Customer Reviews

P.U.L.S.E. : Pink Floyd

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I enjoy this cd alot! The ambience of it is very hypnotic and soothing~ the only thing thing that I didn't enjoy very much was the sound of the cd' it was a bit to quiet. You have to turn up the volume to actually hear it, but other then that its a great cd to add to your collection. I would have to say that "Comfortably Numb" is my favorite song, its beautiful and the instrumetal part at the end is just amazing i really love it!!!

Let us know how shallow you are! Tell us how much you enjoy this nostalgia fest. The leader of this band was not even in the original group but he gets to plaster the name on any album he wants to make. Just don't expect the fat geezer to write any new songs. 100 years from now Pink Floyd will still be performing. Maybe the future line up can do a gig on David Gilmours grave sight. That would be way cool. I hope they play Money.

The claim to fame of Pulse, Pink Floyd's two-CD live album released in 1995, is the live performance of Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. If you're a casual Pink Floyd fan, that's great; if you're a devoted fan, you're apt to be disappointed by the lack of nuance expressed in a concert setting. It has obviously been a few years since I listened to Pulse because my memory told me it was superior to 1988's Delicate Sound of Thunder live two-CD album - my memory was wrong. I'm not saying Pulse isn't a quality performance or that fans won't enjoy it, but to my ears it clearly lacks the sort of passion and energy that was captured on Delicate Sounds of Thunder. The two live albums of the reconstituted, post-Waters Pink Floyd share a number of songs in common, and I prefer the Thunder versions in almost every single case. Here, the long instrumental sections of Shine on You Crazy Diamond, for example, seem to drag on interminably, while on Delicate Sound of Thunder each minute of the music built up toward a pressurized unleashing of vocals.

The first disc features a healthy portion of material originating after Waters' acrimonious exit from the band. There are two tracks from 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Region (Sorrow and Learning to Fly) and five from 1994's The Division Bell (What Do You Want from Me, A Great Day for Freedom, High Hopes, Keep Talking, and Coming Back to Life). These are intermixed alongside some older Pink Floyd tracks: Shine on You Crazy Diamond from Wish You Were Here, Astronomy Domine from 1967's The Piper at the Gates, and two classic cuts from The Wall. Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two) is good but seems to lack a little oomph, but Hey You is delivered with the passion and energy that make it easily the most impressive song on either of the Pulse CDs.

Disc Two takes us through a complete version of Dark Side of the Moon; the live setting does take something away from the purity and magic of these songs, so your appreciation of the live set may depend upon the depth of your commitment to Pink Floyd itself. Three tracks are added on at the end in the form of musical encores. I have a feeling there would be rioting in the streets if Pink Floyd showed up and didn't play Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell. I was impressed by the first of these three classic songs, but Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell seem to fall short of their counterparts on the earlier Distant Sound of Thunder.

At first glance, Pulse looks like a no-brainer, a guarantee of musical nirvana courtesy of one of the greatest bands of all-time. As I listened to it, though, I just felt as if something were missing - something subtle and comparatively minor, but noticeably missing all the same. Still, this is Pink Floyd, and no Pink Floyd recording could ever be bad - but it seems to me that Pulse could have been more intense and musically dazzling than it is.

Pink Floyd's Pulse was released in June of 1995. The album was recorded on the band's 1994 European tour to support The Division Bell album. The reason for this album was at the end of the American leg of the tour(I saw them in Foxboro, MA in May of 1994 with 55,000 fans embracing them on one of their three nights in Mass), they decided to resurrect something they had not done since their 1975 US Tour, Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. Pulse was superbly produced by guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour and longtime engineer James Guthrie whom also engineered and mixed the album. Some songs had solos dubbed in from other shows because either the playing was awful or the solo came in a bar late. Hence, the album was not re-recorded in the studio unlike many live albums. The first disc is a potpourri of material from Astronomy Domine, Hey You, Shine on You Crazy Diamond(pts. 1-5, 7) and a stellar Another Brick in the Wall(pt.2) to Learning to Fly, Sorrow, What Do You Want From Me and High Hopes. The second disc is the complete Dark Side album in its entirety plus encores of Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell. Except for the jam in the middle of Money, the whole of Dark Side of the Moon sounds just like the studio LP, but almost better in some cases like Time, The Great Gig in the Sky(sorry but Sam Brown did the first part way better than Clare Torry IMHO) and Us and Them. The rest is superb as well. The album originally came packaged with a blinking light on the spine of the CD artwork. The album was an instant smash hitting #1 in both the US and UK and selling over three million in the US alone immediately. This is the best live album ever.

I'm not a fan of THE DIVISION BELL by a long shot. A few good songs on an hour-plus long album just doesn't cut it, even if it does complete my Pink Floyd Studio album collection. But the DIVISION BELL tour, as captured on this CD set, must have been a sight to behold. True, it does contain "Keep Talking" and "What Do You Want From Me," which I hate, but overall it's a terrific album.

The version of "Shine On" is fantastic and almost makes me wish Dave had handled the vocals on the original. "Astronomy Domine" is an okay version, but the UMMAGUMMA live version is much better. I really like the versions of "Hey You" and "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)." Whoever handled Roger's vocals on "Hey You" was very good.

The live version of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON on Disk Two is fantastic. I like the version of "Speak to Me" very much. It was nice to have it actually building suspense. The album version was too short, really. "Great Gig in The Sky" is a great version as well. Whichever 'woo-woo' girl handled the second portion of it was better than the original singer. "Money"s breakdown section was pretty good. My only problem with this version is "Any Colour You Like." The album version is one of my favorite instrumentals, but the version contained here is fairly boring. I've heard bootlegs from other shows of the tour, and I wish they had used a different date's version. Dave handles "Brain Damage/Eclipse" fairly well, but Roger is missed.

The encores are pretty good versions of "Wish You Were Here," "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell." True, Roger's vocals are SORELY missed from the latter two, but the instrumentations make up fairly well for it. "Comfortably Numb" is hypnotic here.

Buy this. Nevermind THE DIVISION BELL or the other Floyd Mach III live album, DELICATE SOUND OF THUNDER. This is the one to get.

This is perhaps one of the greatest live CDs of all time. It includes the very best of Pink Floyd with the very best of David Gilmour. Anyone looking for a compilation of PF's work should turn to this. It might be expensive, but it is worth every penny. If you are looking for highlights then the Encore of Comfortably Numb is breath taking, as is Wish You Were Here. From the fist CD, Sorrow and in particular Coming back to life are excellent, showing to the world that Pink Floyd did not need Roger Waters to be a truly great performing band.
On the whole a superb cd that cannot be missing from a Pnk Floyd fan's collection. (cool front cover too!)

Yes! Yes! Yes! David Gilmour has been blessed with unbelievable talent as shown on this CD (and all of his others) and with his perfect guitar playing and sexy voice (which has NOT diminished in the least with age) his uncanny humility about all of it blows me away !! What an awesome human being! STILL the SEXIEST MAN ALIVE in my book. This CD is a MUST if you are a Gilmour or Pink Floyd fan.

I am not really a big fan of live CDs, I would rather watch the DVD or VHS. CD 2 on P.U.L.S.E. is "dark side" live and a couple of other songs. This album has a few classics Wish You Were Here, Astronomy Domine and Shine on You Crazy Diamond. I bought this album last year and I have only listned to it about 3 or 4 times since then. If you are a fan of pf's live albums you will love this. I do reccomend it as it has good songs.

This is a good starting CD for people who want to listen to Pink Floyd's best without paying loads of money for all their CDs. This album has all of their greatest hits, sung live in crisp quality on 2 CDs. They are truely amazing. I can never get enough of this. The cover is beautiful, too. Don't miss out on this one. It's a true Pink Floyd collector's item. Plus, it comes with a little booklet of pictures. Only the best from the best band is what I say.

It's quite simple. This may be a great-sounding album; many talented artists have covered Pink Floyd's brilliant compositions. Any band without Roger Waters is NOT Pink Floyd.