Pink Floyd’s lavishly-designed The Later Years 1987-2019 effectively bookends the iconic British band’s career as documented on a similarly massive box set released in 2016. Concentrating on the post-Roger Waters era, culls from studio records, an expanded version of a concert album and all manner of previously-unreleased and/or rare audio and video material appear on a compact disc as Highlights.
Similar to a double-CD extracted from The Early Years 1965-1972, this single compact disc (and a corresponding 2-LP package) represents an accurate cross-section of the larger set’s contents, right down to an excerpt from one of the multiple Blu-rays/DVD’s. “Lost For Words,” taken from a 1994 tour rehearsal, finds the expanded ensemble preserving the taut, bittersweet introspection as included on The Division Bell. An unreleased 1994 early version of “High Hopes” posits the number that closed that same album as a natural extension of the melancholy prior cut, while the unissued “Marooned Jam” hearkens to the final Pink Floyd album, The Endless River, not particularly memorable on its own terms, it nevertheless functions well in the track sequencing here, as its purely instrumental interlude offers space to contemplate what’s preceded and yet to come.
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” along with “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb,” from a Knebworth England concert in 1990, sound like nothing so much as a combination message to the then-estranged founding bandmember Roger Waters. “Us And Them,” from the 1988 live album Delicate Sound of Thunder, is a remarkable stage replication of layered studio recordings including this gentle excerpt from Dark Side of the Moon. And, from the same performance package (here remixed), “Learning To Fly” suggests interwoven themes within the tracks of this compilation that mirror those of the entirety of this iconic band’s body of work, not just those under the aegis of the aforementioned bassist/composer, such as The Wall.
“One Slip,” another 2019 remix, this from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, borders on new age-y drivel til Gilmour’s vocal and guitar enter to pierce the synthesized sounds. Likewise, “On The Turning Away,” from that same studio work, serves much the same purpose, except that the vulnerability in Gilmour’s voice is more apparent. Likewise, that cut keynotes the similarity in blues-based musical style to the Wish You Were Here album on which the guitarist, vocalist and composer was so prominent. Another such cut, “Sorrow,” reaffirms the overarching theme of this package, that is, how crucial were the contributions to Pink Floyd from the man who replaced Syd Barrett, from his early enlistment circa Obscured By Clouds, then throughout the group’s increasingly conceptual approach to projects like Animals.
As the avid completists and longstanding fans decide whether they need the whole of The Later Years 1987-2019 for the sake of the books and peripherals the mammoth compendium contains, more than one music lover who aspires to maintain a grasp of contemporary rock history may find this Pink Floyd title is more than just a sampler album. Its instantly-recognizable cover imagery and the kinetic photo array in the enclosed booklet are more than just cosmetic inclusions, but a reflection of the music inside.
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Gilmour joined the Floyd in 1968. So Saucerful of Secrets instead of Obscured by Clouds. The latter being from 1972.