Pink Floyd’s first album in 20 years will be the rock legends’ last and will end on a “lyrical” note about the band’s legacy, guitarist and singer David Gilmour said.
“It’s a shame, but this is the end,” Gilmour told the BBC in an interview released on Thursday ahead of the eagerly awaited Nov. 7 release of The Endless River.
The 68-year-old acknowledged that the band was getting older and had no more music ready to record.
Keyboardist Richard Wright, who wrote much of the latest album, died in 2008.
“This is the last thing that will be out from us,” Gilmour said, adding, when pressed: “I’m pretty certain that there will not be any sort of follow-up to this.”
The band on Thursday released the album’s last song, Louder Than Words, which — true to the river imagery of the album — features flowing guitars reminiscent of classic Pink Floyd.
“With world-weary grace, we’ve taken our places,” Gilmour sings. “It’s louder than words, this thing that we do.”
The lyrics were written by Gilmour’s wife, novelist Polly Samson.
Gilmour told the BBC that Samson “thought that would be a very good lyrical idea to go out on” as a way of “describing the symbiosis that we have, or had.”
The song also references the band’s fights. Roger Waters, the key force behind Pink Floyd’s seminal album The Wall, left the band acrimoniously in 1985.
Gilmour said he was civil with Waters, but that their personality clash was so severe that there was no question of recording again with him.
“However much I would like that, and there are moments when I think his great abilities combined with mine do work quite well... it just wouldn’t work,” he said.
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