80-Year-Old ROGER WATERS Released His Reinvented 50-Year Old PINK FLOYD Classic ‘THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON’ And It Works
13 October 2023
Album artwork
Last March THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, one of the best-sold,
most famous, and praised masterpiece albums ever, turned 50.
Bassist and musical genius ROGER WATERS co-founded PINK FLOYD back in 1967,
then led for a short period of time by the late troubled musical genius Syd Barrett (replaced by Dave Gilmour). They released 15 studio LPs.
In 1984 due to the clashing personalities, mostly Waters vs Gilmour, Waters left the band thinking that Pink Floyd was finished anyway. They never worked ever again, and saying they weren’ friends whatsoever is an understatement.
For the occasion of the 50th birthday, Waters re-imagined-worked-invented all songs
of the classic. it’s now about a letter Waters wrote to the assistant to Donald Hall when the poet was in his last days. It’s a subtle change but it’s a substantial one, turning Dark Side of the Moon into a voyage inward, not outward. And it’s out now, receiving mixed reactions from the press.
MOJO: “The new focus on these songs’ lyrics proves deeply powerful, a different and profound kind of high. Consequently, The Dark Side OF The Moon Redux is wholly valid, the unnerving, stirring adjunct Waters was aiming for.” Score: 8/10.
Paste Magazine: “Fans may feel it’s more of a long slog than they remember, with the slower tempo stretching many of the songs beyond their natural length, and the spoken word passages lending a languorous quality that may induce drowsiness.” Score: 4/10.
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason about REDUX.
TUTV: I don’t really like Waters‘ pretty huge ego and his double-edged political views,
but what he did here wasn’t commercial suicide. If you listen to REDUX with open mind, you can’t but conclude that Waters comes up with a totally different angle on Pink Floyd‘s timeless masterpiece and it works, for me that is. It’s an album, with an entertaining singer-songwriter approach and a wholly different musicality. Down to earth songs instead of psychedelic symphonies in space.
Also lyrically we get a (almost totally) different story, as Waters spread his letter he wrote to the assistant to renowned American poet Donald Hall in his last days (he passed away in 2018) all over the record, in near-whispering tone. But at times the story-telling is too long and gets in the way of the music. But overall, REDUX is a bold and successful achievement.
Waters explains why he did this special project.
ALBUM
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ROGER WATERS: Instagram – Website
