"Delicate Sound of Thunder" Description:

I still file "Delicate Sound of Thunder" under "late-80s Floyd, unapologetically polished." It landed on 21 November 1988 on EMI in the UK and Columbia in the US, right when CD was busy eating the world and vinyl was already being treated like yesterday's newspaper. Still, this one showed up as a proper double LP, and it wanted to be played loud, not politely sampled.

The recordings come from Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York (19–23 August 1988), from the "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" tour — the big post-Waters road machine. Gilmour is steering, Mason keeps the wheels straight, and Wright is back on keys where he belongs. It's not a reunion fairy tale. It's a working band with stadium horsepower.

Here's the part I actually care about: when you get a decent pressing, the thing has weight. Not "stunning" in a press-release way — more like the room quietly fills up when "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" starts to stretch its legs. Gilmour produced it, Buford Jones handled the engineering and mixing on the original release, and Doug Sax mastered it, which explains why it can feel more "built" than "captured." Live, yes. Also carefully assembled. I'm fine with that.

The sleeve doesn't do the cheap nostalgia trick either: Hipgnosis, with Storm Thorgerson involved, gives you that surreal, stage-lit unease the band loved in this era, and the inner packaging leans on tour photos instead of myth-making. Some people swear it's the greatest live document ever; I don't. But when I want that 1988 stadium glow — the kind that makes the furniture vibrate a little — this is the one I grab, and I don't apologize for it.

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