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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Learning to Fly With Pink Floyd Nov 20, 2008
I was born too late to know much about the early Pink Floyd, and although I've since grown to love most of their songs and albums, I've never been someone to fuss over the band's different permutations. So, if you're a raving Pink Floyd fan, or someone with astute technical and background knowledge of the band, I ask you to understand the spirit with which this review is written. Here it is:
This album introduced me to music.
I grew up in a strict religious household, the son of a Baptist minister, and during my most impressionable years, MTV (and, to a lesser extent, VH1) were in their hey-day. I was, of course, not allowed to even think of watching either channel. Up until the late eighties and early nineties, most of my music knowledge was of the gospel variety. And not even of the raucous, emotional gospel you'd find in a 1930's N'awlins Church. More the dry, dusty "hymns" that are sung from wide mouths and rigid spines.
Puberty taught me the pleasures of rebellion, as it has many others, and one day I decided to turn to MTV and see if the devil's music was as bad as my parents always said. The first video I saw was the live version of "Learning to Fly." I was blown away.
As soon as I had scraped together enough cash to purchase my own Discman and an album, I went looking for a Pink Floyd album. I found this set, and was bewildered and excited by the bizarre coat of lightbulbs and ominous horizon of the cover.
You can pore over technical details and fuss about Roger Waters or studio finesse versus the energy (and alterations) of live shows, but if you're capable of and prone to that, then you don't need reviews like this to tell you if the album's any good anyway. If you're young and don't know, or if you know OF Pink Floyd but are not a "follower," or if you're just new to music and looking around, I can say that it is very hard to do much better than this album. I have since gone on to Pulse and The Wall and the uneven but addictive Echoes, but nothing has ever matched this album for me. It is, in fact, the only album I've ever owned that every one I know likes, that no one complains about if it is on, and that always strikes some kind of chord with each listener.
Perhaps I feel this way about DELICATE SOUND OF THUNDER because I discovered it at such a tender and vulnerable age, back when I was first learning the power of things like music and emotions and ideas and dreams. Perhaps it is because the album (and the songs themselves) are so sublimely expansive while still being introspective and singular.
It's fitting that this album is the first rock album to ever be played in space, because it has that feel throughout. The complexity of the universe magnified so large as to be beyond comprehension, and then focused on us as single souls amongst it all. It's as beautiful as seeing the sun rise from beyond our own atmosphere, as inexplicable as a meteor shower, and as thrilling as reaching escape velocity. I recommend it highly, and to everyone.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
BEST GUITAR SOLO EVER RECORDED, TRUE......... Sep 27, 2008
What am I saying?
Yes, On the Turning Away done live on this album is without question the summit of great lead guitar work. Gilmour bleeds his Strat and blends it with power chords that weaken the knees. Best lead guitar song ever recorded. Stack it against any, and I mean any, guitar solo. There seems to be a "how fast can he play?" or "how complicated can he get?" mentality in music in the past decades. On the Turning Away is hard evidence that quality and craftmanship cannot be rushed. Gilmour was voted Number 1 Guitarist of All Time in a UK Billboard poll a couple of years ago. Here is the proof. It is PURE MAGIC.
2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Robotic Sound of Thunder Aug 03, 2008
Until they hit it big with Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd were very much a live band; "A Saucerful of Secrets", "Careful with That Axe Eugene", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Interstellar Overdrive" each got a dry run in the studio, but it was on stage that the magic really happened. When the band became extremely popular, Floyd shows became increasingly scripted. By the time the group recorded this album, in the late 80s, little of the energy and excitement of the group's early days was left. This album may be "live" but it doesn't sound like it.
The Momentary Lapse stuff sounds decent; "On the Turning Away" improves on the original version, and "Dogs of War" sounds much better than the awful studio version. It's the more popular 70s music that kills this recording. The band's failure to credibly pull off this material is often blamed on Roger Waters's absence, but I don't buy that; it's just a general lethargy and going by the numbers which makes "Wish You Were Here", "Us and Them", "Time" and "Money" sound lackluster. The beginning of "Another Brick" is offensively bad, a groan-worthy moment. Only "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and a smoking version of "One of These Days" stand out.
Overall, this is one of the weakest things to be released under the Pink Floyd name. At least the studio disc from Ummagumma had a soul. If you want a document of the later Floyd in action, check out Pulse; but better yet, watch Live at Pompeii or try to get your hands on an "unofficial" recording from the early 70s, when the band was at its live peak.
Delicate Sound of Thunder Jul 31, 2008
Best Pink Floyd Live out there, to bad all the original members could get there * together.
Excellent Mar 25, 2008
Bought this one along with Pulse on DVD. Very nice, this one has an incredible version of "On the Turning Away" and features many classic Floyd hits.
I like the version of "Run Like Hell" as sung by David Gilmour and Guy Pratt on this and Pulse vs. the album version and the few youtube live bootlegs I've seen. It seems much more intense and fitting with the theme of the song.
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