A Momentary Lapse of Reason: Remixed & Updated marks the vinyl debut of the 2019 reissue from Pink Floyd’s Later Years box set.
The music here is taken from the original master tapes, now spread out over two albums, pressed on 180-gram vinyl, housed in polyvinyl sleeves, cut at half-speed and playable at 45 RPM. The gatefold package comes with a 24-page booklet. The front cover features an alternative photograph from the original album cover photoshoot.
Taking the music from the original master tapes, extending the album out over two vinyl albums and with the 45-RPM playing speed, presents a truly superior audiophile listening experience. When the Pink Floyd camp choose to release studio albums on vinyl from the original master tapes, or in mono – as they did with their first two albums as limited-edition Record Store Day releases – the band offered fans the kind of sound they’re hungry for. Pink Floyd really should offer these updates for all their studio albums.
This reissue of 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the third vinyl release of remixed material from The Later Years – which, in addition to vinyl singles, contained CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. The first two were vinyl releases of remixed live recordings: Delicate Sound of Thunder, originally released in 1988; and Live at Knebworth 1990, the first time the full concert was released on vinyl. All of these projects feature the Pink Floyd lineup of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright, after Roger Waters left the group.
As good as those previous vinyl reissues are, this remixed studio album is quite unique. This remixed version of A Momentary Lapse of Reason eliminates some of the original release’s synthetic ’80s approach, which often employed cheap electronic drums and grating period synthesizers. David Gilmour and Andy Jackson updated and remixed the original album by incorporating recordings of Richard Wright’s unused keyboard parts, and re-recording new drum tracks with Nick Mason.
This new remix was produced by Gilmour and original album producer Bob Ezrin to create a more organic, timeless sound and to enhance Wright’s ultimately invaluable contribution to an album that, as good as it was, did suffer from a sound too locked in the 1980s. Mason’s contribution is subtle and the sublime atmospheric keyboards of Wright really shine on the newly remixed and expanded version. Of course, the heart of the sound is David Gilmour’s guitar-god lead and his signature vocals.
This vinyl reissue has an airy, transparent sound. The remixing and updating of the instrumentation now lends a timelessness to the album. The lyrical themes, rooted in the album title, couldn’t be more relevant today. With far-right violent rhetoric rampant and calls for books like 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to be banned, among many others, the chilling paranoia that underscores the lyrics and music on some of the tracks now seems not so much a warning as a sad prediction.
This is one of the only two studio albums recorded by the group after the departure of Waters – not counting The Endless River, which incorporated mostly unused instrumental and ambient music. Gilmour has said that 2014 album would be the last from Pink Floyd. Given Wright’s passing and the endless bitter feud between Waters and Gilmour, unless the two have their own momentary lapse of reason, there is no doubting David Gilmour’s proclamation.
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