. I enjoy the variations from the studio albums, and the generally low crowd noise was not a distraction to me. If you are seeking an album to relive a live Floyd experience, sans Roger Waters, this album is a good one. If you are looking for a collection of Pink Floyd's best through the time of "A Momentary Lapse of Reason," but are not particularly interested in a live album, then you may want to pass this one by.

This is actually Pink Floyds first official live album proper since Ummagumma was half live-half solo studio album. This double release chronicles their 1987-88 tour in support of the first album without Roger Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The songs sound different from their original versions. Even the drumming sounds different. "Comfortably Numb" on this album I actually heard before the one on The Wall, and one of my early memories of Floyd. The backing vocals on "Money" were a bit cheesy, I have to say. "Time" should have been performed with "Breathe" as it felt incomplete. "The Dogs of War" was an attempt to fill the void left by Waters with political lyrics (not to be confused with "Dogs" on Animals). His solo Radio KAOS tour was concurrent with most of the Floyd tour in the midst of their bitter legal battle, and he couldn't compete with his old band, as for a long time, most people couldn't pick out the individuals in the band as opposed to it being a unit. Casual fans barely noticed that he wasn't there in Floyd anymore.
There was later a video release that has yet to be released legally on DVD.
This was reissued a couple years ago by EMI, including in countries that originally had CBS release the album such as Argentina, so I wonder if Capitol will reissue it in the States, as EMI worldwide have the re-release rights to the Floyd catalogue leading up to Reason, the rest being handled by Sony outside Europe. My copy is a '90s reissue from Sony Brasil, which sounds the same as the original 1988 CD I suppose. If I could have a listen to a new copy, I'll know if its any better.