--- description: Pink Floyd's new album "Endless Rivers" is receiving criticism for recycling old material. title: Endless River: Pink Floyd's new album of recycled material image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd37043347a75da80/698767b9e53aba63284d5ca0/pink-floyd-endless-river.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Pink Floyd’s _Endless River_ Is Just the Latest Album to Recycle Old Material  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2014 4:08 PM CUT  Album cover art for Pink Floyd's Endless River Album cover art for Pink Floyd's Endless RiverColumbia  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2014 4:08 PM CUT **Correction appended: Nov. 8, 2014** On Nov. 7, Pink Floyd releases _Endless River_, the band’s 15th — and [likely last](http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/09/pink-floyd-the-endless-river-this-is-the-last-thing-thatll-be-out-from-us "undefined") — studio album. Preliminary reviews range from [tempered praise](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/11200390/Pink-Floyd-Endless-River-review-makes-your-speakers-feel-inadequate.html "undefined") (“Short on catchy tunes, it’s still an effective 53-minute trip”) to [unmitigated disappointment](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/pink-floyd-the-endless-river-album-review-boring-and-desperately-disappointing-9840601.html "undefined") (“depressingly symptomatic of the stasis that a certain kind of ponderous prog-rock had reached by the late ’70s”). But more remarkable, or perhaps _un_remarkable, is the revelation that the album isn’t really new material — just a belatedly edited series of outtakes from an album released 20 years ago. That album was 1994’s _Division Bell_, and _Endless River_ draws its name from the final lyrics on its final track in order, as the band said in an [interview with BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0288yhn "undefined"), “to show some sort of continuum” between the two projects. But some critics suggest that what the band calls “continuum” is just a nice way of describing unimaginative recycling of old material. Aside from continuing where _Division Bell_ left off, the album has a few other reasons for existing — chief among them to pay tribute to keyboard player Rick Wright, who died in 2008\. It was also, at one time, under consideration to [score a film](http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/03/pink-floyd-nick-mason-endless-river-written-film-wachowski-score "undefined") by _The Matrix_ filmmakers Andy and Lana Wachowski. Pink Floyd isn’t alone when it comes to repackaging leftovers for later release. The trend is nothing new — jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt released an album called _Previously Unreleased Recordings_ in 1960 — but recent years have seen a lot of it. Bob Dylan’s much-anticipated _The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Volume 11_, released earlier this week, consists of more than 100 tracks recorded 47 years ago. An album of previously unreleased Hank Williams tracks was released in May. Sometimes, these tracks are the cherry on top of a box set or reissue, as with the [reissue](http://pitchfork.com/news/44053-listen-three-previously-unreleased-nevermind-era-nirvana-recordings/ "undefined") of Nirvana’s _Nevermind_, the release of three [remastered](http://www.ledzeppelin.com/news/2014/03/13/first-three-albums-newly-remastered-previously-unreleased-companion-audio "undefined") Led Zeppelin albums this spring, and the recent 45th anniversary edition of The Velvet Underground’s eponymous third album. So why, when the practice is not only common, but generally _celebrated_ by fans, is Pink Floyd getting flack for it? For one thing, the fact that the band changed formation makes the notion of recycling old recordings particularly fraught. _Telegraph_ music critic [Neil McCormick](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/10953265/Pink-Floyds-new-album-how-new-is-it.html "undefined") says that it’s “not really a Pink Floyd album at all,” as the band morphed, after Roger Waters’ 1985 departure, into what he calls a “bloated after-dinner, slippers-port-and-pipe version of a former firebrand.” Considering that these recording sessions were originally dubbed The Big Spliff, McCormick ventures a guess that _Endless River_ is essentially one long stoner jam session — albeit one with talented musicians. This release also differs from the Dylan and Williams albums because these artists’ recordings were so fiercely coveted. Dylan fans knew about his unreleased basement recordings and considered it a great feat to get their hands on [bootleg versions](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-complete-basement-tapes-bootlegs-released-november-20140826#ixzz3BWdMfpSE "undefined") throughout the 1970s. The Williams recordings were [released](http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-unreleased-recordings-mw0000797730 "undefined") 60 years after the singer’s death, at which point any expectation of new material had been more or less extinguished. But _Endless River_ is the continuation of an album that, though it topped the charts, met with mixed critical reception. _Division Bell_ was also, as McCormick notes, a product of an era in the band’s history that some fans dismiss, thanks to the absence of the visionary Waters. _Endless River_ will disappoint those who were hoping to hear where Pink Floyd is, creatively speaking, in the year 2014\. It will please the superfan hungry for any and all material from a favorite band, of course. And whatever your stance on the quality of the music itself, the debate about _Endless River_ is one about labels. Call it their latest, or their last, their most recent or their contribution to the universe of previously unreleased recordings. Just don’t call it new — it’s not. _Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly named Rick Wright as the bass player of Pink Floyd. 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