Pink Floyd says goodbye with ‘The Endless River’

Pink Floyd, “The Endless River” (Columbia Records)

Never was an album more aptly named than “The Endless River,” the new — and seemingly final — release from Pink Floyd. It flows unstoppably, and while some listeners may feel it meanders on too long, it’s very easy to get swept along by it.

Though this is the band’s first studio album in two decades, much of the material was recorded in 1993 and 1994. For years, it seemed that album would be Pink Floyd’s swan song. But now the material has been tweaked into a new release, partly in tribute to keyboard player Rick Wright, who died in 2008.

Guitarist David Gilmour has called “The Endless River” a series of musical conversations; the band members’ musical rapport was always more eloquent than their spoken communications. There are not many words on this mostly instrumental album, although physicist Stephen Hawking lends his distinctive voice to “Talkin’ Hawkin’.”

Both the compositions and their titles allude to all the water that has passed under the bridge in the course of Pink Floyd’s long career. The opening track, “Things Left Unsaid,” sets the tone: It’s a woozy wash of Wright’s keyboards, haunting horn sounds and Gilmour’s guitar that feels elegiac.

What’s on display is not so much songwriting as chemistry. This band had something, a magic, and you can hear it throughout.

Jill Lawless, Associated Press