New music: Pink Floyd, Wilco

Pink Floyd, "The Endless River" (Columbia)

Based on outtakes from the band's post-Roger Waters album "The Division Bell," this new disc — all instrumental except for one sung tune — started life as an elegiac tribute to founding keyboardist Richard Wright, who died in 2008. His brooding ambient washes and rolling pipe organ were crucial layers in an epic sound legendary for its mix of mournful and euphoric. David Gilmour and Nick Mason relive elements of Pink's past, with the gentle piano of "Anisina" and the drum-thunder of "Sum," plus incendiary guitar solos reminiscent of Floyd at its tense, morose finest. A frail fragment such as "Skins" even recalls the band's earliest avant-psychedelic experiments. "The Endless River" is more than just echoes of Floyd's aggressive haunting. Gilmour is a searing, inventive guitarist, and tracks such as "It's What We Do" show off cool passion with grace and guts. On the lone vocal outing, "Louder Than Words," Gilmour sums up the universality of in-band fighting and relationship squabbles with penetrating calm. If this is Pink Floyd's swan song, it's a goodbye that's eerie and tender.

A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer