Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Pink Floyd: The Endless River Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 8, 2014

There’s an undeniable feeling of nostalgia that floats through The Endless River, a gentle but inexorable tug that some listeners may feel is akin to a sonic undertow. For those hoping that this so-called “last” studio album by the venerable Pink Floyd would present a groundbreaking goodbye to its still rabid fan base, there may be a relative letdown, since the album, despite its cover art, seems to be more of a look backward than any kind of journey forward into new, unexplored realms. That said, The Endless River is frequently a very evocative listening (and in this Blu-ray edition, viewing) experience, suffused with an almost ambient approach that relishes long, slowly morphing synth washes over which the still vibrant players add various filigreed touches to evoke a classic Pink Floyd sound. Part of the somewhat subdued quality to The Endless River can probably be attributed to the fact that it was finished and ultimately released in the wake of the sad death of Richard Wright, who succumbed to cancer in 2008. The trials and tribulations of the various band members (most specifically Roger Waters) with regard to Wright have been well documented, but Pink Floyd: The Division Bell proved that whatever lingering hurt feelings there may have been had been successfully shunted off to the side. If The Division Bell was a bit on the restrained side, it at least proved that Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason still were able to conjure up at least some vestiges of the old magic. And in many ways The Endless River plays like something that might be called The Division Bell Redux, perhaps appropriate given the fact that this new album is culled at least partly from The Division Bell sessions. As such, it serves as a bittersweet send off for Wright, as is perhaps alluded to in that cover art featuring a lone boatman heading toward an all encompassing light.

In approaching The Endless River from the “outside” as it were, even some longtime fans may be thinking back to another iconic band who “revisited” an existing piece of music long after the artist who wrote and recorded it had died. “Free As a Bird” started as a cassette (!) demo by John Lennon in 1977 and was only released as a finished single some eighteen years later when the surviving Beatles added their own parts to it and put it out to help publicize The Beatles Anthology. But in fact The Endless River feels much more organic than that example, no doubt because Wright actually worked on a lot of the music with Gilmour and Mason as they were recording The Division Bell.

That said, there’s a perhaps unavoidably elegiac ambience (no pun intended) to much of The Endless River, not only due to Wright’s passing, but also due to the fact that this may indeed be the last Pink Floyd album to see the light of day (it’s best to never say never, despite pronouncements of band members, but the handwriting does seem to be on the wall for “classic” Pink Floyd). While perfectly accessible from the get go, The Endless River turns out to be surprisingly multilayered and complex, repaying repeated listenings with new glimmers of color and instrumentation. This is a rather quiet album overall, one that doesn’t demand that attention be paid to it. However, for those willing to grant their attention, the album is full of some majestic instrumentals and a wealth of potent musical ideas.

The Endless River contains the following songs:

Things Left Unsaid
It’s What We Do
Ebb and Flow
Sum
Skins
Unsung
Anisina
The Lost Art of Conversation
On Noodle Street
Night Light
Allons-y (1)
Autumn ‘68
Allons-y (2)
Talkin’ Hawkin’
Calling
Eyes to Pearls
Surfacing
Louder Than Words

Pink Floyd: The Endless River Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pink Floyd: The Endless River is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Columbia Records with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in both 1.78:1 and 1.29:1. Pink Floyd has been at the forefront of multimedia high definition releases, with such previous outings as Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here and Pink Floyd: The Division Bell offering at least some video content along with lustrous lossless audio. The Endless River follows in that tradition, although the bulk of what's presented here looks to be upconverted from standard definition, with middling results. All of the video is in black and white, and aside from Anisina, which dates from 2014, looks to have been sourced from pretty ragged rehearsal video from back in the 1990s. There are anomalies like stair stepping rather evident throughout all of the 1990s material, with a kind of fuzzy, though watchable, quality running through all of the videos. While Anisina is much sharper and better defined, there's a rather odd pulsing or strobing anomaly that shows up, with slight flashes of brightness and/or darkness every couple of seconds. Nothing here is horrible, but it's average looking at best. Accept the video element as a nice historically important bonus to what is ultimately probably best thought of as an audio Blu-ray release.

Note: When selecting the album play mode or even individual "sides" (per the LP version) or tracks, track titles are displayed on screen.

Pink Floyd: The Endless River Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Pink Floyd: The Endless River offers three superb audio options, all 96/24, with LPCM 2.0 and LPCM 5.1 as well as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The LPCM 2.0 streams at 4.6 Mbps, while the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 hovers around the low to mid 7 Mbps range, occasionally dipping down into the mid to high 6 range. My personal preference was the astoundingly clear and forceful LPCM 5.1 track, which streams at 13.8 Mbps. Both of the 5.1 mixes generously splay pads like underlying synth washes throughout the side and rear channels, while individual musings by Gilmour's guitars can waft in a kind of middle ground or indeed port over to one side or the other. Considering the rather massed midrange in many of the instrumentals on the album, there's a surprising clarity and breathing space in all of the selections. When the band gets into more rhythmic approaches, aspects like punchy bass or propulsive kick drums resonate quite convincingly, with crystalline clarity and precision. The one sung tune offers well prioritized vocals. Fidelity is absolutely top notch, with no problems of any kind to report.

Pink Floyd: The Endless River Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Video contains the following items, all with LPCM 2.0 audio:

  Anisina 2014 (1080p; 2:48)

  Untitled 1993 (1080p; 1:20)

  Evrika (A) 1993 (1080p; 5:56)

  Nervana 1993 (1080p; 5:30)

  Allons-Y 1993 (1080p; 5:58)

  Evrika (B) 1993 (1080p; 5:31)

• Audio contains the following items, all with LPCM 2.0 audio:

  TBS 9 1993 (2:28)

  TBS 14 1993 (4:11)

  Nervana 1993 (5:31)

Non Disc Supplements:

This deluxe Blu-ray/CD combo release comes housed in a sturdy chipboard box with a cover reproducing the evocative album cover art. Inside the box is a nicely illustrated hardback booklet that contains complete production credits, the lyric to the one sung song, and lots of pictures. The book's cover also reproduces the album cover art. Underneath the booklet are three collectible postcards, one of which contains a lenticular holographic image. Finally, underneath the postcards are two cardboard sleeves containing the Blu-ray and CD versions of the album.

Pink Floyd: The Endless River Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Endless River is a very subtle album, one that ingratiates itself almost subliminally at times. A lot of the instrumentals are andantes, slowly moving affairs that offer slow washes of sound morphing almost inaudibly at times into new areas of exploration. As beautifully multilayered as the best of Pink Floyd's oeuvre, The Endless River still may take a few repeated listens to begin to fully reveal its majesty. Once again Pink Floyd has released an impressive Blu-ray package that offers not just flawless lossless audio but some enjoyable supplements as well. Highly recommended.