PULSE and Broken China – Pink Floyd Album Reviews

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Pink Floyd toured The Division Bell for their final tour in 1994 and released a live album called P·U·L·S·E in 1995, which included a full live performance of Dark Side of the Moon. We’ll also look at the 1996 solo album by Richard Wright, Broken China, as well as live DVDs from the early 2000s by David Gilmour and Roger Waters.

#pinkfloyd #live #albumreview #davidgilmour #pulse #richardwright #brokenchina

Pink Floyd is without a doubt one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time. They began in the 60s with Roger Waters on bass, Nick Mason on drums, Richard Wright on organ and Syd Barrett on lead guitar and vocals. Syd penned their early singles like See Emily Play and most of their 1967 album Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive). Their live shows featured unique light shows. However due to Syd’s breakdown he was replaced with David Gilmour on guitar in 1968. This would become Pink Floyd’s classic lineup through A Saucerful of Secrets, More, Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother. 1971’s Meddle would turn out to be an important staple for the band with the rocking opener One of these Days I’m Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces, featuring a rare spoken vocal by Nick, Roger’s echoing bass line and Dave’s Slide Guitar. The flip side, another 23 minute piece, Echoes, featuring Dave and Rick on vocals, is often regarded as Progressive Rock’s finest moment, from the opening ping of Rick’s leslie piano. They would also perform both these songs along with earlier classics Live at Pompeii. The Obscured by Clouds soundtrack appeared in 1972 with tracks like Burning Bridges and Childhood’s End. However 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon would become one of the most successful albums of all time, staying on the charts for nearly 13 years and still a best seller today. Roger’s lyrics dealt with the evils of society driving one to madness, while the music was nearly one entire inter-connected piece (making it difficult to separate for a playlist or a best of / greatest hits compilation). Still standouts like Money, Time and Great Gig in the Sky are favorites among fans. Their 1975 followup Wish You Were Here, featuring the opening and closing piece Shine On You Crazy Diamond (a tribute to Syd Barrett who even showed up at the sessions), is thought to be equally great, if not greater, as Dark Side. But tensions between the band were beginning to rear their head. 1977 saw the release of Animals, notable for its famous cover. Roger became the band’s main frontman and sole songwriter with Dave occasionally sharing the mic and writing credits. Tensions grew during the tour when Roger ended up spitting on a fan in Montreal and coming up with the idea for The Wall to separate himself from the audience. 1979 would see the release of The Wall, the album and later the tour and film. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 became their best selling single and Comfortably Numb remains one of their most popular tunes. But it nearly broke up the band as Roger fired Rick for lack of output, creating a greater rift between him and Dave. Recycling unused tracks from The Wall sessions, 1983’s The Final Cut was Roger’s final album with Pink Floyd. In 1985, Roger officially left the band. Dave and Nick decided to carry on reuniting with Rick for 1987’s Momentary Lapse of Reason, produced by Bob Ezrin and featuring songs like Learning to Fly, On the Turning Away, and Sorrow. Roger sued to break up the band, but failed to do so instead focusing on his solo career. A Delicate Sound of Thunder, a live recording from their tour, was released in 1988. The Gilmour led Floyd would produce 1994’s The Division Bell, a return to form for many fans thanks to the project originating from jams in Britannia Row. With Rick now sharing vocal and songwriting duties again, along with lyricist Polly Samson, the album included the songs What Do you Want From Me, Poles Apart, Marooned, A Great Day for Freedom, Take it Back, Coming Back to Life, Keep Talking and High Hopes became a fan favorite. The Pulse album included a full live performance of Dark Side of the Moon. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Richard Wright released Broken China the same year featuring songs like Night of a Thousand Furry Toys and Breakthrough. David released his In Concert DVD in 2002 while Roger released In the Flesh in 2000. It wasn’t until 2005’s Live 8 concert when Dave, Nick and Rick reunited with Roger for a short set giving closure for many fans. Syd never performed with Pink Floyd again and died in 2006. Rick died in 2008. The album The Endless River was dedicated in his honor. Nick Mason would join forces with Guy Pratt to form the touring band Saucerful of Secrets while Dave and Roger have continued doing solo albums and tours.

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29 thoughts on “PULSE and Broken China – Pink Floyd Album Reviews”

  5. In the flesh is a decent concert film. The setlist is good and the band is tight. Only thing I don’t love about it is that it sounds a bit dated. Then again that’s a criticism I could make for a lot of live albums.

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  10. I went to the Division Bell concert at Earl's Court and remember waiting for ages for the DVD to come out and when it finally did, it did not really grab me as it was impossible to capture that atmosphere of actually being there. However, a couple years ago they re-edited the concert footage and did a new surround mix and released it on Blu Ray. It is miles better making the DVD I brought pretty much redundant and perhaps only fit for the bin in relation to how much of a thrill I get from the Blu Ray. Love these episodes you are doing and you did another grand job on this one.

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  11. I was with you until you said that the pulse version of great gig was good. Tbh I absolutely hated it. Pulse is definitely a great show and you’re definitely making me wanna go through broken china again. Here’s hoping we get a remix by Steven Wilson really soon!!

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  12. Pulse is the Best for me

    I hold it responsible for falling in love with Pink floyd.

    Thanks to Pulse i willingly jumped into the rabbit hole.

    Back in 1995 I was young kid totally obsessed with the 90's music scene, I bumped into Pulse some 12 years after it was release and oh man. It was the first stage of a journey for me.

    The only flaw, if any….there's no Animals in there.
    Love your reviews, greetings from El Salvador.

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  15. I remember going into the music store right after pulse was released on CD. They had so many copies, all with the little red blinking lights on the cover going off at different times. It was unique. The display stand that they also set up for it had a pulsing blue led light that shone so bright that it pierced my eyeballs. I remember wondering how long the batteries on the CDs would last. Did anyone keep one and find out?

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  17. It's weird to think that PULSE was closer to their debut album (27 yeas after) than it is to present day (29 years later). How time flies…
    I really like the sound of this album. As a guitar player, David's guitar tone is at its peak here. Those EMG pickups sound amazing, and the compressed, clean tones he gets are stellar. Also, this album contains, in my opinion, the best guitar solo of all time: Comfortably Numb. Not only is the solo amazing, but the show itself does it justice. It is one of my greatest regrets that I was only 3 years old at the time and could not have possibly seen this show live. If I ever have access to a time machine, this show is on my top 10 events to visit.

    As for Rick's Broken China… It's a strange listen, in a good way. It's beautiful in many ways. I like it.

    And the less said about Roger, especially these days, the better.

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  19. They need to remaster the pulse CD add tracks poles apart turning away lost for words marooned and take it back also add the money from a pulse DVD version is the best one and sorrow from the DVD as well

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  20. The best live version of great gig I think is from the Us and Them tour. Rogers back up singer duo is phenomenal. They're also great in the lockdown sessions. Esp. Two Sun's, but also bring the boys back home.

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  22. Rick Wright breakthrough is about borderline personality disorder : where dying is splitting, hiding is the unstable sense of self, cage or prison is the paranoid and persecution idea, no place to fall is the feeling of emptyness, the very hard achievement of getting them seek help because they try to "conceal it but its just a dead en track" and the feeling of partner trying to "covert them like a driven snow and bring them back" from the dissociation state so they see the self they never known. And finally the opening sentence that resume that partner aren't sad and don't expect them to be perfect to be in our hearts (dont need a model univers to hang your picture on) and trying to reassure their fear of abandonment. This song is so personal and fit perfectly with wearing the inside out.

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  27. #1 Coming back to Life reminds me of robbie Robertson & the band.. Gilmours tribute to the band …#2 Its nice to see robert Wyatt singing Comfortably numb. a solo artist who was on the first 4 soft machine albums There all good especialy the ( 3rd) titled album..

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  29. IMO Sinead is the best part of Broken China. Rick Wright’s solo masterpiece is Wet Dream. I saw PF in ‘87 & ‘88 and ‘94 and IMO the ‘94 show was the best. They got better with each tour. Opening with Astronomy Domine was epic and having Dick Perry sit in on sax for the complete DSOTM can’t be beat.

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