Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Nostalgia is not always what you remember, but how it is framed when you return to the memory later on.

In the modern era we are dealt on a daily basis the chance to renew memories constantly, what you think you knew is constantly revised, changed, altered to the point where in some artistic version of 1984 and the endless re-editing of history to make it more palatable to the party line, the song that once remained the same, has now the power to be different.

This is perhaps not always a bad thing, if a film studio was today to remake Gone with the Wind, no doubt it would wipe away all the racial undertones and slurs, and quite rightly so, but it would also not be the same experience, and soon enough, what is presented becomes the official artistic truth. The same line of thought could be attributed to the idea of re-issuing albums, changing the event initially captured in the spirit of the moment and then altering the appreciation of it, re-editing the listener’s memory; especially in the complexity of capturing an album of live beauty.

Conversely, as with Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder, it can achieve something nearing a state of furthered grace, gratitude for the expansion, indebted for the feeling of completion that such a remix and remaster can achieve; and even if there are moments that have been squashed, removed, discarded in favour of a fuller sound, it is akin to seeing the Venus de Milo reappraised with one of her marbled arms restored, a new vision for the world of sculpture to rave about.

The first fully live album created by the truncated band of Gilmour, Mason and Wright, alongside various musicians brought on tour to blend the imagination and desire in such a way that it made the original release a precious music commodity, has not much been altered, but given new life, a missing marbled arm able to give further credence to the belief that the Progressive Rock kings could survive without Roger Waters at the helm.

Originally restored and remixed for the release of The Later Years 1987-2019 box set, Delicate Sound of Thunder now enjoys its own sense of self, untied to later recordings, and appearing as the perfect bridge between the second era of Floyd and the period in which David Gilmour arguably finally stepped out of Roger Water’s vocal shadow to deliver his own ceremonious adaptions up front on stage.

With previously unreleased tracks from the 1988 album, such as A New Machine (Parts One and Two), Terminal Frost, the cold but industrious heart of Welcome To The Machine and Run Like Hell all enjoying their own place back in the line-up and perennial favourites Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Learning To Fly, The Dogs of War, Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb all registering the thrill of listening to Pink Floyd at their very best, Delicate Sound of Thunder in its 2020 guiseis not to be dismissed, taken to some back news room and declared to be changed, contrived as a substitute headline, but seen, as all good Progressive movements must surely be, as an altered state of reality that is beautifully different but retaining at its heart, beauty.

Ian D. Hall