486

I love Pink Floyd, but I can understand Roger Waters' stupid attempts to wrap up the band following his departure when I watch the Delicate Sound of Thunder concert film.

Leaning into the 80s aesthetic, it sounds a synthetic. The band are poorly rehearsed, David seems coked up (and probably was), Nick is placed at the front of the stage for some weird reason, and there is a huge amount of focus on the audience. The soulful and sombre Saxophone work from the 70s albums is performed by a man with a bleached blonde mullet through some effects that crush all of the emotion. It's very clearly an over-correction for Roger's whole concept of building a wall between the band and the audience.

I think Gilmour knew all of this. The following tour and film for Pulse is leagues ahead; everyone brings their A-game, the production is remarkable, Dick Parry, who played on Dark Side of the Moon originally, is back on Sax. David plays probably the finest solo of all time while in jeans and a t-shirt.

There is a catch, though. Delicate Sound of Thunder was captured on film and has a 4K remaster. Pulse was filmed using DV tape and is as high definition as it's ever going to be. It looked amazing played on laserdisc on a 4:3 CRT TV in 1995.