Why Pink Floyd's return is a timely one

One sneered at, the prog giants are now considered pioneers who've influenced a generation of new bands – and there are signs their new material could be worth hearing
There was a time when news of a new Pink Floyd album would have been met with snorts of derision or extended yawns. Actually, the news today that there will be a new Pink Floyd album was met with snorts of derision and extended yawns from some Guardian readers. But not as many as there might once have been. It’s a long time since Johnny Rotten wore his “I hate Pink Floyd” t-shirt. In fact, even Rotten/Lydon has mellowed towards them, telling the Quietus in 2010: “You'd have to be daft as a brush to say you didn't like Pink Floyd. They’ve done great stuff.”

The idea that the Floyd and their prog rock ilk are outdated is itself, these days, obsolete. Flaming Lips are about to release a cosmic love letter to the music in the shape of their Electric Würms side project, there are a number of great new prog bands, from Anathema to Kitten Pyramid. There has even been, for a few years now, a magazine especially devoted to prog, mystifyingly titled Prog. Its writers don’t just pen lengthy discourses on the bands during their classic era; much of the focus is on the work they are doing now. The current edition, for example, features Yes on the cover, and inside a 10-page article about their brand new album. The bar has been seriously raised as to what these so-called dinosaurs can achieve, or at least listeners’ expectations are higher than they might have been.

That said, Pink Floyd’s forthcoming album, The Endless River, mooted for release in October, isn’t new-new. It comprises worked-up versions of songs first started during sessions for their last album, 1994’s The Division Bell. Again, Yes spring to mind: their 2011 album Fly From Here was largely based on the typically multi-partite epic title suite – or hexalogy, if you want to be prog about it – which dated back to circa 1980, and which they reworked 30 years down the line. And the point is, it was good, really good.