Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Classic Rock MagazineDec 16, 2014Overall, too much of The Endless River is suffocated by prog-normative dreariness and a high, conventional varnish. [Dec 2014, p.98]
-
Nov 26, 2014The problems with The Endless River are not so much what we are given, but what is left out. Without the vocals, something is very clearly missing and the listener is left wanting more.
-
Nov 25, 2014The Endless River belongs not in the pantheon of the great Pink Floyd, but in a hotel elevator.
-
Nov 21, 2014As an album in its own right it is terrifically tedious, 40-something minutes of mindless, meandering muso-muscle flexing with a never-more-limp ineffectiveness.
-
MojoNov 19, 2014The Endless River is big on atmosphere, just a little light on songs. [Dec 2014, p.88]
-
Nov 17, 2014In the passing of time they’ve aged a bit, and though they can still intermittently move us with their thoughts, it is difficult to see anywhere they could go from here musically. It is the right time to go.
-
Nov 14, 2014If the album looks back more than it looks forward, well, its makers have earned the right to a reprise. But then again, it wouldn’t work so well if they hadn’t managed to evoke something timeless all along.
-
Q MagazineNov 13, 2014The Endless River is an unsatisfying way for Pink Floyd to cease trading. [Dec 2014, p.107]
-
Nov 13, 2014There's something bold in the smaller scope of The Endless River, but it proves to be one of the few Pink Floyd releases that sounds like a step backwards, with nothing new to say and no new frontiers to explore.
-
Nov 12, 2014The aimless fragments on The Endless River, on the other hand, are so excruciatingly dull (even by Pink Floyd’s often-dull standards) that the band’s name on the cover feels like a straight-up bait-and-switch.
-
Nov 12, 2014If ever an album begs repeated listening, it’s this one, which manages to surprise and reassure at the same time; you’ll want to return to it more than any other post-’83 Floyd album.
-
Nov 11, 2014Pink Floyd's final farewell doesn't deliver anything particularly unfamiliar to those acquainted with the Gilmour years. However, The Endless River serves its purpose as well as a collection of unreleased material can--it remembers an integral band member while reflecting on past glories in a reserved, respectable fashion.
-
Nov 11, 2014["Louder Than Words" is] a riveting and beautiful piece of music, yes, but not quite a definitive statement. The same might be said of The Endless River as a whole.
-
UncutNov 10, 2014That it far surpasses its cut-up, protracted origins, and might even be the best thing the Floyd have released for over 30 years, is a welcome surprise. [Dec 2014, p.68]
-
Nov 10, 2014As part of the greater whole of Floyd records, it’s an oddity, more relevant for its context in the band’s history than the music.
-
Nov 10, 2014Unfortunately, River has some of the listlessness and compromise of “The Division Bell,” which itself left a bad taste in the mouth.
-
Nov 10, 2014Gilmour and Mason know this is their farewell, so they're saying goodbye not with a major statement but with a soft, bittersweet elegy that functions as a canny coda to their career.
-
Nov 10, 2014By and large it’s an understated affair but unmistakably the Floyd, divided into four sides (and available on double vinyl), each with a different mood from the next. It also packs a great deal into 53 minutes--not least because some of the tracks are barely more than a minute and a half long. Nothing is dragged out.
-
Nov 7, 2014A suite of mostly instrumental moods and fragments, The Endless River rolls like a requiem through familiar echoes.
-
Nov 7, 2014Ultimately, The Endless River is another Floyd album about the inability to communicate--it doesn't "say anything" or "go anywhere", but maybe that's the point. While it's unlikely to win the band many new admirers, the casual Floyd fan will find much to enjoy here.
-
Nov 6, 2014People tend to use the phrase “a footnote to their career” in order to damn a record with faint praise, but there’s a sense that a footnote to Pink Floyd’s career may be precisely what The Endless River is supposed to be: not a new album from an extant band, but an echo from the past--or a last, warm but slightly awkward group hug.
-
Nov 5, 2014What's blindingly clear is that, without the sparking creativity of a Syd or Roger, all that's left is ghastly faux-psychedelic dinner-party muzak.
-
Nov 4, 2014It’s interesting from a certain geeky perspective, but it's never quite as satisfying or substantial as you want it to be.
-
Nov 4, 2014Although the 18 tracks (12 of which are co-credited to Wright) are short on catchy tunes, it’s still an effective 53-minute trip.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 98 out of 139
-
Mixed: 27 out of 139
-
Negative: 14 out of 139
-
Nov 10, 2014
-
Nov 10, 2014
-
Nov 11, 2014