Poll: How do you rate Pink Floyd's "The Endless River" album?

Let us know if you love this album like I do or think of it as The Endless Intros as @Slick Willie does on this next installment of our series!

The rules for this series: this poll is designed for people familiar with the album in question and with at least some familiarity with some of their other catalog (for comparison purposes). If the poll doesn't interest you, please kindly move on to a thread that does. Please simply consider how YOU would rate the album in question, in comparison with the rest of the Floyd's discography! And as always, a shout-out to member mrjinks for creating all the groundwork for this series.

So, how do YOU rate this album?

Album history: "The Endless River is the fifteenth and final studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on 7 November 2014 in Friday-release countries and on 10 November elsewhere by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Columbia Records in the United States. It was the third Pink Floyd album led by guitarist and singer David Gilmour following Roger Waters' departure in 1985 and the first following the death of keyboardist Rick Wright in 2008, who appears posthumously.

The Endless River consists almost entirely of instrumental and ambient music based on material Pink Floyd wrote, recorded and produced with Wright during sessions for their previous album The Division Bell (1994). New material was recorded in 2013 and 2014 aboard Gilmour's Astoria boat studio and in Medina Studios in Hove, England. It was produced by Gilmour, Youth, Andy Jackson and Phil Manzanera. The cover art concept is by Ahmed Emad Eldin, with final artwork by Stylorouge and creative direction by Aubrey Powell.

The Endless River was promoted with the single "Louder than Words" and artwork installations in cities including London, New York, Paris, Berlin, and Milan. It became the most pre-ordered album of all time on Amazon UK, and debuted at number one in several countries. The vinyl edition was the fastest-selling UK vinyl release since 1997. The album received mixed reviews."


Tracklist:
1. Things Left Unsaid 4:26
2. It's What We Do 6:17
3. Ebb And Flow 1:55
4. Sum 4:48
5. Skins 2:37
6. Unsung 1:07
7. Anisina 3:16
8. The Lost Art Of Conversation 1:42
9. On Noodle Street 1:42
10. Night Light 1:42
11. Allons-y (1) 1:57
12. Autumn '68 1:35
13. Allons-y (2) 1:32
14. Talkin' Hawkin' 3:29
15. Calling 3:37
16. Eyes To Pearls 1:51
17. Surfacing 2:46
18. Louder Than Words 6:36

Note: the deluxe edition of the album also contains the tracks TBS9, TBS14, Nervana, Untitled, Evrika (A), Evrika (B), and Allons-y (full version) on a separate DVD or Blu-Ray.




Previous polls:
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Currently 499 people have voted, with an average of 4.25.
A Saucerful Of Secrets. Currently 303 people have voted, with an average of 3.76.
Ummagumma. Currently 390 people have voted, with an average of 3.07.
Obscured by Clouds. Currently 365 people have voted, with an average of 3.88.
Wish You Were Here. Currently 632 people have voted, with an average of 4.78.
The Wall. Currently 796 people have voted, with an average of 4.00.
The Final Cut. Currently 515 people have voted, with an average of 3.07.
The Division Bell. Currently 413 people have voted, with an average of 3.27.
Pulse. Currently 272 people have voted, with an average of 3.31.

 

Eight Floyd albums remain in our series. I will be posting them around 5 days apart now so as to finish them before I take a three week long vacation in mid-August: this will be a nice break before we begin the solo albums.

 

I voted pretty solid ... I like every Floyd album the final cut is last for me.

 

If somebody votes "Clearly one of there best works," it'd better be followed up with a thorough explanation.

 

I was sure we had done this one. But never mind.

I love it as a Floyd fan- I wouldn't use it as an introduction for a new fan, but it's a beautiful and dreamy soundscape, and a perfect farewell to Rick.

If it has its faults, it's that a couple of the songs need just a tiny bit more structure, or some bits (the songs at the start of side 3, for example) could have been better developed. Oh, and that sax solo should have got the chop before it was even recorded.

I also have no problem with the album's lyrics.

 

My take on ENDLESS RIVER: constantly makes you think you are hearing some part in a long instrumental break on some older Floyd record that you can't QUITE place but sounds totally familiar and part of your general internal understanding of "sounds like Pink Floyd." And for that quality, I enjoy it quite a bit.

 

The worst. Demos warmed up with retreaded Floyd-isms. And "Louder Than Words" is an abomination.

 

Only listened to this once when it came out and not since, no interest in post-Waters Floyd. I voted lower-tier.

 

It's not bad. I like it for what it is, as there are plenty of nice Floydian moments.

However, not a patch on the classic albums, and it's sad to hear the decline of Nick Mason.

A very nice tribute to Rick Wright, overall.

 

It's "nice" and works perfectly well as background as I vacuum or something. Pleasant, but not much "there" there, as they say.

But yeah, "Louder than Words" is the pits and possibly my pick for the worst song ever released by Pink Floyd.

 

A sleeper, as in "puts me to sleep ". I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, fan or non-fan but don't have strong negative feelings about it. It's not a core album, probably for completists only (which I'm not). It's so ambient that it has left no imprint on me whatsoever.

I guess that means I vote lower tier.

 

This one's kinda tough for me. For a long time I hated this album. It meanders a LOT. One might call it boring. But as time has gone by I've softened on it a bit. I don't think Endless River was ever meant to compete with Wish You Were Here or DSOTM, it was just meant as a goodbye to Richard Wright and to the fans. Still, it will never be one of their best, but while I'd put it near the bottom, I don't hate it anymore. But its clearly for die hard fans only.

 

I don't. It's a David Gilmour album. The Final Cut was the last Pink Floyd album . . . in my reality.

 

Ditto...

...and ditto

 

**SO** tempted to vote "Clearly one of their best works - essential listening for Floyd fans".

Clearly it's hard to make the case for it being 'essential' -- but (damn it) -- I really love it. I didn't always 'love' it (I only liked it 'quite a lot' at first) -- but after a month or two, it had grown on me an absolute ton. 6 months later, I was still hearing details in it that I could have sworn I'd never heard before. If I manage to go a whole month without spinning it, it's like an old friend when I hear most of it again.

Where is the cut-off-point for "one of their best"?? Top 5? Top 10? Top 7? The Floyd catalog isn't huge (and realistically, fully 'half' their catalog can't be "essential", can it?).

But honestly I probably like it better than Obscured By Clouds (and I like OBC quite a lot!). I absolutely like TER better than Meddle (even if Meddle is clearly the more 'important' of the two). Hard to say whether I like it more than Saucerful..., but I do think TER works better as an 'album experience' than Saucerful.

So I guess I'll have to say "A pretty solid effort - worth recommending" -- honestly, I think it's more like "A REMARKABLY solid effort - and WELL worth recommending". Given its origins, I think TER almost shockingly good, and I'd buy another volume of similar material in a heartbeat.

For the record, I'd give TER a very solid 8/10 (so no, I'm not crazy, and calling it a 10/10). Initially, I think I only thought it was about a 6/10, but then it REALLY grew on me. I think I've already spun TER more times (total), than I have The Wall (which I first heard back around 1986 or so), if that says anything.

(EDIT: Oh to heck with it, I'm voting "Essential". It's an "Essential" album TO ME, so there.)

 

For what it is--leftovers, twiddly bits and lots of studio wizardry--this album is miraculously good. I voted solid effort.

 

I would say that I like TEE a lot more than Gilmour's Rattle That Lock.

 

I enjoy parts of it for sure. Not to pile on, but I agree with the negative comments on the "Louder Than Words"... since it's at the end, it tends to spoil the experience, certainly the first time. It is like eating a good meal and the last bite is "off"...

Not that it affects the music, but the cover is not one of their better efforts.

 

You know, "Louder Than Words" bothers me less and less over time. Dave wouldn't sing what he didn't agree with, and I find I'm more sympathetic to the message, than I would have predicted given all the bellyaching about its lyrics. It also sounds like something he might feel comfortable saying in a private moment, and while it doesn't necessarily have the poetic quality one might prefer, there is something to be said for candor sometimes.

 

Listed it as a pretty solid effort tryng to be objective.

But since its release I have definitely listened to it more than the rest of their catalog combined and I truly love 95% of it. The final track Louder Than Words is the least compelling part, but is enjoyable as well.​

 

Not sure, I have never heard of it?

 

Funny you should ask, listened to it (complete) this morning. Kind of haunting hearing Richard talking at the start, I like haunting. Yes, calling it Pink Floyd is a bit of stretch but a good "stretch" feels good every now and then. I like it!

 

Beautiful epilogue for Pink Floyd.
THE END.

 

Q. "Where is the cut-off-point for "one of their best"?
A. When Roger Waters left.

Easy!

I voted : Clearly one of their worst - for die-hard fans only :if anyone's wondering

 

Ok, then. Not a thorough explanation, but a couple of subjective statements I'd like to share:

I think it was a daring move to release a mostly instrumental album.
It flows perfectly as an album.
It contains beautiful music.
It features the trademark Pink Floyd sound, but it's not a cliché.
It's touching, since it's partly a tribute to Richard Wright and also the last album by the band, but without being cheap or maudlin.

Is it as good as Piper, Saucerful, Meddle, etc.? Possibly not, but this is a different kind of album, and I'm not friend of comparisons. For me, it's clearly among their best albums. The Floyd ended their career on a high note.